Table of Contents

Joshua

Contents

Joshua 1

THE LAND AND ITS BOUNDARIES.

THE MORAL QUALIFICATIONS REQUISITE FOR ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN.

THOSE WHO ENTER CANAAN.

Joshua 2.

RAHAB.

Joshua 3.

THE JORDAN.

Joshua 3.

THE JORDAN.

Joshua 4.

THE TWELVE STONES AT GILGAL.

THE TWELVE STONES IN THE MIDST OF JORDAN.

Joshua 5.

CIRCUMCISION.

GILGAL.

CANAAN'S FOOD.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST.

Joshua 6.

JERICHO.

Joshua 7.

AI AND THE ACCURSED THING.

Joshua 7.

AI AND THE ACCURSED THINGS.

Joshua 8.

THE WAY OF RECOVERY.

THE RECOVERY OF GIBEAH.

RESULTS OF DISCIPLINE.

Joshua 9.

THE SNARE OF GIBEON.

Joshua 10.

THE VICTORY OF GIBEON.

Joshua 11.

THE CONQUEST OF HAZOR.

THE ANAKIM.

Joshua 12.

ENUMERATION OF THE VANQUISHED KINGS.

Joshua 13.

DIVISION OF THE LAND.

THE PORTION OF LEVI.

Joshua 14.

CALEB'S PURPOSE OF HEART.

Joshua 20, Joshua 21.

THE CITIES OF REFUGE.

Joshua 22.

THE ALTAR OF ED.

Joshua 23.

FINAL INSTRUCTIONS TO JOSHUA.

Joshua 24.

GRACE IN CONTRAST TO LAW.

Judges

Contents

Introduction

Meditations on the Book of Judges

Preface.

JUDGES 1 - 3: 4.

INTRODUCTION.

Judges 13-16.

NAZARITESHIP.

CHAPTERS 17-21.

MANIFESTATION OF THE RUIN AND FINAL RESTORATION.

Judges 17-21.

Ruth

Ruth 1

Ruth 2

Ruth 3

Ruth 4

1 Samuel

Contents

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTERS 1-3

ELI, OR THE RUIN OF THE PRIESTHOOD

1 SAMUEL 1

1 SAMUEL 2: 1-11

1 SAMUEL 2: 12-36

1 SAMUEL 3

CHAPTERS 4-8

SAMUEL, JUDGE AND PROPHET

1 SAMUEL 4

CHAPTERS 5 - 6: 13

1 Samuel 6: 13 - 1 Samuel 7: 1

1 SAMUEL 7

1 SAMUEL 8

1 SAMUEL 9 - 1 SAMUEL 15

SAUL, OR THE KING ACCORDING TO THE FLESH

1 SAMUEL 9

1 SAMUEL 10

1 SAMUEL 11

1 SAMUEL 12

1 SAMUEL 13

1 SAMUEL 14

1 SAMUEL 15

1 Samuel 16 - 1 Samuel 31

DAVID, THE KING ACCORDING TO GRACE

1 SAMUEL 16

1 SAMUEL 17

1 SAMUEL 18

1 SAMUEL 19

1 SAMUEL 20

1 SAMUEL 21

1 SAMUEL 22

1 SAMUEL 23

1 SAMUEL 24

1 SAMUEL 25

1 SAMUEL 26

1 SAMUEL 27

1 SAMUEL 28

1 SAMUEL 29

1 SAMUEL 30

1 SAMUEL 31

2 Samuel

Introduction

Contents

2 SAMUEL 1

GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON ISRAEL AND SAUL

2 SAMUEL 2-4

THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED OVER JUDAH

2 SAMUEL 5-24

THE KINGDOM OVER ISRAEL

2 SAMUEL 5-10

DAVID BEFORE HIS FALL

2 SAMUEL 11-20

DAVID'S FALL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

2 SAMUEL 19: 41- 2 SAMUEL 20

CONFLICT BETWEEN BROTHERS

2 SAMUEL 21-24

1 Kings

Contents

Part 1: Chapters 1-11 — Solomon

Part 2: Chapters 12-16 — Division of the Kingdom

Part 3: Chapters 17-22 — Elijah

Introduction

1 KINGS 1

1 KINGS 2: 1-12

1 KINGS 2: 13-46

1 KINGS 3: 1-3

1 KINGS 3: 4-15

1 KINGS 3: 16-28

1 KINGS 4

1 KINGS 5

1 KINGS 6

1 KINGS 7: 1-12

Solomon's Houses

1 KINGS 7: 13-51

1 KINGS 8

1 KINGS 9: 1-9

1 KINGS 9: 10-23

1 KINGS 9: 24-28

1 KINGS 10: 1-13

1 KINGS 10: 14-29

1 KINGS 11: 1-13

1 KINGS 11: 14-43

1 KINGS 12: 1-24

1 KINGS 12.25-33

Jeroboam and His Policies

1 KINGS 13

1 KINGS 14

1 KINGS 15

1 KINGS 16

1 KINGS 17: 1-7

1 KINGS 17: 8-24

1 KINGS 18: 1-16

1 KINGS 18: 17-46

1 KINGS 19: 1-9

Elijah Before Jezebel and Before Himself

1 KINGS 19: 9-21

1 KINGS 20

1 KINGS 21

1 KINGS 22

2 Kings

ISBN 0-88172-182-4

BELIEVERS BOOKSHELF INC.

2 Kings 1

2 Kings 2

2 Kings 2: 1-12

2 Kings 2: 13-25

2 Kings 3 - 2 Kings 8: 15

2 Kings 3

2 Kings 4: 1-7

2 Kings 4: 8-37

2 Kings 4: 38-41

2 Kings 4: 42-44

2 Kings 5

2 Kings 6.1-7

2 Kings 6: 8-23

2 Kings 6: 24 - 2 Kings 7: 20

2 Kings 8: 1-6

2 Kings 8: 7-16

2 Kings 8: 16 - 2 Kings 17: 41

2 Kings 8: 16-29

2 Kings 9

2 Kings 10

2 Kings 11

2 Kings 12

2 Kings 13: 1-9

2 Kings 13: 10-25

2 Kings 14: 1-22

2 Kings 14: 23-29

2 Kings 15: 1-7

2 Kings 16: 8-12

2 Kings 15: 13-22

2 Kings 15.23-31

2 Kings 15: 32-38

2 Kings 16

2 Kings 17: 1-6

2 Kings 17: 7-41

2 Kings 18-25

2 Kings 18-20

THE REVIVALS OF THE END

2 Kings 18: 1-18

2 Kings 18: 19-37

2 Kings 19

2 Kings 20: 1-11

2 Kings 20: 12-19

2 Kings 21: 1-18

2 Kings 21: 19-26

2 Kings 22: 1 - 2 Kings 23: 30

2 Kings 22

2 Kings 23: 1-20

2 Kings 23: 28-30

2 Kings 23: 31-25: 30

2 Kings 23: 31-35

JEHOAHAZ

2 Kings 23: 36 - 2 Kings 24: 7

2 Kings 24: 7-17

2 Kings 24: 18-25: 21

2 Kings 25: 27-30

1 Chronicles

Contents

1 Chronicles 1 - 1 Chronicles 9: 34: The Genealogies

1 Chronicles 9: 35 - 27: The Kingship of David According to the Counsels of God

1 Chronicles 28, 29: David's Last Instructions

Introduction

1 Chronicles 1 - 1 Chronicles 9: 34

1 Chronicles 1

1 Chronicles 2

1 Chronicles 3

1 Chronicles 4

* * * *

* * * *

1 Chronicles 5

1 Chronicles 6

1 Chronicles 7

1 Chronicles 8

1 Chronicles 9: 1-34

THE KINGSHIP OF DAVID ACCORDING TO THE COUNSELS OF GOD

1 Chronicles 11

1 Chronicles 12

1 Chronicles 13

1 Chronicles 14 - 16: 6

1 Chronicles 16: 7-43

* * * *

1 Chronicles 17

1 Chronicles 18-20

1 Chronicles 21

1 Chronicles 22

1 Chronicles 23

1 Chronicles 24

1 Chronicles 26

1 Chronicles 27

DAVID'S LAST INSTRUCTIONS

1 Chronicles 28 - 29

1 Chronicles 28

1 Chronicles 29

APPENDIX

2 Chronicles

ISBN 0-88172-203-0

Contents

Map/Appendix (to be attached)

Legend

Meditations on The Second Book of Chronicles with a map of Jerusalem

2 Chronicles 1-9

2 Chronicles 1

2 Chronicles 2

2 Chronicles 3 - 5

2 Chronicles 6-7

2 Chronicles 8 - 9

2 Chronicles 10-36

2 Chronicles 10-12

2 Chronicles 13

2 Chronicles 14-16

2 Chronicles 14

2 Chronicles 15

2 Chronicles 16

2 Chronicles 17-20

JEHOSHAPHAT

2 Chronicles 17

2 Chronicles 18

2 Chronicles 19

2 Chronicles 20

2 Chronicles 21

2 Chronicles 22

2 Chronicles 23-24

JOASH

2 Chronicles 23

2 Chronicles 24

2 Chronicles 25

2 Chronicles 26

2 Chronicles 27

2 Chronicles 28

2 Chronicles 29-32

HEZEKIAH

2 Chronicles 29

2 Chronicles 30

2 Chronicles 31

2 Chronicles 32

2 Chronicles 33

2 Chronicles 34-35

JOSIAH

2 Chronicles 34

2 Chronicles 35

2 Chronicles 36

Ezra

Contents

Introduction

Ezra

1 and Ezra

Ezra 3

Ezra 4

Ezra 5 and Ezra 6

Ezra 5

Ezra 6

Ezra 7

Ezra

Ezra 8

Ezra 9 and 10

Nehemiah

Table of Contents

Introduction

Nehemiah

NEHEMIAH'S MISSION

Nehemiah 2-7

THE CIVIL STATE OF THE PEOPLE

Nehemiah 2

Nehemiah 3

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 5

* * *

Nehemiah 6

* * *

Nehemiah 7

* * *

Nehemiah 8-10

RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE

Nehemiah 8

* * *

Nehemiah 9

* * *

Nehemiah 10

* * *

Nehemiah 11

JERUSALEM RE-POPULATED

* * *

Nehemiah 12

THE DEDICATION OF THE WALL

* * *

Nehemiah 13

INDIVIDUAL ENERGY OF FAITH

Esther

Table of Contents

Introduction

* * *

Esther

___________

Esther

________

Esther

_________

Esther 4

_________

Esther 5

_____________

Esther 6

___________

Esther 7

__________

Esther 8

________

Esther 9

__________

Esther 10

Summary

H. L. Rossier - Old Testament Works

H. L. Rossier

This document may be found online at www.stempublishing.com

You are welcome to freely access and use this material for personal study or sending to other Bible students, compiling extracts for notes etc, but please do not republish without permission.

With the prayerful desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will use this God-given ministry in this form for His glory and the blessing of many in these last days before His coming. © Les Hodgett (contact@stempublishing.com) (2011)

Joshua

Joshua

Meditations on the Book of Joshua.

H. L. Rossier.

Contents

.

Joshua 1. The Leaders — The Land and its Boundaries — The Moral Qualifications Requisite for Entrance into Canaan — Those who enter Canaan

Joshua 2. Rahab

Joshua 3. Jordan

Joshua 4. The Twelve Stones at Gilgal — The Twelve Stones in the Midst of Jordan

Joshua 5. Circumcision — Gilgal — Canaan's Food — The Captain of the Lord's Host

Joshua 6. Jericho

Joshua 7. Ai and the Accursed Thing

Joshua 8. The Way of Recovery — The Recovery of Gibeah — Results of Discipline

Joshua 9. The Snare of Gibeon

Joshua 10. The Victory of Gibeon

Joshua 11. The Conquest of Hazor — The Anakim

Joshua 12. Enumeration of the Vanquished Kings

Joshua 13. Division of the Land — The Portion of levi

Joshua 14. Caleb's Purpose of Heart

Joshua 20, 21. The Cities of Refuge

Joshua 22. Altar of Ed

Joshua 23. Instructions to Joshua

Joshua 24. Grace in Contrast to Law

Joshua 1

The Book of Joshua gives us, in type, the subject of the Epistle to the Ephesians. The journey across the desert had come to an end, and the children of Israel had now to cross the Jordan led by a new guide, and to take possession of the land of promise, driving out the enemies who dwelt there. It is the same for us. The heavenly places are our Canaan, into which we enter by the power of the Spirit of God, who unites us to an ascended Christ, and seats us together in Him in the glory, so that thus we enjoy anticipatively this glory which He has acquired for Himself, into which He will introduce us, and which we shall share, ere long, with Him.

But, meanwhile, we have to fight the fight of faith against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, in order to appropriate every inch of ground which God has given us to inherit. The difference between the type and the reality is, that the wilderness journey was over for Israel before they entered Canaan, whilst for us the desert and Canaan exist together, but this only increases the blessing. If the wilderness teaches us that we still need to be humbled and proved to know what is in our hearts, it is there that, in answer to our infirmities, we experience the preciousness of divine resources in the midst of this "dry and thirsty land where no water is": God opening His hand to feed us with manna, to refresh us with water from the rock, and to make us taste the inexhaustible resources of His grace, for His people have "lacked nothing." "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." (Deut. 8: 4) Moreover, we find ourselves at the same time, if not at the same moment, in the green pastures and still waters of a rich country whose firstfruits we taste; we can sit at peace at the table spread on the other side of Jordan, and enjoy its food, delighting ourselves in a heavenly Christ seated in the glory at God's right hand.

The Leader.

At the moment when this new stage of Israel's history begins, Joshua is called to take the leadership of the people. This remarkable man appears for the first time in Exodus 17, at the time of the war against Amalek, and this gives us the key to his typical character. Whilst Moses, type here of divine authority intimately associated with the heavenly priesthood and the righteousness of Christ, stands on the top of the hill during the combat, there is a man down in the plain associated with the people whom he leads, a man "in whom is the spirit," as the Lord said to Moses (Num. 27: 18), and who conducts the battle of the Lord. This Joshua is Christ, but Christ in us, or amongst us down here, in the power of the Holy Ghost. Moses, as their leader, had been inseparable from Israel in the desert, and so it will be with Joshua as leader of the people in Canaan. It is said of this last: a man "which may go out before them . . . and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd.... And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient." (Num. 27: 17, 20)

THE LAND AND ITS BOUNDARIES.

In verse 2 the Jordan is mentioned, a barrier between the people and the promised land which they must cross under the guidance of Joshua to enter Canaan. Their inheritance was a pure gift of the grace of God: "the land which I do give . . . to the children of Israel" They were entitled to it by God, but it was a question for the people not only of possession, but of entering into possession: "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." (v. 3) So it is with us spiritually: we have all these things, but we cannot enter into them except as having passed through death with Christ, and entering by the power of His Spirit where He is. In short, it is as we occupy ourselves with these things, and enter into them diligently and personally, that we lay hold of each one of our blessings, and prove their heavenly reality. In one word, the Christian must himself appropriate them by faith in order to enjoy them; otherwise he would be like a poor king, ill and living abroad, who had never travelled in his own kingdom.

In verse 5 we find another important feature which characterises the land: the enemy is there obstacles are there, wherever we put our foot an adversary arises. We see here clearly, as has often been remarked, that Canaan is not heaven in the sense in which we shall reach it by actual physical death, but heaven in which the enemy is found, heaven the scene of present warfare for the Christian. But, precious promise: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee," said the Lord to Joshua, "all the days of thy life"; that is to say, until he should have established the people definitely in possession of the land. And what security there was for the people in this promise. Scarcely, says God, will you have encountered the enemy on your path, ere he shall be dispersed. The people might have shouted: Victory! Satan cannot stand before us! Poor Israel, you will soon see it before Ai; you are but a toy in the hands of Satan, you have no strength to resist him, but the power is in Christ. "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee," said the Lord to Joshua; whilst the promise to the people was, "I have given unto you." (v. 3)

We may notice another point in verse 4. God gives them an exact description of the boundaries of Canaan. What are they? In their full extent they were never reached by the people, but will be given to them in millennial glory. Likewise for us, the heavenly places are our present conquest wherever we place our foot, but shall we ever measure the extent of our inheritance? Now we "know in part," but the day is at hand when that which is perfect shall have come, and that which is in part shall be done away; "then shall I know even as also I am known."

The boundaries of the land were a great desert, a great mountain, a great river, and a great sea. That is what was to be found outside this fertile country, that on which the people could not or ought not to tread. Do we not find here the world with all its moral characteristics: its aridity, its power, its prosperity, and its agitation? As to its aridity, Israel had gone through it, only to prove that it had no resource for them, and that the bread from heaven alone could feed them in these solitudes. Such, beloved, is the character of the things which are not ours. But Canaan — heaven, is ours; Canaan with its warfare no doubt, but its victories; Canaan with the peaceful enjoyment of infinite possessions, resuming themselves in, and concentrating themselves around the person of a risen Christ seated in the glory.

THE MORAL QUALIFICATIONS REQUISITE FOR ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN.

In verse 6 we find spiritual energy, what the Apostle Peter calls "virtue." Faith led them to tread everywhere with the soles of their feet; "virtue" was to be added to faith; but it is worthy of note that this energy is not to be found in us; for the people it is found in Joshua; it is in Christ for us. "Be strong and of a good courage, for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them." "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee . . . they go from strength to strength." This principle is of the utmost importance. How many Christians there are who seek to discover strength in themselves, to feel themselves strong for the combat! Their quest, if it does not lead to discouragement, ends in what certainly is not worth more, self-satisfaction. Power is not there, it is in Christ, but in Christ for us. And why is it given to us? Is it to render us great in our own eyes, or to puff us up? Far from it; but to lead us into the path of obedience. (v. 7) It is little children who learn to obey. Strength makes us small; it makes an atom of man, in order that the power of Christ may be exalted.

We find a beautiful example of this truth in Judges 6. "The angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon, and said unto him: The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." These two things are closely united: strength was his in the Lord Himself. "Go in this thy might," said the Lord looking upon him; and he is immediately seized with the sense of his own nothingness: his family was the poorest in Manasseh, and he the least in his father's house. And the Lord said unto him: "Surely I will be with thee."

Obedience is always governed by the word of God. God gives strength to Joshua, in order, He says, "that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law of Moses." But besides the spiritual energy necessary to obey, there must be something more. He adds in verse 8: "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein." There must then be; besides divine energy, diligent care to appropriate the thoughts of God. He says: meditate therein in order to obey. Is that our aim when we study the word of God? Often we like to read for the sake of instruction, which is of itself a good thing; at other times, so as to be able to impart to others, also an excellent thing in its place; but, let me say again, do we habitually read it for the purpose of diligently obeying? If it were so, how it would change the whole current of Christians' lives!

He adds: "Meditate therein day and night." There are some Christians who read a chapter (alas, a verse perhaps!) every morning as a sort of amulet to preserve them throughout the day. Is that meditating day and night on the word of God? What about our occupations? do you say? Well, let me ask you in return: In the midst of your occupations, is it the word given by God which nourishes you — that word given for your soul's enjoyment, and to guide you in the path of Christ? That is the way to "have good success in our ways and to prosper."

In verse 9 we find a further principle: "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage." What power the assurance of God's mind gives! All indecision as to the path, all terror, all fear of the enemy disappear. Satan cannot harm us; has not God commanded us? Such then are the principles which should govern the heart that would enjoy heavenly things and fight the battles of the Lord. It is blessed to see them stated quite at the beginning of this book, before Israel has taken a single step, in such a way as to place him in possession of well-furbished weapons wherewith to obtain the victory.

THOSE WHO ENTER CANAAN.

After strewing us the Leader, the land, and the moral qualifications necessary for entrance therein, the word of God speaks to us (vers. 10-18) of those who are called to enter in. They comprise the people, and also the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. These last do not refuse, as the previous generation had done, to enter, when the spies caused their hearts to melt. On the contrary, they associate themselves with their brethren, and are in the first rank of combatants, but not to take possession of the land. Their portion is on the other side of Jordan. It was their circumstances which led them to choose it: they had much cattle: "the place was a place for cattle," adapted to their circumstances. (Num. 32: 1)

It is the same with numbers of Christians; indeed, one might say that to-day it is rather the nine tribes and a half who have chosen their dwelling on the other side of Jordan. The main point in the christian life of believers is the circumstances of this life, the everyday needs, abundance or want, enclosures for their cattle, or cities for their families. (Num. 32: 16) Moreover, these Christians are not, properly speaking, lacking in faith: on the contrary they experience that the Lord can enter in grace into all their circumstances, adapting Himself to them, and that He does so, He who came down to bring divine blessing to this earth. Theirs is not a worldly Christianity, but an earthly one. Israel were a type of worldly Christianity when they refused to go up to the mountains of the Amorite. "Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." (Num. 14: 3, 4) Also their carcases fell in the wilderness. The two and a half tribes are the type of those who lower Christianity to a life of faith for the earthly circumstances they traverse, making their life to consist in these things. "They had much cattle." Moses is at first indignant, but he afterwards bears with them, seeing that although their faith was weak, still it was faith, and that these earthly links did not separate them from their brethren.

Beloved, this tendency to lower Christianity vaunts itself on every hand as a tenet in the present day. With much pretension to power, little is known beyond a Christ in whom to trust for His providential care, and in the details, great or small, of daily life. Christ is known as a Shepherd: "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me"; but even in this way, how feebly the extent of His resources is appreciated! If He leads us through this world, it is not here that He gives us rest. The green pastures and the still waters are not the fields, nor the sheepfolds, nor the cities of Gilead, but the rich pastures of the land of Canaan.

It is blessed to confide in Him for everything, and God forbid that we should seek to diminish in the saints aught of this confidence; but let us know something of the joy of entrance even now there where a glorified Christ is to be found, of being attached outside this world, drawn away from this scene, to be introduced, dead and risen with Him, into a heavenly Canaan. There, the motive for our walk will no longer be "much cattle"; it will not be a question of arranging our life more or less faithfully according to what we possess; but, having left all behind, self, and the affairs of this life, in the bottom of the river of death, we have now to fight to take possession of all our privileges in Christ, realising them by faith, and enjoying them in the power of the Spirit.

Notice, too, that whether they will or not, all cross the Jordan. Our brethren fight with us against infidelity, and against the power of Satan, who displays his tactics in the world; but death and resurrection is for them only a fact (it is so for all), not a realisation. The soul must realise it in order to take possession of the land.

Joshua 2.

RAHAB.

In the second part of Joshua 1 we have seen two classes of persons called to cross the Jordan to enter the land of promise, type of heavenly places: the people, and the two and a half tribes, whose moral character is not on a par with their vocation, but who take part in the combat to ensure to Israel the possession of their inheritance. In Rahab we find a third class of persons: the Gentiles who share by faith the enjoyment of the promises in common with God's ancient people Rahab the harlot was a Gentile; she belonged by birth to that large company of which the Epistle to the Ephesians speaks; "Ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." But more than this, Rahab was a degraded person amongst the Gentiles themselves.

But the word of God comes to her: "We have heard," she said to the spies. It was a word which assured grace and deliverance to some, and judgment to others. Faith in this word places her immediately, as to her conscience, under the weight of the judgment. "As soon as we heard it our hearts did melt." (v. 11) Like her people she is filled with fear; but whilst they had lost all courage, for her this very fear is the beginning of wisdom, for it is the fear of the Lord, a fear which makes her look to God, and immediately she acquires the certainty ("I know," v. 9) that this God is a God of grace for His people. She seeks her resources in this God who is the resource of His own. Faith is not mere human imagination which likes to deceive itself, and which sees things in whatever light it pleases. It is not the human mind building its conclusions on possibilities or probabilities; she says simply, "I know," because she had heard what the Lord has done.

Rahab looks to God. She is threatened with judgment, but she sees that God takes interest in His people. She says to herself: If God is to be gracious to me, I must be with His people. So when the spies appear, Rahab by faith receives them "with peace" (Heb. 11: 31); and whilst the world seeks them everywhere, so as to rid itself of the testimony of God, she hides them safely, and values them as being the means which God would use to preserve her from future judgment. Her deliverance depends on their preservation. Not only does she believe in Israel's God, but, as some one has said, "she identifies herself with the Israel of God," and her faith receives an immediate answer. She does not need to acquire the certainty by seeing Jericho surrounded by the army of Jehovah. That would not be faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Notice how perfect and worthy of God is the answer. She had said: "Swear unto me . . . that ye will deliver our lives from death"; and the messengers reply: "Our life for yours." Her faith finds in others (we, in Christ) the guarantee by substitution that death would not reach her.

That is not all. A scarlet thread, unpretending type of the death of One who could have said: "I am a worm and no man," suffices her as token and safeguard. Just as the blood of the paschal lamb on the lintels of the doorposts averted the judgment of the destroying angel, so the scarlet thread suspended from the window of a house which was "upon the town wall," was to preserve the house and all in it when the wall itself should fall down at the noise of the trumpets of Jehovah.

One more point: they are living witnesses who are the guarantees that death is Rahab's safeguard. In the same way for us, Christ is the living witness before God of the perfect efficacy, in redemption, of His blood shed for us on the cross. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." (Heb. 9: 12)

Dear reader, how beautiful is Rahab's faith! She does not wait, as recommended by the spies, until the people "be come into the land" (v. 18) to bind the scarlet line in the window; they are scarcely gone when she hastens to put it there, testifying thus to what she has believed; her faith does not linger, it speaks henceforth loudly; she proclaims from her window Christ and the efficacy of His work to save the most miserable of sinners.

Finally, Rahab is not only an example of faith, but also of works. "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" (James 2: 25) Works must follow faith. There is such a thing as dead works which are not the product of faith; and there is a dead faith which does not produce works; but Rahab's works can only be the fruit of faith. An Abraham to offer up his son as a burnt offering, a Rahab to betray her country, or a Mary to break a costly box of alabaster to waste her all, an odour of great price — human wisdom condemns, and the authors of such deeds are blamed or punished by the world; but what renders them approved of God is the faith which is the motive spring, and faith which sacrifices all for God, and which surrenders all for His people.

Rahab finds her recompense: a place of honour is reserved for her with those who, amongst God's earthly people, form the lineage of Messiah. (Matt. 1: 5)

Joshua 3.

THE JORDAN.

The two preliminary chapters with which we have been occupied bring us now to the main point of the narrative. Israel had to cross the Jordan to enter Canaan; and what is the Jordan?

From Egypt up to this, the deliverance of the people is characterised by two great events: the Passover and the Red Sea; and in order to understand the third great event, that is, the crossing of the Jordan, it is well to seize the meaning of the first two. All three are types of the cross of Christ; but its aspects are so rich, so various, so infinite, that we need all these, and many others, in order to comprehend its depth and extent.

The Passover shows us the cross of Christ as a shelter from the judgment of God. "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment." (Ex. 12: 12) Now Israel themselves could only be sheltered by the blood of the paschal lamb placed between the people as sinners and God as a Judge who was against them. This is expiation. The blood stays God, so to speak; keeps Him outside, and places us in safety inside. "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Only let us not forget that it is the love of God which provides the sacrifice capable of meeting His own judgment. Love thus spares the people who could not of themselves escape judgment any more than the Egyptians.

But we learn more than this in the Passover. The blood was that of the paschal lamb wholly roast with fire; a type of Christ who endured in the fullest way both externally and in the depths of His whole being the judgment of God for us and in our stead. Whilst under the shelter of the blood, the Israelites, and above all the believers amongst them, found food for their hearts in the thought of Him in death, yet with a deep feeling of the bitterness of sin, as typified by the bitter herbs, but of a sin completely atoned for.

At the Red Sea we find a second aspect of the cross of Christ, which is redemption: "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth thy people which thou hast redeemed." (Ex. 15: 13) Now if God delivers and redeems us, He is for us instead of being against us; indeed, it says: "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." (Ex. 14: 14) The Passover stayed God Himself as a Judge, and set Israel in safety; at the Red Sea God intervenes as a Saviour (Ex. 15: 2) in favour of His people, who have nothing to do but to look on at their deliverance: "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." (Ex. 14: 13) In redemption God, so to speak, acts as if the enemies which were against us, and which we were quite powerless to overcome, were against Him.

What a terrible and critical situation was that of the people of God at this solemn moment! The enemy seeking to recover possession of his prey, pursuing hard after Israel and driving them to an extremity towards an impassable sea. It is the same with sinners. The power of Satan hurries them on towards death, and death is the judgment of God: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Now the soul must have to do with this last directly and perfectly, must come into immediate contact with death which is the expression of it. There is no means of escaping. The people were weaponless and resourceless in presence of the enemy and the power of death, and it is in this extremity that God intervenes. The rod of judicial authority is stretched out, not over Israel, but in their favour, over the sea, and death becomes, instead of a gulf, a pathway for the people. They can cross it dry-shod. What a new pathway it was, and what a solemn hour for Israel as a nation, when they passed between these liquid walls formed on their right hand and on their left by the action of "the east wind," between these floods, which instead of engulfing them proved their rampart! The solemnity of the scene remained; the horror of it was for ever obliterated.

We find in this scene a type of death and judgment borne by another, and for us the Lord presents Himself in it: "For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me." "The waters compassed me about even to the soul." (Jonah 2: 3, 5) Christ endured to the full the horror of death, and felt it alone in the infinite depths of His holy soul.

But the people cross the sea dry-shod. Judgment finds nothing in them, because it has spent itself in death, and for us on the person of Christ on the cross.

They come out on the other side safe and sound, and here we have a type not merely of the death of Christ, but also of His resurrection for us.

This is what may be learnt from the Red Sea. The army of the adversary is overthrown, and finds its grave where we have found a pathway. All fear is over; we can stand in peace on the opposite shore in the power of a resurrection-life which has passed through death.

It is by faith that we share in this blessing: "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do, were drowned." (Heb. 11: 29) Whilst faith passes through it, the world, which seeks of itself to meet death and judgment, will be engulfed.

Having now considered the meaning of the Red Sea, typical of the death and resurrection of Christ for us, let us ask ourselves, What is the extent of the deliverance therein operated in favour of the people?

It is salvation, a simple word in itself, but one of unparalleled importance to our hearts. Salvation has its negative and its positive side. The first comprises the destruction of the enemy, of his power and all its consequences. Grace, in the person of Christ, has taken our place in death under all this: "It is the grace of God that bringeth salvation." Thus, Satan's power, the world, sin, death, wrath, and judgment, are overcome and destroyed for faith in the cross of Christ.

But there is also a positive blessing to be found in this blessed work. "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." (Ex. 15: 13) "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." (Ex. 19: 4) "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3: 18) "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph. 2: 18)

Infinite blessing! The people have not only escaped, but they have arrived by a new and living way which has brought them to the end, into the presence of God Himself, a God whom we know as the Father. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God." (1 John 3: 1) Let us celebrate with Israel only in a higher key, the song of deliverance! No more separation, or distance; the port is gained, which is God Himself, He whom, by the Spirit, we call "Abba, Father."

What share did Israel take in all this work! Absolutely none. Salvation is brought to us by the free grace of God who exacts nothing, and who does not claim His rights over us, but who finds His satisfaction in being a sovereign and an eternal Giver.

Joshua 3.

THE JORDAN.

But to return to the Jordan. At the Passover atonement was made; at the Red Sea redemption was accomplished, and salvation obtained; but here it is another question. In order to take possession of the land of Canaan, the people must be in a certain condition.

Between the Red Sea and the Jordan Israel had crossed the desert, and this journey is divided into two distinct parts. In the first part, up to Sinai, it is grace which leads the people — the same grace which had redeemed them from Egypt, and by which they experience the resources of Christ in the midst of all their infirmities. In the second part, after Sinai, Israel is under the reign of law, and it is then that they are proved to know what is in their hearts. The trial only demonstrated that they were "carnal, sold under sin"; that they had no power, that their will was enmity against God, that it was not subject to the law of God, finally strewing itself in positive open rebellion when it was a question of going up into the mountain of the Amorites, and entering into possession of the promises.

The condition of Israel was an absolute obstacle to their entering Canaan. When they come to the end of their experiences in the flesh, they find the Jordan, an overflowing flood, as a barrier to their onward progress. The Red Sea hindered their escape from Egypt, the Jordan prevents their entrance into Canaan, and to attempt to cross it would be their destruction. Here we have a fresh type of death. It is the end of man in the flesh, and, at the same time, the end of Satan's power. How can we, who are without strength, withstand it? It separates us for ever from the enjoyment of the promises. "Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

But the grace of God has provided for it. The ark goes before the people; it not only makes them know the way by which they should go, for they had not passed this way heretofore (Joshua 3: 4), but it associates them with itself in the passage. The priests, the representatives of the people, were to take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before Israel. (v. 6) It was indeed the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth (v. 13) which was to pass on before them across Jordan, but not without them. The ark maintained its pre-eminence: "There shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure" (v. 4); but as the eyes of the people were fixed upon it (v. 3) they beheld at the same time the priests of the tribe of Levi who bore it. As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests rested in the waters of Jordan, they were cut off and ceased to flow. A power was there which was victorious over the power of death, and which associated Israel with the victory.

If it was thus for Israel, how much more for us! All that we were in the flesh has found its end in the cross of Christ. We can say: I am dead to sin, dead to the law; I am crucified with Christ. My eyes, fixed on the ark — on Christ — see in Him the end of my personality as a child of Adam; but in Him also a victorious power, now made mine, introduces me in resurrection life in Him, beyond death, into the full enjoyment of the things which this life possesses: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

Death itself, of course, is not yet swallowed up: "When the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan . . . the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before." (Joshua 4: 18) But when "this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15: 54) Then Christ's place, beyond all that which could hinder us, will be ours, even as to our bodies. But before the fulfilment of these things, we can already say: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 15: 57)

We find then in the Jordan, in a special way, death to that which we were in our former status, and the beginning of a new status in the power of life with Christ, with whom we are risen. His death and resurrection introduce us now into all the heavenly blessings, and what we have just said explains the reason of our not finding enemies here as at the Red Sea. At the Jordan the Israelites are not pursued by Pharaoh and his host, but the enemy is in front of them, and does not begin to act until they have crossed the river.

Now they enter upon a new series of experiences. In the desert of Sinai the old man has been proved to be sin; then follows, in type, at the Jordan, the knowledge acquired by faith, that we have been taken out of our association with Adam, and set in a new association with a dead and risen Christ; finally, in Canaan, we have the experiences of the new man, though not without weakness and failure if there be a lack of vigilance, but with a power at our disposal, of which we can make constant use in order to be strong and to fight valiantly and resist the subtle wiles of the enemy.

Joshua 4.

THE TWELVE STONES AT GILGAL.

In the preceding chapter we have seen that it is faith in Christ which enables us to apprehend (after an experience often as long as the forty years in the wilderness were for Israel) our deliverance from our old estate, and introduction into a new one in Christ. The soul, long exercised, learns at length — and it is God who reveals it to faith — that what it was striving vainly to attain to, has not to be done, but is a present reality, for faith a fact, an accomplished fact, in Christ.

I used to wonder at the extreme simplicity of the language produced by the discovery of this important truth in Romans 7, whilst it takes a whole chapter to describe the experiences of a soul previous to knowing deliverance. More than this, the despairing utterance caused by the hopelessness of the situation, changes without any interlude into one of gratitude and joy: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The reason now seems simple enough. When the soul makes this discovery it learns that the deliverance which it was incapable of attaining, God had already wrought by and in Christ, so that it is no longer a thing to be accomplished. The soul discovers and appropriates it as an accomplished fact, prepared long ago for faith. Then calmly and peacefully the believer can say: Henceforth I am dead, because I am in Christ; dead with Christ, dead to the law, to the world; and "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2: 19, 20; Rom. 6: 10; Col. 2: 20; Gal. 6: 14)

It is a truth which is outside the region of the intelligence; reason cannot explain it, memory cannot retain it. How often have I seen souls seeking, by similar efforts, to lay hold, so to speak, of deliverance! What was the result? When, after much painstaking, they thought they had grasped its import, a single night sufficed to disperse the illusion, just as dead leaves are swept away by a breath of wind between the evening and morning.

Ah! deliverance is not obtained in a moment, for just as there was no Jordan for Israel before the desert, so, for us, deliverance comes after we have made the discovery of what the flesh is, and not before. Deliverance is not a mere experience, but the result of the standing which faith grasps. It is only experimental in the sense that I see myself in Christ, instead of laying hold of a work accomplished outside of myself as in redemption.

Such for us is the import of the Jordan. But God desires that the memorial of this victory should be continually under our eyes. Joshua commands the representatives of the twelve tribes to take twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the feet of the priests stood firm. They were to be for a memorial unto the children of Israel, and were to be laid in the place where the people passed their first night in the land of Canaan. The place was Gilgal, but what was the signification of the stones? They represented the twelve tribes, the people, snatched from death by the ark which had stood in the very spot where deliverance was needed, and which had stayed the waters of Jordan so that Israel could pass over. They became a monument at the very entrance of Canaan, at Gilgal, a place to which (as we shall see later on) the people had always to return; they were henceforth to be a sign constantly under their eyes and those of their children.

Now we, like Israel, stand as trophies of the victory achieved over the raging waters of the riv. Christ went into death because we were there: "If one died for all, then were all dead." (2 Cor. 5: 14) But it was in order to deliver us out of death, and bring us into a new life in His own resurrection. "When we were dead in sins he hath quickened us together with Christ . . . and hath raised us up together." (Eph. 2: 5, 6)

But the monument of this memorable work is permanently established on the other side of Jordan to serve for the maintenance of Israel's faith, a monument to be recognised at all times by the people at the entrance of Canaan. For us it is Christ, the object of our faith, the Firstborn from the dead, risen and entered into the heavenly places, but a Christ who represents us there, associating us with Himself, even as He associated Himself with us in death.

Moreover God desires that Christ thus set before us should produce a corresponding moral effect in us; that, in the contemplation of Him, our consciences should be laid hold of in a lasting way. "It is a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever." It is also this for us, accompanied by an inward effect. The believer, risen with Christ, has the indelible marks of His death imprinted on him, and, if such is my place in Christ, can I live any longer in the things which I have abandoned, which Christ has left in the depths of Jordan? "In that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." Up to this, it is the memorial, and then comes the moral effect: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 6: 10, 11)

The twelve stones at Gilgal, then, are not merely our death and resurrection with Christ (the Jordan typified that), but the memorial of this death and resurrection as seen in a risen and glorified Christ. This monument reminds us of what we have henceforth to be. In the Jordan God declares us to be dead, and it is the portion of all the people; every Christian is dead and risen with Christ; in Gilgal we have the moral realisation of this. All had crossed the Jordan, but many amongst them perhaps cared but little to inquire the meaning of the monument in Gilgal, those stones which seemed to say in living accents to the people: "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."

THE TWELVE STONES IN THE MIDST OF JORDAN.

If the twelve stones in Gilgal spoke to Israel's conscience, there was another monument set up in the midst of Jordan which spoke seriously to their hearts. Who could see the stones which the overflowing waters had covered? They could only be known to faith. They were not typical of a resurrection-life which had passed through death and bore its impress and character; they were essentially the sign of death. The stones in Gilgal are the monument of our introduction by Christ into our privileges, and into which we only enter after having passed through death with Him; but when I think of the stones in Jordan, my heart is in communion with Him in death.

I return to sit, so to speak, on the banks of the river of death, and I say: That is my place; it is there that I was; it is there that He has been for me; He has delivered me from my old man; He has left it with all that belonged to it in the depths of Jordan; I am buried beneath its waters in the Person of Christ. What led Thee, blessed Saviour, to take this place? Thou alone couldst claim exemption from it, and having laid down Thy life, Thou alone hadst the power to take it again. But it was Thy love to us which led Thee down to death; no other motive, save the glory of God which I had dishonoured, could have led Thee there. Thou hast not only fought the fight alone, and victoriously stayed the waters of Jordan "until everything was finished that the Lord commanded" (v. 10), but those waters themselves passed over Thee. I see in this monument what death was for Thy holy soul; I recognise the memorial of the exquisite bitterness of the cup which Thou didst drink.

The twelve stones "are there unto this day." (v. 9) The monument remains, the cross remains, eternal witness of a love I have there learnt to know, testimony too of the only place where God could put all that belonged to my old man.

In connection with these things, notice also what we find in verse 18: "And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before." The sentence is executed, the old man condemned, the judgment is passed, death is conquered, but death remains. What was formerly an obstacle to entrance, an obstacle removed by the ark which opened the pathway for us, separates us when we are once across, not only from Egypt and the desert of Sinai, but from ourselves. If it were otherwise, we could have no lasting enjoyment in the land of Canaan.

The two and a half tribes (vers. 12, 13) truly crossed the Jordan with their brethren, armed for war and prepared to fight, but there were two things of which they remained in ignorance: the value of the land of Canaan, and the value of death. The river did not arrest them when they turned to rejoin their wives, their little ones, and their cattle, who were awaiting them on the opposite shore. The country "on this side" had its attractions for them, whilst the people, who were peacefully in the enjoyment of Canaan, saw with joy that the Jordan was a barrier to separate them from all that which formerly was of any value to them.

"On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life." (v. 14) It is thus with Christ. He is highly exalted as Saviour by the glory of the Father before our eyes, in virtue of His finished work, and, as the result of this work, the saints are introduced with Him into the present enjoyment and future possession of the glory. This will be to His everlasting glory and honour.

But the Lord will also have other crowns. The day will come for Him, which Solomon enjoyed in type, and of which it is said: "Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him. And all the princes and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king. And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel." (1 Chr. 29: 23-25) He will reign; His people Israel will be subject unto Him, and even those whom He deigned to call His brethren will bow the knee before Him, happily and joyfully acknowledging openly in His presence that He is Lord, even as they have owned Him on earth in the days of His absence and rejection.

We find another future glory of Christ in 2 Chronicles 32: 23. In the time of Hezekiah, after the deliverance of Israel by the judgment of the nations in the person of the Assyrian, it is said: "And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was recognised in the sight of all nations from thenceforth." The nations will be subject unto Him.

Finally, it is said in Philippians 2: 9-10: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Heaven, earth, and hell will bow before Him who humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross.

Joshua 5.

CIRCUMCISION.

In Joshua 1 we have traced the moral principles requisite for taking possession of Canaan; in Joshua 2 we have seen that, when it is a question of heavenly places, God can go outside the limits of Israel, and bring in on the principle of faith; in Joshua 3 and Joshua 4 we find the secret of entrance; and in Joshua 5 something further is unfolded to us, namely, how the victory is obtained. Consequently, this chapter opens (v. 1) with a mention of the enemies. All the kings of the Canaanites and the Amorites defile, so to speak, under our eyes, but the power given them by Satan has already been broken at Jordan, in death, in the person of their Prince. In spite of that, they are too strong for the poor children of Israel, but God is going to enable them to obtain the victory over their enemies. And how? By depriving them of all the weapons and resources which they would have found in themselves. Flesh cannot enlist in the warfare; God judges it and sets it aside; and this is the meaning of circumcision. Circumcision is "the putting off of the body of the flesh" in Christ. It is an accomplished fact for every believer, just as much as the Jordan is for each of us, whether or not we realise its import.

The teaching of Colossians 2: 9-15 on this point is very clear and beautiful. "In him," says the apostle, "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." All is in Christ, nothing is lacking in Him. But in verse 10, it is we who have all in Him; nothing lacks for us: "Ye are complete in Him." We cannot, then, seek to add anything to ourselves apart from Him. Now we come to circumcision. "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Not only, says the apostle, is there nothing to add, but there is nothing to cut off from those who are in Him. The body of the flesh is judged, you are deprived of it; it is a thing done, it is the circumcision of Christ. In verse 12, we find that this end of the old man, which takes place for us in the death of Christ, becomes personal for the Christian: "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." This passage embraces the thing in its extent, and corresponds with the two truths represented by the Jordan, namely, death and resurrection with Christ. Here then we have the establishment of two great truths: we are complete before God in Christ, and perfectly delivered from all that we are in ourselves.*

{*In verses 13-15, we return to the Passover and the Red Sea; we are delivered from all which can be pleaded or raised against us.}

The Epistle to the Philippians (Phil. 3: 3) establishes the contrast between the circumcision made with hands, and the true circumcision, that of Christ. "We are the circumcision," says the apostle, "who worship God in the Spirit." Fleshly circumcision under the law had never done that. One must have done with the flesh to be able to worship in the Spirit. Then he adds, "And who rejoice in Christ Jesus." Even religious flesh never glories in anything but itself."

{*We find a proof of this in Colossians 2: 21-23. The doctrines, commandments, and teachings of men may in deed have a show of wisdom .... inasmuch as they do not spare the body, but they are for the satisfaction of the flesh.}

Finally, the apostle concludes by saying: "And who have no confidence in the flesh." This is true circumcision. It is the setting aside by judgment in the cross of Christ of what the word of God calls "the flesh," so that henceforth we cannot have any confidence whatever in it, and this is a most important truth to get hold of. When it is a question of warfare, as it was for the children of Israel, we must bear on us the stigma of the death of the flesh. Notice, too, there is no thought here of trying to have done with ourselves, or of stripping ourselves. The "putting off" was accomplished at the cross; sin in the flesh was condemned there; it is a fact which faith grasps, and which becomes a practical reality as the conscience owns and accepts this judgment. The burning coal had to touch the lips of Isaiah, and even though the judicial fire from off the altar had exhausted every atom of its power upon the victim, and the anguish being over nothing remained but the purifying power, still the prophet had to be brought into contact with it, thus typifying the experience our consciences pass through, of divine judgment.

GILGAL.

And the Lord said unto Joshua: "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." At the Red Sea they had been delivered from the slavery of Satan and of sin; here, for the first time, they were freed by judgment from the slavery of the flesh. But the Spirit of God adds: "Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day." Here we have a second great truth. As has been already observed, circumcision, judgment, the cutting off of the flesh, has been accomplished in Christ, but has also to be considered under an essentially practical aspect, and not purely as doctrine.

Gilgal was the place of circumcision, and if this place was to be the point of departure for the army of Jehovah before a single victory had been achieved, it was also to be the assembling place after victory (Joshua 10: 15), and again the point of departure for fresh conquests. The judgment of the flesh was immovable. The people were to appropriate it to themselves continually, otherwise the flesh would work to regain what it had lost, and a first victory would never be followed by a second. We shall come upon Gilgal in the course of this book on more than one occasion; for the present let it suffice us to remember that if circumcision signifies the cutting off of "the body of the flesh," Gilgal is "the mortification of our members which are upon the earth." Colossians 3: 5-8 teaches us this in contrast with Colossians 2: 11.

Beloved, this is a daily reality, and every victory opens out fresh horizons for us in the land of promise. Without conflict there is no means of laying hold of any of our blessings, but without Gilgal there can be no victory. Which do we value most? Canaan with its warfare, or our members upon the earth? Do we prefer the passing gratification of the lusts of the flesh to the painful task of returning to Gilgal? If so, we shall have to be taught by humiliation and chastisement how to recover the path, if, at least, we have not irrevocably lost the secret of strength in bitterness and tears and the irremediable ruin of defeat.

CANAAN'S FOOD.

The cutting off of the flesh by the judgment executed at the cross, and the practical realisation of this judgment are the first conditions indispensable for warfare. Of what use were Saul's helmet, coat of mail, or sword, to David in fighting against the Philistine? He had to "put them off him." (1 Sam. 17: 39)

But there is another resource. Before going forth to fight, Israel must be seated at the table of God. To be able to withstand the toils of warfare, Israel must be nourished; that is the secret of positive strength. And what is the nourishment? Christ. He is the source of strength, and there will be no victory for the people if they have not been previously fed. What a blessed thing to enter into the conflict with hearts fed by Christ. We may certainly expect to be defeated if we advance to meet the enemy with hearts void of Christ. In the reverse case, as we shall see in the following chapter, there is nothing alarming about the combat, and may God give us each to prove this. Let us not wait until the morrow, for we may be called to fight this very evening. Let us feed on Christ to-day, to-morrow, every moment, that we may be ready at the first signal to arise and march on to victory.

Yes, beloved, it is a Person; it is Christ who is our food; not truths, nor privileges, but Himself; and He is here presented to us as food under three different aspects: the Passover, the Old Corn of the land, and the Manna.

This Passover in Canaan is the same feast that the people had celebrated in Egypt, and yet how much they differed one from the other. There, it was a people conscious of their guilt, hasting to flee, sheltered amidst the darkness and the judgment by the blood of the paschal lamb. Here, it is a people safely landed in Canaan, delivered from the last traces of the reproach of Egypt, a risen people, who have been through death, but who return in perfect peace to the starting-point, the foundation of all their blessings, to sit around the memorials of a Christ slain for them on the cross. The Passover in Canaan corresponds with what the Lord's Supper is for the Christian. And notice, it is a permanent food; it will not cease in the glory; only it will no longer be the remembrance of the Lord's death celebrated during His absence, neither shall we need something tangible to remind us of it, for our eyes will see in the midst of the throne, the Lamb Himself, as it had been slang, He the visible centre of the new creation founded on the cross, the basis and pivot of eternal blessing, the object upon whom myriads of myriads gaze with adoring and universal worship.

But there is more than this in our heavenly repast. "And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn in the self-same day." (v. 11) God gave them a food which had been unknown to them in Egypt, the old corn of the land of Canaan, a heavenly, glorified Christ, but Christ as a Man who had been through this sin-stained world in a spotless humanity, the unleavened bread, and who in this same humanity had passed through the fire of judgment like the parched corn, and who, having entered the glory in resurrection, sits as Man at the right hand of God.

Moreover He is there for us, not only as our Advocate with the Father, but as introducing us in His Person as Man into the glory. The place is prepared for man in the third heavens; he is brought in Christ into the full enjoyment of heavenly blessing. I behold this Man and say: There is my place; I am in Him, a man in Christ, possessing already the same life as He, life eternal, the life of a Man risen from among the dead; I am united to Him, seated in Him in the heavenly places, enjoying this infinite blessing by the Holy Spirit who leads me into it. Blessed Saviour! for me Thou camest down, for me Thou didst hang on the cross; Thou art gone into the glory, and Thou hast brought me into it already in Thine own Person, previous to being with Thee and like Thee for ever.

What wondrous joy and what power there is in occupation with such a Christ! "We all with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3: 18) In this passage we see the result of being nourished with the old corn of the land. The soul, formed by a heavenly Christ, is able to reproduce the traits of this blessed object. Such is our portion.

Such also was that of Stephen, the faithful martyr. In him, a man on the earth, full of the Holy Spirit, as fruit of the perfect work of Christ, we see a believer in his normal character, answering perfectly to the end for which God had placed him in this world, in the midst of circumstances that were the most calculated to make him lose that character. The Spirit in him unhindered (his heart having no object on the earth, and the Holy Ghost not having to contend within him to bring him to the level of a heavenly Christ) links him with an object in heaven so as to form him here into its image. The traits of the glorified Man in heaven become in him those of a perfect man on the earth: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Here it is an example of what it is "to be changed into the same image from glory to glory." It is not anything mystical, nor a vague product of human imagination; it is in our daily life, our ways, our words, by love, intercession, patience, and dependence, that we may, through grace, show forth the likeness of a glorified Christ on whom we gaze. Is it so with us Christians in these days? Are our hearts so fed by Him that the world can see it in our lives? Can those around us catch the rays of the glory of Christ on our countenances, as with Stephen or Moses? It would not be for us to know it, for in this case we should have lost sight of the heavenly object, and turned our eyes upon ourselves. Moses alone in the camp of Israel wist not that his countenance shone.

"And the manna ceased on the morrow." (v. 12) Israel ate it no more; manna was wilderness food; for us a Christ come down from heaven into the midst of our circumstances to encourage us in the difficulties of the way. In contrast with Israel, we Christians are privileged to have Christ as our food in every aspect at the same time, though perhaps not at the same moment. But the manna is not a permanent food. Indispensable and most blessed as it is that the remembrance of it should remain before God always, in the golden pot, and for us in "the hidden manna," still as food it is transitory and suited to the journey which comes to an end. Now the Old Corn of the land will, like the Passover, be our lasting and eternal food; not in order that we should be, as on earth, transformed gradually into His likeness, for then "we shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil. 3: 21) "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3: 2)

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST.

Conflict is about to begin, and the Captain of the host has not yet appeared. He reveals Himself at the last moment, but precisely at the needed one, "when Joshua was by Jericho." (v. 13) Faith can count on Him for the time of need. Gilgal and the heavenly repast are, as we have seen, the preparations for warfare; the power, the plan, the order, the time of battle, all that and much more is the responsibility of the Captain of the host. Such a way of fighting will be incomprehensible to one who has not been at Gilgal. He would set to work with his own contrivances, would engage the enemy too soon or too late, would rush forward without the Captain of the host, make a false movement, fall, and be conquered, leaving nothing but a catalogue of defeats.

Notice with what marvellous grace this representative of Jehovah adapts Himself to the circumstances of His people, this Angel of Jehovah of whom the Old Testament so often speaks —  Jehovah Himself under this mysterious character, for it is said of Him (Ex. 23: 21) "My name is in him." As others have observed, He presents Himself with Israel as a Deliverer at the Red Sea, as the Companion of their journeyings in the desert, as Lord of Hosts in Canaan, and later on when the kingdom is established, He dwells in peace amongst them.

Blessed condescension! What assurance it gives to our souls. Here we see Him sword in hand, and it is this sword which will deal the blows. Israel needs no other.

Three times in the course of the people's history, the Angel of Jehovah intervenes with the drawn sword in his hand. The first time it is to preserve them from threatened dangers, when Balaam, on his way to curse Israel, encounters the messenger who obstructs his road (Num. 22: 28), the second time, in our chapter, it is to fight with them and obtain the victory for them; the third time, alas! it is to judge the people who had sinned in the person of their king. (1 Chron. 21: 16)

Beloved, we also have to do with the Angel in these three ways. How many times, without our even being aware of it, He meets the enemy who seeks to accuse or curse us; how often He, in grace, associates us in the combat against the powers of darkness in the heavenly places; how often, too, He reveals Himself to us as He did to David, with His drawn sword turned against the city of God; that is to say, as the One who, for His own, is a consuming fire, who chastens and humbles them, but in order afterwards to replace His sword in its sheath, and in the end restore them.

Even that is consoling, in spite of all; but it is a terrible thing for a man to be met, like Balaam, by the angel with the drawn sword, because, for a reward, he was selling the gift he had received from God to the devil, the accuser of the brethren. Such a path is that of a reprobate who does not know God, but how many Christians, alas! in these days of ruin, associate themselves in some manner with the way of Balaam; how many in company with the enemy of the people of God, though clad in the prophet's dress, place themselves in the hands of the world to do the enemy's work.

"And Joshua went unto him and said unto him: Art thou for us or for our adversaries?" It is impossible to be neutral in the fight, and we ought all, like Joshua, to understand this. "And the Captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." He who reveals Himself to Joshua as Lord of hosts claims also His character of holiness. It is impossible for those who are called to fight under a divine leader to remain associated, individually or corporately, with evil or defilement in the walk. It was partly on account of having disregarded this principle that the people were defeated before Ai. To keep unjudged evil in the heart exposes us to the judgment of God and renders us defenceless in the hands of the enemy; it is the same thing with evil in the assembly. If God is holy in redemption, as He showed Himself to be to Moses in the bush (Ex. 3: 5) — and where did He make a more brilliant display of His holiness? — let us remember that He is not less holy in the combat, and that we can only engage in it after having loosened the shoes off our feet.

Joshua 6.

JERICHO.

The people arrive at length in presence of the terrible obstacle raised to prevent their taking possession of Canaan. There is nothing the enemy hates more than seeing us in the enjoyment of our privileges, and taking a heavenly position. He is well aware that a heavenly people can escape from his hands and steal his goods; therefore his chief endeavour is to set some obstacle in the way of our onward progress.

This occurs in the history of every Christian, not necessarily at the moment of conversion, but sooner or later when it is a question of entering the path of conflict for the realisation of our heavenly calling.

The first impediment put in our way by Satan is an apparently impregnable fortress, which it is impossible to enter or to quit: "None went out and none came in." (v. 1) Surely this is enough to terrify us, and to make us turn back; and this is precisely the aim of the adversary, in which, alas, he too often succeeds. Every Christian has to face at some time or other his stronghold of Jericho. I need not enumerate here the difficulties of each soul, they are diverse, but may be resumed in one word, an obstacle. If I set my face heavenwards, what will happen? I shall lose my position; I shall be cut short in my career; my friends will forsake me; my parents will never suffer it; I should have to give up all I love, and separate myself from the Christians amongst whom I received such blessing.

Such is often the aspect which the high walls of Jericho assume before the affrighted soul. Ah! how many Christians lose courage before the fight, and turn back.

But the soul, prepared by God, does not retreat in view of difficulties. It knows it is in possession of a means of overcoming them, and makes use of it. It is a very simple, but unique, way, for there is no other: it is faith. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after that they were compassed about seven days." (Heb. 11: 30) Faith is simple confidence in Another, in the Lord, and at the same time complete absence of self-confidence, for these two things are inseparable. The obstacle yields to faith. What does it matter if the walls reach up to heaven? What are they for faith? Faith counts on the power of God, and this, dear friends, is the first great characteristic of faith. "In order," says the apostle, "that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2: 5) A power absolutely divine is necessary in the fight, and can alone overthrow the obstacle, and it is solely on this power that faith rests.

We may notice, too, when faith has been appealed to, how jealous this power is of the existence of anything which could wear the appearance of human wisdom. The Captain of the Lord's host, who talks with Joshua, does not give them the choice of arms or means of warfare. They are not to make any plan or arrangement; they are not to concert as to the means for gaining the victory; God Himself has ordered everything, and faith submits to the order established by God, uses the means which He points out, and does not invent others. We must have societies, committees, conferences, money, etc., etc., is often said. Man must have them, but faith needs nothing of the kind. God has His own means.

But, it may be said, why not simplify the path? Why all these complications? Why go round the city every day, and seven times the seventh day? Why this procession with the ark and trumpets? Faith does not ask why? It does not reason as to the means God chooses to employ; it accepts them, enters into them, and obtains the victory instead of being beaten by the enemy. It was thus at the Passover and at the Red Sea. Do you say: Then faith is without intelligence? Not at all; it first submits and then understands. Faith will tell you the reason of the seven days, the ark, the procession, the trumpets, and the shouts of joy, but it will only tell you after submission to them, otherwise it would be intelligence and not faith.

But this is not all. Faith marches forward in dependence on God, who says: "I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour." Then it is put to the test. There must be patience; the people had to march thus during six days, and then patience must have her perfect work: "The seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times."

There are yet other blessed characteristics of this precious faith which we may do well to notice. It associates us with Christ, gives us part and communion with Him. God marshals His people round the ark in the conflict. It was no longer, as at Jordan, the ark preceding the people, but here the armed men go before the ark with the priests, and the rereward comes after.

But the aim and result of association with Christ is never to exalt or attach importance to man; it exalts Christ and makes much of Him. The ark itself formed the body of the army, properly speaking, the indispensable centre, the main force; and the whole attitude of the people around it, manifestly proclaimed it. Without the ark there could be neither warfare nor victory.

Faith always renders testimony to Christ: "The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns passed on before the Lord, and blew with the trumpets." It was a perfect testimony to the power of the ark in presence of the enemy.

Faith is zealous to exalt and render testimony to Christ, zealous for that service which is also conflict. "Joshua rose early in the morning." (v. 12) "They rose early about the dawning of the day." (v. 15) See how zeal in one provokes and encourages it in others; but we shall come to this again. In short we see that it is God alone who obtains the victory, though at the same time associating us with Christ in it. Of what use would weapons of warfare have been against Jericho? None whatever, God does it all. He desires that the power and victory should come entirely from Him, and be without any mixture of human importance.

Generally when it is a question of fighting, Christians are ready to admit that the power is of God, but they do not consent to the absolute exclusion of self, and the consequence is that they are not rewarded by a complete victory as at Jericho, where God claimed this honour for Himself; not that He refused human instrumentality, but it must be He who makes use of it, so that man may not be exalted in his own eyes. We do well to note God's way of action. lie chooses instruments without strength or value in themselves, or else, if they are worth something in the eyes of men, He begins by smashing them as He did with Saul of Tarsus; then He says: "He is a chosen vessel unto me." Now I can use you.

We have already noticed that the manner of action of Christians during conflict is too often exactly the opposite to that of God. They put their means and resources in the foreground. "We have formed an excellent plan; we are well organised; we have a superior staff of evangelists, and we send forth our emissaries into the four quarters of the globe." Dear friends, I am not inventing; every day one hears and reads such things; you and I have perhaps expressed ourselves in these terms before now. If we look at man's work we shall always see this deplorable mistake.

Had Israel said: Very well, let the power be God's, but let us combine to find the means wherewith to overthrow the walls of Jericho; what would have happened on the seventh day? Not a single stone of the wall would have fallen!

But here the power of the enemy gives way, and the people destroy the accursed city. More than this, their faith and activity in testimony and victory set other souls at liberty, as will always be the result when we engage in the Lord's battles. Rahab, still a prisoner, is delivered, and brought into the midst of God's people, where she can henceforth enjoy the same privileges as the victors.

One more detail I would call your attention to. Faith makes no compromise with the world, receives and takes nothing from it. God forbids the people to touch the spoil of Jericho; it is accursed. Jehovah can claim these things and glorify Himself by them; they belong to Him, but not to the children of Israel, who can only touch them to put them into "the treasury of the house of the Lord."

Such is the fight of faith. May God give us to go over these things in our hearts, so as not to be vanquished in our contest with the enemy.

Joshua 7.

AI AND THE ACCURSED THING.

We have just been considering the brilliant picture of a divine victory obtained by faith over Satan. After such a conquest, we say, Israel will surely proceed from one victory to another; but not so. Joshua 7 opens with the registry of a defeat. A little town, an insignificant obstacle in comparison with Jericho, and "few people" are enough to put to flight three thousand men of Israel, and to cause the hearts of the people to melt and become as water.

There are secrets of defeat as there are secrets of victory, and the believer's chief danger lies in victory. After having gained it in real dependence upon God, the soul, if occupied with the results, willingly attributes something to itself, and the next defeat dates from that moment.

Notice the case of Joshua: "Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai." (v. 2) He repeats what he had done in Joshua 2: 1 with regard to the land and Jericho. Then it was the path of God, but now the very same act becomes a human and fleshly expedient. The spies had returned from reconnoitring Jericho, saying: "Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land." What need then to send further emissaries? It was in some measure a lack of dependence on God, a confidence in human means.

More than this, Joshua sent them "from Jericho," which is not the true point of departure, he forgets Gilgal, where they learnt what the flesh is, or perhaps he does not yet know that it is the place to which they must return. Joshua had found in the victory an opportunity for trusting in the flesh. He who, until now, had been a type of Christ by His Spirit acting in the believer, so as to bring him into possession of his privileges, descends to the level of an ordinary man. The typical Joshua disappears, to make room for Joshua as a man.

Is it not often so with us? Every believer in his measure is a representative of Christ, an epistle intended to make Him known, which, directly we forget Gilgal, disappears to give place to the old man which we have neglected to judge.

But the people, alas! follow the example of their leader. The men sent by Joshua having returned, said unto him: "Let not all the people go up: but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither, for they are but few." (v. 3) They have the most implicit confidence in themselves; they will "smite Ai." What is it for us and our men of war? Have we not shown our capability at Jericho? Dangerous confidence! But there is not only this lack of dependence on God, and self-confidence, the fruit of unjudged flesh; there is more; coveted things, hidden from every eye, are buried in the earth in the midst of a tent; the accursed thing is there.

God had cursed the town of Jericho; all that belonged to it was under the curse; no one dared keep any of it lest he should make himself and the camp of Israel accursed. (Joshua 6: 18) One man only had disobeyed, and, hearkening to his lusts, had stolen of the accursed thing. Which of us is free in heart from this?

This man had followed his natural inclinations, he had begun where we all begin, where the first man began. "I saw." (v. 21) "When the woman saw" is said in Genesis 3: 6. He had eyes which knew how to discern the goodly things amongst the spoil. His eyes were the avenue to his heart, but there was no sentinel to watch, no "qui vive" to resound in case of an attack. It is through the eyes that the accursed thing takes possession of the heart, and provokes it to lust: "I coveted them." "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin": "I took them." The goodly Babylonish garment which could adorn the pride of life, the silver and gold which could satisfy every lust, became the prey of Achan; nay, rather, these things make him their prey! Fatal and Satanic chain which links the world to man's natural heart, in order to make him the sport of the prince of this world.

Notice now how the sin of one man has to do with all Israel. (v. 1) "But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing . . . and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel." The people might have said: Does that concern us? How could we have known about a hidden thing, and not having known it, how are we responsible? To all that we reply, that God always has the unity of His people before His eyes. He considers individuals as members of one whole, and responsible the one for the other. The suffering and sin of one is the suffering and sin of all, and if it is thus with Israel, how much more so with us, the church of God, one body united by the Holy Spirit to the Head which is in heaven.

If, however, their souls had been in a good state, God would have manifested the hidden evil in their midst. The power of an ungrieved Spirit in the assembly brings to light all that dishonours Christ amongst His own. The reason it was not so with Israel, was that there was something unjudged in the people and their leader. The hidden evil of Achan is the means of bringing out the hidden evil in the heart of the people. When the assembly is in a good state, although always answerable for the sin of one of its members, it is made aware of it by the Holy Spirit, and finds itself in a position to put away the evil from its midst, and, as the case may be, to put out the wicked person.* It was thus in the early days of the church, in the case of the cutting off of Ananias and Sapphira; the power of the Spirit of God discovered and judged the evil immediately. But here in Israel, hearts had to be brought by self-judgment to bear the sin of one as the sin of all before God.

{*See Deut. 13: 6; Deut. 19: 19; Deut. 21: 18, 21; Deut. 24: 7; 1 Cor. 5: 13. It is well to observe that the cases where a man may be designated as a wicked person are not all specified in the word of God. No mention is made of a murderer, etc. The judgment being left to the spirituality of the assembly.}

Is it thus with us in these days of ruin? Do we feel the evil in the church? Do we recognise our responsibility as to all the corruption which has been introduced? Or are we self-confident enough, in the presence of the rubbish, to think that we could do better than others, and that the ruin of the church is not our doing? If our hearts are not habitually thus before God, we are sectarian; and, more than this, we may have to be reminded by a terrible defeat of the humility which becomes those who ought to have remained at Gilgal. See how differently from our miserable hearts God judges. He says: "Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; for they have even taken of the accursed thing; and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff." (v. 11)

In verses 5 and 6 we find the chastisement of the people. Three thousand men of Israel flee before Ai; and the hearts of the people melt and become like water because thirty-six of them are smitten. They are prostrate; strength and energy fail them; fear takes possession of their souls, for their courage has been carnal. So proud of their previous victory, they fall now to the level of the Amorites whose " hearts melted" when they heard of the crossing of Jordan. This was a sad but necessary experience, for they had forgotten Gilgal; and Satan undertakes to teach them through the bitterness of a defeat, what amount of strength they possess, and how much confidence can be placed in the flesh. Ah! if they had been with God they would have been preserved from a defeat, as we see very remarkably in the Apostle Paul's experience. He had been triumphantly caught up to the third heavens, into paradise, and there he had heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter, but when he came down again to the earth, a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, was given to buffet him. The flesh was in him, and would have exalted itself, but God anticipates it and hinders his beloved servant from being puffed up.

The danger was great, for had he listened to the flesh, how many flattering things he would have said to himself in consequence of this wonderful vision, thus compromising . not only his peace, but even his apostleship and his course. But God takes care of His servant, giving him the necessary corrective, in order that the course of his victories may be uninterrupted. Paul learns by "the thorn" which is his Gilgal, that the flesh, even the best, is worth nothing. God says to him: Never mind the infirmity — the thorn in the flesh; stay at Gilgal, it is precisely what you need, for in this way the power will be entirely mine and will obtain the victory; and as for thee, my grace is sufficient! It was a place of suffering and humiliation for Paul, but of wondrous blessing! He was with God, in communion with the Lord, and the messenger of Satan is but the means of keeping him at Gilgal, and not of bringing him back there by a defeat.

Joshua 7.

AI AND THE ACCURSED THINGS.

And Joshua the man of God? Alas! he rends his clothes and falls to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord. (v. 6) Where was the ark in the war with Ai, before which the walls of Jericho had fallen? Joshua's godly soul acknowledges its worth, but he does not know what to do, and, ignoring the accursed thing, he gives vent to regrets, not regrets as to what he has done, not as to what the people have done, but, alas! as to what God had done when He brought them over Jordan! "Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!" said he. How plainly these words show what man's heart is! This blessed place is the only one that Joshua would fain have avoided.

The tone of his request betrays weakness. First it is Israel, the name of Israel which occupies his thoughts; then it is the Canaanites, the world. "Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!" "The Canaanites . . . shall hear of it." They shall "cut off our name from the earth." Then quite at the end: "What wilt thou do unto thy great name?" (vs. 8, 9) The example given us in the history of God's faithful servant Moses is very different. (Ex. 32: 11, 13) He had been on the mount of God, and there God reveals to him the evil which had gone on in the camp; the sin of the people does not remain hidden from the eyes of Moses. Aware of it before coming down from the mount, does he think of Israel's shame? No, he is occupied with what is suited to the Lord's name. He recognises the claims of offended holiness. As for the nations his only concern is, as to whether God would be glorified in the eyes of the Egyptians by the defeat of His people. As for Israel, he appeals to the grace of God, to the only thing which glorifies Jehovah's name in the presence of guilty Israel. Moses had no need, like Joshua, to recover lost communion; he can intercede for the people, and he is heard.

Joshua, on the contrary, is found precisely in the attitude in which he ought not to be. "Get thee up," said the Lord to him, "wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?" (v. 10) To humble himself for his lack of power was not the only thing to be done: it was time to act. We find the opposite to this in Judges 20, where Israel ought to have humbled themselves first and then acted. Miserable flesh! What disorder does it not introduce into the things of God! Always outside the current of His thoughts, if not in open hostility to Him. May we join with the apostle in saying: "We, who have no confidence in the flesh." Joshua had to act; the accursed thing had to be put away from amongst them.

The children of Israel had soon forgotten the presence of the Lord, which alone could open their eyes to the evil in their midst. Joshua himself had been in some measure taken in this snare of Satan, and involved in the people's weakness. If he had realised in his soul the attitude he assumed in Joshua 5, in loosing the shoe from off his foot, he would have understood the necessity of holiness for the people, if God's holy presence was to be with them. But Joshua falls to the earth upon his face and almost reproaches God for His grace, forgetful of His holiness: "Wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan?" He was not, for the moment at least, in the current of God's thoughts, and God makes him feel it. His thoughts were out of tune. When the accursed thing enters into the testimony of God, what we have to do is to sanctify ourselves, and to put away the evil from our midst. It is not a question here of power, but of holiness and of obedience. God said to Joshua: "Up, sanctify the people." To sanctify oneself is to separate oneself from all evil to God. It is impossible without holiness to have God with us.

This is one of the most important truths for the present day. What should characterise us now, as in Philadelphia, is communion with "the holy and the true." I am speaking merely of an ordinary case of excommunication, and not of a case of discipline complicated, it may be, by the incapacity of the assembly to judge evil. I would not for a moment omit the true humiliation which should always accompany action in a case of discipline.

It was necessary that Israel should both individually and as a nation pass in review under the searching eye of Jehovah Himself (vers. 14, 15); their conscience was thus awakened and self was judged; each one took his place in presence of the judgment. It was the same when the wicked person at Corinth was put away. "Godly sorrow" had worked in the Corinthians a "repentance to salvation not to be repented of." Sorrow had produced humiliation, accompanied by activity and zeal in purifying the assembly of God from evil. Thus true humiliation and action went together. "For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!" (2 Cor. 7: 11)

To return to the question of holiness. In Joshua 5 we have individual holiness, and in Joshua 7 corporate. In order that Israel should not be defiled and partakers of the accursed thing, they must put away what had entered into the midst of the congregation. Rarely do we find intelligence amongst the children of God with regard to these two aspects of practical holiness. Christians more often seek the first, that is individual holiness. and esteem the second of no importance.

Let us take an illustration to show that individual holiness is never fully entered into apart from corporate holiness. Supposing I have a son who is blameless as to his character, and whose virtues are everywhere spoken of. He is respected in the town, and on all sides I hear the remark, "What a good son you have!" Now, this son of mine, though he does not himself drink, spends every evening at the public-house, in the company of drunkards, instead of remaining in his father's house and taking his place at the family board. Can I call him a good son?

From 2 Corinthians 6: 16 to 7: 1 we learn the close connection between these two aspects of holiness. God begins with corporate holiness "Ye are the temple of the living God." (v. 16) The temple of God is holy." (1 Cor. 3: 17) It is positional holiness. "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate." (Ver 17) This is practical corporate holiness. Then he adds: "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 7: 1) This is individual holiness, and it is inseparable from corporate holiness and the promises attaching thereto.

But the corporate side is not understood by the generality of God's people who go through the world, alas! without troubling themselves about their fellow Christians, and to whom such a thing as corporate responsibility is unknown.

One often hears it said: "Oh! I do not concern myself about others; I am alone with God; I take the Lord's supper individually," &c. This is not how God views us. Let me repeat it: He sees us altogether as forming one body, united by the Holy Spirit to His glorified Son. The sin and the suffering of one member is the sin and suffering of the whole body. One more word in passing, on the sentence referred to above, which one so often hears from the lips of Christians: "I take the Lord's supper for myself." What does Scripture say? "For we, being many, are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." (1 Cor. 10: 17) Who are the "many" with whom you profess to be one body? You take the supper individually to excuse your alliance with the world at the Lord's table, and you do not see that you profess to be one body with the murderers of our Saviour, for it is the world that crucified Him.

Let us notice another point in the chapter. God said, "Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow." (v. 13) We are called to sanctify ourselves before and not at the moment of action. Whence comes our frequent incapacity to judge evil and to act for God? Because we have not sanctified ourselves beforehand. Why is it that so often at the worship meetings our hearts are cold and our lips silent in praise? Because we have not been obedient to the word: "Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow." It is the same in 1 Corinthians 5. The apostle possessed the power, but not the Corinthians. They were simply to obey in purging out the old leaven to be a new dump; they had to put away the wicked person from their midst.

Achan had partaken of what was under the curse of God, and he had to be put away. It was done in the valley of Achor.

But, wonderful to say, we read in Hosea 2: 15 this comforting word respecting Israel: "I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope." Yes, beloved friends, it is always thus; blessing is given to us on the very threshold of judgment. It is at the place of judgment that the soul at the time of its conversion finds the door of hope; it is there that it meets Christ. And later on, the believer finds the time of discipline to be the birth place of hope and joy. It will be in this valley where God pronounced their judgment, that the people of Israel will, by-and-by, be blessed of God. It was there that Joshua was recovered in soul for a walk henceforth with God, while leading the people to victory.

Joshua 8.

THE WAY OF RECOVERY.

The wicked person had been put away from the congregation of Israel, but by the presence of evil in their midst, God had brought them to the discovery of their own self-confidence. Such cases often present themselves when an assembly is satisfied with its state, and begins to boast of it, and of its blessing and growth. Israel did this, placing their reliance not in God but in their late victory, and thus preparing a way for defeat. They had to be judged, and then to purify themselves from the evil. But restoration of soul does not consist only in self-judgment and practical sanctification. Communion with God, which sin has interrupted, must be restored.

Here I would make a remark which is perhaps of importance. In Joshua 6 God manifests His power in connection with Israel in the victory over the enemy at Jericho. This same power is strewn too in the Christian's life. It may be that one has been in the enjoyment of divine power and the victories thereby obtained, without perhaps having really known either God or oneself.

And yet there was no excuse for Joshua's want of apprehension. The Captain of the Lord's host had revealed Himself to him with the drawn sword in His hand, as the Holy One armed with power for the conflict. Then, in company with the people, Joshua had witnessed the exercise of this power before Jericho; but his conscience had to be brought in contact with divine holiness, and he had as yet no sense of what it necessitated from the people as to the character of their walk. The anger of the Lord (Joshua 7: 1) had to be made known to Israel and their leader, before they could learn that God in His holiness could not tolerate the accursed thing. The knowledge of God in power is not all. To possess a true and complete knowledge of Him much more has to be learnt.

With regard to Gilgal and the learning of ourselves, it might seem that when once this point in the soul's history is reached, self ought to be done with, but in reality this is only practically realised in the measure that one keeps at Gilgal. How little did the people know themselves after the victory of Jericho! Though God had taken a thousand pains to prove to them that all was of Him in the victory, what self-sufficiency, what forgetfulness they show in attempting to face the enemy without Him!

Flight and trouble are the result, and when they resume the offensive, their path becomes difficult, laborious, and full of complications, thus exposing to their view their own weakness, which had been already made apparent to the enemy in their defeat. They have to retrace their steps, forced afresh to the discovery of themselves, but it will now be a lesson learnt through grace with Christ and not with Satan.

Notice in Joshua 8 how complicated everything becomes, through not having followed the simple path of faith. The soul, humbled, finds itself once more with God, and His presence with it, but the consequences of a carnal walk remain; and although God can ultimately use these for their blessing, the path has no longer the simplicity of the early days of faith. It is a very simple path, for, to the believer who follows God's guidance in human dependence on His word, victory is assured. It was thus at Jericho, and the same power which had brought down the walls of the accursed city is with Israel at Ai; it has not changed, although the army must maneouvre and separate into two corps, five thousand men lying in ambush, whilst the rest entice the defenders of Ai out of their stronghold.

In Joshua 7 the spies had said in their report: "Let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, for they are but few." And now about thirty thousand chosen mighty men of valour are required. What a humiliation, and how it lowered Israel in their own estimation! They had to go up by night, and whilst some hid, others feigned flight before the enemy. What room for boasting after this?

But you may say: You have shown us that at Jericho it was not a question of human means, and now here are all sorts of contrivances for conquering the enemy. I reply: If you are content to use means which bring your incapacity into prominence, leaving on man the impress of his total weakness, and humiliating him so that his only resource is to flee before the foe, all well and good. But it is not in your power to do this. In truth at Ai they are no more human means than at Jericho. The difference is, that there God ordered the arrangements so that Israel might learn his power, whilst at Ai His object was to teach them their own weakness.

But in the one case and the other, let me repeat, the power of God had not changed, Israel gained the victory at Ai by means of it; Joshua was there, Joshua with the spear in his hand. At Jehovah's command Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. (v. 18) "For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai" (v. 26) It remained stretched out all through the conflict.

One often hears it repeated: "What does it matter if there are divisions? Have we not all the same end in view? Are we not all fighting for the same Lord, although it may be under different standards?" Is this then the teaching to be gathered from these chapters? No, they maintain one great prevailing truth. The people were one; one in their victory, one in their failure, one in their defeat, one in the judgment of the evil, one in their restoration. We see around us the poor children of God scattered and divided, and they are content to say: "What does it matter?" Brethren, for what purpose did Christ die? Was it not "to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." (John 11: 52) Does God scatter them after He has gathered them? No, it is the wolf who scatters the sheep. (John 10: 12) And can we say: "What does it matter?"

Diversity is not division; for it displays itself in unity. The ambush take Ai and set it on fire, whilst the twenty-five thousand men flee before their enemies, until advised by the smoke of the city to turn back upon them. Just as they begin to fight, the ambush issuing out of the city join in the battle (v. 22), and then all the Israelites return unto Ai and smite it with the edge of the sword. (v. 24) Thus there is diversity in the action and service, but it is an action in common. The body is one; the several parts are joined together, and Joshua with his spear is the bond of union. If the unity is lost sight of, defeat is the result.

In 1 Corinthians 12, we find diversity and unity closely brought together in the church. "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit," "and there are diversities of operations; but it is the same God which worketh all in all." (vs. 4, 6) "For as the body is one and hath many members" (this is diversity in unity), "and all the members of that one body being many are one body" (this is unity in diversity), "so also is the Christ." We are united in one body, the Christ, and yet every child of God has his appointed work which no one can accomplish for him. Each one is entrusted with a different service; I cannot do yours, nor you mine.

Israel is now restored to communion with God. Throughout this scene the activity of the people is blessedly characterised by the presence of Joshua. When they were going to war, we read: "Joshua arose, and all the people." (v. 3) On the eve of battle: "Joshua lodged that night amongst the people." (v. 9) When the march was about to begin: "Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley." (v. 13) When it was a question of enticing the enemy: "Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten." (v. 15) When they had put to flight the enemy: "Joshua and all Israel .... slew the men of Ai." (v. 21) And finally when the victory was decided in their favour: "Joshua drew not his hand back .... until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai." (v. 26)

THE RECOVERY OF GIBEAH.

The effect of the defeat at Ai was that the Israelites learnt to know their own hearts better, and at the same time the character of the God who went before them. Before noting the practical results of what God had taught them through discipline, I should like to point out a resemblance between Joshua 7, 8, and Judges 20, 21.

It is an accepted fact that the book of Judges after Judges 17 does not follow any chronological order (Judges 20: 28), but gives us a picture of what took place before God raised up the judges, of the history of Israel immediately after the death of Joshua There had been utter and rapid decline; idolatry and moral corruption reigned everywhere. At the beginning and end of these chapters we find the statement: "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." No such thing as dependence on God and His word, man's conscience being the measure of good and evil. Each one walked according to his own sense of right and wrong, making conscience the measure of his conduct.

Is not this a picture of Christendom and of what happened after the departure of the apostles? Was decline less complete and sudden? Leaving aside the corrupt principles of popery, which does enlightened Protestant Christendom bring forward as the rule of conduct, the word of God or conscience? Does it teach subjection to the Scriptures, or is its watchword liberty of conscience? If conscience is taken as a guide, absolute confusion is the result, each one hastening to follow his own opinion.

But a horrible sin had taken place at Gibeah; and that not as in Joshua 7, the accursed thing, hidden failure, but as a sin committed openly before God and man. The unhappy Levite himself publishes his shame, every tribe in Israel being apprised of it (Judges 19: 29). And the people, what of them? Well, God uses the sin of Gibeah, as He did the sin of Achan, to lay bare their moral condition, to humble them and to awaken within them the consciousness of what is due to God. Only here the moral state of the tribes is more serious; they have sunk much lower than at Ai. Indignant at the wrong done to themselves, the thought of the wrong done to God is entirely overlooked. They speak of the folly wrought by Gibeah in Israel, of the wickedness done amongst those of the tribe of Benjamin, but not a word of the dishonour brought upon the Lord's name. How evident the declension, and how different are the words of Phinehas to the two and a half tribes: (Joshua 22: 16) "What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel?"

To this first symptom of decline, we may add a second; namely, that they had abandoned what might be called their first love. The Lord was no longer before their eyes; their affection for Him, and consequently for those born of Him, had diminished. They forgot that Benjamin was their brother. "Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin?" (v. 18) and these last on their side "would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel." (v. 13)

A third symptom of decline is that they lose sight of the unity of the people. No doubt, to all appearance, the eleven tribes presented a unity nearly as perfect as when Israel purified themselves from Achan and were restored at Ai. Nevertheless it was no longer God's unity. It was in vain that the people "were gathered together as one man" (v. 1), or that they "arose as one man" (v. 8), or that they were knit together as one man" (v. 11), against Gibeah: God could not recognise the unity of Israel whilst Benjamin was lacking. Beloved, these links in the chain of declension are riveted one to the other; forgetfulness of the presence of God, surrender of the first love, contempt for the real unity in spite of a show of the same.

And was not Benjamin guilty? Yes, exceedingly so. One sees that his mind was made up from the outset not to judge evil. Warned equally with the other tribes (19: 29) of a crime patent to all, knowing that the children of Israel were about to judge the evil, in fact warned, albeit in a carnal spirit, that he would have to purify himself, he yet turns a deaf ear to the call of duty. By establishing the principle of independence, he disowns the unity of Israel, and far from purifying himself from the crime of Gibeah, he links himself with it, at the same time resorting to a useless and miserable attempt at making a distinction. (v. 15) Benjamin had to be judged, but the state of the people as a whole was too bad to admit of a divine judgment on their part, and they must be sifted before being able in truth to purify themselves from the sin of Gibeah.

If Israel had had a right sense of things, they would have first humbled themselves before the Lord, taken counsel of Him, and then acted; instead of which they begin by consulting one another, miserable result of forgetfulness of God's presence; they take measures, and decide very scripturally "to put away the evil from Israel," quite forgetting that they are themselves infected by the evil, that Benjamin is in fact part of them. After having made all their arrangements and numbered their warriors, "they arose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel of God." (v. 18) This is also the spirit of declension, and it is to be found everywhere in Christendom, and often amongst the children of God; in fact it is a widely established principle. We propose some plan to ourselves, and at the moment of its execution, often after all is arranged, we ask the blessing of God.

The result of this total oversight of divine principles, was that in the first day twenty-two thousand Israelites were destroyed down to the ground. Then they went up and wept before the Lord; their hearts are now full of sorrow instead of carnal indignation, and they call Benjamin their brother. Their love and sense of responsibility one to another is revived. After this they again set their battle in array and lose eighteen thousand men in a second defeat. God in His goodness sought to produce a perfect result. Sorrow in itself was not everything, neither the proclamation of the bonds which united them; what was needed was a full and complete judgment of self; repentance before God. To enjoy once more the presence of the Lord and His communion, they must retrace their steps in the pathway of declension. Thus it is said: "Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord." (v. 26)

What comes next bears a striking analogy to the scene at Ai. They were obliged to set liers in wait (v. 29), to flee before Benjamin (v. 32); and after all their previous losses to have thirty men wounded to death, and to make a great flame like smoke rise up out of the city, to serve as a signal. Thoroughly judged and restored to communion with God, Israel can now discharge the painful duty of judging Benjamin for his profanity; but ah! what weeping and tears follow on the victory. (Judges 21: 2) How different from the scene at Jericho, where "the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat." (Joshua 6: 20) Here it was a question of their own brethren, of a tribe all but cut off in judgment. But God in grace restores the gleaning of Benjamin, notwithstanding the many complications brought about by the carnal haste of Israel in their first decisions.

There is however one part of the congregation of Israel which the restored people treat with more severity than Benjamin himself. There came none to the camp from Jabesh-Gilead to the assembly. (Judges 21: 8) It was bare-faced indifference, and neutrality with regard to the evil of which they took no account; far worse than the spirit of fleshly indignation in which Benjamin had revolted, despising a decision of the assembly, and which had led him to take arms against his brethren, while associating himself with evil. Jabesh had to be utterly destroyed.

RESULTS OF DISCIPLINE.

But to return to Joshua and the people. Israel had learnt in the pathway of humiliation not to trust in themselves, and this expression at once bears fruit. Henceforth if controlled by the word of God, and trusting in its perfect guidance, they would escape further falls. In verses 27-35, we see Joshua and the people obeying the Lord's commandment (vers. 27, 31, 33, 35), and depending on what is written in the book of the law. (vs. 31, 34) The effect of being humbled is that Joshua and the people are reminded in heart of the statutes laid down in Deuteronomy 27.

More than this: the hanging of the king of Ai shows that Joshua is informed as to the details of his conduct by the word of God. "As soon as the sun went down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree." (c.f. Deut. 21: 22, 23) To all human appearance this would be a detail of no importance, but a heart fed by the word of God could not overlook it. To neglect it, would have been to lose sight of the holiness of God, and Joshua would then have failed in the very point which brought down chastisement on the people. "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree .... for he that is hanged is accursed of God; that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." (Deut. 21: 23) And again: "Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel." (Num. 35: 34) In a word, a holy God could not dwell in the midst of defilement; this was the blessed lesson which Joshua received from the Lord of hosts before Jericho, which he learnt amidst tears in the valley of Achor, and which, with a conscience exercised in the school of God, he blessedly realised in the day of victory.

We learn another lesson in the judgment of the king of Ai. The bringing together in Deuteronomy 21: 18-23 of the two events contained in Joshua 7 and Joshua 8, the cutting off of the wicked person and the judgment of the enemy, is not without significance. This is practically always the case. The assembly must purge out the evil from its midst before it can silence and bring to nought the evil outside. You will find, where evil is tolerated in the assembly, a total absence of that decision and firmness which deals with the enemy as such, without coming to terms, and puts him at the outset in the only place assigned to him of God, according to the scripture: "He that is hanged is accursed of God."

There is one more striking coincidence in the verses we are considering. The gibbet of the king of Ai was the place of the judgment and curse of Israel's enemy. But here the people are obliged to stand themselves on Mount Ebal, where the curse of God is pronounced upon them. This terrible conclusion of the law which Israel could not escape, God had brought to nought by the cross of Christ.* Christ bore on the cross the curse which was pronounced at Ebal on man as a responsible being, to redeem us from it. Israel could see in type on the gibbet at Ai, what we see in the cross of Christ, Satan, our chief enemy, defeated and annihilated; but we see also, as has been already remarked, all the curse under which we lay at Ebal, for ever gone in the actual judgment of Him who took this place for us. In Galatians 3: 10, 13, we find the same blessed connection between Ebal and the cross. "For it is written" (Deut. 27: 26), "Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The curses at Ebal close with these words, but the apostle adds: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." This is the hanging of the king of Ai.

{*It should be noted that the altar here was built upon Mount Ebal, not on Mount Gerizim, and served, so to speak, as a counterpoise in grace to the curse.}

A further result of discipline was that Israel, now humbled, were in a state to worship. "Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal .... and they offered thereon burnt-offerings unto the Lord, and sacrificed peace-offerings." With us likewise, there can be no communion without self-judgment, and no worship without communion. The altar in Mount Ebal was the provision in grace for the curse of the law on transgressors. In the altar we have propitiation, which is the basis of all true worship; only here it is in presence of a people threatened by the curse if they do not obey. The cross which has put an end to the curse for us, is the starting-point or centre of our worship, and sheds upon us the full light of divine grace.

But grace itself never weakens our responsibility as God's children. There are conditions under which the land is taken possession of. A duplicate of the law was to be written upon great stones set up and plastered with plaster. (Deut. 27: 2, 3; Joshua 8: 32) This same law was read aloud "before all the congregation of Israel." (v. 35) Let us never forget that Jesus Christ is at the same time our Saviour and our Lord, the One who has pardoned us, and the One who has every claim over us. The knowledge of His grace fills our mouths with praise in worship; the sense of our responsibility leads us to persevere in holiness and truth, to fight the good fight, to take possession of the promised land.

Joshua 9.

THE SNARE OF GIBEON.

As we advance in the study of our chapters, the enemy presents himself under new aspects. Satan knows how to make war; he knows how to place his batteries, to attack openly, and to overwhelm by numbers; but he also knows how to employ subterfuge, to deceive by craft, and to ensnare, Jericho, as an obstacle, gave way before faith; but Satan is not discouraged, he gets at Israel by means of their lusts, and the accursed thing enters into the camp; he occupies the soul with past victories, and self-confidence takes possession of the heart. Israel, forgetful of the whole armour of God, is caught in the enemy's nets. But Satan's victory is the school of God for the righteous. They cease trusting in themselves, and entering into the claims of God's holiness, they seek their safeguard in the word of God, owning, at length, their responsibility, of which they seemed previously scarcely aware.

In Joshua 9 we find more particularly "the wiles of the devil," and it is expressly against these that we are cautioned in the word. In order to stand firm, we must "put on the whole armour of God; be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."

We see the power of God under various aspects in the Epistle to the Ephesians, and in the first chapters of Joshua. In Ephesians 1: 19, His power toward us corresponds typically with the crossing of Jordan. In Ephesians 3: 16, 20, His power in us corresponds with the divinely-spread table in Joshua 5; and in Ephesians 6: 10, His power with us, and the armour, in its various parts, corresponds with the conflict with the power of evil, such as we see in the succeeding chapters of Joshua.

We have already seen what vessels God takes up, through which to glorify Himself in this conflict; creatures so weak, that their only resource is to depend on Him. As I have often said, God makes use of two classes of instruments to accomplish His work: first, those who have no value in themselves. "God hath chosen the foolish, weak, base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not." (1 Cor. 1: 27, 28) Could stronger language be used to convey the nothingness of the vessels God deigns to use? But He also takes up instruments which are of great value in the eyes of men and to themselves. Saul of Tarsus was a man looked up to — learned, religious, energetic, conscientious; to all appearance he lacked in nothing of that which God could turn to account, Yet God lays hold of him, strikes him to the ground, on the way to Damascus, and, so to speak, breaks the vessel to pieces. Then He says, Now I can use him.

The consciousness of our nothingness as instruments keeps us in constant dependence on the hand which makes use of us, and this is the pathway of power. It was thus at Jericho, but the people had yet to learn that without dependence they became the prey of Satan. In closing the description of the armour, the apostle adds, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching "hereunto with all perseverance." (Eph. 6: 18) Prayer is the expression of dependence; continual, persevering prayer is the expression of habitual dependence. Now the Israelites' chief fault, in Joshua 9, was, "that they asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord." (v. 14) We saw, at the close of the preceding chapter, that the word of God had recovered its importance for them; but here they forget to go to God, so as to have communion with Him as to His mind for them.

Notice how Satan succeeds in making them lose the sense of dependence. He intimidates them by something calculated to strike terror into their hearts; the hatred of the world, a confederation of kings assembled for war. (vs. 1, 2) He begins by engaging their attention with this formidable power prepared to crush them, and then, without losing a moment, he offers them his resource: the inhabitants of Gibeon come to the camp at Gilgal. Israel was not prepared for this, they had not on the whole armour of God. The leaders of the people failed in detecting what seems to have occurred to the minds of the simple — for a moment, at least; and it is often so; humility and a single eye go together, and are accompanied by true and divine intelligence. "Make ye a league with us," said the Gibeonites. What a good opportunity for Israel! "The enemy is before you," whispered Satan; "this would be a splendid way of overcoming him."

These men came, with all sorts of good intentions, seeking an alliance with the people of God, and openly acknowledging their moral and spiritual supremacy. "We are thy servants," they said to Joshua (v. 8), words well calculated to influence him in their favour. Finally, they proclaim the power and fame of Israel's God, and what He had done in Egypt and the wilderness, though, it is true, they do not say a word about Canaan; Satan would betray himself by chancing to speak of heavenly places and their conflicts.

The character of the Gibeonites, and their religious convictions, are very strongly marked, but they are Canaanites in disguise, the world under an external form of piety — the religious world. Up to this Israel had been kept from seeking human aid, but it was hard to resist those who professed to have the same object, and the same aspirations. Is it not a legitimate thing to form an alliance? We own Jehovah, as you do, and, in case of need, we could co-operate with you as your servants.

Ah! how little the children of Israel suspected at this moment that the Gibeonites were those very Canaanites whom they were commanded to drive out from the land of promise. They are caught in the enemy's net, having neglected to take counsel of the Lord, and, as a sign of fellowship, they take of the victuals of these men. The treaty is concluded; the world is introduced into the midst of the congregation of Israel. What a diabolical artifice! Satan suggests to the people the introduction of the world into the camp, as a method of conquering the enemy, thus offering himself as a means of overcoming himself. He knew well that the moment he had succeeded in bringing in this element, the way would be paved for everything else.

Do not these things remind us of the church's history? The hearts of the Lord's people had begun to be corrupted as early as the days of the apostles, by the outward attractions of a religion suited to the earth and the world, which was creeping in everywhere, and which obscured the heavenly position, its interests and hopes, beguiling souls into an alliance with the world which had crucified Christ. Satan gained his end. He set up his throne in the midst of the church, and the apostle was obliged at length to say, "among you, where Satan dwelleth." (Rev. 2: 13) Henceforth, alas! it is no longer a question merely of conflict with enemies outside, but of standing against the power of evil in the church.

But the grace of God is with Israel, and although this chapter gives us the entrance of evil into the congregation, we do not find its development. God delivers us from certain consequences of our sin, and allows others to remain. The people of God had to undergo the mournful experience of keeping the Gibeonites in their midst, as a lasting witness to their failure. Having begun by murmuring against the princes, the children of Israel are brought eventually to a truer sense of their duty. There was but one thing to do, namely, to bear with the Gibeonites in their midst, whilst keeping them in the place of the curse. "Now, therefore, ye are cursed," said Joshua unto them. (v. 23) Israel could only view them as an accursed race. The judgment of the king of Ai was pronounced, not executed, upon them, and in the meantime their safety lay in the name of Jehovah. Israel could not touch them; they must bear their humiliation, and avoid henceforth having any fellowship with those whom they left under the weight of the divine curse.

We, too, in the church have to undergo the consequences of our unfaithfulness, and to be humbled on account of the evil which has crept into the house of God. But, whilst truly alive to this our shame, we shall yet, if faithful, be able to distinguish between what is of God, and what merely bears His name outwardly. The word discerns and reveals to us the mixture, and faith leaves the religious world under the curse, at the same time acting in grace towards it.

In 2 Samuel 21 we find another chapter of the history of the Gibeonites; and here we clearly see that God's purpose was in nowise to remove them from the place which they had usurped in the congregation of Israel. Saul, animated by ardent zeal for the congregation, but in nowise for God, being completely ignorant of His mind, had exterminated them. Years pass, and suddenly we find a famine breaking out in Israel. David seeks the face of the Lord, and inquires into the cause of this calamity; and the Lord answers: "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." The flesh, which has brought in the evil, is eager, above everything, to get rid of it. The way of God is quite otherwise: His children must feel the evil, and it is thus that their communion with Him shows itself in an evil day. In Ezekiel 9: 4, the Lord tells the angel to set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst of Jerusalem. Those who felt the evil were expressly sheltered from the destructor.

Beloved brethren, principles such as these should guide us in these closing days. It is not for us to take the sword, and cut off the evil, but to groan and sigh, saying, "The evil is mine." We cannot purify the place; it only remains for us to humble ourselves, and, at the same time, purge ourselves from vessels to dishonour. This is what a worldly Christian never learns; he is not humbled by the presence of the world in the church; he defends it, and deems it an impossibility to distinguish between the Gibeonites and the children of Israel. Far from pronouncing them accursed, or robbing them of any part of the blessed liberty of the children of God, or declaring them strangers to His people (cf. Deut. 29: 11), he would be tempted rather to become their servant, and to cut wood for the house of their god.

The seven sons of Saul were hung, and became accursed, on account of this bloody deed of slaying the Gibeonites, which was a pretence at purifying the congregation. How many similar cases the history of the church affords. The extermination of heretics, real or supposed, was no other than the crime of Saul, and will be reckoned to its perpetrators.

May God give us a spirit of constant dependence upon Him, that so we may be enabled to resist the snares of the devil. This chapter gives us only one of his wiles, but, if alive to the danger, we shall discover that his design in every artifice is to turn away our gaze from heavenly things, and so to lower our Christianity, that it should be nothing more than what the world can share in with us.

Joshua 10.

THE VICTORY OF GIBEON.

Before entering upon this new subject, I should like to make one or two incidental remarks.

The more I ponder these chapters of Joshua, the more I am struck with the part Satan plays in them. He combines circumstances to attain his end, and in this way he gets hold of people unknown to themselves; his suggestions are mistaken for those of their own free will, and, alas, he too often attains his end by making use even of the children of God who have been foolish enough to listen to him. Amidst all this show of activity, he hides himself, and nothing unusual causes his presence even to be suspected; in short, he is so little to be seen, that his very existence is denied by the world. What part has he in such a natural course of events, as the ambition, the disputes or the contests of two nations?

And, after all, who is right in this struggle? Whose is the good cause? Which is the aggressor? Where is a spirit of cruelty and extermination to be seen? and who lays snares? Let us weigh the facts fairly and decide.

I listen, and consider, and I decide for the Canaanites against Israel, for Satan against God. The enemy has succeeded by the facts themselves in hiding God from me. The word, on the contrary, reveals God to me, makes Him known to me in His fulness in Christ, bringing, in His Person, perfect goodness, truth, light, righteousness, and holiness. Thus Satan is exposed; his schemes and artifices are seen in broad daylight; and the soul, knowing God, has no longer any difficulty in judging between good and evil in this world; all things are made manifest by the light.

But Satan does not consider himself beaten. To deceive souls, he attacks the very ones who are standing for God and bearing witness for Him; and having succeeded in corrupting them, he says: Are these people any better than others? They may talk about separation and humility, but look at Achan and the Gibeonites; see their self-confidence and their spiritual pride. These arguments gain entrance into souls, and the enemy succeeds in inducing them to reject God.

In connection with this I would further remark, that Satan has two grand methods of corrupting God's children. The first of these is the accursed thing, the world allowed in the heart. But this being judged, and the soul humbled, Satan will not be defeated. His second method is the league with Gibeon, the world allowed in the walk.

Throughout our Christian course we have to watch against these two snares, and again and again the twofold question arises in our hearts: Is the Lord enough for me, or shall I allow the attractions which the world offers me? Is it possible for us to be Christians, nothing but Christians in our walk; to be completely separate from the world, even the religious world, to be on no terms with it, and to avoid every association with it? Satan has perfectly succeeded, and succeeds every day, by means of these two snares, in enticing God's redeemed people. The first fall in the church was by means of the accursed thing, in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, quickly followed by alliance with the world. If we take only the principles of this alliance, they showed themselves in the lifetime of the apostle, and are denounced by him in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. They would like to have gained the wise, in order that Christianity might triumph. Their motives were of the world and carnal, similar to those of Gibeon in the midst of the congregation.

Well, Israel have owned their failure with regard to Gibeon, have confessed it by their acts, and must bear the lasting shame of it, approved of God in so doing, as we have seen. But Satan has not exhausted his artifices. We see a new confederation of kings assembled together, and this time arrayed not against Israel, but against Gibeon. The men of Gibeon send to Joshua to Gilgal saying: "Slack not thy hand from thy servants." What is Israel to do? Danger is there, whatever course he pursues. Not to go up, and to allow the Gibeonites to be cut to pieces by others, would deliver them from the consequences of their failure, but where would be the needed humiliation? Would it be upright towards God or man? To go up, on the other hand, would look like a definite allowance of association with the world. Such dilemmas are common with Satan. How many times he placed them in the pathway of the perfect Man! The only way to get out of the difficulty is by simple dependence on God, realised in the school of Gilgal. The lesson of the snare of Gibeon is learnt, and Satan is foiled.

Still, as we have already seen in the course of these chapters, Israel's safety does not consist in the mere fact of being at Gilgal. The Gibeonites found Joshua and the men of Israel at the camp at Gilgal (Joshua: 9: 6) when they went up to lay the snare, the result of which we have seen. That which so often is lacking, is the practical application of the cross of Christ to all the details of life in the flesh. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." It is not enough to be at Gilgal (Joshua 10: 6), but there must be also the going up from Gilgal (verse 7), and the return to Gilgal (v. 15). Circumcision and Gilgal are inseparable; the first is not sufficient of itself to keep us from falling; and Gilgal without circumcision would be monasticism, for the natural man can find satisfaction in it. (Col. 2: 20-23)

But, as we have said, this judgment of self produces dependence, which is manifested in blessed intercourse with God, such as had not been previously tasted by the soul to the same extent. Jehovah speaks to Joshua (v. 8), Joshua speaks to Jehovah (v. 12), and Jehovah answers him. (v. 14) Encouragement, power and victory are the precious fruits of that dependence which keeps our souls habitually having to do with Him. Now the Lord was no longer obliged to take part against them as at Ai, but He could fight for them. (vs. 11-14) We see them too gaining the most signal victory recorded in the word of God. "There was no day like that before it, or after it" (v. 14), a day which lasted twenty-four hours, thus allowing the children of Israel to gather in the very last fruit of their victory. The God of earth and heaven, the God of all creation can thus publicly declare that Israel is the object of His special favour; yes, these very people who were beaten before Ai, deceived by Gibeon, and whose ways might well have exhausted the long-suffering of God, but who are now a chastened people with broken and contrite hearts which "God will not despise." (Ps. 51: 17) And this very God hearkens to the voice of a man. (v. 14)

Beloved, we are all in the same condition. However feeble we may be, we can go to God by the Spirit of Christ, and present to Him the highest requests. Nothing was too great for Joshua to ask; he knew Jehovah's heart, and he knew the place His people occupied in it; he could ask that the heavens, the sun, and the moon might be at the service of His beloved people!

From this time nothing arrests Israel's victorious progress (v. 19); they must smite the enemies till none remain. The five kings are taken, and hung on five trees; Joshua sees his way to this more clearly, from a previous page in his history learnt in the presence of God. Joshua has got into the way which suits God's holiness. (vs. 26, 27) Encouraged himself by the word of God (v. 8), he can encourage the people (v. 25); Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, are their victorious stages; they take possession of their inheritance, and then "they return unto the camp to Gilgal." (v. 43)

Joshua 11.

THE CONQUEST OF HAZOR.

Now that we are come to the description of the decisive battle by which the whole of Palestine is laid open to Israel, it is well to be reminded that the taking possession of Canaan is the main subject of the book of Joshua, and that the land of promise answers for us to the heavenly places.

But amongst the things therein contained, we have a special possession, which is Christ. We are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." God desires that we should appropriate the riches of Him in whom we are, and that our hearts should enter into these things in such a manner as to make them our own. I do not speak of seizing them with the intelligence, which may be done in a certain sense, but not permanently, for whatever is not laid hold of by faith, slips through our fingers like water. We need to have our affections set on these things, if they are to be really our own, and, above all, we want an object for these affections, for, apart from Christ, the heavenly things themselves would not fill our hearts. That is why it says: "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."

Such is the main subject of the book of Joshua, but there is another connected with it. Whenever God presents to our souls heavenly things, Satan seeks in every way to hinder us from enjoying them. Hence the conflict open or hidden which we have to sustain, and which ends in a fatal defeat directly Satan succeeds in turning our eyes away from Christ, to the world, "the things on the earth," or ourselves. In Joshua 1-11, you find all these species of attractions. But when the heart is open and upright before God, He teaches us by means of these experiences to mistrust ourselves increasingly, and to trust in Him, bringing us ultimately to take down here the wonderful place (and it is the only great one) of a Christian walking in humility through this world with his heart and affections in heaven.

In Joshua 11 we see a last confederation linked with that of Joshua 9 (that of Joshua 10 having been destroyed). Here is a formidable army: "much people even as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude" (v. 4); Satan seeks now to overwhelm Israel by numbers. It is the open and avowed enmity of the world against the people of God. It is no longer a question of artifices, but of an open assault; and this is what we must encounter, whenever, in a spirit of humble dependence and obedience to the word, we have baffled Satan in his wiles. It is then that he arouses the world against us.

Men combine to fight against God when their enmity against Him has reached its climax. They usually co-operate for the purpose of improving and reforming the world; hence all the political and philanthropic, and religious societies, which think to civilize, instruct and reform their fellow creatures. How little men, and alas! even Christians, are aware, that all this apparently praiseworthy activity, is but covert opposition to God, His word, and His purposes of grace. God is not seeking to improve man; this would be to belie His word which declares man to be irretrievably lost; moreover, if this foundation truth, humbling though it be, be not accepted, there is need neither of salvation, nor of redemption through the blood of Christ. In short the very best human associations are, in reality, but the disguised opposition of the natural man to God.

In this chapter we have open opposition to God, but to God in the person of His saints. In the last days, when man's enmity is matured, the faithful remnant of Israel will be the world's point of attack, stirred up by Satan against the testimony of God. This present confederation has a chief, a rallying point, the great town of Hazor which was the head of all those kingdoms; and an innumerable army, "horses and chariots very many." The entire world with all its forces is leagued against Israel.

These things in principle repeat themselves in our day. It says: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (1 John 5: 4) Also it says: (1 John 2: 14), "Ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one;" that is to say, the prince of this world. We may observe in these two passages that the weapons of our warfare are, faith and the word. As with Christ in the desert, it was by the word that those "young men" had overcome Satan, and here we have the same truth.

From the close of Joshua 8 the word of God had taken its rightful place in the heart and thoughts of Joshua, and the people. It maintains the place in Joshua 10: 27-40; in Joshua 11 it forms their conduct habitually in everything; "Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him." (v. 9) "He utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded." (v. 12) And again we read: "As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses." (v. 15) And in verse 20, "That he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses."

And here it is worthy of notice, that Joshua is not satisfied with obeying one special commandment as in verse 9, and as he had done many times previously, nor does he rest content with committing to others the responsibility of accomplishing all that Moses had commanded (Joshua 8: 35), but this man of God, arrived at the end of his eventful career, had "left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses." The word in its entirety, in so far as it had been communicated to him, was the object of his careful attention, and governed his walk and ways. What a power this gives! In Joshua 8, Joshua's heart and thoughts are formed by the word; here, as the sword of the Spirit, it nerves his arm, and Satan is powerless before him.

Notice how the word of God teaches one to judge every natural source of strength. They are but objects of judgment to the discerning eye of him who is faithful, and of no use to him. In obedience to the word of God "he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire." (v. 9) Then "he burnt Hazor with fire." (vs. 11, 13) The world's capital cannot be turned into a centre for Israel. This applies equally to Hazor, Rome, or Babylon; and although Babylon be not yet burnt with fire, let it be so as to our spirits, All the principles of the world, its governing power, that which constitutes its centre of attraction, ought to be a judged thing for us, in which we have no more part or lot than Israel had in Hazor.

The other towns are allowed to exist, and Israel takes the spoil of them; thus, in accordance with the word of God, affirming their right to take full and complete possession of the land of Canaan. It was indeed a great victory and a total overthrow. "Every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe." (v. 14) The sword had fulfilled its work of destruction, as the Lord had commanded. Looked at spiritually, faithfulness will lead the believer to deal unsparingly with all that is of man: it can have no part in the land of promise.

Ah! how blessed and worthy of God it would have been had this state of things lasted, but it did not, as we shall soon see.

THE ANAKIM.

Satan is defeated, his last army destroyed, and his cities taken; what remains? Israel find in their pathway the very people who, at the beginning, had struck terror into their hearts, and caused them to fall, the Anakim, who had hindered them from going boldly up to possess the land. In order to disparage Canaan, the spies had said to the people: " And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Num. 13: 33) But what impression could the children of Anak make on the mind of one who is led by the word of God? Victory is his. "Joshua came and cut off the Anakim," and their towns, "cities great and fenced up to heaven." (Deut. 9: 1) "Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities." (v. 21)

Joshua had received the word; he could count on God's promise: "The Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face." (Deut. 9: 3) Ah! how small and petty our former fears and terrors appear, when we go on with God. What is a "man of six cubits and a span," with a "coat of mail of 5,000 shekels of brass," in the presence of "the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth," "the Lord of all the earth," before whom all things will be subdued, and who will subdue all things before his own? "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." (Rom. 16: 20)

Joshua 12.

ENUMERATION OF THE VANQUISHED KINGS.

With Joshua 12 we enter upon the second part of the book. The first part (Joshua 1-11) speaks of Joshua, the victorious one (type of Christ in the power of the Spirit amongst His own), obtaining possession for Israel of promised blessings. During the course of their victories, the Lord's host (and Joshua himself, if we look at him not as a type, but as a man subject to infirmity), have experienced much of their own weakness, which cannot fail to be the case from the moment that we are prominent as instruments of divine power. But the main point presented in the book of Joshua, is divine grace giving the victory to Israel for their establishment in Canaan, and not their responsibility when once there.

This side of Israel's history begins rather in the book of Judges; what a contrast, too, the two books present. Freshness and vigour in that of Joshua, the power of the Spirit of Christ acting freely in vessels, feeble in themselves, but filled with this power. We turn to Judges only to witness how sudden and complete was the declension, when a generation arose which knew not Joshua, and were left to their own responsibility to keep what God had entrusted to them.

Church history opens the same page to us. Read the First Epistle to the Thessalonians; then pass on to the addresses to the seven churches, and see the difference between the work of power established of God in perfection at the beginning, shedding around it the fragrance of its divine origin, and the work entrusted to man, and become as such the subject of divine judgment.

Joshua 11 closes with these words: "And the land rested from war." (v. 23) It is always thus; peace follows victory. God not only gives us the victory, but causes us to enjoy its fruits. The path of conflict, trodden in faithfulness under the guidance of the Spirit, ends in the peaceful enjoyment of our heavenly blessings; and this is what is presented to us in type in the chapters we are about to peruse. That which was true for the people as a whole (see also Joshua 21: 44), is realised in the same way by the individual believer; and so it says after Caleb's victory: "And the land had rest from war." (Joshua 14: 15)

Beloved, are you disheartened by the struggle in which you are engaged? Are you ever tempted to throw down your arms, and to say: It is too much for me? Or have you realised that the conflict is but leading you on to that blessed moment when God will say: "And the land had rest from war"?

The second part of the book (Joshua 12-24) treats of the division of the land. Possession follows victory.

But after what manner will the people enter upon the enjoyment of their inheritance? Here again, as during their warfare, we shall trace the same exhibition of weakness on their part, side by side with the grace of God which granted the enjoyment of His gifts.

Joshua 12 is the recapitulation of Israel's victories. Thirty-three kings, of whom two were on the other side of Jordan, have fallen before the Captain of the Lord's host. God reckons to His people the victories which He had given them. The Lord attributes to faith, all that grace has wrought in us, and that faith has laid hold of.

One more point I would notice. The Lord does not enumerate our victories until warfare is over, Until the goal is reached, the believer should not be occupied with his progress. The apostle says: "forgetting the things that are behind," The race is not the moment for pausing; the apostle had to reach forward to the things that are before, and every backward glance was not only lost time, but a positively evil thing, inasmuch as it divided the thoughts, affections, and aim of his heart, and hindered him in doing "one thing." (Phil. 3: 13, 14)

Ah! when the goal is reached, it will be time enough to enumerate our victories, and God will not leave the charge of this to us; He will reckon them Himself. Meanwhile, then, let us run that we may win Christ; let us fight that we may receive the prize. The end of the struggle is near, and others have already gone before us. May we be enabled to say with them: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

Joshua 13.

DIVISION OF THE LAND.

I will take up this chapter with Joshua 15-19, reserving Joshua 14. for a special study by itself.

The enemies are all conquered, but not all driven out. Enemies, there will always be, until the coming of the Lord. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (l Cor. 15: 26) But Israel has to dispossess them; as long as they possess anything, the enjoyment of the people of God is not complete; and more than this, they are allowing in their midst what might continually cause them to fail. If the enemy is not destroyed, he will not be slow to lift the head and corrupt the people, if he cannot overcome them.

Such in fact was the snare when the Israelites were peacefully established in the land of their possession. It says of the two and a half tribes: "Nevertheless the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites; but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites unto this day." (Joshua 13: 13) And of Judah it says: "As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day." (Joshua 15: 63) And of Ephraim: "And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute." (Joshua 16: 10) Finally of Manasseh: "Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land." (Joshua 17: 12; compare also Judges 1: 17-36)

There may have been, as we see in these passages, more or less faithfulness displayed, in reducing the Canaanites to submission, but not one tribe was up to the height of his calling.

What was the result? Under this influence it was not long before all the worldly principles, against which Israel had been contending, entered into their midst. We see in the prophets that lusts, confidence in their own strength, turning to the nations for help, formed part of their very existence. More than this, the idolatry of the Canaanites spread like gangrene amongst them, and they ended by defiling themselves with all the gods of the Gentiles. Corruption, lying, unrighteousness, contempt of God, violence, open rebellion, everything in a word in which consisted "the iniquity of the Amorites," and for which the judgment of God overtook them, became the sad portion of the Lord's people. lit last, terrible to say, Israel himself takes the place of, and becomes, so to speak, this very army of the Canaanites led by Satan against the Lord. They reject and crucify Christ, the Son of God!

Jehovah is long-suffering towards them; He makes urgent appeals to them, sends partial judgments followed by momentary deliverances and fresh appeals. "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it?" But at length final judgment overtakes them. They are carried away beyond Babylon, and scattered amongst the nations. But here we have another, and a marvellous thing. If man responsible has reached the end of his history which closes in judgment, God has not come to the end of His resources. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." To be able to bless them, God must bring them to Himself in quite a new condition. He will cause them to share in the blessing of the new birth, according as it is written: "I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh." (Ezek. 11: 19) He will act on their consciences to bring them back; He will write His laws in their hearts; He will give them the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, and of the blessed relationship to Himself into which He will bring them. All their lost blessings will then be recovered in a far more blessed way. This is the scene so touchingly depicted in Hosea 14, Israel after being restored to Jehovah, seeking of Him the blessings of the new covenant in his cry: "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips." (v. 2) There we see the remnant relinquishing all worldly support, all confidence in an arm of flesh, all false gods, and in their desolation becoming acquainted with the mercy of God on which all their blessing depends. "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ye are our gods; for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy."

Notice too, in these chapters what minute care the Spirit of God takes to define the place and limits of every tribe, so that each may see and realise exactly their lot in the inheritance. It is the same now for us individually. God has given to us each our definite place and duties in the body of Christ. Every member of Christ is responsible to have the consciousness of it, and to act consistently with it, so that the energy of life, which flows down from the Head to the members, may find them to be vessels prepared for His work, and contributing to it all together, moved by a common spring of action. (Eph. 4: 16)

THE PORTION OF LEVI.

Let us now consider the portion of the tribe of Levi. (Joshua 13: 14, 33) By the commandment of the Lord, neither Aaron (Num. 18: 20), nor the priests, nor any of the tribe of Levi could have any inheritance in Israel. Their inheritance was on the one hand, "the Lord God of Israel," and on the other "the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire." It is the same for us, His heavenly people. We have no portion on earth, but our privilege is to stand before God and to serve Him, and more than this to possess Him, to have communion with Him in the heavenly places, with the Father, and with the Son, who is with Him. But our portion in the Son is also "the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire"; that is to say, Christ according to all the perfection of His work and His Person before God; Christ, the perfect Man, the cake of fine flour anointed with oil, and covered with frankincense; Christ as a victim, the burnt offering, the sacrifice for sin, all that in which God finds His eternal delight. We have communion with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Christ Himself our example, the Levite without spot, the perfect Servant, passed through the same blessed experiences in His pathway here. If He looks towards the earth, He says: "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup"; if He looks upward He adds: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." (Ps. 16: 5, 6)

Beloved, we may indeed say that our present portion is at the same time our future one; and the priests of the tribe of Levi will also realise this blessing when Israel will peacefully enjoy the millennial glory under Messiah's reign. In speaking of this wondrous moment, the prophet Ezekiel says: "And it shall be unto them for an inheritance; I am their inheritance; and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession" (Ezek. 44: 28-30); and he goes on to show that the offerings of the Lord will be their portion in this day of glory.

And now let us turn to Revelation 4 and 5. Does not the heavenly scene there speak to us of the same things? Unbroken communion with God and with the Lamb will be the portion of our inheritance, and that for ever.

Joshua 14.

CALEB'S PURPOSE OF HEART.

I desire to dwell a little on this chapter, on account of its practical importance. Caleb is a type of the perseverance of faith, His name is mentioned for the first time in Numbers 13: 6, when, from the desert of Paran, Moses sends a man of each tribe to search the land. Amongst these twelve we find Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Oshea, the son of Nun, whom Moses called Jehoshua. (vs. 8, 16)

From this moment the name of Caleb is found so closely linked with that of Joshua (see Num. 14: 30, 38; Num. 26: 65; Num. 34: 17-19; Deut. 1: 36, 38; Joshua 14: 13) that one might almost say they are inseparable. Together they search the land, together they cross the desert, together they enter Canaan. United as they are no doubt in their special character as men of faith, the word points out to us another blessed reason for their association. Joshua pre-figures Christ, the Saviour Jesus, bringing His people into the rest of the promised land; and Caleb walks in company with him. The great name of Joshua overshadows, so to speak, that of Caleb, and imprints upon it its character. These two men have but one thought, they have the same faith, confidence, and courage, the same starting-point, the same path, the same purpose of heart, the same goal. Is it so with us, dear readers? Are we so associated with Christ that our name cannot be uttered without His, and that our very existence owes its value to the fact that, by grace, we have been made companions of the Lord Jesus?

In Numbers 13 the twelve men sent by Moses, having reached Hebron, thence proceed to Eshcol to carry back from that spot the magnificent fruits which are to prove the beauty of the country. But it was not, as one might have thought, Eshcol which arrested the gaze and captivated the heart of Caleb, his faith reached on to something better. Hebron, whereon his feet had trodden, is given to him. (Joshua 14: 9) From that moment its name was graven on his heart during forty-five years, until the day when he should appear before Joshua to claim "this mountain whereof the Lord spake" as his everlasting possession.

This spot nevertheless was not lacking in celebrity — to the flesh, in truth, it could not but inspire terror — the formidable Anakims dwelt there, those giants whose name alone made the heart of the people to melt. But what a powerful reminder the place of the sepulchre of the fathers was for Caleb's soul! Rich in memories, it was to become the reward of this man of God. There, when Lot preferred the cities of the plain, Abraham, the father of the people, chose his abode (Gen. 13: 18); there he built an altar to Jehovah and received the promise of God (Gen. 18: 1); but, more than all, Hebron is pre-eminently the place of death, and to Abraham first. It was there that Sarah died (Gen. 23: 2), there that she was buried, and Abraham too (Gen. 25: 10); also Isaac (Gen. 35: 27-29); and then Jacob and the patriarchs. Yes; Hebron is indeed the place of the sepulchre, the scene of death, the end of man. What is there in it to attract? Nothing for the natural man, everything for faith. There is one supreme spot where the believer learns the end of himself: it is the cross of Christ. Again it is from Hebron that Joseph sets forth in search of his brethren. (Gen. 37: 14) Later (Joshua 21) it becomes a city of refuge and the property of the Levites. Yet more, it is the starting-point of David's kingdom (2 Sam. 2: 1-4), for it is in virtue of His death that Jesus has been raised and crowned with glory, and that He will wear on His head the diadem of royalty. Finally, it is there that all the tribes of Israel acknowledge their king and come to do him homage. (2 Sam. 5: 1)

Is it not a wondrous spot? What a succession of blessings it records! The place of death, the place of refuge, the starting-point of Israel's blessings, of the promises, and of the kingdom and glory, the rallying-point when the glory is there, and with all that the lasting object for the heart and affections of a poor pilgrim who found there his characteristic starting-point and his goal, the place of his eternal rest. Ah! how Caleb prized this spot, to the outward eye so unattractive. He desired it for his everlasting inheritance; and, beloved, it will be our eternal part to fathom what is contained in the meaning of this place. Faith in Caleb laid hold, from the very outset, on what Abrahamic faith had there discovered: himself done with — self set aside — old things passed away; and here we see a man setting out in dependence on God, with no confidence in himself, and continuing in this blessed path until the end, the full enjoyment of the promises, is reached in the place where man has come to his end.

We have been considering two characteristic features in Caleb: the first is that his name is inseparable from that of Joshua; the second is that a special object has so won his affections and gained possession of his heart, that the memory of it remains with him all along his desert pathway. I would further add, that our affections are always in activity when occupied with Christ on the cross giving Himself for us; whilst a glorified Christ imparts energy to reach Him.

But there is a third characteristic of this man of faith. Caleb realises his hope. He enters Canaan first, not as a dweller, but as a visitor; but it is there, and not in the desert, that his course begins. He returns to the desert with an indelible impress on his heart of the reality and beauty of the things which he has seen, and which during forty-five years form the object of his hope. It is the same with the Psalmist (Ps. 43: 1, 2) — a man walking after the example of Caleb — he has seen God in the sanctuary, and starting thence, he comes down to the earth filled with the glorious reality of those divine things which will be for the sustenance of his heart to the end of the journey.

A fourth point links itself with this. To the soul fed with the marrow and fatness of the sanctuary, the desert loses not only its attraction, but assumes its true character of dearth and drought: heaven becomes the measure of earth; things that are seen lose their apparent value, and become emptiness and a barren waste.

But to return, dear friends, to that which is so prominent in Caleb's character, his purpose of heart. Without the four previously-mentioned points: attachment to Christ, the knowledge of the infinite value of His work, a realised hope, a heart detached from earth, there can be no perseverance in the path of faith. In Caleb's life it is linked with three positions which are inseparable the one from the other.

We see him first taking knowledge of the good land that God would give to His people, and the divine comment on his history at this point is that he "wholly followed the Lord." (Num. 14: 24; Deut. 1: 36; Joshua 14: 8, 9) But the forty years of desert life have yet to be trodden, and he courageously does it right on to the end, because he carries in his heart the remembrance of the riches and the treasure of Canaan. To him the difficulties of the desert are nothing; he heeds not the burning sands, the scorching sun, weariness, or thirst. He dreams not for a moment of seeking anything in the scene around him. His courage is sustained by a hope; and the believer's hope is not merely Canaan, that is to say, heaven, in a general way, but it is Christ.

There was a man of renown, of whom God could not speak in these terms, Solomon failed just where Caleb persevered. The desert had become something to this great king; and a moment came when, having allowed his heart to be allured in it, he turned his back on God. It is said of him (1 Kings 11: 6), "He went not fully after the Lord." The world had attractions for him, and, however small they were at the beginning, it was not long before he succumbed to them, and his kingdom was lost. It was otherwise with Caleb, for through his perseverance in following the Lord he gained his inheritance.

But there was a third aspect of Caleb's perseverance: we must see him taking possession of Canaan. Five years have run their course, during which the fight has continued, and then by his sword he gains possession of his own particular portion, the mountain of which Jehovah had spoken. He enters at large into his inheritance, in spite of the formidable power of the enemy, and the terror which the sons of Anak inspired. But, like us, Caleb meets in "him who had the power of death" a vanquished enemy, who has no power to intimidate us.

Death is ours. Caleb, as I said, takes full possession of his inheritance. His perseverance is crowned with success. He is the only one in Israel who seems to have driven out all his enemies. What a lesson for us, beloved! Let us remember that Caleb's taking possession speaks to us of a present fact, and not only of future enjoyment. Have we persevered in the conflict so as to enjoy now our privileges? May God give us, like him, purpose of heart in these three things: the hope, the path, and the fight.

I would notice two more accompanying characteristics of perseverance, one of which is found at the close of our chapter. Caleb says in verse 11: "As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in." Caleb was fourscore and five years old, but neither his great age, nor the weary desert journey had diminished in the smallest degree his strength. And why? Because he had no confidence in himself. Hebron's lesson had remained graven in his heart. He says in verse 12: "If so be the Lord will be with me." Do you think from this that he mistrusted the Lord? No; he mistrusted himself — he realised that if there were any obstacle to the Lord's being with him, it must proceed from himself. We realise strength in proportion as we mistrust self, and these two things surely go together. It is thus that we go from strength to strength.

Isaiah 40: 28-31 beautifully expresses the same truth: "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail." This is the end of man's best strength, but "the everlasting God, the Lord . . . fainteth not, neither is weary." Our confidence is in Him, and more: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." He communicates His strength to the feeble; it is made perfect in weakness. Then he adds: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Such was the case with Caleb. He walked in the consciousness that his strength was in and with God. May it be the same with us; and not only so, but may we live in the enjoyment of heavenly things, take part in the scene of conflict, and run patiently and with unwearied feet the race which leads to the glory.

I have yet to touch upon the second accessory characteristic of perseverance — it produces perseverance or purpose of heart in others. Caleb was in this way particularly blessed in his family circle, following him, as they did, in his path of faith. In Joshua 15: 16 (see also Judges 1: 12, 13) it says: "And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife. And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife." The nephew steps worthily in the footprints of the uncle. The object of such priceless value in his eye is Caleb's daughter, and, bent on possessing her, he enters the conflict. And we, are we set upon having Christ at all cost? In Judges 3 Othniel becomes the first judge in Israel. An overcomer for himself, he is raised up to deliver others, and in this new character perseveres to the close.

Achsah, Caleb's daughter, is a fresh example of perseverance. Caleb had given her to Othniel, and she moves her husband to ask yet more. She would have a field and besides, springs of water. So she craves a blessing on the field of her possession, and, to obtain it, lights off her ass to proffer her request, an example of perseverance in prayer and supplications. The springs of water are richly bestowed upon her, types of spiritual blessings; and this also, dear reader, is of daily instruction for us. When we take the word of God in our hands, do we earnestly ask God for springs to water it? To many Christians this living Word is like a parched meridian land in which their souls find no sustenance. If such be your case, have you, like Achsah, taken the suppliant's place, asking from God that spiritual aid which can alone cause it to be fruitful for your soul? Would He not give you an answer such as Caleb gave to Achsah?

Before leaving this subject, I would like to touch on yet one or two important points. It is said of Caleb that "he wholly followed the Lord his God." He had persevered in following Christ, known to him as the Jehovah of the Old Testament. And what is it to follow Christ? One often forms a very vague idea of what it is. It is to walk after a Person whom we acknowledge as the Guide that we need. The one who has confidence in himself does not want a guide. Moreover, following the Lord implies not merely confidence in Him, but humble dependence on Him. Again, if I follow some one, my eyes are fixed on him, so as to imitate him. Now imitating the Lord is seeking to reproduce Him, to be like Him; and in whatever position God sets me, His object is that I should reproduce Christ in that position: Christ, as a brother has said, in His daily intercourse, His service, His testimony, and His sufferings. This is what Caleb did. He wholly (I do not say perfectly) followed the Lord his God.

But, you may ask, to what does perseverance apply? I will cite some of the passages which in the New Testament fully answer this question.

Acts 1: 14: "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." Here it was to prayer that perseverance applied, and moreover this perseverance was collective. They did not confine themselves to bowing the knee each one for himself and his own needs before the Lord, but they prayed with one accord for the things that concerned them in common.

Acts 2: 42. Here again we find collective perseverance, but applied to four things: first, "the apostles' doctrine and fellowship." The early Christians did not limit themselves to following the apostles' doctrine; but the lives of these ambassadors of the Lord became their models. Next, "breaking of bread and prayers;" the memorial of Christ, and the intercourse of the soul with God, expressed in dependence on Him.

1 Timothy 5: 5. Here we have individual perseverance "in supplications and prayers." Why is it the part of the widow to continue in them "night and day"? Because alone, and deprived of every resource, she can only turn to God, and in this manner learn dependence.

1 Timothy 4: 16. Here (read carefully what precedes the passage cited) we find perseverance in everything relating to godliness.

2 Timothy 3: 10. Timothy had wholly followed the apostle in all those traits that had marked his life. The apostle himself (2 Tim. 4: 7) had persevered to the end in "the fight," "the course," and "the faith."

These few examples will suffice to shew that perseverance applies to every detail of christian life. May we know more of it, and so act that when our earthly race is run, we may, like Caleb, receive from God Himself these words of approval: "He wholly followed the Lord his God."

Joshua 20, Joshua 21.

THE CITIES OF REFUGE.

In connection with these two chapters let us look at Hebrews 6: 18, 20, a passage which evidently alludes to the cities of refuge, such as we find them in Exodus 21: 13 ; Numbers 35; Deuteronomy 21 and Joshua 20, 21.

The types of the Old Testament in their application to the Christian often form contrasts rather than similarities. So it is with the cities of refuge, as we shall see. To apply them solely to the cross of Christ would be to seize their meaning very poorly and imperfectly, for the immediate application of the type, as no doubt most of us know, is rather historical and prophetical. The involuntary murderer prefigures Israel, murderers of Christ "through ignorance." It was of them that the Lord Jesus said on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They had not known the day of their visitation. So with Paul: "I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." (1 Tim. 1: 13) But in another sense both the leaders of the Jews and the people were murderers wilfully, yea, deliberately and knowingly rejecters of God and of His Christ. "This is the heir," said they, "come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance." (Matt. 21: 38) "We will not have this man to reign over us." (Luke 19: 14) Moreover, it is said that the voluntary murderer must be put to death, and with several other prophecies relating to the Jews, this judgment has been partially fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem. "The king . . . was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." (Matt. 22: 7) But this judgment of the wilful murderer, unduly hidden in the city of refuge (Deut. 19: 11, 12), is in reality yet to come. The Jews, since the rejection of the Messiah, are kept, as at the present time, under the providential care of God, out of their inheritance, and, as another has said, "so to speak under the eye of God's servants, who, like the Levites, having no inheritance, serve as their refuge, understanding their position, and recognising them as being under the protection of God." But the voluntary murderers will be brought forth to fall into the hands of the avenger. Allied with Antichrist, they will become the miserable objects of divine judgment.

As for those who killed unawares, they may recover their lot and inheritance at the time of the change in the priestly office (Joshua 20: 6; Num. 35: 28), that is to say, when the priesthood of Christ after the order of Aaron shall have come to an end, and He will have become a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. It would be interesting to follow out in detail this well-known signification of the cities of refuge, but I pass on to the contrast which the type affords when compared with the christian position taken up in Hebrews 6.

The Israelite, a slayer by ignorance, type of the nation at the present moment, flies to the city of refuge with the very uncertain hope of escaping the avenger of blood, and of entering one day into possession of his inheritance from which he is kept out until the death of the high priest, typically the end of the Aaronic priesthood of Christ. Even if he gained the city of refuge, his safety and his reinstatement depended on all sorts of circumstances by which his position was rendered precarious in the extreme. First, on the avenger of blood, for did the manslayer but leave the border of the town for one moment, the avenger of blood on watch had a right to slay him (Num. 35: 26-28); secondly, on the elders of the city (Joshua 20: 4); thirdly, on the judgment of the congregation (Joshua 20: 6), for the death of the manslayer might take place before his.

We may well be struck with the unreliability of the best resources which the law could offer to those who were the least guilty in Israel.

But let us turn now to the blessed resources of grace in Hebrews 6: 18-20. The Christian brought out of Judaism fled also from the judgment which was ready to fall upon the people, but with no uncertain hope; he fled with the purpose of laying hold of the hope set before him. Moreover the Christian's hope is that of possibly some time entering into the enjoyment of an earthly inheritance, but it is a hope that we lay hold of, that we have, it is the present position of our souls. Moreover, it is no more vague than it is uncertain; it is personified, so to speak. It is a heavenly Christ, the great subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews, a Christ in contrast with the best things that earth could offer, Christ, a Man in glory, the fulfilment of all the counsels and promises of God. This hope (Christ) we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast; it is made fast to an immovable rock. There is no uncertainty; having laid hold of it, we can no longer be "tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine." And more, we are thereby introduced now into the very presence of God, into the sanctuary itself. It enters into that within the veil, where we find Jesus who has gone in as our Forerunner. Already we are there in peace, whilst waiting to receive the promised inheritance, so soon to be possessed For this, there is no need as with the poor manslayer, that the Aaronic priesthood of Christ should come to an end, linked as we are eternally to Him who is "a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec," and who is so by virtue of the work which has obtained for us an eternal salvation.

Joshua 22.

THE ALTAR OF ED.

We find here again the two and a half tribes of whom we spoke at the close of Joshua 1. They

had gone on armed before their brethren, to fight the enemies of the Lord in the land of promise. Now they receive permission from Joshua to return to their inheritance on the other side of Jordan. They had been faithful to the commands of Moses and Joshua, had kept the commandment of the Lord, and had not forsaken their brethren. Obedience to express commands, and brotherly love had characterised them during all the time that they had been separated from the land of their possession. There was apparently nothing to find fault with in them, but as we saw in Joshua 1, their hearts (I do not say their thoughts) were not set on heavenly things. Their cattle were their starting-point; hence what could be more natural than to seek pastures wherein to feed them? Immediately, at the commencement of their history, a danger arises out of their ambiguous position, and Moses points it out to them (Num. 32); their refusal to establish themselves beyond Jordan might exert its influence upon the rest of the people, and discourage them, so as to bring down the anger of the Lord upon Israel as before, at the mountain of the Amorites. By grace they were preserved from this snare, but the snare still existed. There was a still greater danger; their principles acted on those next to them, who were more exposed to them than the rest of the tribes. Jair, the son of Manasseh, and Nobah, call their towns and their villages after their own names, a thoroughly worldly principle, dating from the commencement of Cain's world. (Num. 32: 41, 42. Of. Gen. 4: 17) Thus we see them in danger by their walk of causing the fall of men of faith, or of bringing them down to their own level, rather than raising them to the level of what is heavenly; added to this, we find them bringing in what is positively of the world into their own families, and this we may say characterises their position.

Joshua's exhortation (Joshua 22: 5) again points clearly to the danger of a lowered Christianity. The real backbone of all the conduct of the Christian was lacking. Obedience to known commands, and brotherly love, are not sufficient to keep us for any length of time. Conduct, obedience, devotedness and service, should flow from love, and unless it be in exercise our activity soon comes to an end. A child can make a hoop bowl with the first stroke of its stick, but it soon stops unless the impetus be renewed.

But this is not all. When, instead of living by faith, the Christian allows in any measure the principles of the world to govern his conduct, his position necessarily becomes a very complicated one, whereas nothing is more simple than the path of faith. Compare Abraham and Lot; how simple and even, the life of the first; how full of inextricable complications, that of the second. What a succession too of adventures the tormented existence of Jacob presents to us, in contrast with the simple life with God of Isaac his father. In like manner the two and a half tribes found themselves obliged to build sheepfolds for their cattle, and fenced cities for the protection of their families, to abandon their wives and children during many a long year, depriving them too of the blessing of witnessing the marvels displayed by Jehovah in favour of His people. And now, when the warrant goes forth for them to return to their homes, a fresh complication presents itself. The Jordan separates them from the rest of the tribes, and they are uneasy, fearing lest the link of communion between them and their brethren should not be firm enough to resist the force of the river. Their position exposes them to a division, and they see with disquietude that. a moment may come when they will be treated as strangers by their brethren. The danger of their situation obliges them, so to speak, to set up a testimony by which they publicly proclaim that they serve Jehovah, just as on a previous occasion (Joshua 1: 16-18) their doubtful position had compelled them to make a loud profession. So they build a great altar to see to in the borders of Jordan within the limits of their territory. Their own wisdom leads them to set up this testimony. I might venture to call it a confession of faith, a thing in itself perhaps perfectly correct, as was the altar of Ed, and against which for the moment nothing could be said, but which had the appearance, nevertheless, of another gathering-point. This altar, intended as it was in their minds to unite the separated parts of Israel, might be created in opposition to that of the tabernacle of Shiloh. Their confession of faith might become a new centre, and thus by discrediting it, replace the only true centre of unity, Christ. This act, the result of a good intention, savoured of man. Their contrivance for maintaining the unity, gave them the appearance of denying it, and hence arose a new complication. They expose themselves to being misunderstood, to raising the other tribes against them, and to being exterminated.

Dear readers, this is but the history of Christendom from the first, only it has sunk much lower than the two and a half tribes. It has collected for itself a vast number of confessions of faith more or less correct, but which are not Christ; and then awaking to the fact, that the unity is well nigh disappearing, these confessions are made more and more elastic, until in place of the sought for unity, open infidelity itself is introduced into the midst of the profession of Christianity.

But behind this altar of Ed, which a spirit of worldliness had necessitated, might lie a still graver source of evil. The very fact of its erection might open the door to independence. This was what the children of Israel dreaded, and we see them taking it exceedingly to heart. Independence is on the verge of creeping in, their oneness is threatened, and Phinehas, a pattern of zeal for Christ, is chosen to go with the princes and take note of what is transpiring by Jordan and deal with the two and a half tribes.

He brings before them three cases, closely connected, in which all Israel are responsible.

The first (v. 20) after the crossing of Jordan, is the sin of Achan. He lusted after the things of the world, took of that which God had cursed, introduced it into the midst of the congregation of Israel, totally ignoring the holiness of God —  and what was the result? Divine judgment fell on all the people. Achan's sin was the lust of the world, the introduction of the accursed thing into the congregation. In the iniquity of Peor (v. 17) we find a still worse thing, although, alas! in spiritual matters the hearts of the Lord's people are so little concerned at it. It was characterised by corrupt alliance with the religious world, that is to say, the idolatrous world of those days, and the introduction of this worldly religion into the very midst of the congregation of Israel, again to the utter disregard of divine holiness.

Dear reader, is it otherwise with the church? Are not Achan and Peor the two principles of its existence to-day? Moreover, the Satanic artifice at Peor is still more terrible than the accursed thing at Achan. For Balaam, seeing that his efforts to separate Jehovah from His people failed, set another scheme on foot, and attempted, this time successfully, to alienate the people and separate them from Jehovah. When it was a question of God's affection for His people, Balaam was forced to declare that Jehovah had not seen perverseness in Israel, when the faithfulness of the latter was tested, Satan succeeds only too well in separating them from God; and thus "the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel."

The believer's second snare lies then in the thought, that the worship of God can be associated with the religion of the world. It was on this occasion that the zeal of Phinehas first showed itself; he took to heart the dishonour done to Jehovah, and purified the congregation from this defilement.

And now, in the matter of the altar of Ed, this same zeal incited him to stand in the breach. The "senses exercised by reason of use to discern both good and evil, cause him to discern the danger. He feels that this second principle, independence, would be the ruin of the testimony; that the setting up of another altar is nothing less than the sin of rebellion against Jehovah and against the congregation of Israel. (v. 19) The holy zeal of Phinehas meets the danger, which in principle indeed existed, but the intentions of heart were right, and the evil was stayed.

In Christianity, however, the remedy has not been so successful Evil has made steady progress, and what do we see to-day? Independence, the very principle of sin, the natural tendency of our hearts, publicly placarded as a virtue, nay, a duty. Forgetful of the fact that there is but one altar, one table, new ones are established every day on this principle, in rebellion against the Lord, as Phinehas said (v. 16), and in blind contempt, not merely of the unity of the people of God, but of the only centre of unity, the Lord Jesus Himself.

May God keep us, dear readers, from these three principles which bring down His judgment on His house: worldliness, alliance with the religious world, and independence, the most subtle and dangerous of all, because being the principle of sin it lies at the root of all else.

Let us remember the character of Christ as brought out in the epistle to Philadelphia. He is the "Holy and the true," and this church is commended for the maintenance of this holy name, and for dependence on the word. Let us cherish nothing, individually or collectively, in our hearts, our thoughts, our conduct or our walk, which is not in harmony with these characters of Christ; and may we be found walking in holiness and dependence, without which there no communion with Him.

Joshua 23.

FINAL INSTRUCTIONS TO JOSHUA.

Israel are now in possession of their inheritance; Joshua, old and stricken with age, is ready to go the way of all the earth. When the outward props of divine order in the assembly are taken from us, and those who are to the front in the fight are no more, everything is apparently gone; but in reality to faith there is no lack. "The Lord your God," said Joshua, "he it is that fighteth for you." (vs. 3, 10) Leaders may depart; and it is a blessed thing to consider the end of their conversation, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ev. Yes, nothing is lacking where there is faith; and where it is wanting everything decays, as happened with Israel and the church.

Henceforth, if the people were to maintain themselves at the height of their privileges, they must realise in their own souls, and in their entire lives, that power of the Spirit which led them on to victory in the person of Joshua. "Be strong and of a good courage," He had said to Joshua in Joshua 1: 6, "for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them." There lay the power for victory, and now Joshua says to the people: " Be ye therefore very courageous." (v. 6) This is realisation in the soul.

Now how will this spiritual strength show itself in the people? In obedience to the written word, "to keep" — and this is inseparable from practice — "and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses." To obey thus, the people had not only the power of God's Spirit with them, but they had before their eyes, a man Joshua, on whom the same things had been enjoined, who had followed to the end in the pathway of obedience, and who could say with Paul: "I have kept the faith." But we, dear readers, have before us the true Joshua, the perfect model, the author and finisher of faith.

Notice too, how Joshua, like Paul, has a full sense of the changes which his departure would bring about. It would be the introduction of a new order of things. Decline would surely set in, as they both knew, but like a thread through a labyrinth, an infallible guide, they commend the word of God: "I commend you to God and to the word of his grace." (Acts 20: 32)

Ah! it is the word which is able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance, but above all to sanctify us. It was from neglect of it that Israel sunk by degrees to the level of the idolatrous nations and their abominations. See in verse 7 how imperceptible, and at the same time slippery, is the downward path; first they come amongst these nations, forgetful of separation from the world; then they make mention of the name of their gods; we become familiarised with the ruling principles of the world; then we cause to swear by them; it seems natural that others should acknowledge them; then we serve them, and finally bow down ourselves to them; a downward path truly!

But there are other means of retaining their blessings besides obedience to the word, and to these Joshua directs their attention. The second is "cleaving to the Lord" (v. 8); the heart and affections must be set on the Person of Christ. Do you often think, beloved, of that verse in Psalm 43? "My soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me." Do we not feel — there is a heart which has given itself wholly to the Lord, and is able to tell Him so? for these are not experiences which one would display before the world. It is a soul captivated by the beauty of its object, entirely surrendered to Christ, and discovering a power in Him to lift it above every difficulty, and preserve it from all danger. "Thy right hand upholdeth me." It is the same in our chapter (vers. 9, 10); in cleaving to Him, the people experience the strength of Jehovah. Oh! may we in our troublous days realise more of this close cleaving of soul to Christ; may we have hearts that seek and desire nought save Himself, which do not make a show before the world of their feelings or of their consecration to God, which do not say, "I am rich and have need of nothing," but which say to Christ in the silence of His own presence, and in accents which His ear alone can hear: "I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me," and also on account of Thy matchless beauty; oh, inimitable Pattern, some traits of whom, however feeble, I would fain reproduce! "My soul followeth hard after Thee."

Thirdly we find vigilance. "Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God." (v. 11) We have to be watchful over our hearts, so as not to tolerate the oft-times subtle entrance of lusts which weaken our affections for the Lord, and by means of which He is replaced by objects unworthy of being compared to Him, and which oblige Him to judge us. (vs. 16-22) "Flee also youthful lusts," says the apostle. "Be ye sober, and watch."

Joshua 24.

GRACE IN CONTRAST TO LAW.

In this chapter, God, by the mouth of His servant, recapitulates all His ways of grace towards Israel, from the call of Abraham until the full possession of Canaan. Had the people been wise, touched by the untiring mercy of God, and mistrustful of themselves, they would have asked Jehovah that His grace, and that alone, might continue to keep and to lead them. But in their folly they cling to the principles of the law, and trusting to themselves, they say: "We will serve the Lord."

The fact that God closes this history by the manifestation of His grace, has also its importance for us. Brought into the enjoyment of heavenly places, it is of His grace that God speaks to us, and by it establishes our hearts. But in order really to enter into this we must have our own state fully revealed to us. Such are God's ways, for it was not till Israel reached Canaan that the idolatry of their fathers, the utter ruin of the root from which they sprang, and their terrible distance from God, were made known to them. So it is with us. We only realise the total ruin of the first man when we know full deliverance. Few Christians enter into this, because so few are in the enjoyment of the blessings of Canaan, their glorious position in Christ. The prodigal son had learnt many things when he set out to return to his father: his sin, his state of misery, were by no means unknown to him; but on his introduction into the father's house, he hears for the first time these words: "This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." In the same way, it is after our introduction into spiritual blessings that the Epistle to the Ephesians says to us: "You who were dead in trespasses and in sins."

The early part of our chapter, as I have said, is entirely taken up with God's ways in grace towards His earthly people. In Abraham (v. 3) we find election, calling, faith, and the promises which are centered in Isaac. In Jacob and Esau (v. 4) we have the free choice of grace. In Egypt (v. 5) Israel learn forgiveness; at the Red Sea (v. 6) deliverance. In the desert (v. 7) it is grace again which sustains them and brings them across the Jordan (v. 11) to introduce them into Canaan. (v. 13)

Are there enemies — they do but set in stronger relief the almighty grace of God acting in favour of His people. The Egyptian who had kept them in bondage is judged, overtaken by destruction in the Red Sea in the act of opposing their deliverance. The Amorite who dwelt outside the limits of the Jordan, and sought to hinder their passage, is conquered. Balak, the subtle enemy, who by means of Balaam, seeks to induce God to turn away His face from His people, is brought to confusion, and forced to hear blessings pouring forth from the life of him whom he had called to curse. Finally, all the nations flee before Israel, pursued by hornets, without the aid of sword or bow.

Surely grace such as this might have drawn the nation after Jehovah. And we, have not we been made the recipients of a grace still richer? "God made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel." Did He reveal His counsels to them? No, that was reserved for us. God has let us share in His most hidden purposes, His eternal counsels with regard to Christ, He has made us His confidants. What grace!

But Israel did not lose confidence in themselves. "We will serve him," said they. And yet their own history lay before them for their instruction. "Put away," said Joshua, "the gods which your fathers served the other side of the flood and in Egypt" (v. 14); these gods were still in their midst. Then as to Canaan, he adds: "If ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods" (v. 20); they did not put away these gods, and their history is a record of idolatry from cover to cover. God gives them up, and their ruin becomes complete. Grace was their only resource, and they would not have it, and a great stone, image of the law, remains morally set up, in testimony and judgment against them, until Israel become once more an object of grace.

God indeed does not conclude with judgment. His ways in retribution will pass away; each tale of responsibility will come to an end, but one thing abideth ever — grace; grace by which we are foreknown, called, justified and glorified. H. L. Rossier.

Judges

Judges

Meditations on the Book of Judges

Dr. H. L. Rossier

(This exposition was translated from the French, and first appeared in English, in The Remembrancer, a monthly periodical, during the years 1894-5)

Contents

Preface.

Introduction

The Condition of Israel at the Time of Joshua's Death

What Characterizes Declension

The Origin and Consequences of Declension

Israel's Ruin Looked at in Reference to God

REVIVALS

Othniel

Ehud.

Shamgar

Deborah and Barak

Deborah's Song

GIDEON

The Word of God Reaching the Conscience

Gideon Prepared for Service

What Characterizes God's Witnesses in the Day of Ruin

What Testimony Consists In.

Difficulties and Snares in Service

Gideon's Ephod

FRESH DECLENSION and FRESH REVIVALS

Abimelech, or the Usurpation of Authority

Tola and Jair

A Fresh Revival in Israel

Jephthah and His Daughter

Strife Between Brethren

Ibzan, Elon and Abdon

SAMSON

Nazariteship.

A Remnant

The Serpent and the Lion

The Feast

Victories

Defeat and Restoration

MANIFESTATION OF THE RUIN AND FINAL RESTORATION

The Levite of Judah

Dan and the Levite of Judah

The Levite of Ephraim

Breach and Recovery

Fruits of Recovery

Meditations on the Book of Judges

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." — Rom. 15: 4.

Preface.

The contrast between the books of Joshua and Judges is immense. Joshua, a striking type of the spirit of Christ in power*, leads Israel on to conquer and dwell in peace in the land of promise. The book of Judges gives us quite another order of things. Starting from the blessings conferred by Jehovah in Canaan, and confided to the responsibility of the people, it shows us what use Israel made of them. Did they justify the confidence God had placed in them? Did they live up to their privileges? The answer will be found in the book of Judges.

{*See "Meditations on the Book of Joshua," by same writer.}

Israel's history is repeated in that of the church. The Epistle to the Ephesians answers, in the New Testament, to Joshua; for in it we see the assembly seated in heavenly places, enjoying all spiritual blessings in Christ, and wrestling no longer, like Israel, "against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places." (Eph. 6: 12 — margin)

Judges corresponds with 2 Timothy. The church, not having kept its first estate, there are, as for Israel, divine documents which prove its unfaithfulness, and which show the people of God abandoning their first love and following a path of declension which ends in utter and irremediable ruin.

The history of man — blessed of God, but responsible — is ever the same. Adam, Noah, Israel, the nations, the church — the sad picture never varies. Ah! how the Word of God depicts to us what we are, but blessed be His name, we also learn to know God. He exhorts and entreats us without ceasing. Beware, says He, not to let slip from your hands the blessings with which I have filled them! Return to me when you have turned aside! Neither does He limit Himself to warnings, but unfolding before us the riches of His grace, He shows us that He has resources, when we have lost everything; that His voice can awaken those who sleep among the dead (Eph. 5: 14); that His arm can deliver those whom unbelief has replaced under bondage; that there is a fight of faith for perilous times; that in the midst of the rubbish accumulated by man, there is a path which the vultures' eye hath not seen, well known to faith, accessible to the simplest believer; in a word He shows us, that in a day of ruin, God can be as fully glorified as in the church's brightest days.

JUDGES 1 - 3: 4.

INTRODUCTION.

The condition of Israel at the time of Joshua's death.

(Judges 1: 1-16)

Judges 1: 1-16 may be considered as a preface to the book of Judges, and the words, "Now after the death of Joshua, it came to pass," are the key to the whole book. It is not as yet, properly speaking, declension, but that which precedes it. What follows is governed by the fact, that Joshua, a type of the Spirit of Christ in power, was no longer in the midst of Israel. So also, in the church's history, the unhindered activity of the Spirit of God lasted but a short time. No doubt, as in the days of "the elders that outlived Joshua" (Judges 2: 7), the presence of the apostles stayed the tide of evil; but in both cases, the presence and working of certain deleterious principles, caused it to be foreseen, that when once the obstacle should be removed, the tide of declension would set in.

All was apparently going on well in Israel. The tribes take their several places in presence of a hostile world. They enquire of Jehovah, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first? God says: "Judah shall go up, behold I have delivered the land into his hand." (v. 1, 2) The answer was plain, Judah could count implicitly on God's faithfulness to His promise; but already we see that the simplicity of faith was lacking in him, and that his dependence on Jehovah was not so real as it appeared to be. "And Judah said unto Simeon, his brother, come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him." (v. 3) Judah seems to mistrust his own strength; but, instead of finding his resource in the God of Israel, he seeks it in Simeon, and in reality lacks confidence in Jehovah. True, he does not ally himself with the enemies of God; if his faith fails, he turns to his brother Simeon, only to his brother; but, nevertheless, under the pretext of pushing forward the work of God, we see, in principle, the dawn of human associations and alliances, which have become the ruling feature of all the present activity in Christendom. Did God require Simeon, in order to give Judah the lot of his inheritance?

The result of this combined action was apparently magnificent. We learn from Joshua 19: 9 that "the part of the children of Judah was too much for them." But the inheritance of the children of Simeon was not the best, for it was taken from what Judah could not keep; thus they received their portion out of that which was superfluous to another, at the southern limit of the land of Israel, in the border which looked towards the desert. It was not that God disowned either tribe, for it is written (v. 4), "the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand;" but warfare undertaken on the footing of a human alliance, bears more or less the imprint of its origin. The allies seize upon Adoni-bezek and "cut off his thumbs and his great toes." (v. 6) This was not what God commanded of old, nor what Joshua did to the kings of Jericho, of Ai, of Jerusalem, of Makkedah, and all the kings of the mountain and of the plain. To mutilate the enemy was simply human retaliation. It had been, likewise, the custom of Adoni-bezek thus to humble his enemies; keeping them, however, at his court, as their presence served to increase his glory as conqueror. We see similar things in the church's history. How many times she has made a show of past victories to exalt herself in her own eyes and those of others. The conscience of a humbled foe is often more accessible than that of the people of God in prosperity. Adoni-bezek smitten by Judah, acknowledges having acted wrongly towards the vanquished kings, and bows to the judgment of God.

"And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba) and they slew Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai. And from thence he went against the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher" (v. 10, 11). Joshua 15: 14, 15, ascribes to Caleb what our chapter attributes to Judah. Caleb's energy, perseverance and faith on this occasion were such that his whole tribe bore the imprint of it. In the early days of the church it was not so, when all were of one heart and soul, and advanced with oneness of faith towards the goal. The coming to the front of individual faith is manifested far more distinctly in the course of the history of the judges raised up to deliver Israel; we see it, too, in the revivals which God works in our days; and while it is encouraging for the individual, it is humbling for the rest. What an honour for Caleb, that Judah should have gained the victory! On the other hand, let us not forget that each one of us may help to imprint weakness on the people of God as a whole. God grant that the church, though unfaithful, may have many Calebs in her midst today.

There is further encouragement to be gathered from the history of this man of God. Individual faithfulness, even in the most corrupt days of the church, arouses and stimulates spiritual energy in others. Othniel, seeing Caleb's faith, is stirred up to act likewise. He serves his first campaign under him, and acquires for himself a good degree, for he becomes the first judge in Israel. But he is not satisfied with belonging to Caleb's family; he fights for the enjoyment of a new relationship, that of the bridegroom with the bride, and he gets Achsah to wife. Joshua 15 relates the fact in the same terms, for individual faith enjoys the same privileges as fully in a time of declension as in the brightest day of the church's history. The church has been unfaithful and has lost the sense of her relationship with Him, who, by His victory had acquired it for Himself; but this relationship may be known and enjoyed to-day in its fulness by every one who is faithful.

This union gave Othniel a personal possession in the inheritance of him whose son he had become, and he had thenceforth an estate of his own. Our portion resembles his; we realize our heavenly position when we have taken our stand as regards the world, our hearts being attached to the person of Christ. Still this precious domain does not suffice to Achsah. The south land would be a barren field to her if her father did not give springs to water it. Achsah obtained the upper and the nether springs, just as in different circumstances, the saint passing through the valley of Baca, on the one hand makes it a well, and on the other sees rain from heaven filling the pools. Achsah is a thirsty soul, but she thirsts for Canaan's blessings. A Christian coveting the world is in a terrible condition, but God approves of and delights in one who thirsts for heaven. He satisfies such longings by copious springs, spiritual blessings which descend upon us and flow out from us. Those who covet the world, He visits with chastisements such as fell on Achan when he coveted the accursed thing.

The sixteenth verse, which closes this first division of the book, tells us of "the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law." The history of this family, come out of Midian and allied to Moses, is full of interest. When Jethro returned to his own land, after having visited Israel in the desert (Ex. 18: 27), Moses asked his son Hobab to be to the children of Israel instead of eyes, to lead them in their encampments in the wilderness (Numbers 10: 29-32); and in spite of his refusal, his sons, like Caleb, faithfully followed in the steps of the people of God. (Judges 4: 11, 1 Sam. 15: 6) Like Rahab, these children of a stranger amongst the nations, went up out of Jericho, the city of palm trees (Judges 1: 16, c.f., Deut. 34: 3), to cast in their lot with Israel. In cleaving permanently to Judah, they resembled Ruth. And like Othniel, they allied themselves with the family of Caleb, and out of it they had more especially for their chief, the faithful Jabez, the son of sorrow, who made his requests with understanding to the God of Israel, and to whom God granted that which he asked (1 Chr. 2: 50-55, 1 Chr. 4: 9, 10). The Rechabites were descended from the Kenites (1 Chr. 2: 55, 2 Kings 10: 15, Jer. 35), and when their history closes in the Bible, they are praised as true Nazarites in the midst of the ruin of Israel. But alas! this faithful remnant come out from amongst the nations, plays its part also in the book of declension. We have an instance of it in Heber, the Kenite, in ch. 4. I cannot refrain from applying this history of the Kenites to the church called out from amidst the nations. Her testimony, too, is gone, but like the sons of Rechab amongst the Israelites, a faithful remnant in the midst of the ruin, can go on to the end in holy separation from evil, obeying the Word committed to them by their Leader.

What characterises declension?

(Judges 1: 17-36)

We have seen signs of declension in the verses which we have been considering, while the state of the people was still good. Now we shall see in what declension, properly speaking, consists. It is not the same as ruin, which is declension fully matured, such as we find in Judges 2. Both reappear in the history of the Church, and in proof of this we have but to read the epistles to the seven churches. (Rev. 2, 3) Declension in Ephesus leaving her first love, — ruin in Laodicea, whom the Lord is obliged to spew out of His mouth.

What, then, is declension? In a word, we may say, worldliness. The heart, principles and walk are in unison with the world. This is invariably how declension begins, and we may well understand the "Take good heed to yourselves" in Joshua 23: 11. How easily this snare might be avoided, if the hearts of God's children were upright before Him. But instead of dispossessing the Canaanites, Israel is afraid of them, tolerates them, and dwells with them. So, also, the Church, looked at as a whole, is allied with the world. Later on we shall see the disastrous results of this alliance. Suffice it for the present that God's Word establishes the fact, that Israel did not keep separate from the Canaanitish nations.

Another principle comes out in this passage: declension is gradual. Step by step Israel's course is downward, until the solemn moment when the angel of the Lord definitively quits Gilgal for Bochim. This is true both of the Church (Rev. 2, 3), and the individual. A Christian who has walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, if he allows the world even a little room in his heart, instead of treating it as an enemy, will by degrees get under its thraldom, and will perhaps close his career in the sore humiliation of a defeat.

Judges 19-21 of our book are a narrative of events which historically precede Judges 1. We shall consider them more particularly by-and-bye, but I mention it here to bring out a third principle apparently contradictory to the second — namely, that, from the first, before God had delivered them over to their enemies, the people, as to their moral state, were totally lost. It was the same with the Church. Scarcely had the last apostle passed off the scene, when a tremendous gap was visible between the principles of the primitive church and those of the times immediately following. Christians suddenly lost even the elementary views of salvation by grace, the work of the cross, justification by faith.*

{*See, on this subject, a valuable tract. "Christianity, not Christendom," by J. N. D. (To be found in his Collected Writings, vol. 18)}

These two principles, gradual declension and sudden downfall, are of immense practical importance for us, setting us on our guard against the least worldly tendency, on the one hand; and, on the other, teaching us not to put any confidence in the flesh, but to depend solely on God and His grace.

Let us now consider in detail, the portion of scripture before us. "And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah," which signifies "utter destruction." This is a remarkable fact, and recalls the book of Joshua. Judah refused all link with the Canaanite. The strong cities of the Philistines were conquered —  "and the Lord was with Judah." But why did he only possess the mountain, and not drive out the inhabitants of the valley? Alas! he feared their "chariots of iron."

Mistrusting, to all appearance, his own strength, Judah had, nevertheless, allied himself with Simeon, and this was, as we have seen, in measure to mistrust God. To tremble before the power of the world is a consequence of not confiding in the power of God. Had they not on a former occasion of victory burned Jabin's chariots with fire? (Joshua 11: 4-9) Had not God promised the house of Joseph that "they should drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and though they be strong"? (Joshua 17: 17, 18) What then were iron chariots to Jehovah? When our confidence in Him and in His promises is shaken, we say like the spies sent by Moses to view the land: "And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak .... and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Numbers 13: 33)

How different to Caleb! (v. 20) He expelled the enemy, even the three sons of Anak, from his inheritance. In days of declension, individual faith can act, where collectively it is impossible. In v. 21, "the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem." Judah, in days of prosperity (v. 8), had smitten this city with the edge of the sword, and set it on fire. But the forces of the vanquished enemy are skilful in reforming, and never consider themselves beaten. Israel's low estate gave them a favourable opportunity, and so "the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day."

The history of the house of Joseph (v. 22-26) recalls that of Rahab in Joshua 2, with this main difference, the work of faith is absent. The act of the man of Luz, delivering up his city to the children of Israel, is that of a traitor, not that of a believer. Joseph decoys him by a promise of his life, and instead of, like Rahab, associating himself with God's people after his deliverance, he returns to the world and rebuilds in the country of the Hittites, the very Luz which Jehovah had destroyed.

Many, alas! were the cities which Manasseh did not dispossess (v. 27, 28). Observe the word: "The Canaanites would dwell in that land." The world has more power over a Christian in a low state than the Word and promises of God. It is true that "when Israel was strong, they put the Canaanites to tribute;" but that was ruling, not driving out. Christendom, grown rich and powerful, did the same with regard to paganism. It may have been permitted by God in His providential ways, that it should be so, but it was not faith.

Ephraim and Zebulon allowed the Canaanites to dwell among them (v. 29, 30). Henceforth, the world formed part of the people of God. Asher and Naphthali (v. 31-33) went a step farther: they dwelt among the Canaanites. Israel is engulfed by them.

One more trait, and the picture is complete. "And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain; for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley" (v. 34). The world, at length, obtains what is sought, and spoils the children of God of their inheritance. Satan's aim always is to rob us of those things which constitute our joy and strength; and he succeeds only too well.

Do not let us forget how gradual declension is.

Ere long, we shall see poor Israel abandoning the God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, bowing down to false gods, and, as a consequence of their idolatry, oppressed and plundered by their enemies.

Beloved brethren, we all belong to a period of declension. It is too late for the Church, collectively, to return; but let us, at least, individually, avoid this slippery path. Let us watch against the world, and mistrust even its fairest baits, seeking, in these closing days, to be amongst the faithful ones to whom the Lord can say, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." (Rev. 3: 20) God grant that holy separation from the world, and increasing communion with the Lord, may characterize us until the close of our course.

The origin and consequences of declension.

(Judges 2: 1-5)

Israel's declension was characterized by the fact that they had not remained in separation from the world, and this in itself denoted that they no longer had strength to drive out the enemy. Their lack of power was due to what we have just read. "And the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim." (Judges 2: 1) The book of Joshua, the record of Israel's victories, was characterized by Gilgal, the blessed spot wherein lay the secret of their strength. It was the place of circumcision, that is to say, typically, of the putting off of the flesh — "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." (Col. 2: 11) At the cross of Christ, in His death, the flesh was absolutely condemned and made an end of for the believer. At Gilgal, Jehovah had rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off the people.

Delivered (in type) from the dominion of the flesh which was connected with the world, i.e., Egypt, they now belonged only to God. The great fact of circumcision at Gilgal, the cutting off of the flesh, is a Christian responsibility. But continual returning to Gilgal was a necessity. There must be for the believer the constant realization before God, what the cross of Christ teaches, that "the flesh profiteth nothing." True self-judgment must be maintained if we would know wherein lies the secret of spiritual power by which we mortify our members which are upon the earth. (Col. 3: 5) We may learn this from the victories in the book of Joshua. The Israelites always returned to Gilgal, except in one case (Joshua 7: 2) where they were defeated.

But Gilgal had been neglected, nay, even forgotten since the days of Joshua. It is thus that hearts become worldly through the absence of daily self-judgment. The angel of Jehovah, the representative of Divine power in the midst of the people, had remained there alone, so to speak with nothing to do, waiting for Israel to return to him; he had waited long, Israel did not return. There was nothing for it, but that the angel should quit this blessed spot and go up to Bochim, the place of tears. Those days of strength and joy, when Jericho fell at the sound of God's trumpet, were over; the days, too, of Gibeon and Hazor were for ever gone. Israel could not recover the blessings dependent on Gilgal; Jehovah's power was no longer at the disposal of the people, looked at as a whole. Those days were past, when Israel went up willingly to Gilgal, judging, in type, the flesh; so that, sin not being there, they might conquer. Achor, too, was past with its lesson of humiliation and blessing, when the people judged their sin to put it away and were restored. At Bochim Israel wept, obliged to bear their chastisement and its irremediable consequences; present restoration was not possible; God does not re-establish what man has ruined. The church has trodden the same path. Its ruin as a testimony and looked at on the side of human responsibility will be continuous to the end of its history. It has become unfaithful, till at last it has become established in the midst of the world, mixed up with iniquity of every kind which goes on to the close. God compares it to a great house with vessels to honour and dishonour. (2 Tim. 2) And yet the moment will come, when the history of man's responsibility being over, the Lord will present to Himself His church, glorious, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing. (Eph. 5) At that time it shall be said of her, as of Jacob, not "what hath man wrought," but "what hath God wrought!" (Numbers 23: 23)

It was not a sense of humiliation which filled the hearts of the poor people at Bochim: they were there, shedding tears at the sentence of judgment, and seeing no issue, for there was none. In the course of the book, we meet with times of partial deliverance, and even a beginning of real humiliation (Judges 10: 15, 16). But Israel's restoration is reserved for a future day. There is a sort of foretaste of it under Samuel, type of Christ, the true Judge and Prophet. In the scene at Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7), we have a picture of the day when Israel humbled, will be restored to their place of blessing as the people of God. Samuel convenes the people at Mizpeh, which is not merely the place of tears, but of humiliation. It was there that "they drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, 'we have sinned against the Lord.'" It was there that they put away their strange gods, and it was the dawn of an era of blessing which shone in all its splendour under the reigns of David and Solomon.

Bochim characterizes the book of Judges, as Gilgal does that of Joshua. Likewise the place of tears characterizes the present period of the church's history. It is no longer a question of retracing the pathway; the edifice is in ruins: to replaster it, would be but to adorn its decay, which would be worse than the ruin itself.

The angel of the Lord has come up from Gilgal to Bochim, and forfeited strength cannot be recovered. The Lord abhors pretension to power in a day such as the present. The display of human, fleshly power which we see on all sides, is utterly different to the power of the Spirit. Those who talk loudly about the power of God being with them, savour somewhat of the crowds who followed Simon Magus, saying: "This man is the great power of God" (Acts 8: 10); and of Laodicea, who says, "I am rich," not knowing that she is "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3: 17). However, we must never forget that if the church as a corporate witness has failed, God has preserved a testimony to Christ in the midst of the ruin, and those who seek to maintain it, acknowledge and weep over their common failure in the presence of God. We find something similar in Ezek. 9: 4. The men of Jerusalem who sigh and cry are marked on their foreheads by the angel of the Lord; they are a humbled people, as in Mal. 3: 13-18. There are two classes in this chapter; those who say: "What profit is it that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?" (v. 14), and the faithful ones, a feeble and afflicted remnant who speak one to another, acknowledging the ruin, but waiting for the Messiah who alone can give them deliverance. These latter do not say: "What profit is it?" Their humbling is for their profit, turning their eyes to Him who "raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes." (1 Sam. 2: 8)

God grant that this may also be our attitude, and that we may not be indifferent to the state of the church of God in this world, but rather weep at having contributed towards it. Let us, like Philadelphia, be content to have a little strength, and we shall hear the Lord say for our consolation: I have the key of David, power is mine, fear not, I place it entirely at your disposal.

In verses 1-3, the angel of the Lord speaks to the people. Had God broken His covenant? Had He not accomplished all that His mouth had spoken? It was Israel who had broken the covenant. "Why have ye done this?" How this question reaches end probes the conscience. Why? Because I preferred the world and its lusts to the power of the Spirit of God, idols to the ineffable favour of Jehovah's countenance. What then was the natural heart of this people? What is ours? Israel weeps and sacrifices (v. 5). How touching the grace which provides for worship in the midst of the ruin. The place of tears is one of sacrifice, and God accepts the offerings made at Bochim.

Israel's ruin looked at in reference to God.

(Judges 2: 6 —  3: 4)

Judges 2: 6-9 is a repetition of Joshua 24: 26-31, closely connecting this history of declension with that of the people before their fall. There were elders, that outlived Joshua, to help and encourage the people, just as there were apostles for the church, but in the days of the apostles as in those of the elders, principles, destructive of the assembly, were already at work. Judaism, worldliness, corruption, all these things Paul set his face against by the power of the Spirit of God, but with the certainty that after his departure, grievous wolves should enter in, not sparing the flock. The close of Chap. 1 gave us Israel's declension, in their connection with the world; the verses we have just read, show it to us in reference to God. We have a summary of the whole book of Judges in this passage. Worldliness and idolatry succeed each other. In whatever measure our hearts go after the world, they turn away from God; and between that and forsaking Jehovah to follow after idols, there is but a step. We see the same things in the life of Christians individually. It is not without purpose that the Spirit of God warns us so solemnly: "Little children keep yourselves from idols," l John 5: 21. If we associate with the world, its cherished objects gain possession of our hearts, robbing Christ of His place.

Two things describe the low estate of the generation that arose after Joshua. "They knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel" (Judges 2: 10). Where a personal knowledge of Christ and of the value of His work are lacking, the floodgates are open to an overflowing tide of evil. This was the case with Israel: "They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth" (Judges 2: 13). Then the anger of the Lord was hot against the people, and He sold them into the hands of enemies round about, who spoiled them (Judges 2: 14); and left the enemy within to be a thorn in their sides (Judges 3: 3). The enemy within the house of God is the distinctive feature of the last days. The nations whose terrible moral condition is described in Rom. 1, are now-a-days established with all their corrupt principles in the very midst of this building, so beautiful of yore, when it came forth from the hands of the Divine Architect; but entrusted by Him to human hands, it contained thenceforth, amidst material only fit to be burned up, the sad mixture of vessels to honour and to dishonour.

The judgment of God on His house consists in this, that He allows these things to exist in it. How little account Christians take of this. But the God who judges is also the God who has compassion (Judges 2: 18). Israel groans under the oppressor; then the Lord looks on this people for whom He had done such great things, and raises up deliverers for them. Such is the history which we shall see unfolded in the book of Judges, and of which we have here the summary. There are awakenings and then a short space of rest and blessing. The chains broken, the enemy silenced, God leaves the people to themselves, and they fall as before into idolatry. "They ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way" (Judges 2: 19).

There was only one resource, and it was worthy of God. In His grace He makes use of the very unfaithfulness and its consequences to bless the people. In suffering these nations to remain, God had not merely chastisement in view; He also wished "to prove Israel by them whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their fathers did keep it" (Judges 2: 22); in short, would they separate from evil? Thus in 2 Timothy God uses the mixture of vessels to honour and dishonour to test and bless the hearts of those that are faithful. "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Tim. 2: 21). What a blessed description of faithfulness in perilous times! God would show us a path which glorifies Him as much in the darkest day of ruin as in the brightest days of the church.

But the Lord had yet another object in leaving these nations to prove Israel (Judges 3: 4), "to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. "The blessing which God had in view, was to cause Israel to return to that Word which had been given at the first, and which was their only safeguard. Similarly now, the apostle says to Timothy, in an Epistle which dwells on the ruin: "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3: 14, 15). Has the condition of Christendom compelled us to take a place of separation to God down here, adhering closely to His Word? Unless we can be thus characterized, we cannot be a testimony for God in a day of ruin. Those in Philadelphia bore this stamp, for He who addresses them is Himself the holy and the tree; and they, walking in communion with Him, had kept His word, and not denied His name. These will also be the marks of the future children of the kingdom. In Ps. 1, they separate themselves from the way of sinners, and their delight is in the law of the Lord, meditating in it day and night.

There was a third object which the Lord had in view, in permitting these enemies to continue in the midst of Israel: "That the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war" (Judges 3: 2). When we allow ourselves to be cast down by the state of the church and its prevailing evil, we are apt to think that it is no longer any use to fight, and that our part should be exclusively that of the 7000 hidden ones who had not bowed the knee to Baal. (1 Kings 19) This is a serious mistake. There are Elijahs in days of ruin, and conflict is more than ever needed. Christian warfare is not, it is true, waged against flesh and blood, as with Israel, but against wicked spirits in the heavenly places (Eph. 6: 12, margin). This satanic power is always at work to hinder our taking possession of heavenly things, and to bring the people of God into bondage. We fight then either to conquer or to deliver. In Joshua and Ephesians the conflict is to put us in possession of our privileges; in Judges and 2 Timothy the warfare is more especially for the deliverance of the people of God. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ," says the apostle to his faithful disciple (2 Tim. 2: 3). "Endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist," he says further on, adding, "I have fought the good fight" (2 Tim. 4: 5, 7).

What goodness it is on God's part, in a day of universal weakness, to have allowed the enemy to continue, that we might learn what warfare is. Christian conflict will never cease on earth, but the Lord says: Put your trust in Me, I have set before you an open door, and I will recompense the overcomer. May God give us to take to heart the deliverance of His people, in seeking to reach souls by the gospel, and in setting them free from their chains of bondage by the two-edged sword of the Spirit.

(Judges 3, Judges 12)

Revivals.

Othniel.

(Judges 3: 5-11)

It is most important to understand, as we have seen, that the church having been unfaithful to the call of God, restoration collectively is no longer possible. Christians are sometimes misled, as their thoughts by these very revivals effected by God, especially if they are themselves identified with one of these partial restorations wrought by the Spirit of God. Limited views, perhaps a narrow heart accustomed only to think of and love that portion of the church which more immediately concerns ourselves — a sectarian spirit which leads us to designate as church, the systems which man has substituted for the building of God — such are some of the causes which hinder us from forming a correct estimate of the true state of the assembly in this world. Now it is an indisputable fact for every Christian, in the habit of depending on the Word of God, that the present days are evil, that the mystery of iniquity already works, for there are already many antichrists, and everything ripening for the final apostasy. But another fact quite as positive is, that God is faithful and will never leave Himself without testimony.

He can even make use of the evil as in Judges 2 to dispense fresh blessings to His people.

In the same way in Judges the deserved oppression of the enemy is used by God to bring about revivals in Israel. "They cried unto the Lord" is invariably the word that ushers them in. Christendom in the present day discusses what means should be used to inaugurate revivals. "There is but one;" such a sense of the low condition of the world, of the sinner or of the church, as shall lead the exercised soul to turn to God. "They cried unto the Lord." Then He sent deliverers to them. We shall see these revivals in their various phases from Judges 3 to Judges 16 of this book.

Let us begin by a general observation. When things are morally in a low state, God uses instruments which in themselves are imperfect and bear the stamp of weakness, — Othniel sprang from a younger branch of the family; he was "the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother." Ehud was weak through his infirmity, Shamgar through his weapon, Deborah from her sex, Barak by his natural character, Gideon on account of his relations, Jephthah by his birth. Other judges are mentioned who are rich, influential, or prosperous (Judges 10: 1-4; Judges 12: 8-15), and God uses them no doubt, but more to maintain results already obtained than as deliverers. We are no longer in the days of Joshua, or of the Apostles, when a power was developed in man, which hindered the weakness of the vessel from appearing, and yet the very infirmity of these witnesses (characteristic of the period we are in) glorified the power of Him who could use them.

We have already spoken of Othniel in his private, domestic life (Judges 1). God had thus fitted him to be the first judge in Israel. Having fought to win a wife, he became the possessor of his own personal inheritance and of springs to water it. God now uses him to fight for others, and it is ever thus. Before the Christian can be publicly used of God, he must individually have made progress in the knowledge of the Lord, and in the power of his privileges. Before taking up public service, the Christian should have made progress in his own soul in the knowledge of the Lord and of the character of the calling; the absence of these generally accounts for our service being so contracted, our hearts are so little occupied with heavenly things. The moral wealth which Othniel had acquired for himself was soon evident in his walk. In the short compass of verses 10 and 11, six things are mentioned of him: first, "the Spirit of the Lord," the power of God to deliver Israel "came upon him;" secondly, "he judged Israel," he was entrusted with government; thirdly, he "went out to war," here we have conflict; fourthly, "the Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand," this is victory; fifthly, "his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim," the enemy is finally subjugated; sixthly, "the land had rest forty years." Israel quietly enjoys the fruits of Othniel's victory, — God's end is achieved; this man who belonged only indirectly to the lineage of the noble Caleb, was fitted beforehand for this service, and when put to the proof; showed himself to be suitable material in the hands of the divine workman.

Let us ask God to raise up Othniels in the present day; yea, rather let us be Othniels ourselves by true consecration of heart to the Lord, by an increasing desire to appropriate and realize these heavenly things, and we shall be instruments well-fitted for the Master and prepared unto every good work.

Ehud.

(Judges 3: 12-30)

Othniel dies; the children of Israel return to their evil ways, and forget the Lord. The same God who had strengthened Othniel against the enemy, now, in judgment, strengthens Eglon, king of Moab, against Israel. Eglon and his allies take possession of the city of palm trees (Comp. 1: 16, Deut. 34: 3), of Jericho, not in its character of the accursed city, but in that of blessing for Israel. And now Israel, in their fallen state, make use of the very one, whom God was about to employ for their deliverance, to carry a present to Eglon, ratifying thus their subjection to the world, whose favour they seek. How many gifts there are in the present day which become but willing instruments for keeping God's children under the dominion of the world. But Ehud is faithful — he makes himself a two-edged sword: his first act — his only resource. The Christian in the day of ruin has also his two-edged sword, the Word of God being his chief and only offensive weapon. (Heb. 4: 12; Rev. 1: 16; Rev. 19: 15; Eph. 6: 17) True, this sword was only a cubit in length; Ehud's weapon was short, but well suited to its work. It was a tried sword, capable of piercing to the inward parts of God's enemy and of giving him his death-blow.

Before using: his weapon, Ehud "girt it under his raiment upon his right thigh," carrying it about him, ready for use; not displaying it, conscious that it was there. The Bible is often displayed, and much quoted, without being used. But the Word of God has a purpose. Ehud, left-handed, adapts his sword to his infirmity, girding it on his right thigh. Had he worn it in the usual way it would have been useless. The manner in which the weapon is used invariably corresponds to the personal state of the one using it. To imitate others is of no avail, as we learn from the case of David, who was unable to handle Saul's sword, being accustomed, as a shepherd, to a sling and a stone.

Having brought the present to Eglon, Ehud turned again from the graven images (Judges 3: 19, margin) that were by Gilgal; having, as he said, a "secret message" unto the king. It was not, as with many others, a public victory, but a secret, single-handed encounter between the deliverer and the enemy, the public results of which were soon to appear. It was so with Christ when He was tempted of Satan in the desert. Here all takes place silently, with no apparent struggle, no cry; the enemy was found dead by the servants, who thought their Master was resting. The power by which Israel had been enthralled is destroyed by the short sword of a left-handed man.

There was no fame or glory attending such a victory. It was a secret message, but a "message from God" unto Eglon (Judges 5: 20). Our weapon is divine, and therein lies all its power. With Ehud, as with Gideon, it was the "sword of the Lord." The king was dead, but the weapon was not drawn out of his belly. Ehud was gone, but the servants had before their eyes the instrument of victory; God proved to their confusion, that it was this short sword which had abased the proud man, whose eyes stood out with fatness.

It remained for Ehud to reap the fruits of his victory. "He blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim" to assemble the people of God, and they "took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over." The people recovered these usurped possessions; and, through the vigilance of the children of Israel, the way of approach for the enemy was cut off. The usurper was expelled and destroyed, Moab could no longer maintain himself on the two banks of the Jordan. Such should be the practical result of conflict at the present time. If the actual effect is not to make us openly break with the world, it is fruitless and does not answer to the purpose of God. The more complete the separation, the more lasting is the peace. "The land," we are told, "had rest four-score years."

Shamgar.

(Judges 3: 31)

Shamgar, the son of Anath, who followed Ehud, gained a signal victory over the Philistines: he also delivered Israel. Ehud's sword was mighty, though short. Shamgar wrought deliverance by the means of a weapon which seemed wholly unsuited to such a work; a contemptible instrument, to all appearance only suitable for goading brute creatures. Without wishing to press unduly here a typical meaning — a tendency to do which in teaching is dangerous in more ways than one — I would like to compare the ox-goad of Shamgar with the short sword of Ehud. We have one weapon, the Word of God; it may be presented in different aspects, but it is the only one that the man of faith makes use of in the warfare. To the intellectual and unbelieving world it is like an ox-goad, fit, at the best, only for women, children and uneducated persons, full of fiction and contradictions; yet it is this instrument, despised by men, that God uses to gain the victory. In making use of it, faith finds a weapon where the world only sees folly, for the weakness of God is stronger than men. Doubtless, it is written for the unlearned and suited to their needs and to their walk; but this very ox-goad can kill six hundred Philistines.

Let us, then, make use of the Word with which God has entrusted us, always remembering that faith only can make it effectual, and that, too, when the soul has found therein for itself communion with God, the knowledge of Christ, and, therewith blessing, joy and strength,

Deborah and Barak.

(Judges 4)

Up to this time God had, in judgment, delivered the unfaithful Israelites into the hands of outside enemies.* A further proof of unfaithfulness on their part, is followed by more serious consequences. Jabin, king of Canaan, reigning in Hazor, with nine hundred chariots of iron, a terrible adversary, conquered Israel and oppressed them. In Joshua 11 we find an ancestor of this very Jabin, with chariots of war and the same capital. In those days Israel understood, under the mighty energy of the Spirit of God, that there could be nothing in common between them and Jabin. They smote him with the edge of the sword, after having burnt his chariots with fire, and they destroyed his capital. Whatever connection could there be between the people of God and the political and military world, whose dominion was to be erased from the map of Canaan? Alas, all is now changed, and Israel, unfaithful, falls under the government of the world. Hazor, their ancient enemy, arises from its ashes, is resuscitated; it is rebuilt within the limits of Canaan, and the people's inheritance becomes the kingdom of Jabin! This has its parallel in the history of the church, whose position at the beginning was one of entire separation from the world, consequently there was no thought of the latter being suffered to take any part in the affairs of the assembly. But the carnal state of the assembly at Corinth led one in its midst, who had a matter against another, to go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. (1 Cor. 6) "Do you not know," said the apostle, "that the saints shall judge the world?" And rebuking them he adds: "I speak to your shame." But what road has the church travelled since then? In reality it is the world that governs the church. "I know," says the Lord to Pergamos, "where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is." (Rev. 2: 13) Even in the great revival at the Reformation, saints had recourse to the governments of the world, and leant upon them. In the present day there are Christians who, when persecuted, instead of rejoicing to suffer for Christ's sake, claim protection from the powers that be. The judgment on the Hazor of Joshua is no longer anything but a remembrance. Israel served the gods of the Canaanites, having taken their daughters to be their wives and given their daughters to their sons. (Judges 3: 5, 6) This union bore fruit, and Jabin oppresses the people who, whether they would or not, were forced to endure his rule.

{*N. B. — I except the Philistine under Shamgar, the short narrative given in Judges 3: 31 being only an episode, as is proved by Judges 4: 1, where the general history is resumed, not at the death of Shamgar but at that of Ehud.}

Moreover, this was not the only symptom of Israel's low condition in these inauspicious days. For if outwardly they w ere ruled over by their enemy, what was the state of government within? Committed to the hands of a woman! At the outset, as the Word of God teaches us, the oversight of the church locally was committed to elders, appointed for this purpose by the apostles or their delegates, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The order of the assembly, in that which pertained to it locally, fell to their charge. Dropping for a moment man's imitation of this divine institution, would there be any exaggeration in saying that the tendency to entrust government, wholly or partially, into the hands of women is becoming increasingly marked amongst the sects of Christendom in the present day? It is even boasted of, and Christians go so far as to state and seek to prove that such a condition of things is of God, and shows the flourishing state of the church. They quote Deborah in favour of their opinion, but let us see what she was like.

Deborah was a remarkable woman, a woman of faith, one deeply impressed with the humiliating condition of the people of God. She sees that it would be to the shame of the leaders in Israel, that God should entrust a post of public activity to a woman in their midst. She says to Barak: "I will surely go with thee; notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour, for Jehovah shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." (v. 9) But, in all her exercise of authority for God, to the confusion of this people rendered effeminate by sin, Deborah maintains, in circumstances which might have proved a great snare to her, the place assigned by God in His Word to woman. She would not, otherwise, have been a woman of faith. This chapter gives us the history of two women of faith, Deborah and Jael. Each maintains the character in keeping with the position assigned by God to woman. Where does Deborah exercise her authority? Is she seen, as other judges, going in circuit over the land of Israel, or placing herself at the head of the armies? Nothing of the kind; and it is not without reason, it seems to me, that the Word says: "She dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah .... and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment." (v. 5) Prophetess and judge though she was in Israel, she did not step out of the sphere God had assigned to her. Instead of going to Barak, she sent and called him to her where she dwelt.

Barak was a man of God, and accounted by the Word a judge in Israel. "The time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah." (Heb. 11: 32) But Barak was a man lacking in character, moral energy and confidence in God. We must not expect in a day of ruin to see all the divine resources displayed in the instruments employed of God.

The labourers are few, but not only so, what little distinctiveness there is on the part of those who have the gifts of the Spirit, how little is their absence felt by Christians. Lack of character in Barak, made him wish to be the woman's helper, whereas Gen. 2: 18 makes her the helper of the man He degraded the office in which God had set him, and what was worse, he sought to take Deborah out of her place of dependence as a woman: "If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou will not go with me, then I will not go." (v. 8) "I will surely go with thee," she replied. This she could do consistently with her place according to scripture. We read in later times of holy women who accompanied the Lord, becoming His servants in order to minister to His needs. Deborah's act was right, but Barak's motive was wrong, and Deborah rebukes him severely. (v. 9) What was Barak's motive at bottom? He was willing to depend on God, but not without a human and tangible prop as well. There are many such souls in Christendom. There is, on their part, so little sense of the presence of God, so slight a knowledge of His will, so little decision as to their walk, that, in order to go on in the path of God, they prefer leaning on another to direct dependence on Him only. The counsel of "spiritual directors" is followed, rather than that of the Lord, His Spirit and His Word. What if the leader they follow be mistaken? But God, the Lord, His Spirit, His Word, are infallible! Faithful Deborah does not encourage Barak in this wrong course, and Barak suffers the consequences of his want of faith.

He goes up with his army, and Deborah with him. Heber, one of the Kenites, of whom we have already spoken in Judges 1, had, In these troublous times, seen fit to sever himself from his tribe, and pitch his tent elsewhere (v. 11). Now "there was peace between Jabin, the king of Hazor, and the house of Heber, the Kenite." (v. 17)

Heber's act does not seem to have been one of faith. He separated himself from the people in their low estate so as to relieve himself of the responsibility of Israel's sorrowful condition.* Moreover, he was at peace with the avowed enemy of his people; and he had so managed as not to be disquieted by Jabin. But a weak woman dwelt under Heber's tent, who refused safety at such a price, and did not acknowledge an alliance with the enemy of her nation. Israel had undivided possession of her heart. Barak gains the victory, and Deborah, this woman of faith, and mother in Israel, plays no part in it. Sisera's army is defeated; and he himself, forced to flee away on foot, comes to the tent of Jael, where he counts on finding a hospitable shelter. Jael hides him; he asks for a drink of water, and she gives him what was better, milk. She does not treat him at first as an enemy, but with pity; yet in presence of the enemy of her people she becomes pitiless. The instrument she used for Israel's deliverance was even more worthless than Shamgar's, for the only weapons she had were the tools of a woman who keeps the tent; it is with them that she deals the fatal blow to the head of the enemy. Jael, like Deborah and every woman of faith, does not go at all beyond her sphere. She carries out her work of vengeance inside her dwelling, with the arms with which the tent supplied her, and gains the victory there; for women are also called to face the enemy, though it he in the place and with the special weapon assigned to them by God. The faith of these women shines out in this chapter — Jael does not, like Barak, seek a helper; she depends entirely on the Lord. The secret of her action lies between herself and God. She handles the weapons belonging to her contracted sphere, as skillfully as a man could have done; for had her hand trembled in the very least, all would have been compromised. Alone (her husband, her natural protector, being absent), but with the Lord, she — one in heart with all the arrayed armies of Israel — fights under her tent. And Deborah in her song can say of her: "Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent." (v. 24)

{*N. B, — This is more or less the history of all  the sects in Christendom.}

With what feelings of humiliation Barak must have gazed on Jael's victory, seeing a woman thus honoured of God, in a path in which he, though leader and judge, had not wished to walk.

All honour to these women! God made use of them to arouse the children of His people to a sense of their responsibility, for once awakened: "they destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan." (v. 24)

Deborah's Song.

(Judges 5)

Jehovah had wrought a wonderful deliverance through the instrumentality of two weak women, and a man lacking in character; the very feebleness of His instruments serving to magnify His grace and power. The victory, as we have said, is the signal for the awakening of the people, and the Spirit of God gives expression to it by the mouth of the prophetess. Deborah and Barak relate and celebrate the blessings recovered through Israel's deliverance.

(v. 1) "Then sang Deborah and Barak, the sonf Ahinoam, on that day, saying:"

The first thing that follows the deliverance is praise; very different, doubtless, in a day of ruin, from what it was at the beginning, when they went forth out of Egypt: "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord." (Ex. 15: 1) The whole nation joined their leader in the song of deliverance; not a voice was silent. Imagine the harmony of those 600,000 voices, blended in one celebrating, on the seashore, the victory achieved by the Lord! "I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously." All the women, with Miriam at their head, joining in these praises, repeated the same words, "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously." (Ex. 15: 20, 21) What a contrast to Judges 5! "Then sang Deborah and Barak." One woman and one man — two by themselves- — two witnesses of a time of ruin; but the Lord is present, the Spirit of God is there; and if these two are the witnesses of the ruin, they can, nevertheless, rejoice and celebrate the greatness of the work of the Lord. Renewal of praise is the mark of a true revival, and the children of God when restored in soul feel this their first need. Deborah and Barak do not isolate themselves, even though all the people are not with them; they acknowledge the unity of the nation, and their praise is the expression of what all Israel should have rendered.

(v. 2) "For that the leaders took the lead in Israel, for that the people offered themselves willingly, bless ye the Lord." (Revised Version) The motive for praise is what the grace of God has produced in the leaders, and among the people. God recognizes that, and thus encourages His own, so vacillating and weak.

(v. 3) "Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel."

Praise belongs exclusively to the saints. "I, even I," they say. Kings and princes are invited to listen, but they have no part in the song, for the deliverance of Israel is their ruin.

(vs. 4, 5) "Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel."

These words recall the commencement of Moses' song in Deut. 33, to which Ps. 68: 7, 8 also refers. In these we find another important principle of the revival. Souls are led back to the first blessings, seeking again what God gave at the beginning. Instead of being guided by what passed before their eyes, they ask themselves, "What hath God wrought?" This is our safeguard in a day of ruin. Let us not say, like unfaithful Christians, we should adapt ourselves to the time in which we live. At a time of which the Apostle John said, "It is the last hour" (1 John 2: 18. Revised Version), the saints had as a resource: "That which was from the beginning." (1 John 1: 1)

(vs. 6, 8) "In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied," etc.

Here we have a new principle. The faithful acknowledge the ruin in Israel. They neither attempt to palliate nor excuse the evil, but judge it according to God. Four things characterize the ruin: 1st, "The highways were unoccupied and the travelers walked through by-ways." This is the result of the enemy's yoke. The people could no longer walk safely along the highways, those roads on which all had walked together, for it was there that they met the enemy, and the travelers chose the by-paths, each one according to the choice of his own heart. Is it not this also which characterizes the church of God in our day?

Secondly, "The inhabitants of the villages ceased." The places where the people were wont to dwell in peace, surrounded by their families, were deserted. This visible unity of the people had disappeared until the day that Deborah was raised up for the partial restoration of Israel. Is the unity of the family of God more apparent at the present day? Alas! although a faithful few may act upon it, it exists no longer in its entirety, except to faith and in the counsels of God.

Thirdly, "They chose new gods; then was war in the gates." Yes, idolatry had become the religion of the people who had forsaken God, the eternal God. Israel, having offended the Lord, was chastised by war, and by a relentless enemy.

Fourthly, "Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?" No longer were there weapons to combat evil. Where now are the weapons? What has been done with the sword of the Spirit ? Where is the power of the Word to resist the false doctrines swarming in the very midst of Christendom, eating as they do like a canker, and trampling in the dust the wondrous name of Christ? "How long," says the Psalmist, (Ps. 4: 2), "will ye turn my glory into shame?" Even the shield of faith has been cast down to the ground, evil is in the ascendancy, and the people of God powerless to withstand it.

In the confusion which exists, the part of the faithful is to apprehend the magnitude of the evil, and bow their heads in humiliation. It is not enough to realize our heavenly blessings, God would have us, who are His people, fully know how greatly, in the existing state of things, we have dishonoured Him, in order that we may separate from it. If we are in the testimony of God, we withdraw from evil. The most terrible characteristic of the last days is not open immorality, although the state of things is deeply corrupt, but more particularly, false doctrines. 2 Timothy exhorts us especially in regard to the latter, to depart from iniquity, and to purge ourselves from vessels to dishonour. But this is not enough; the prophetess adds:

(v. 9) "My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people." This is another principle. The soul sees what the Spirit of God has wrought, and associates itself with it. The heart of Deborah is with the faithful in Israel. She takes her place openly with those who offered themselves willingly; and, recognizing what God has wrought amidst the ruin, she says: "Bless ye the Lord!" happy to see here below this little testimony among the governors. May all our hearts appreciate it, and may we be able to say with her: "Bless ye the Lord."

(vs. 10, 11) Then, turning to those who were in the peaceful enjoyment of recovered blessings, the prophetess says: "Meditate, ye that ride on white asses" (margin), an indication of wealth and prosperity; the sons of noble families and of the judges possessed this privilege. (c.f. Judges 10: 4; Judges 12: 14) It is like an appeal to those who enjoy, without fighting, the fruit of the victory. "Ye that sit on rich carpets" (Revised Version), those who have the advantage of the rest and quiet with their attendant blessings. "Ye that walk by the way," those who enjoy the security that has been gained. Deborah, I say, addresses herself to these, and invites them to "meditate." They have done nothing in this victory but taste its fruits, for some only had fought, and their voices were heard in the division of the spoil, in the places of drawing water. It must not be forgotten, that however blessed these times were, they were not the restoration of Israel, any more than the revivals of our days are the re-establishment of the church. If the conquerors could rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord towards the unprotected cities of Israel, it the people had arisen to go down to the gates and confront the enemy, it was none the less a time of ruin and of but partial restoration. Ah! how needful it is for the people of God in our days to remember these things!

But there are still greater blessings for us. The spirit of the song becomes more and more filled with fervour, in rapidity of utterance do the words flow forth from the mouth of Deborah.

(v. 12) "Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Ahinoam." Psalm 68, that magnificent song, passages of which re-call that of Deborah (c.f. verses 8, 9, 13, 18), celebrates the full millennial restoration of Israel, consequent on the exaltation of the Lord. It is there said that the Lord will dwell in the midst of his people: "The Lord will dwell in it forever." . . "The Lord is among them." Whence can this blessing come? The prophet replies, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou has led captivity captive: thou has received. gifts in the man (margin); yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." Now the words of this Psalm, which celebrates the fulness of future blessings, we hear proceeding from the lips of a weak woman in a day of ruin, when the Lord has marked Israel's forehead with the sign of lost blessings! "Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Ahinoam." What encouragement for us! The highest truths of all are the special portion of faith, in the low state of the Judges, as they are now for us in the perilous times through which we are passing. The song of Moses, overflowing with the joy of a redeemed people, after the passage of the Red Sea, celebrated deliverance by death, to bring the people to the dwelling place of God; and later on, to the sanctuary which His hands had established. Marvellous song, the song of a soul just delivered, as it contemplates the victory of which the cross is the antitype; hymn where the heart, like ointment poured forth, ascends in the praises of deliverance — a deliverance which no hymn can full, express.

It is a woman who, in a day of obscurity and ruin, sounds forth a song which rises above death, the hymn of deliverance by resurrection. Of whom, in "Arise, Barak," is she speaking here? Is it merely of the son of Ahinoam? For our part we do not doubt that Barak is a type, somewhat obscure it may be, of Christ ascended to God's right hand, having led captivity captive. (Eph. 4: 8)

A dark and sorrowful state of things had supervened since the song in Exodus, but here the prophetic intelligence of a woman directs us heavenward, in the type of a risen Christ. She awakes; her eyes are opened to contemplate a glorious scene, Barak rising up to lead the vanquished captivity, faint image of that liberty into which a victorious Christ introduces us to enjoy eternally with Himself. If the things spoken of at the beginning of this chapter characterize the awakening of the present time, one at least of them should especially predominate, and that is, the knowledge of a glorified Man ascended to the right hand of God, One whom our eyes and our hearts follow in that heavenly scene, into which He, as victor, has entered, after having delivered us by His death and resurrection. Once more, beloved, far from being discouraged, have we not cause to repeat with Deborah, "Praise ye the Lord"?

(v. 13) "Then came down a remnant of the nobles and the people; the Lord came down for me against the mighty." (Revised Version)

Now Israel is called to come down to the place she was in at the beginning, to fight and to bear testimony in the midst of a scene where God is still leaving her. We cannot expect, even in a time of religious awakening, to see all the people come down. It will never be but "a remnant of the nobles," but how great the privilege, for God reckons this remnant "as His people," for it is in His eyes the blessed representation of them. What joy of heart should it not be to the faithful to see even one winless separated to God from the mass, which, like Reuben, "abode among the sheepfolds." However much we may desire it, we must not expect more, for otherwise it would not be a day of ruin. And, moreover, what a portion is ours!" The Lord came down for me against the mighty." Brethren, should not that suffice us? He who has ascended on high, is the same who comes down with us to give us the victory in every fresh conflict.

(vs. 14-18) God notes those who have been for Him, and those who, for one motive or another, have remained behind. Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, and Issachar came down, with undivided hearts, in the Lord's path. But, lo! Reuben hesitates at the frontier to consider. Wherefore this indecision? "Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks?" The trumpet calling the people together had no voice for the heart of Reuben. His prosperity was such, that he preferred remaining in the peaceful enjoyment of his acquired wealth, resting among the sheepfolds, stopping at the watercourses (Revised Version), which formed his boundary. Fellow Christians of the present day, is that our position? Have we followed the nobles who have shown us the way? Have we been content with "great searchings of heart?" Are we lacking in decision in testimony for Christ?

"Gilead abode beyond Jordan." Those days were past when Gilead, equipped for war, accompanied his brethren in their conquests of Canaan. Now, satisfied with his worldly position — shall I say, worldly religion? — outside the limits of the land strictly speaking, beyond Jordan, he is unconscious of any further need, and remains where he is. "Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches." When it was a question of fighting, where was Asher to be found? Occupied with his own concerns, his business. He had not made the least sacrifice in these in order to take part in the Lord's battle. However, Deborah does not linger in the recital of evil. Full of joy, she delights in relating every instance of devotedness to the Lord. (v. 18) "Zebulun and Naphthali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field."

Then in verses 19-22, we have another characteristic of faithfulness. They do not glory in, nor think of, themselves; but the victory was attributed to God only, in the proclamation of its heavenly character.

"They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." This part of the song closes with an unqualified malediction on Meroz. "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Those who in these troublous times do not take sides with Christ; those who identify themselves with His name and that of God's people, and whose hearts are at the same time indifferent to Himself, let them be cursed. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." (1 Cor 16: 22)

Now (verses 24-27) Jael is honoured, that which has a little strength is blessed. "He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish." When the enemy of the people of God comes to her, this woman shows grace. Bringing forth the best thing she has in her tent in recognition of Sisera's rank, she hands him the refreshment in a lordly dish. Is not this the very opposite of contempt? Is it not thus that we should act towards the enemies of God, giving them for their thirst and their nourishment even more than they ask? God's witnesses go on with grace beyond the worst enemies of Christ.

Jael is celebrated because she acted thus; but let us read what follows: "She put her hand to the nail and her right hand to the workman's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples." Ah! the heart of Jael was unreservedly with the God of Israel, with the Israel of God: when it became a question of the truth, and of treating the enemy as such, she displayed the greatest energy. This woman is, at this juncture, in the contracted sphere of the house, the real leader of the armies of Jehovah. She is in the foremost rank, honoured of God to gain the victory, for she has an undivided heart for His people. Curse ye, Meroz; but blessed be Jael.

(Verses 28, 30) Another scene is taking place in the palace of Sisera's mother, whose pride is humbled to the very dust.*

{*N. B. — It may be observed in passing. that in spite of the eminent position given her of God, Deborah maintains her character of a mother in Israel, and manifests remarkable intelligence as to what comes within the province of her sex, celebrating that which honours Jael, the woman of faith, and proclaiming what draws down judgment on the haughty woman. Later on, another woman, the Queen of Sheba, welcomed by Solomon, did not review the armies of that king, but gave her attention to "the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cup-bearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 10: 4, 5) Showing an intelligent appreciation of what belonged to that sphere.}

The song of Deborah closes with these words: "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. (v. 31) Here we have one more recovered blessing which characterizes the awakening: Deborah proclaims her hope. She looks on to that glorious day, when the Lord having executed judgment, the saints in Israel shall shine forth as the sun itself, like Him whose countenance was, in the eyes of the prophet, "as the sun shineth in his strength." (Rev. 1: 16, c.f. Matt. 13: 43)

Amid the darkness of this world's night we have too, beloved brethren, but far better than Deborah, this hope very near. Already the morning star has arisen in our hearts, already the eye of faith, piercing the veil, rejoices in the wondrous scene that is still concealed, but which is summed up in the ineffable words, "So shall we ever be with the Lord."

Gideon.

(Judges 6-8)

The word of God reaching the conscience.

(Judges 6: 1-10)

In spite of all the blessings enumerated in Judges 5, Israel very soon relapsed into evil ways and forsook Jehovah. By way of chastisement for this unfaithfulness, God delivered them into the hands of the Midianites. The people passed through all the phases of misery (material for them — moral for the church) which invariably follow going after the world and forsaking God. Under Jabin, Israel was without arms (Judges 5: 8); under the yoke of Midian he was famished — the consequence of our unfaithfulness, from which we always suffer when we seek our portion with the world. It drags us down and takes away our arms, our strength leaves us, and we lose every means of withstanding; not only so, but the very sources of existence are also lacking, for the world never affords nourishment to any one, and we perceive it by the barrenness which invades the soul, when, in our folly, we leave the marrow and fatness of the house of God for the harvests which are merely a mirage of the desert. This was the experience of Israel; Midian "left no sustenance" for him (v. 4)

Then in his misery Israel cried unto Jehovah. He responded, and wrought a fresh revival, in which He sought to probe, more deeply than in the past, the conscience of this poor people. It is interesting to see the way the Lord took to bring about this result. "Jehovah sent a prophet unto the children of Israel." His name is not given, nor does it matter, for this man was simply the bearer of the word of God, in order to bring the people into His presence. God has a means by which to bless us: His word, which meets every requirement and ought to be quite sufficient for us. Ps. 119 shows us the marvellous part the word plays in the life of the faithful. This psalm exceeds all the others in length. The word of God ought to occupy a corresponding place in our lives. Do we appreciate its value? Does it fill up our days and nights — our thoughts, more or less, when we have not time to sit down and meditate upon it?

God applied, in a way full of grace (vs. 8-10), this word to the conscience of the Israelites, telling them all that He had done for them; how He had led them out, given them deliverance and victory, and brought them in; and, having unfolded before them all His goodness, He adds one word: "But ye have not obeyed My voice." Not a word as to how they might be delivered; He did not yet open the way for their return to Him. The prophet disappeared, leaving them under the weight of their responsibility in the presence of grace. God had borne them in His arms and upon His heart; He had been to them a cloud of fire and of darkness (Ex. 13: 21, 22; Ex. 14: 20); He had fought for them. Have I failed, said He, in any respect towards you; but what have you done? This silence was calculated to touch their conscience far more than any reproaches. They were impressed, if not convicted; but the word of grace did not yet give to the unfaithful people what they needed. Israel continued powerless before the enemy.

Gideon prepared for service.

(Judges 6: 11-40)

The remainder of this chapter shows us how God wrought in order to raise up a servant in those times of ruin, and to fit a powerful instrument for carrying out His work of deliverance.

Before entering upon our subject, we would press a truth of general application. When the people of God, as such, have lost all power, it can still be found by the soul individually in quite as great and marvellous a measure as in the times of Israel's greatest prosperity. If this is true, how ardently should our hearts desire to possess this power! Are we among those who, settled down in their weakness, put themselves on a level with their surroundings, and accept the worldliness of the family of God as an inevitable or necessary state of things? Or, have we rather the ears of Gideon when God says to us: There is unlimited power at thy disposal.

We will now go on to the history of this man of God. Personally, he was even weaker than his people; without confidence before the enemy, for he "threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites" (v. 11); without resources among his relations, for his family was the poorest in Manasseh; without power in himself, for he was the least in his father's house (v. 15). Such was the man that God visited and chose as servant — a man who realized his utter weakness, and who said: "O, my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel?" When it is a question of the work of God in this world, we then find a first great principle, it is, that God does not ask in any case what man can offer Him. The instruments He takes up to glorify Himself by, are those that are weak, and who are conscious of their weakness (1 Cor. 1: 27-29; 2 Cor. 12: 9, 10).

But there is another principle of the greatest importance: this work requires that all be of God. Gideon was already a believer, before the angel of Jehovah sat under the oak. Whatever he had yet to learn, he believed the word of God, which had been transmitted to him by his forefathers (v. 13). Moreover, he identified himself with the people of God: "If Jehovah be with us" — "Jehovah hath forsaken us," he says. He did not follow the course of Heber, he endured with the Israelites the consequences of their wrong-doing. Respect for His word and affection for His people are two signs of divine life at all times, and appertain to all the faithful. Gideon had, however, much to learn. His faith was very feeble, for he did not count on the goodness of God. Humble, doubtless, but looking at himself, he formed a conclusion what God ought to be to him, from what he was. "Now," said he, "Jehovah has forsaken us." The situation is hopeless, for it is the consequence of our unfaithfulness. Thus reasoned Gideon, but did God reason thus?" Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." Ah! how little did he know what was in the heart of God, and how many there are that reason like Gideon. Moreover, notwithstanding his humility, there had not yet been true judgment of self. He wished to offer something, to "bring forth his present" to Jehovah (v. 18). It was, doubtless, not with the intention of doing some great thing for God, but with the thought that all would be well if God accepted his present. We will see the answer of Jehovah, but first let us go back to the principle enunciated above; that, in the work of the deliverance of His people, God is alone upon the scene (see Ex. 14: 13, 14; 2 Chron. 20: 12-18). In the first place, "the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him." Like Saul on the way to Damascus — it is God who commences by revealing Himself to the soul of every one of His servants, in the person of Jesus. Secondly, Jehovah revealed Himself to Gideon as associated with him: "Jehovah is with thee." Thirdly, it was He who gave Gideon a character —  "thou mighty man of valour" — a character which Gideon himself, in his weakness, would never have dreamed of obtaining. Fourthly, "Jehovah looked upon him" in grace, in order to reveal Himself, not only to Him but in Him, as the God of power. If Gideon had no strength, Jehovah had it for him; it is the secret which He made known to him, for He said: "this thy might." Fifthly, it was He who sent him: "Go in this thy might." So was Paul, the servant of God, sent: "not of men, neither by man" (Gal. 1: 1).

Finally, God gave him the proof of the interest He had in him. We have already seen that Gideon wished to offer something to Jehovah, but He can accept nothing from man as such. "Take," said he, "the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth" (v. 20). The only offering which God can accept, is Christ. If He did not receive what Gideon offered Him, He accepted that which represented Christ in it. This man of God had a very imperfect understanding of the value of the sacrifices, which Jehovah had commanded to the children of Israel; "the broth in the pot" was a witness of his ignorance. But God discerned what was real, underlying this feeble faith, and accepted the offering when Gideon laid it "upon the rock." The fire of judgment rose up out of the rock, consuming the flesh and the unleavened cakes. The proof of the interest which God had for him was, in figure, the judgment fallen upon Christ.

It was still necessary that the servant should learn the value of this work for himself. At first he was filled with fear. "Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of Jehovah face to face." But "Jehovah said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die." The consequence of the fire of judgment having consumed the offering, was peace for Gideon. To be a servant of God, one must have received for oneself the knowledge of the work of Christ, and the peace which flows therefrom; the assurance of peace having been made, by virtue of what has passed between God and Christ; the assurance of what God and not Gideon thought of the sacrifice. Such is the foundation of all Christian service (alas! how much it has been forgotten), for, if we have not peace ourselves, how can we proclaim it to others?

The first result of what Gideon had just learned was not to press him into service (another fact completely lost sight of by Christians of our day), but to make him a worshipper. "Then Gideon built an altar there unto Jehovah, and called it Jehovah-shalom" (the God of Peace). The believer should enter the presence of God as a worshipper, before engaging in service. The word illustrates this fact in a multitude of cases —  that of Abraham, and the man born blind, among others. Gideon praised the God of peace, and could thenceforth offer upon the altar of worship a sacrifice which Jehovah accepted.

It was only after the altar of worship was set up that God called Gideon as a servant to bear public testimony, and this began in his father's house. It consisted in destroying "the altar of Baal, and the grove that is by it," and substituting for these the altar of testimony — the altar of the God whom Gideon knew. The positive duty of one who would be a testimony for God is, before all else, to cast down his idols. Why is it that there are so few true servants among Christians, walking in the power of a testimony for Christ? It is because they have not the two altars. And why have they not the second? Because they have not provided themselves wood for the sacrifice. The idols are the wood (v. 26). Let us overthrow them, let nothing of them remain. Let us begin in the innermost circle of the family. If we do not do this, where will our testimony be? The overthrowing of the idols is the secret of power; the Spirit of Jehovah only came upon Gideon when he had accomplished this act. We have not now, as he, Baals of stone, and groves of wood, but we have many other idols; and, little like him, we often prefer them to the power of a faithful walk with God. Gideon obeyed unhesitatingly, without compromise or reservation. For him the idols were nothing compared with the God he knew. This "mighty man of valour" had been wanting in courage. Fear of the enemy (v. 11), afraid of God (v. 23), fear of his father's house (v. 27), were some of his characteristics. He did his work at night, fearing to do it by day; he did it, nevertheless, for God had so commanded him. It was only in the morning that the people of the city saw what had been done. He who knew the character of Gideon had not said to him: Do this work by day. Let us, too, feeble as we are, destroy our idols in silence, when no eye observes us. Let us not speak too loudly of the matter; let us accomplish this difficult work with fear and trembling, looking to God only, in the silence of the night. The world will soon perceive that we have a new altar which it knows not, and that the grove has no value for us except as wood to be burned. Then the world, which has hitherto sustained us, will hate us. It was the altar of testimony which drew upon Gideon the animosity of all. Hated, but what did it matter, for he received the name of Jerubbaal (let Baal plead), and became in presence of all, the personal witness of the worthlessness of the things he had formerly worshipped.

The effect of Gideon's testimony was to convince his father of the nothingness of Baal. The faith of the father was less than that of the son. Gideon destroyed Baal because he knew God; Joash received God because he no longer acknowledged Baal. It was very little, but it was something.

Brethren, are we witnesses before the world of the folly of all that it finds its interest in? If we have not maintained the altar of Baal, possibly we have not destroyed "the grove that is by it." Unqualified obedience to the word of God, is the path of power. At certain periods of our lives power has characterized our service, at others it has been lacking. Let us then ask ourselves if we have not rebuilt some idol that we had destroyed. All public service for the Christian must begin by faithfulness in the little circle in which he is called to move.

Gideon proved at first the hostility of those who bore the name of people of God, a hostility which was restrained for the time by the sincerity of his testimony. Midian and Amalek (v. 33), however, were not thus restrained. If, in their folly, the people of the city sought to hinder their own deliverance, the world made a determined effort to suppress the revival which was to release Israel from bondage.

Up to this time Gideon had only performed an act of obedience; now the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him. His first act of power was to sound the trumpet, assembling the tribes together after him. The strength of Israel was in their gathering together, it was that which Satan and the world most feared.

Gideon, notwithstanding his strength, did not manifest much confidence in God. He asked for signs to know if Jehovah would save the people by his hand. All God's orders to Gideon were clear and simple, but when Gideon asked for signs of God, all became obscure and complicated. We can hardly understand what his thought was. It may be that the fleece represented Israel, blessed of God, when dryness rested upon the nations, and vice versa, for having proved God, Gideon put Him to a counterproof. What poor faith! What feeble confidence in Him! But the God of grace patiently did what His servant required. He wished to deliver His people. He wished, by all means, to sustain the feeble heart of His witness, in order to enlist him in His service and to make him an instrument for His glory.

What characterises God's witnesses in the Day of ruin.

(Judges 7: 1-14)

In Judges 6, we have seen the servant prepared for the work for which God destined him; the verses which we have just read show us the characteristics of God's witnesses in a day of ruin.

In the days of the nation's moral prosperity under Joshua, when it was a question of going to war, all Israel went up to battle, and the unity of the people was thereby strikingly manifested. The first conflict at Ai (Joshua 7: 1-5), the only exception to this rule, resulted in the defeat of those who took part in it. In a time of declension, it is otherwise. When all the people went up with Gideon, Jehovah said to him: "the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands," for the danger was that Israel would vaunt themselves against Jehovah, saying: "Mine own hand hath saved me." At such a period God takes special care to repress the pride that would attach credit to man in a work which belongs exclusively to Himself. Christendom in the present day boasts of the number of its adherents, under the impression that it sees therein a factor in the work of God. If any work is wrought of Him, she attributes it to herself; and, like Laodicea, prides herself in her resources: "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing."

This then is the first characteristic of God's testimony in the midst of ruin: fewness of numbers and absence of display.

In verse 3, we find the second characteristic: "whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead." Moses had formerly given this command to the children of Israel: "What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart" (Deut. 20: 8). The same passage (vs. 5-7) teaches us that those who were fearful and afraid, were those who had something to lose. A servant of God is full of courage for his work, when he has nothing to lose here, because the excellency of Christ has made him despise what the world values. Alas! what numbers of fearful there are in our days, even as formerly, when: "there returned of the people twenty and two thousand, and there remained ten thousand." God wants undivided hearts for the accomplishment of His work; hearts that have nothing to lose, that are afraid of nothing, and who cannot exert a baneful influence over those who have gone out to the war unentangled with the affairs of this life. The twenty-two thousand came in for the spoil, but were unequal to the effort required to get it. Those that are fearful will profit by the testimony, but have not the qualification necessary to maintain it.

We come now to a third characteristic of the witnesses. God tested them in order to bring out if they realized that all is loss for those who would win the battle. "He brought down the people unto the water." Will they how down upon their knees to drink, or lap of the water with their tongues, as a dog lappeth? Some seek their ease, and enjoy to the full those blessings which Providence has placed in their path; others, having as their sole aim to gain the victory, do not allow themselves to be diverted from their object, but, tasting the water by the way, only find therein what invigorates them for their service. It is said of the Lord, "He shall drink of the brook in the way" (Ps. 110: 7). When He thus drank, "He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem," the scene of His agony and death (Luke 9: 51). There is nothing that so trammels the action of the Christian in his testimony, as taking his ease, and settling down in the enjoyment of the earthly blessings which the providence of God bestows upon him, instead of simply tasting them by the way. The Christianity of the present day, boweth down upon the knees to drink; it gives thanks, it may be, to God, but sees, in the earthly blessings, the object and end of its piety; whereas, the witnesses for God, just take as much as will enable them to continue on their journey. These three hundred, who lapped the water as a dog lappeth, drinking what the hand carried to the mouth, were not only the devoted, but the humble ones. They remind one of the poor Syrophenician woman, who, when compared to a dog, replied, "Yes Lord," happy to be dependent only on His grace (Mark 7: 28). God wants devoted yet humble witnesses.

These men took in their hands their trumpets, symbols of testimony, but they also took their victuals (v. 8). We cannot overcome without being fed, of which Israel was a proof under the terrible yoke of Midian who left them without sustenance.

Before the engagement, Gideon himself was called to undergo two personal experiences which strengthened him for the victory (vs. 9-14). In the first place, that, in himself, he was no better than the twenty two thousand fearful ones. "If thou fear to go down," said Jehovah to him. Did he reply: I am brave, I have already sounded the trumpet in every direction to assemble Israel to battle? No, he accepted the humbling truth. Then God placed him before the enemy, which lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and traced his portrait by the mouth of one of them. This mighty man of valour was compared to a cake of barley bread, coarse and homely food, and this was "the sword of Gideon!" Fine sort of a sword wherewith to smite this multitude! But, in reality, the sword of Gideon was "the sword of Jehovah" (v. 20), and it was therein the power lay.

Gideon learned to know himself, but God also revealed to him the moral state of the enemy that he was called to encounter. It was a vanquished foe. "For into his hand," said the Midianite to his fellow, "hath God delivered Midian and all the host" (v. 14). May we have a better understanding of this truth in connection with our three enemies, the flesh, the world and Satan. The flesh is crucified, the world is overcome, Satan is judged. This fills us with courage before them. Gideon, realized all these things and worshipped.

What testimony consists in.

(Judges 7: 15-25)

The passage we have read is a reply to the question: In what does the testimony of God consist, and what does it do in a day of ruin? Full of joy and confidence, Gideon returned to the camp of Israel. "Arise," said he, "for Jehovah hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian." Then, dividing the three hundred men into three companies, "he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers." These three things represent the principles of God's testimony in the struggle with Satan and the world.

We find the use of the trumpets detailed in Numbers 10: 1-10. They were the voice of God to communicate His mind to the people on four important occasions: they gave the signal for gathering the people together; for the journeying of the camps; for battle; and also for the solemn feasts or worship. That which the sound of the trumpets formerly represented for Israel, we find in the present day, in another and very precious way, in the word of God. By it God speaks to us; it is that which regulates and directs the gathering together, the walk, the warfare, and the worship, of the children of God. How much these things are forgotten in our day! It seems to the majority of God's children that Christianity consists only in taking the gospel to the unconverted. It was otherwise that Gideon understood the testimony of faith. He began where God begins (Num. 10). "He blew the trumpet, and Abi-ezer was gathered after him" (Judges 6: 34). He was the bearer of the divine voice for the gathering together again of Israel, who had been scattered by their own failure. Brethren, have we at heart in this day, the gathering together of the children of God? Let us then take the word of God, let us make its voice heard in the ears of the saints who have been unaccustomed to hear it. Let us show Christians that their being gathered together is the purpose of God, the purpose of the cross of Christ, as well as of the energy of the Spirit in the world. Let us show them that it is the enemy who has scattered us, and that the great opposition to his power is the gathering together of the children of God apart from the world, and we will have the joy of having laboured for that which the word calls "good and pleasant!" (Ps. 133: 1).

The trumpet also sounded for the march, for which there can be no other directions than the word of God affords us. The relinquishment of this standard has been the sole cause of the divergences of the walk of the children of God. Why should we not walk in the same path if our hearts were all equally subject to that word which furnishes us with unerring guidance for each step?

The trumpet called to battle; and here we arrive at the circumstances of our chapter. The testimony of God is inseparable from conflict, for it not only consists in gathering together, and the march, but in an attitude openly taken in opposition to the world, the enemy of God. We have to proclaim boldly that we are — without any possible compromise — in a struggle with the world. The conflict has two purposes: to put us in possession of our privileges (which is the subject of the book of Joshua), and to deliver the people of God who have been brought into subjection to the enemy through their own unfaithfulness, which is the way it is looked at in the book of Judges. In Joshua all Israel were to go up to the conquest of Canaan; here, the struggle is reserved to a certain number of witnesses, champions of Jehovah, for the deliverance of His captive people.

The trumpets sounded for their solemn feasts. The word of God alone, defines and regulates worship. We merely allude to this subject, as this is not the place to go into it.

The empty pitchers are a second factor in testimony. They were, doubtless, some of the utensils which had contained the victuals of the people (v. 8); and though now empty and worthless, Gideon, taught of God, knew how to utilize them for His glory. 2 Cor. 4: 1-10 makes obvious allusion to this scene. The apostle Paul speaking there of the position he was placed in as a witness before the world, says, he was "for the manifestation of the truth," and to bear "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (Rev. vers) before men. He then adds: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (v. 7). An earthen vessel, such was the "mortal flesh" of the great apostle of the Gentiles. Empty pitchers represented what Gideon and his warriors were in themselves. The lesson which their leader had just learned in the camp of Midian, the three hundred had also individually to realize. Like Paul's earthen vessel, these empty pitchers were only fit to be broken. When God raises up a testimony, He only glorifies Himself in instruments which He has broken. He carried His gospel to the nations by a Saul whom He had previously cast down in the dust on his way to Damascus, and glorified the excellence of His power in a Paul whom He continued to discipline to the end. "Troubled on every side," said the apostle, "yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . . ."

Of what use were these empty pitchers? To hold the lamps, the third and most important element in testimony for God; to carry within them this treasure, the divine light, in order that, as the apostle says, "the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4: 10). If, in testimony, the trumpets represent the word of God, and the pitchers ourselves, what are the lamps but the life of Jesus, the light of Christ. The first two elements only serve to make the third manifest amidst the surrounding darkness. Gideon's men blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers (Judges 7: 19), and the light shone out all about them. It is the same with real witnesses: "For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake;" it is God Himself who takes care to break the vessels, "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4: 11). It does not say: the life of Christ, but that of Jesus, the life of that Man whose path through this world was one of holiness. We are called to represent down here the Man Jesus, walking as He walked (1 John 2: 6), and it is in that that our testimony consists.

There is not a single Christian in the world who cannot be the bearer of these three elements of testimony for God. How is it then that so few are found? It is because these three principles that God requires are lacking. The trumpet must be sounded, the pitchers must be broken, the lamp must not be put under a bushel. Are we taking our ease down here, having all we need in the world, loved and respected of men; have we never had any of the apostle's experiences, tribulations, perplexities, persecution, cast down? Ah! if not, we are wretched for we have nothing. God has not accounted us worthy to bear a single ray of the light of Christ before the world. Happy those who are broken! "Blessed .... blessed," as the Lord said in Matt. 5, adding: "Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven."

The three hundred, standing every man in his place round about the camp, cried: "The sword of Jehovah, and of Gideon!" The world is put to rout by this simple cry! Bear testimony to Christ, live Christ, taking no account of self; let the two-edged sword of the Lord be your weapon: all the power of Satan and of the world will be unable to resist you. Occupied with their glorious task, neither Gideon nor his companions were in danger of sitting down under the tents of Midian, which the judgment of God was about to overthrow; for they found their security and strength, notwithstanding the broken pitchers, in the trumpets of Israel whose notes were so penetrating, and in the lamps of God whose light was so bright.

It is an encouraging fact that testimony begets testimony. The three hundred were employed to reunite the people. The men of Israel were gathered together and pursued Midian (v. 23), and all the men of Ephraim came together and joined in the pursuit and shared in the spoil. We shall see this result if we are faithful. Let us be witnesses for Christ, and we shall awaken zeal in those who are His. May that time soon arrive in which, when Jesus comes, He shall find, not only some hundreds, but, a people who are all witnesses, who have fought, held fast, and overcome for Him!

Difficulties and snares in service.

(Judges 8: 1-23)

The moment that we set out to walk with God, and to bear testimony for Him, we may be sure of finding all sorts of difficulties in our path. In the preceding chapter, Gideon and his three hundred companions encountered some. Their conflict was not without suffering, for they had to forego their pleasures ant comforts, only taking so much refreshment by the way as would enable them to attain their object. Chapter 8 shows us other ways in which they had to suffer.

The men of Ephraim contended with Gideon. In the time of Deborah they had been in the post of honour (Judges 5: 14), but since then there had been declension, and Gideon, taught of God, had not summoned them; they were fallen to the second rank. This distinction made them jealous of what Jehovah had entrusted to their companions, jealous of the energy of faith and of its results to the others. "Why hast thou served us thus?" (v. 1) Ephraim, preoccupied with his own importance, thinks of himself instead of thinking of God. This is a frequent source of strife between brethren, and such contentions are far more painful and trying than conflict with the world. It is precious to see the man of God pass through this difficulty in the power of the Spirit. The book of Judges gives us three examples of similar contentions: the case of Gideon, that of Jephthah, and that of the eleven tribes against Benjamin. Here trouble was avoided, and a breach prevented. Later on, it was not so. When altercations arise among Christians, deep humility is their only resource. Gideon had learned this in the school of God, as the preceding chapters relate, so that it was not difficult for him to realize on this occasion how to act. God had made him understand that the courage and strength which he had, did not emanate from himself; and that, in itself, the sword of Gideon was worth as little as a cake of barley bread. And so, in the presence of Ephraim, the servant that Jehovah had used for this great deliverance, took care not to speak of himself. He devoted his attention to what God had done by the hands of his brethren. "What have I done now," said he, "in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?" He took the lowest place and acknowledged the zeal for God which, after all, they had shown to their honour; and the humility of this servant of God is thus the means of removing a great difficulty. Let us act in a similar way, and, when we speak of our brethren, let us enumerate, not their failures, but what God has wrought in them. Can I not admire Christ in my brother when I see how God is dealing with him, breaking him down so that, at all costs, what characterized the Lord may be manifested in Him? Nothing so appeases contention as seeing Christ in others; it is the result of a normal Christian condition in the children of God.

Gideon and his companions encountered a second difficulty far more trying than the previous one. They were "faint yet pursuing," experiencing, as to the outward man, that daily perishing, which is the portion of believers in their testimony, at the same time pressing forward so as to reach the goal, cost what it may (2 Cor. 4: 16; Phil. 3: 12).

They reached Succoth, a city of Israel which belonged to the tribe of Gad. Succoth rejected them, refusing even to give them bread. There was thus, in the midst of the people of God, an entire city, bearing the name of Israel, which had renounced all corporate responsibility with those who bore testimony for Jehovah. They said, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army?" They had confidence in the enemy, and would not compromise themselves by taking part with Israel. There are many in the present day who bear the name of Christ, and yet seek the friendship of and alliance with the world; who, through fear of compromising themselves, make common cause with our enemies, increasing the difficulties of the way for believers, and hindering them from being overcomers. It need not surprise us that a righteous indignation does not stop us in the way to chastise this spirit. Our hearts, like Gideon's, should be wholly in the conflict. The man of God kept on his way; the infamous conduct of Penuel no more arrests him than that of Succoth. Everything in its time for God's witness. Satan seeks to bring in confusion as to this, so as to make obstacles for us. Zebah and Zalmunna must not be allowed to escape; the judgment of the rebellious cities will be executed later. On his return, the man of God exercised discipline in the assembly of Israel, and "cut off the wicked," for God would be dishonoured were evil tolerated in the assembly.

I am not sure that I have sufficiently noticed, in all this history, the way in which the two characteristics, humility and energy of faith, were united in Gideon. Energy, to gather and purify the people for battle and for pursuit of the enemy; humility! which delivered from all self-confidence and led to implicit reliance on Jehovah. And yet it was on the side which seemed to have the least need of watchfulness, that the enemy was about to lay a snare for him, finally bringing about the moral ruin of this eminent leader in Israel.

The vanquished kings were not sparing in their praise of Gideon (v. 18-21), which was all the more dangerous because there was apparently no interested motive. He asked them, "What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?" And they answered, "As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king."

Let us distrust the flattery of the world. A moment's reflection before the Lord would tell us, that the world flatters to enfeeble us, and to deprive us of the weapons with which we fight against it.

It does not appear as if Gideon was turned aside from God's path by this speech, but he seems to have lost a true sense of the power of the enemy, and to have despised rather than feared it. This was not the case with Joshua when he made prisoners of the five kings (Joshua 10: 22-27). Far from underrating the strength of the enemy in the eyes of the men of Israel, he said to them: "Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings;" then he added: "Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage;" so much did he realize at the same time the power of the world and the strength of Jehovah. Two things become us when we are fighting with the enemy — fear and trembling as to ourselves; and full assurance as to God, excluding all alarm, for we know that Satan and the world are vanquished foes. Gideon realized these things imperfectly. He entrusted to his son Jether, the task of killing these two kings. "But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared;." In Judges 7, Jehovah had separated those who were afraid and withdrawn them from the conflict. Here Gideon, committing to a child the destruction of an enemy he despised, did not act in keeping with the ways of God, who does not call those that are but children in the faith to perform publicly brilliant actions; a child goes to school and not to war.

Then those kings said: "Rise thou, and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength." A fresh flattery, against which Gideon ought to have protested, for he had learned a totally different lesson in the school of God. In reality, his strength was exactly the opposite to that which was of man. Did he not know it when the angel of Jehovah said to him (the least of his father's house), "Go in this thy might?" Had he not realized it on that solemn night when God had revealed to him, that a cake of barley bread was about to overthrow all the tents of Midian? In his better days, Gideon would not have accepted this flattery, nor have allowed the adversary to plant a germ of self-confidence in his heart.

But we see him exposed to a fresh snare (v. 22-23). It is no longer the flattery of the world, but that of the people of God. The men of Israel said unto Gideon: "Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son and thy son's son also, for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian." They put their leader in the place of Jehovah and offer him the sceptre. "Rule thou over us." None are more prone to clericalism than the people of God. It is not only the bane of Christendom, it is also the innate tendency of the natural heart of believers. The fact of ministry being blessed is apt to lead us to make of the servant a "minister" in the human sense, thus losing sight of God. By the grace of God, the faith of Gideon escaped this danger. He said resolutely, "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you; Jehovah shall rule over you." The object of his ministry was that God should have the pre-eminence and lose nothing of His authority over His people.

Gideon's ephod.

(Judges 8: 24-35)

Hitherto Gideon had been marvellously preserved amidst dangers and snares. His heart was still full of good intentions; but a subtle poison had been doing its work in his heart, and we are about to witness the ruin of the career of the judge, as formerly we have seen the ruin of the people.

"And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey;" a request with which the people willingly complied. Gideon did not covet these things as Achan did, when he brought judgment upon Israel. He was noble-hearted and disinterested, and wished to make a good use of the gold. Aaron, of old, had asked for their ornaments to make therewith the calf of gold. Jerubbaal, who had cast down the idols, in no wise sought to set them up again; but, impressed with the sense of his own importance, he wished to erect a memorial of his victory at Ophrah, his native town. This memorial was to be an ephod, an article of divine appointment. It formed part of the vestments which the sacrificing priest wore when representing the people before God. It was indeed a beautiful object, yet in Jehovah's eyes it was worthless, apart from the high priest who wore it. Alas! all Israel looked upon this ephod as a means of approach to God, and went and prostrated themselves before it. Even Gideon and his house fell into the snare.

Christendom is no stranger to ephods. Many are the things of divine appointment which it has apart from Christ and by which it imagines that it can approach God. The church, ministry, baptism, the Lord's supper, and even prayer, separated from their source, become ephods before which people prostrate themselves. Form takes the place of God, and souls thereby fall again into idolatry. Ah! do they not even make an idol of Christ on the cross! The brazen serpent had been kept and the people had made a false god of it. Like the faithful Hezekiah, the true witness of the present day cannot put up with that. The king brake in pieces this idol, and called it Nehushtan, i.e., a piece of brass (2 Kings 18: 4).

What a humbling fact, that the leaders of the people should be the instruments to lead them back into idolatry! Frequently, after an auspicious beginning, the heart, allowing itself to be acted upon by the flattery of the world, is influenced thereby, and the desire gradually gains ground to be of some importance in, as well as recognized by, it. A monument is thus erected which can only add material to the increase of the ruin; thus their Ophrah became a gathering centre, and the ephod became a centre of Ophrah, to the displacement of the divine sanctuary at Shiloh, the true centre of gathering for Israel. Gideon was not a proud man, but, his heart being deceived, he was no longer upright before God. He dwelt in his own house (v. 29), and rested from his glorious labours. He was surrounded by a numerous family, but he had set up a "serpent" which was eventually to accomplish the destruction of his race. No sooner had he closed his eyes in death, than Israel returned to unmixed idolatry, and made Baal-berith their god (v. 33), thus making a demon their chief and "Lord of the covenant."

But there is one consolation in the midst of all the ruin which will be seen in chap. 9: God never leaves Himself without a testimony in this scene. Let us then be His witnesses, holding fast this word of Gideon to the people: "Jehovah shall rule over you."

Abimelech, or the Usurpation of Authority.

(Judges 9)

This chapter introduces us to such a sorrowful phase of declension, that, at first sight, it does not seem to contain a single refuge for faith. In Judges 8, we have seen the congregation of Israel wishing to confer authority on their leader; here, a wolf usurps the: Shepherd's place, and seizes upon the flock in order to devour it. It is the arbitrary authority of the evil servant, who, in the absence of his lord, began to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken (Matt. 24: 48, 49). This briefly reminds us of the principle of clericalism in the house of God and its pernicious encroachments. The wretched Abimelech was not a judge; he sought a position still more exalted: he had himself proclaimed king (v. 6), and took, in the midst of the people, the title assumed by those who rule over the nations. In thus openly arrogating to himself this title (v. 2), he acted in the opposite way to a judge who had been raised up of God (c.f. Judges 8: 23). In order to usurp this place, he resorted to thoroughly human expedients. Through the brothers of his mother, the concubine of Gideon, he beguiled the men of Shechem under the guise of fraternity. They placed confidence in this traitor; their moral state was so low, that they even forgot the bond that united them to all Israel, and said of Abimelech: "He is our brother." Fraternity had lost, for them, its true meaning, and had come to be a name characterizing only a party.

The influence of this man was sustained by treasure taken from the house of a false god. The usurper appealed to the pockets of the people, and did not despise the unholy source from which the money came. This silver served to accomplish the devil's work. Baal's treasure took the place of Jehovah's power, and furnished the usurper with the means of persecuting and cutting off the posterity of faith, the family of God (v. 5). One only, Jotham, the youngest of all Gideon's sons, a poor, insignificant creature, escaped, and succeeded in concealing himself.

Abimelech was successful; the evil spirit triumphed, but it will never be a spirit of peace among men. Intestine dissensions, treacheries, struggles for supremacy, vintages productive of drunken hilarity, drunkenness finding its vent in curses, the ambition of Gaal, the counsels of Ebed, the craft of Zebul, the violence of Abimelech — such were the disturbing elements which troubled the camp of Israel, when the testimony of God had left it. It became a scene of sorrow, of slaughter, and of hatred; but Jehovah, in His grace, caused a ray of light to shine in the midst of the darkness. He does not leave Himself without testimony; this we may reiterate with confidence, as we pass through difficult times. And should there be, as here, only a single witness left for God in this world, may we be that one, that despised Jotham, the last of all, but standing steadfast for God. Preserved by the providential goodness of Jehovah, "he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim" (v. 7). Moses, in the past, had decreed that six tribes should stand on Mount Ebal to curse, and six on Gerizim to bless. Joshua had remembered this when the people entered Canaan, but since then Israel had morally chosen Ebal, the place of cursing. Jotham chose Gerizim, the place of blessing, and he stood there alone. As God's witness, in face of the whole people, he lifted up his voice and spoke a fable in their ears, proclaiming the blessing of faith and also the consequences of the unfaithfulness of the people. Jotham is, in his own person, the representative of the blessings of the true Israel of God; as to himself, feeble and persecuted, yet able to enjoy the favour of God and testify for Him, bearing fruit to His glory.

In his recital, three trees refuse to be promoted over the other trees. They depict, according to the word, the different characteristics of Israel under the blessing of Jehovah. The olive tree said: "Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" (v. 9). Oil answers to the unction and the power of the Holy Spirit by which God and men are honoured. The Israel of God can only realize this power, when in thorough separation from the nation's and their principles. These latter set up kings over themselves (1 Sam. 8: 5), whilst Jehovah was the sole ruler of the people when faithful. The fig tree said: "Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?" (v. 11), for Israel could only bear fruit when in separation from the nations. The vine said: "Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" New wine is the joy found in the mutual communion of men with God, and this enjoyment — the highest that could be desired — was lost to Israel when they adopted the spirit and ways of the nations.

What a lesson for us Christians! The world is to the church, what the nations were to Israel. If we yield to its solicitations, we abandon our oil, our fruit, our new wine — that is to say, our spiritual power, the works which God has prepared for us (Eph. 2: 10), and the joy of communion. Oh! are we able to respond to all the offers of the world; Should I leave that which is my happiness and my strength, for fruitless turmoil, or to satisfy the lusts and ambitions of the heart of men? Jotham, like his father Gideon (Judges 8: 23), appreciates these treasures of the Israel of God, and set himself apart on Gerizim, retaining his blessed position. In the presence of all this apostate people, he is the true and last bud of faith, the sole witness for God. What honour for the young and feeble son of Jerubbaal! Spurned by all, his lot was the only enviable one, for he glorified God in this sorrowful world. May we too, like him, be found in the path of separation from evil There we shall taste all that the trees of God yield. He who has enjoyed these things exclaims: "Should I leave them?"

When Jotham had shown the people their folly, and foretold their judgment, he ran away and fled (v. 21). He left the congregation of Israel, abandoning it to the chastisement which was already at the door. He went to Beer and dwelt there: "That is the well whereof Jehovah spake unto Moses, 'Gather the people together, and I will give them water,'" and which Israel celebrated in a song (Num. 21: 16-18). Thus it is, that the faithful witnesses, in the midst of Christendom already ripe for judgment, withdraw to Beer, the true gathering point, where is the fountain of living water (c.f. Jer. 2: 13), the place also of songs and praises.

Tola and Jair.

(Judges 10: 1-5)

The beginning of this chapter gives us a brief sketch of the history of two judges in Israel — Tola and Jair — both eminent men. The first was renowned for his descent, his ancestors being mentioned in Genesis amongst the sons of Israel who went down into Egypt — namely, Tola and Puah among the sons of Issachar (Gen. 46: 13; 1 Chr. 8: 1). The second was conspicuous for his wealth, the number of his sons, his prosperity (c.f. Judges 5: 10), and his cities. But, strange to say, nothing else is added. Their rule continued for nearly the same length of time. God made use of them, qualifying even Tola "to save Israel" by (Rev. Ver), but He did not glorify Himself by them in any special way. This reminds us of 1 Cor. 1: 26-29; "Not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God bath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things, which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence." God uses, in preference, weak vessels, and that is the reason why so many of the judges bear, in one way or another, the stamp of weakness. On the other hand, all the value of God's instruments consists in presenting the character of Christ. How difficult it would be for a man who was powerful, noble or rich, to reflect the traits of Him who, when here below, was found in the place of weakness, humiliation and poverty, that He might bring the grace of God to us. The judges who preceded them, being neither Tolas nor Jairs, were examples of humility, of forgetfulness of self, esteeming others better than themselves; and who, having nothing to lose, gave proof of spiritual energy which nothing could arrest and whose very weakness achieved a victory.

A Fresh Revival in Israel.

(Judges 10: 6-18)

The peaceful times of Tola and Jair did not prevent the people from sinking lower and lower. The declension increased, and the evil became more pronounced. "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook Jehovah, and served not Him" (v. 6). Never before had such an assemblage of false gods been seen in Israel. The people were wholly given over to idolatry. Ammon was raised up as the rod of Jehovah and oppressed Gilead eighteen years. He also passed over Jordan to fight against Judah and Benjamin. Then, under the pressure of circumstances, grace wrought in the conscience of the people. It is a remarkable fact, that, in proportion as apostasy approaches its final development, the awakenings in conscience became deeper. I do not say that they widened. We have but to call to mind the song of Deborah, which brought out in the clearest light all the privileges of the people of God. But Israel, at that time, had but a slight sense of their responsibility, the conscience of the people was less aroused, and self judgment less marked. We find here, for the first time, divine light penetrating the conscience of the people, and leading them to judge themselves deeply (c.f. Judges 6: 7-10). "We have sinned against Thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim" (v. 10). Then God reminds them of all His grace and His deliverances on former occasions. and of the number of the nations out of whose hand He had saved them, adding: "Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods" — driving home, like an arrow in their consciences, the word which their distress had wrung from them, and He closes with these words: "Wherefore I will deliver you no more" (v. 13). Israel, as a whole, could not be restored. This finds its counterpart in the history of the church.

On hearing these words, the children of Israel took a further step in the salutary path in which the Spirit of God was leading them. "We have sinned; do Thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee." Confessing their sin, passing judgment upon themselves, and acknowledging the righteousness of God's judgment, they added: "Deliver us only, we pray Thee, this day" (v. 15). They appealed to His grace. Could He turn a deaf ear to their cry? Impossible! Repentance led them to a fuller knowledge of Jehovah than they had ever had before.

This restoration would not have been real, had it not borne fruit. "And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served Jehovah" (v. 16); turning to God from idols they served the living and true God. Then Jehovah opened to them the treasures of the pity of His heart.

God wishes that this should be the character of revivals in the sorrowful days in which our lot is cast. It is well for souls to be acquainted with their privileges and heavenly position; but it is also necessary that a deep work in the conscience should accompany the revival, in order that fruits of true holiness, humble devotedness, complete consecration may be borne by Christians, and that without ostentation or putting themselves forward to speak of themselves, but, forsaking idols, to serve the Lord.

However blessed this day of revival was, one thing was painfully lacking — a knowledge of the fundamental truths which God had confided to His people. "And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, what man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead" (v. 18). They had no sense of the unity of the people. Gilead made of himself a party. The authority and guidance of the Spirit of God were but little known, for they said: "What man is he?" They had only another step to make — to choose for themselves; this step they took in vs. 4-11 of the following chapter. Not that Jephthah was not raised up of God, but Gilead took part in the choice. How widely different was this from the call of Gideon, and how painfully characteristic of the last days of declension — this inter-meddling of man.

Jephthah and his Daughter.

(Judges 11)

In verses 1-11 the deliverer comes on the scene. He bears the stamp of infirmity, so often found throughout this book. Jephthah, the Gileadite, was "a mighty man of valour," but of impure origin, the son of an harlot, the remembrance of which could not fail to fill him with shame. Nevertheless God used him, yea much more than this, presents to us, through him, some of the characteristics of Christ. Let us remember that the history of believers is only of value in the measure in which a reflection of the Saviour is reproduced in them. There would be much to perplex and little to edify in the history of Jephthah, did we not seek therein what manifested God's character. The word of God which shows, on the one hand, the natural man, wholly estranged from God, describes to us, also, all the weaknesses and failures of men of faith such as Jephthah; but God gives us more than that in their history. He presents Christ to us, and it is this which makes them so interesting, We readily discover the faults of our brethren, but we should be more interested in the way God forms and fashions them, in order, spite of all, to raise up witnesses for Christ. Jephthah, whose origin was somewhat similar to that of Abimelech, presents a marked contrast to that ungodly man. Abimelech sought, from the outset, to exalt himself, and usurped the place of the legitimate family of Gideon. Jephthah, who — apart from his origin — was the eldest of the family, was rejected by his brethren: "Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman" (v. 2). Does that not remind us of the words: "We will not have this man to reign over us!" (Luke 19: 14). "Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob" (v. 3). Jephthah allowed himself to be despoiled, humbled himself instead of lifting up his head among the wicked, gave up all his rights and went away to a strange country. But God knew how to find him and to bring him to the front again. The moment came, when those who had driven their deliverer away, were compelled to cast themselves as suppliants at his feet. "Did not ye hate me," said Jephthah to the elders of Gilead, "and expel me from my father's house?" (v. 7). This very saviour whom they had derided, they were forced, as formerly were Joseph's brethren, to acknowledge in the far country; and, appealing to him in their distress, besought him to become their captain. Jephthah did not consent to take this title before victory (v. 9). And so will it be with Christ, who will be publicly recognized as the Head of Israel by His triumph over their enemies. It is interesting to see in this man, despised by the world yet enduring its scorn, a faint representation of the Messiah; for we may say? that it was in representing Christ, that he was considered worthy to lead the people of God.

The children of Ammon were at that time, the sworn enemies of Israel. The worst adversaries of the people of God are always the descendants. according to the flesh, of believers. Midian, against whom Gideon fought, proceeded from Ishmael, the seed of Abraham according to the flesh; Moab and the children of Ammon sprang from Lot; Edom was the son of Isaac after the flesh. There were others, no doubt, such as Jabin under Barak, and the Philistines under Samson, but we maintain that our most determined enemies are the outcome of our failures or of the flesh in us. The bitterest opposition to the testimony and spiritual life of the church, springs from her own unfaithfulness under cover of the name of Christ. Her idolatrous ways, so foreign to divine life, in all their hatred and craft, will prove to be for the humiliation, chastisement and snare of God's people, to the very end.

The children of Ammon, taking advantage of the low condition of Israel to rise up against them, sought to despoil them of their lawful territory and privileges and to appropriate them to themselves. What had the people gained by bowing down before the idols of Ammon? They had fallen under the judgment of God, and into the hands of the enemies of Jehovah. If we step on to the world's platform, it robs us, causes us to lose the reality of our privileges, and takes them away. Dreadful confusion is the result. The world then says to us: My rights are as great as yours, I am as good a Christian as you are, for you show as much activity for the things of the world as I do. "Israel took away my land .... now therefore restore those lands again peaceably" (v. 13). Such are the consequences of our unfaithfulness.

Under these circumstances a revival produces remarkable effects. Jephthah did not deny the low condition of the people, but, when he addressed the children of Ammon, he went back to the beginning of Israel's blessings (vs. 15-27). Far from agreeing to this state of things, in accepting the yoke which Ammon for eighteen years had placed upon the people, he took his stand upon Israel's original blessings, in the day when they went out of Egypt for the purpose of entering Canaan. He maintained the blessings, as the ones upon which the people had been established. We will proceed said he, in accordance with the principles which God gave us at the beginning, and which are ours for ever He saw the people, the family of God, as God had looked at them at the first, and said: "Our conflict is not with the children of Ammon, but with the Amorites" It is the same for the church Her warfare is with the spiritual powers in heavenly places (Eph. 6), just as Israel's was with the Canaanites. Our controversy is not with the religious mixtures, which are the outcome of the flesh and which we neither recognize as friends or enemies, nor do we combat them unless they compel us to do so. Our language should be that of Jephthah: "We will keep the land which Jehovah hath given us" (v. 24).

Jephthah having spoken thus, a fresh blessing was granted him: "Then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah" (v. 29). The power of God was found in the path which he was on. Not to conform to the ruin as though God could accept it, and to act on the principles which God committed to us at the beginning, is the path of power even when we are reduced to the number of two or three gathered together in His name.

"The Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah." Alas! how often it happens that the flesh manifests itself in us, as it did in him. He was not content with divine grace and power. Ignorant of the true character of God, he "vowed a vow unto Jehovah" (v. 30), made an arrangement with God, on the footing of a mutual agreement; and, binding himself before Him in a legal way, fell into Israel's error in the wilderness of Sinai. "If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be Jehovah's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering" (vs. 30, 31).

God, leaving Jephthah to the responsibility and consequences of his vow, did not manifest either approval or disapproval of it. Heaven seemed closed to the voice of the leader of Israel. Nevertheless the Spirit of Jehovah accorded to him the victory.

Jephthah returned to Mizpeh, unto his house, and, behold his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. "She was his only child" (v. 34). These words remind us of more than one passage of Scripture. God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest" (Gen. 22: 2). But Abraham offered up his son "by faith" at God's command, Jephthah offered his daughter by an act of his own will, which was simply a want of faith. The words "only," "only begotten," remind us again of a greater than Isaac. Like Jephthah in his earlier history, his daughter reproduced in a touching manner some traits of the character of Christ. When faith was lacking in the father, it shone out brightly in his poor child. This only daughter, devoted beforehand to the sacrifice by a rash vow (Christ, on the contrary, was that by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God), is seen submitting herself, instead of rebelling or blaming her father. "My father," said she, "if thou hast opened thy mouth unto Jehovah, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon" (v. 36). She submitted on account of Jehovah, a faint reflection, doubtless, of Him who said: "I come to do Thy will, O God." She counted her life as nothing, in view of the victory; "forasmuch as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies," and for that consented to be sacrificed. No thought of herself detained her. Beautiful self-renunciation by faith which looked only to God! She suffered besides m another way deeply painful for every woman of faith in Israel, whose desire was to be mother of a posterity which might become the lineage of the Messiah. But this only daughter consented to be cut off from the scene as a barren woman. "Let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows" (v. 37). However beautiful this devotedness was, how infinitely did that of the Lord Jesus surpass it! In view of salvation, He to whom everything belonged consented to be "cut off and have nothing" (Dan. 9: 26, margin). Abandoning all His prerogatives as Messiah, all His rights as Son of God and Son of man, he renounced His posterity in order to obtain a better victory which only He could achieve. He gave up His life, but "He shall see His seed" (Isa. 53: 10), and Jehovah "will make His seed to endure for ever" (Ps. 89: 29).

Truly, in this daughter of Israel was reproduced, very feebly no doubt, some of the perfection of Christ. Her simple faith shone out and she submitted to the will of God. She consented to be offered up for a burnt offering, like Him who was sacrificed later on, not as she did to confirm the victory, but to obtain a better deliverance. Let us follow the example of Jephthah's daughter; let us learn to forget ourselves in offering ourselves up to Him who was sacrificed for us, to die in faith "not having received the promises," without obtaining any apparent result for our labour but satisfied to have been the epistle of Christ among men, and His representatives, to the glory and honour of God!

Strife between Brethren.

(Judges 1: 1-6)

Judges 12 is a picture of one of the gravest symptoms of ruin: contention and open war between brethren. Formerly, when the people had not left their first love, or when their leader evinced more spiritual power, this calamity had been averted. The constant design of Satan is to disunite the children of God. He knows that our strength consists in being gathered around a common centre; and, not being able to destroy this essential unity which God has established, he seeks to destroy that which has been committed to our responsibility — its manifestation. Now we know how completely he has succeeded in his design. The wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep.

In the book of Joshua, characterized by the power of the Holy Spirit with Israel, this effort was baffled at the time of the controversy caused by the setting up of the altar, Ed (Joshua 22). Thanks to the energy of the tribes and to the zeal of Phinehas, the introduction of sectarian principles was avoided. When divine principles are at stake we must not fail to stand in the breach, at the risk of war between brethren. The maintenance of Israel's unity, as God had established it, had more value for the saints at that time, than courteous relationships between brethren.

Later, in the book (Judges 8: 1), when Ephraim began to chide with Gideon, the conflict was quieted through the humility of the latter who deemed the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer. In Judges 8, and still more in the chapter we are considering, it is no longer a question of defending principles. The discontent of Ephraim proceeded from a sense of his own importance. He had been pacified on the former occasion by the humility of Gideon, but, conscience not having been reached and there having been no self-judgment, he renewed against Jephthah the same accusations. A fault in our career as Christians left unjudged will reappear sooner or later in similar circumstances. Here the state of Ephraim had grown worse, for while on the previous occasion he had gleaned, on the present one, waiting for some incentive from without, he had done nothing. This did not, however, make him the less jealous of the results which the energy of faith in his brethren had produced. It is the same in the present day, and we are all in danger of falling into this snare. The church, instead of being a witness for Christ, has gone back to the world; it is a time when God takes for witnesses the weakest, the poorest, and those least qualified among His people. In acting through them, God would confound the "mighty" or the "noble" (see 1 Cor. 1), in whose eyes there is nothing important except what emanates from themselves. Unable to humble themselves, or to rejoice in what God has done by the instrumentality of others, they despise all that does not come within the circle formed by their own worldliness. If the work goes on they express their jealousy if it still extends they become enemies and proceed from hatred to threats: "We will burn thine house upon thee with fire" (v. 1).

In Deborah's day, Ephraim was the first; under Jephthah, God accounted him as nothing. All that he could now draw from his former blessings was the remembrance of his importance and the desire to make the most of it. Alas! on the other hand, we no longer find on the part of Jephthah the disinterestedness or humility of a Gideon. He answered the flesh by the flesh, his own wounded feelings clashing with the egotism of Ephraim. In his defence he made self prominent. "I and MY PEOPLE were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands, And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands; and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Jehovah delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me?" (vs. 2, 3). Jephthah talked of himself, thought about his disputed worth, fell into the snare that Satan had set for him and formed a party, when just before, having identified himself with the people, he had proclaimed their unity in the presence of the children of Ammon (Judges 11: 12, 23, 27). But now, "my people" meant Gilead as opposed to Ephraim.

Words intensified the quarrel. "The men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites" (v. 4). There was not a single principle involved in this struggle. On all sides it was but jealousy, personal importance and angry words exchanged by irritated hearts; and so a fratricidal war broke out in the midst of Israel, brought about by their own hand. At the passages of Jordan they are known, for the purpose of killing one another, by a Shibboleth, a formula used for the name of Jehovah, and which had nothing to do with the truth of God. And there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

Let us be on our guard against such snares, for if there be one thing which especially belongs to a time of ruin, it is strife in the family of God. Let us have our hearts enlarged as to the work of God in this world. When entrusted to other hands than ours, it should have the same importance and value for us, as though it were done by ourselves Paul, in chains at Rome, writing to the Philip plans, rejoiced that Christ was preached even by those who were adding affliction to his bonds. Let us not give any importance whatever to our work, but like Gideon leave the vintage of Abiezer unestimated. A season of quietness is no guarantee against these dangers. At the beginning of the church's history (Acts 6: 1-6), there arose murmurings and jealousies between the Grecians and the Hebrews, to appease which needed more than the humility of a Gideon, requiring even the great wisdom of the apostles. They handed over to others the care of serving tables, relinquishing an authority which would have given them prominence in the administration of the assembly, in order to continue in prayer and to give themselves wholly to the ministry of the word. By such acts as these, consciences are reached and Satan's devices against the testimony defeated.

Ibzan, Elon and Abdon.

(Judges 12: 7-15)

After Jephthah, under the reign of three judges, Israel enjoyed the peace which had been acquired. One of these judges sprang from Judah, another from Zebulon, and the third from Ephraim. They were not called on to fight, but to maintain the people in the condition in which victory had placed them. Possibly they had not the energy of a Jair (Judges 10: 1-5), who "arose," as the word tells us, but, like him, two of these judges were men of great wealth. Periods of outward prosperity are not the most profitable for the people of God. The personal importance of the judges comes out, but not the condition of Israel. Who they were, and what they did, is known, but not anything of what was going on in the heart and conscience of the people. And so no sooner was the last of these judges dead, than Israel relapsed into their previous condition (Judges 13: 1). There are certain occasions when we have to "overcome," others when we have to "stand" (Eph. 6: 13). How do we employ the corresponding days of peace which the Lord permits us to have? To strengthen ourselves in the truths God has given us, or to go to sleep amid comfortable surroundings, only to be unexpectedly awoke when Satan returns to the charge, and to find ourselves powerless in the presence of the enemy? Those who are not fed are not able to fight. Let us use the times of prosperity in growing in our personal knowledge of the Lord and in walking in communion with Him. We shall thus be strengthened to resist fresh attacks, and avoid falling into bondage more cruel than that from which we have escaped.

Judges 13-16.

NAZARITESHIP.

These chapters form a new division in the book of Judges. From Judges 3 to Judges 12 we have seen a series of deliverances wrought by instruments raised up of God. It was a period of revivals. The part with which we are about to be occupied has a special character.

Again did Israel fall: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years" (Judges 13: 1). God does not give us any particulars of this fresh declension, but we discern His estimate of it, by the weight of the rod He laid upon His people; and the Philistines were the chastisement. Nothing more clearly indicates the state of Israel than this fact. Hitherto the subjection had been to outside enemies; or to Jabin, chief of the former possessors of the land; or to the nations which had sprung from Israel after the flesh and who attacked them on their borders. Here we find the enemy established within the confines of Israel and committing ravages. The Philistines ruled over the people and reduced them to a state of servitude. There is hardly any difference, morally, between those times and the present. The unfaithfulness of the church has long since brought about this last form of evil. That which was once outside the house of God now rules within; those described in the first chapter of Romans have taken up their abode there, and impart their own characteristics to the people of God (cf. Rom. 1; 2 Tim. 3: 1-5). This mixture is what is called Christendom.

Now what is the resource of the Lord's people at such a time? One word answers the question, namely, Nazariteship. We should be characterized at the present time by complete separation, and by a true and whole-hearted consecration to God.

Before entering upon the history of Samson, let us look a little at this important subject. Under the law, when all was outwardly in order, Nazariteship was of temporary duration (Num. 6); in a time of ruin it became perpetual, as we see in the example before us. Samson was a Nazarite from his mother's womb. This permanent character of Nazariteship reappeared in Samuel, judge and prophet (1 Sam. 1, 2), but ceased with David, type of the royal grace, and Solomon, type of the royal glory of Christ. Then came the ruin of the people under human responsible royalty, as had been the case in the time of the judges under the more direct government of God. After this ruin of the people and of the royalty was complete, Israel was delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, and a remnant of Judah was restored to await the Messiah.

The house was doubtless swept, but the people were lifeless. John the Baptist was raised up with a permanent Nazariteship (Luke 1: 15), when the ruin was fully manifested, though not yet headed up by the rejection of Christ, and when judgment (but a Saviour also) was at the door. Announced by John the Baptist, Jesus appeared, the true Joseph — a Nazarite among His brethren — but without the signs of earthly Nazariteship, because He was Himself the reality of this type. This of itself strikingly proclaimed the ruin of the people. At the end of His course the Lord entered upon a second and heavenly phase of His Nazariteship. He sanctified Himself in heaven for His disciples, the true Nazarite, separated from sinners and seated at the right hand of God, leaving His own here below to represent His Nazariteship. The world having been by the cross convicted of sin, ruined and judged, the disciples, then the church, became heavenly Nazarites in perpetuity in the midst of the world. We shall see, as we go through the history of Samson, how the church itself has answered to this calling. There is another important thing to notice. That which under the law was the provision for a few, is, under grace, the portion of all. Priesthood, which belonged to only one family out of the Levites, has become the universal privilege of all the children of God (1 Peter 2: 5, 9). There was a still less numerous class in Israel, that of the Nazarites, composed of a few isolated men and women (not to speak of the Rechabites — Jer. 35 — in the days of the prophets), which gives the characteristics belonging now to all the saints. We have indicated the reason, it is that separation to God is necessarily the mark of witnesses that have to do with man in his ruined condition, with the world on the eve of judgment. This truth of Nazariteship in its universal and permanent character fills the New Testament and shines out on every page of the Holy Book for those who have eyes to see. It is of immense practical importance.

Under the law, a Nazarite, whether man or woman, was separated to the service of God, during a fixed period of time. This separation consisted in three things (Num. 6: 1-9), which touched figuratively the most necessary and most important elements of human life. Sociability belongs to the nature and the very existence of man. Now the Nazarite had to abstain from wine and strong drink. It is said of wine (Judges 9: 13), that it "cheereth God and Man." This joy of sociable men they could have shared together with God, but sin had entered by man, and God could no longer rejoice with him. He who devoted himself to the service of God could no longer find his joy in the society of his fellows, for God has nothing in common with the joy of sinners. The servant of the Lord may not seek friends in the world, sit down at their banquets, nor share their pleasures, for God is not there; and the more distinctly the ruin is seen, the more is this fact brought home to us. Christians fail much as to this. They have "worldly friends" and cultivate their society, not for the purpose of putting the Gospel before them, but for self-gratification. Alas! how little do we resemble Paul, when he said: "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh" (2 Cor. 5: 16). From this point of view, as from every other, the Lord was a perfect Nazarite, a stranger to all the joys of sociable man. He even said to His disciples, at that meeting which He had ardently desired, when, with death before Him, He might have tasted with them for a moment earthly joy: "Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God" (Mark 14: 25). The day is coming when the wine which cheereth God and man will be drunk new in a scene purified from sin, in which the true servant will be able to take part without restriction. The word of God insists upon the importance of this separation: "He shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried; .... he shall eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk" (Num. 6: 3, 4). Do we take heed to this, my brethren? Do we deny ourselves what may minister, even remotely, to the joy of the heart of the natural man? How are we carrying out our Nazariteship? But perhaps you will say, how is it possible to do so in such an absolute way? This we find in being heavenly in character. Ours is a heavenly Nazariteship. Separation under Judaism was a material one; under Christianity it becomes spiritual and heavenly. The Lord to whom we belong, is separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. He has two means of separating us with Himself and like Himself. The first, the word of God, puts us in connection with the Father in heaven; the second, His own person —  Himself — a Christ set apart for us in heaven, in order to indicate and establish the fact that our relationships, our ties and our affections are henceforth heavenly, in the midst of a judged world which has rejected Christ.

A second thing characterized the Nazarite: "All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head; until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto Jehovah, he shall be holy, and let the locks of the hair of his head grow" (Num. 6: 5). Besides sociability, there is a second characteristic which touches man to the very core. He is a selfish being, with an independent will, and for whom there is nothing of more importance than self, his dignity, and all that attaches thereto. Now long hair separated the Nazarite, in figure, from all that, being at the same time the token of dependence end dishonour (1 Cor. 11). The long hair of the Nazarite proclaimed openly, that he had abandoned his dignity and personal rights as a man, in order to devote himself to the service of God. That which was glory for the woman was shame for him. He relinquished his personality under this veil. He who was born to this dignity neglected it, he who was appointed to rule submitted himself to the Lord as a wife to her husband. Without this dependence there can be neither service for God nor power for it. That which was a sign of weakness for the Nazarite, became the source of his strength. Moreover, his devotedness to the Lord found expression in forgetfulness of self leading him to neglect himself in order that he might fulfil his service more perfectly.

Yet a third thing characterized him: "All the days that he separateth himself unto Jehovah he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die; because the consecration of his God is upon his head" (Num. 6: 6, 7). The third characteristic belongs to man since the fall, and is inherent in his being, that is sin, proved by its consequence — death. This was what it was the duty of the Nazarite to avoid at all cost. The strongest ties, those of the family, must not be taken into consideration, when setting himself apart for the service of God was in question. How little do we understand this! There are many Christians who say: "Suffer me first to go and bury my father." Others say: "I cannot, my relations would not allow it." Such are not Nazarites. But it was not only family ties which the Nazarite should set aside when it was a question of service, and which he should disclaim after the example of the perfect Nazarite: "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." "Who is my mother and who are my brethren?" (John 2: 4; Matt. 12: 48). The Nazarite should keep himself from all sin, from all defilement. The law made no provision for wilful sin, whilst it is to such that grace more particularly addresses itself. One wilful sin alone, the renouncing of Christianity, is beyond the resources of grace (Heb. 10: 26). The law had its resources except for wilful sin. First: In the daily life of the Israelite, for sin through ignorance, and for trespass (Lev. 4, 5). Second: In his walk, for sin through lack of vigilance or through inadvertence (Num. 19). Third: In his service, for sin arising from negligence, and for sin unforeseen and which it would appear impossible for a man to avoid. "And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration . . ." (Num. 6: 9). This was an involuntary case and impossible to have foreseen, yet it was sin, and the more so because it was a question of a particularly important and honoured service. How this speaks to our consciences! Our Nazariteship involves the most absolute separation from the defilements of this world. Nowhere in this chapter does God suppose that the Nazarite would deliberately drink wine, cut his hair, or touch a dead body. It is the same for us — God does not suppose that we must sin, and He acts towards us on this principle.

The three marks of Nazariteship, of which we have spoken, were only the external characteristics of this calling, however important they may have been as such, an importance easily forgotten. They were the result of a vow, of consecration to the service of Jehovah, of inward separation of heart to Him. "When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto Jehovah ...." (Num. 6: 2). I press this point, as of the utmost importance. A vow was a decision to serve God unreservedly in a certain manner, thus devoting oneself to the service of Jehovah. This devotedness to Christ is the foundation of Christian Nazariteship. If it is not there we expose ourselves to a serious fall. One may be a Nazarite in an outward sort of way, may possess even, as Samson, the great power that accompanies Nazariteship, and not be separated in heart. Doubtless, this side which was wholly external under the law is no longer so in Christianity; for one may be now a member of a temperance society without being a Nazarite. For the Christian, a testimony borne before the world answers to these outward signs; a testimony which separates us from its defilements as well as from its joys, and causes us to walk openly in a path of dependence, taking the word of God for guidance. Now, we may make a profession of these things, may walk outwardly in the path of Nazariteship, and, all the while, have divided and unsanctified hearts. Such a course would end, as with Samson, in a defeat; and if it did not come to that, we should at any rate lose the blessing which flows from whole-hearted consecration in the Lord's service. In Lev. 7 the feast of the peace offering lasted two days for him who had made a vow, and only one day when it was thanksgiving for blessings received. The effect of renouncing all that the world could offer is seen in the worship of Abraham in Gen. 12 and Gen. 13. He built there three altars: that at Sichem, the altar of obedience, to Jehovah who had appeared unto him; that at Bethel, the altar of the pilgrim, to the name of Jehovah; that at Hebron, the altar of renunciation, unto Jehovah Himself, and it was there that the patriarch realized the divine blessings in all their extent.

But to return to the Nazarite. It is interesting to note what he had to do, when he had "defiled the head of his consecration" (Num. 6: 9-11). One of these acts corresponded to the loss of his external Nazariteship, the other to the violation of his vow, his inward consecration. He had to shave his head. This was the public acknowledgement that he had failed, and also the avowal that the power of his Nazariteship had left him. The repentant Nazarite was not like Samson who "wist not that Jehovah was departed from him."

He acknowledged it, proclaiming, so to speak, that he was no longer qualified for service. Then he had to offer "two turtle doves or two young pigeons," the sacrifice of one who "was not able to bring a lamb." This was an acknowledgement of his incapacity, of his worthlessness as a servant, and at the same time of the value of the blood offered for his purification. We should note these things carefully and not assume an appearance of spiritual power when we have lost communion with the Lord, but confess with humiliation our sin before God, when we have failed in the responsibility of our service.

Let us persevere in this service without growing weary, and not allow anything to interfere with it. The time came for the Nazarite when the days of his separation were fulfilled, then he offered all the sacrifices. This day will dawn for us also, when the Lord will come and His sacrifice will have borne its full results, sin abolished, death destroyed, and Satan bruised forever under our feet. Then we shall shave the head of our Nazariteship (Num. 6: 18); then the power of the Holy Spirit will no longer be employed in strengthening us for separation from all evil in our service, then we shall "take the hair of the head of our separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings," for our whole energy will be taken up with the joy of uninterrupted communion, and the scene of the new world will be, like ourselves, perfectly conformed to the mind and heart of God.

A Remnant.

(Judges 13)

The people having relapsed into unfaithfulness, were in subjection to enemies within — to the Philistines, who were established in Israel's territory. It was the last stage in the history of declension. The children of Israel no longer cried to Jehovah; submitting to this state of things, they did not even wish to be delivered from it (Judges 15: 11), and, for the sake of living quietly in their state of servitude, sought to get rid of their liberator. The time of total apostasy was at hand.

In the midst of this irremediable state of things, God separated a godly remnant, and addressed his communications to them. Manoah and his wife feared Jehovah, listened to His voice and spake to one another (cf. Mal. 3: 16), a striking type of the remnant — of the Marys, and Elizabeths, and Annas, and Zacharias, and Simeons — that waited for the true Messiah, the Saviour of Israel; type also of the future remnant, who, passing through the tribulation, will follow the paths of righteousness, waiting for the coming of their King.

Samson, the deliverer of Israel, found at his birth, not a people that welcomed him, but this godly couple who believed in his mission. The Lord, rejected by the people from the time of His arrival on the scene, found only a few faithful souls with whom He could enter into association, those excellent of the earth mentioned in Ps. 16, in whom He found His delight. Times of irremediable ruin are then the times of remnants; this, consequently, applies to the present period of the church — a period foretold by the Sovereign Prophet to His disciples, when He spoke to them of an assembly reduced to two or three gathered to the true centre, to the name of Christ, during His absence. This period is mentioned in Revelation, when — in presence of the idolatry of Thyatira, the deadness of Sardis, and the nauseating lukewarmness of Laodicea — the approbation of Him that is holy, of Him that is true, is pronounced upon the feeble separated remnant of Philadelphia.

That which characterizes a remnant at all times is Nazariteship, entire "separation unto the Lord." The angel of Jehovah appearing unto the wife of Manoah, said to her: "Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing" (vs. 3, 4). This woman had to take upon herself Nazariteship, because she was the vessel chosen of God to present to the people the promised deliverer. "For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" (v. 5). The Nazariteship of Samson involved that of his mother. In order to do honour to the deliverer of Israel, it was needful for his witnesses to bear before the eyes of all, the impress of his own character. This is true at all times. If we do not manifest Christ down here in His character of entire separation to God, we are not witnesses for our Saviour. Christ having come, permanent Nazariteship should characterize the saints as it does the Lord; and the more the ruin increases, the more apparent will this become. The second epistle of Timothy, which tells us of the last days, is full of the characteristics of Nazariteship. In Judges 2: 19, it is the Nazarite withdrawing from iniquity; in Judges 2: 21, it is his purifying himself for God; in Judges 3: 10, 11, and Judges 4: 5-7, it is, as the servant of God, walking in forgetfulness of self and in absolute dependence on the Lord. Is it not the Nazarite who speaks in 2 Cor. 4: 7-12? In Judges 6-7: 1, of this same epistle we again find the principal traits of Nazariteship; reproach and self-forgetfulness in vs. 4-10; separation from all association with the world in vs. 14, 15; cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit in Judges 7:1. Quotations might be multiplied. What it is important to establish is, that there is for us, neither walk. nor testimony, nor service, without Nazariteship; that is to say, without devotedness and separation to God.

In v. 6, Manoah's wife told her husband about the angel's visit: "A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible; but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name." This poor woman had but little intelligence; she knew neither whence the angel came nor who he was, nor did she ask him, proving how slight was her acquaintance with God. Far from giving her confidence, the presence of the God of promises frightened her, for she only saw the countenance of the angel to be "very terrible." Manoah himself, a man of sincere piety, had little understanding, but he desired more. He wished to know "what to do unto the child" (v. 8), then, "what shall he do" (v. 12, margin). Instead of answering his questions, the angel of Jehovah said to him: "Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe" (vs. 13, 14). Why? Because knowledge is not the first thing that God requires. Neither it, nor even true piety, such as was found in Manoah and his wife, is sufficient to keep us in the midst of the ruin. That which was needed for them before knowledge was true personal separation to God, a separation which had as its pattern and measure the Nazariteship of him who was about to appear.

Other truths too — the portion of Christ's witnesses in a day of declension — are revealed to us here. "Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name . . . . And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is wonderful (margin). So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered them upon a rock unto Jehovah; and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on" (vs. 17-19).

In reviewing the history of the different epochs of this book, we find that to each revival there are certain corresponding principles which characterize it. The times of Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon and Jephthah, each furnishes us with some new principle; but God reserves the most precious truths of all for the last days of ruin, hidden until then and wonderful. How worthy of the God of love is such a way of acting! Knowing the difficulties of His own in the midst of increasing unfaithfulness and wishing to attract their hearts in the midst of this darkness, He brings to light and confides to His witnesses truths more and more glorious.

The starting point of these truths is the sacrifice. Manoah, more intelligent than Gideon (cf. Judges 6: 19), took the kid with the meat offering, and offered them upon a rock unto Jehovah. The cross is the foundation of all our knowledge as children of God. Manoah was desirous of knowing many things which Jehovah could not reveal to him before the sacrifice. But this foundation once laid, the angel did wonderously, which doubtless was revealed, in a manner still obscure and symbolical, to the eyes of this poor remnant who were waiting for a Saviour. "For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of Jehovah ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on" (v. 20). They found in the fire of the sacrifice a new way, not opened up hitherto, a way for the representative of Jehovah to ascend to Him; and, their gaze fixed on the angel, they saw a glorious person, whose dwelling place they knew now that he had disappeared from before their eyes. Then only, "Manoah knew that it was an angel of Jehovah" (v. 21). The heart and the interests of this poor remnant were at that moment withdrawn from this world, and followed the angel, ascending with him to heaven. These simple believers could thenceforth speak of a path which led to heaven, and of a person who was there, who had become their object while they were still here below.

In this wonderful act another thing was revealed, not for Manoah, but for us: the future character of this Nazariteship of which the angel had spoken to them. It is now heavenly, as we have above remarked. The angel in parting from them went up into heaven. The Lord Jesus, rejected by the world, said: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17: 19). Set apart in heaven, He attracts us after, and fixes our eyes upon, Himself; in order that the heavenly character of the One whom the world has rejected may be reproduced in us here below. In presence of this revelation, so instructive for us, but of which Manoah and his wife had but a faint glimpse, they "fell on their faces to the ground" (v. 20). And shall not we, in the midst of increasing darkness, adore in fuller measure, the God who has revealed to us, not only a heavenly and glorified Christ, but our place in Him, and has given Him to us as an object that we may reflect Him more perfectly in this world? Such are the blessings given to fill our hearts with joy and gratitude. How many Christians there are, who, seeking a place in the world, walk down here with bowed heads as they see the state of things around them, and vex their souls from day to day, as just Lot did of old — but such is not our part; we are not called to be Lots, nor to act like him down here. Our portion is with Abraham, the friend of God, who was not disheartened by the ruin. As a Nazarite he kept his place on his high mountain, his eyes fixed — not on Sodom, but — on the city which hath foundations. Jesus said of him: "Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad" (John 8: 56). Ah! rather than be discouraged, let us praise God, and thank Him for the heavenly treasure He has given us in Christ.

Like so many Christians of the present day, Manoah was filled with fear when he found himself in the presence of God. "He said to his wife, we shall surely die, because we have seen God" (v. 22). His companion was a true helpmeet for him. Is there any room for fear, said she, when God has accepted our offering? The love of God, proved to us at the cross. is the positive guarantee for everything else. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8: 32)

The Serpent and The Lion. The Feast.

(Judges 14)

We have seen what Nazariteship is. The history of Samson shows us, that in it lies our spiritual power.

Christ only has fully made good His Nazariteship, an absolute moral separation, throughout the whole of His life down here, and it is still the case in heaven where He abides the true Nazarite "separate from sinners" (Heb. 7: 26).

Samson, the Nazarite, is hardly a type of Christ except as to his mission (Judges 13: 5). He is really, rather the type of the testimony which the church of God renders in separation from the world, in the power of the Spirit and in communion with the Lord. The history of this man of God, although abounding in acts of power, is notwithstanding one of the most sorrowful recitals contained in the word. Samson (the church likewise, founded on an ascended Christ) should have been a true representative of separation to God. Alas! he was nothing of the sort. In comparing his Nazariteship with that of Christ, how striking does the deficiency of Samson's appear!

Christ, the true Nazarite, encountered Satan in two characters: in the desert, as the serpent subtle and enticing; and, at the end of His course, as the roaring lion that rends and devours. In the desert, the Lord met the wiles of the enemy, with the word of God and entire dependence upon Him, and gained the victory. Samson, at the beginning of his career, encountered the serpent, who sought to entice him by means of one of the daughters of the Philistines. Twice is it said that "she pleased him well" (vs. 3, 7). From that time he formed the intention of uniting himself to this woman who belonged to the race of Israel's oppressors. It is just the same with the individual or with the church when in conflict with the deceiver; Satan, who had nothing in Christ (John 14: 30), easily finds a response in our hearts: By means of the eyes, our hearts are lured to the object presented by him and find pleasure in acquiring it. It does not necessarily follow that we must fall. If such objects are attractive to our eyes, grace and the word which reveals this grace to us are able to keep us. Notwithstanding the tendencies of his heart, Samson, kept by the providential grace of God, never married the daughter of the Philistines.

The desire of Samson showed that the word of God had not its right weight with him. His parents, knowing much less of the counsels, but more of the word, of God than he did, said to him: "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" (v. 3) The word of God was indeed explicit on this point: "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son, for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods" (Deut. 7: 3, 4). Why did not Samson take heed to this? Christ, the perfect Nazarite, recognized the absolute authority of the Scriptures and fed upon every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The word of God not having its right weight with Samson, he started on a downward path which could only lead to a fall. In the life of Samson, three women mark the three stages which led to the loss of his Nazariteship. The first was pleasing to his eyes; he formed a passing connection with the second (Judges 16: 1), and he loved the third (Judges 16: 4). When his affections were engaged, the last hour of his Nazariteship had sounded.

Nevertheless Samson was not devoid of affection for Jehovah and His people. It is said, "But his father and his mother knew not that it was of Jehovah, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines" (v. 4). The domination of the latter was hateful to him. He was looking for a favourable opportunity to strike the blow which should break the yoke weighing upon the children of Israel. But Samson was not single-eyed; he brought a divided heart to the work. Trying to reconcile pleasing his own eyes with his hatred against the enemy of his people, he was holding out his left hand to the world and at the same time wanting to fight it with his right. Yet God took note of what there was for Him in this divided heart. "It was of the Lord" who could use even the weaknesses of Samson to accomplish His purposes of grace towards His people.

This proneness to seek in the world that which "pleases the eyes," led Samson into endless difficulties from which only the power of God could deliver him. There are many instances in the word where a first look turned toward the world involves the believer in irreparable trouble. We have to watch against that with fear and trembling, for we can never foretell what abyss a single lust may open for us. Such was the case with Adam, with Noah, with Lot, with David. Grace can keep us, but it will not do to trifle with it, nor to imagine that we can use it as a cloak to cover our lusts or to excuse our sins Let us rely on it in order to be sustained and preserved from falling, and if we have been so unhappy as to have abandoned for an instant this support, let us quickly return to it for restoration and for the recovery of our lost communion.

Samson was on slippery ground. His eyes were enamoured, and he desired to take this woman for his wife; for alliance with the world follows the lust of the eyes. Then he made a feast (v. 10), and seated himself at it, guarding no doubt the external marks of his Nazariteship, for we are not told that he drank wine with the Philistines; yet this repast had a sorrowful termination for him.

Before going any further let us take into consideration what preceded the feast in Samson's history. We have already said that Satan not only presents himself as a serpent, but also as a roaring lion. It was in this character that the Lord Jesus met him in Gethsemane and at the cross. Nothing is more terrifying than the roar of the lion. Satan sought to frighten the holy soul of Christ in order to make Him abandon the divine path which led down to the sacrifice. In the power of the Holy Spirit and in perfect dependence on His Father, the Lord withstood him in the garden of the Mount of Olives. At the cross, where he opened his mouth against Christ "as a ravening and a roaring lion" (Ps. 22: 13), the Lord in "the weakness of God" (see 1 Cor. 1: 25), overcame "the strong man," and, through death, nullified his power (Heb. 2: 14). In just the same form does Satan present himself to the children of God. "Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5: 8). If he does not succeed in beguiling us, he tries to frighten us. Samson was now confronted by the young lion, coming up against him from the country of the Philistines, and here his nazariteship was manifested in its full power, which is that of the Spirit of God. "And the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand" (v. 6). Such is the way that we have to act when meeting Satan. We should not spare him in the least, for if we do he will return to the charge. We must, in our struggle, rend him as we would rend a kid. He can do nothing to us so long as we resist him fearlessly (see James 4: 7; 1 Peter 5: 9); for, weapons (if we may so speak), Jesus has already overcome him for us at the cross.

Later on, Samson, passing by the same road, turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and found in it "a swarm of bees and honey;" he ate some of it as he went along, and gave some to his parents. As the fruit of Christ's victory on the cross, all heavenly blessings have been placed in our hands, and these blessings are taken from the spoil of the defeated enemy. And if we, obtaining a victory over him (henceforth rendered easy), treat him as a vanquished foe, our souls will be filled with strength and sweetness. We shall be able to impart of what we have got to others; but, like Samson who ate as he went along our own souls will have first been fed. Let us never treat Satan as a friend; if we do, we shall come away from such a meeting beaten and enfeebled, embittered and famished.

The victory of Samson over the lion of Timnath was not only a proof of strength; it was a secret between him and God. When his eyes were attracted to the daughter of the Philistines, he told his parents of it; concerning his victory he told no one. I he life of Samson abounded with secrets and at the same time with acts of power. Even his Nazariteship was a secret, a link, unknown to any, between his own soul and Jehovah. This link is for us communion. We meet with four secrets in this chapter. Samson had not divulged his intentions to his parents, nor the part that Jehovah had in these things (v. 4); he had not told them of his victory (v. 6), nor the place whence he had procured the honey (v. 9), nor his riddle (v. 16). All that, kept unbroken between his soul and God, was for him the only means of following a path of blessing in the midst of this world.

Let us return to Samson's feast. He put forth his riddle to the Philistines, rightly supposing that they would understand nothing about it; indeed, had it not been for the feast, he would not have been in danger of betraying himself. But the enemy succeeded in robbing him of that which he had so carefully concealed. The world has an insidious effect upon us, leading to loss of our communion with God. If our hearts, like Samson's, in any way cling to what the world may present to us, it will not be long before we lose our communion. Absence of communion does not at first imply loss of strength; it is, however, the road which leads to it; for, as long as Nazariteship exists, even externally, strength will not be lacking, as Samson proved to the Philistines in the matter of the thirty changes of garments. But did this man of God have much peace and joy during the days of the feast? On the contrary, it was a struggle with tears, care and pressure (v. 17). He was betrayed by the very woman of his choice. One can scarcely conceive that association with the world would produce the bad results which, as a matter of fact, it does. Samson would never have thought that his thirty companions, aided by his wife, would lay traps to plunder him, for the thirty changes of garments by right belonged to him. Satan may separate us from communion with the Lord, may make us unhappy; he may also hinder our being witnesses here below, but, thanks be to God, he cannot pluck us out of the hand of Christ.

The grace of God preserved Samson from the final consequences of his error, and delivered him from an alliance which God could not approve of. The Spirit of Jehovah having come upon him he performed mighty deeds. "And his anger was kindled" (v. 19). Samson was a man of a very selfish character and was guided in his action by the sense of the wrong that had been done him. Nevertheless he was victorious over the enemies of Jehovah, and kept for himself none of their spoil, it went back to the world, from whence it had been taken. Then he quitted the scene of so much unhappiness and "went up to his father's house," which he never should have left to settle among the Philistines. May we profit by this lesson; and if, in our intercourse with the world, we have passed through painful experiences, let us hasten to return to the Father's house (which we never should have left, even in thought), where He dwells whose communion is the source of our peace and happiness all our pilgrimage way, till that moment comes when we shall enter forever into that house — our eternal dwelling-place!

Victories.

(Judges 15)

Judges 14 and 15 form really a single narrative, and before going further, I would like to return to the consideration of two or three points common to both.

The first is, that God always works out His ways, and that too through a multitude of circumstances that are far from answering to His thoughts. Yea, further, He uses these very circumstances to make good His purposes, which are, in the case we are considering, the deliverance of Israel by an instrument moulded by Him with this end in view; and this explains the words, "It was of the Lord" (Judges 14: 4). God brings about His ways, not only by means of things that He approves of, but also by making, our very faults, His discipline, the opposition of Satan and of the world, in a word, everything to conduce to the desired result. Unfaithfulness on our part does not disturb the ways of God. This is seen, in a remarkable manner, all through the life of Samson, and can be verified in the history of the Church. These ways of God all culminate in victory and in the blessings consequent thereon. How encouraging to prove it! Very often, to our confusion, our own ways come to nothing. Witness Samson, who did not take the daughter of the Philistine as his wife. Frequently do the children of God find themselves unable to proceed farther in the path they are upon, because of some divine obstacle blocking up the way, and they are forced to retrace their steps with humiliation. At other times, our course, which should have been continued in the power of service, is suddenly interrupted without return to the point of deviation being possible. Samson again furnishes us with the proof. Nothing like this ever occurs in the ways of God. They overrule our ways. It was by the death of a blind Samson that Jehovah achieved the greatest victory. A Moses, whose way was stopped before entering the land of promise, was forthcoming on the holy mount in the same glory as Christ.

The second point is, that mixed as Samson's motives were, "he sought an occasion" in a time of ruin (Judges 14: 4). And wherefore? To deliver Israel by smiting the enemy that held them in bondage. May this motive be ours also. "Redeeming the time" (seizing opportunities), says the apostle, "because the days are evil" (Eph. 5: 16). May we then, Nazarites ourselves, have our hearts filled with tender pity for our brethren who are still in bondage, under the world's yoke, and seek occasion, in love and the energy of the Spirit, to deliver them from it. These two chapters strikingly illustrate the fact that Samson sought an occasion against the Philistines, and that the intensity of his desire enabled him to find it, and that too when the slothful and indifferent, meeting an obstacle in their path, would have turned back.

A third expression constantly occurs in these chapters: "The Spirit of Jehovah came upon him" (Judges 13: 25; Judges 14: 6, 19; Judges 15: 14). When we see these words we may be sure that the conflict is entirely according to God and without mixture. We likewise may achieve such victories, not by being dependent upon a temporary action of the Holy Spirit coming upon us from without, but because we have, in virtue of redemption, been sealed by the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of power. Nevertheless, it is important to remark that we cannot estimate the moral worth of a man of God by the greatness of his gift. Nowhere in the Scripture do we find a stronger man than Samson, nor one weaker morally. The New Testament gives us a similar example in the Assembly at Corinth, which came behind in no gift of power, and yet permitted every sort of moral evil in their midst. Samson was a Nazarite, upon whom the Spirit of God often came, but he was also a man whose heart had never been judged, and so his state was not in keeping with the gift he exercised. Not once, from the beginning to the end of his career, did he hesitate following the path of his lusts; going, without a struggle, wherever his heart led him. Notwithstanding the power of the Spirit, he was a carnal man. When he visited his wife with a kid, his kindness was carnal; when the world proposed giving him another woman, which he did not care for, in exchange for the one he so earnestly desired, his anger was carnal. Yet thus it ever is that the world treats us, to our loss and shame, when we have desired anything from it. That which it gives, after so many fine promises, has no value to the child of God, and cannot satisfy him. In the matter of the three hundred foxes, the Spirit of Jehovah did not come upon him, for, as I have already said, his anger was carnal. He wanted to "do a displeasure" to the Philistines, by attacking them in their outward circumstances; and, with a view to this, resorted to a device which does not at all seem to be according to the mind of God. The enraged Philistines went up and burnt his wife, who was their accomplice, and her father.

Samson found in their vengeance (v. 7) a fresh opportunity for doing the work of God. Here again we find much mixture: "Yet will I be avenged of you," and it is not added that the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him; but if He did not openly appear, God was behind the scene, and, in spite of all, it was a deliverance for the people. "And he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam." It must necessarily be the case, that the believer finds himself isolated, when he takes sides with God against the world, and Samson understood this. Those who would be witnesses for Christ in a day of ruin must expect to be set aside, and this, too, alas! by the people of God.

The three thousand men of Judah, the stillness of whose servitude was disturbed by Samson's testimony, consent to help the world which wishes to get rid of him; preferring the yoke of the Philistines to the difficulties and risks arising from this testimony. Nowhere in the hook of Judges do we find a lower moral state than this. Not only does Israel no longer cry to Jehovah, but they do not wish to be delivered. The man of God, their rightful deliverer, was an incumbrance to them. The Philistines said: "We are come up, to do to him as he hath done to us" (v. 10). Judah said: "What is this that thou hast done unto us?" (v. 11). In thus identifying themselves with the enemy who enslaved them, Judah was no longer Judah, but morally exchanged their name for that of the Philistines. Fellowship between them was complete; both were enemies of the testimony, though Judah was far the worse, preferring slavery to the unhindered power of the Spirit of God, of which Samson was the instrument.

Samson allowed them to bind him, and this finds its counterpart in the history of Christendom. The people of God have acted towards the Holy Ghost in a similar manner that Judah did to Samson. His power disturbed them; and not wanting the liberty of the Spirit, they have hindered His action, fettering Him, as it were, with their new methods, like the new cords with which Judah bound their liberator, saying to him all the time: "Surely we will not kill thee." Samson could have acted very differently, for these worthless fetters were to him like so many spider's webs, as he proved later on. The strong man laughed at their new cords, but he consented to be bound. What a responsibility for the three thousand men of Judah who had such a slight appreciation of the gift that God had given them! What shame for them! Surely there was no shame for Samson. If anything casts merited reproach upon the Christians that are linked with the world, it is the restraint put upon the free working of the Holy Spirit among them, because His action embarrasses them, and they are at a loss what to do.

But, at a given moment, the power of the Spirit bursts all bonds. "The Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands" (v. 14). Then God made use of a bone cast away in the fields, the worthless jawbone of an ass, to gain a signal victory, and the place was called Ramath-lehi, from the name of the despicable instrument used in the combat. Such instruments are we m the hands of the Spirit of God (see 1 Cor. 1: 27-29), but it pleases the Lord to associate our names with His victory, as if the jawbone of an ass had slain "heaps upon heaps."

After his victory Samson "was sore athirst" (v. 18). The activity of the believer is not all; conflict does not quench the thirst. Something was necessary for Samson to meet his personal need, otherwise, as he said, "I shall die for thirst, and tall into the hand of the uncircumcised." If we do not wish to lose the results of conflict, we must use the word of God for our refreshment, and not only for combat. In his extremity, Samson called on Jehovah, who showed him a refreshing spring flowing out of a rock cleft by God's hand. The rock everywhere and always is Christ. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink" (John 7: 37). Let us get back into Christ's presence after conflict. His word will refresh us Samson was alive to the dangers which closely attend victory. The fact that God had "given this great deliverance into the hand of His servant" would be very likely to make us "fall into the hands of the uncircumcised," if the soul does not at once seek shelter, refreshment and strength by the waters of grace, of which Christ is the dispenser. In that day of blessing, Samson was characterized by these two things: a great activity in conflict for others, and, as to himself, a humble dependence upon God, which enabled him to avail himself of the resources in Christ.

The first part of Samson's history closes with these words: "And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years" (v. 20), It contains, notwithstanding all the failures which we have pointed out, God's approbation of the public career of His servant. The ensuing chapter shows us the loss of his Nazariteship.

Defeat and Restoration.

(Judges 16)

We now enter upon a new period in Samson's history, characterized by the loss of his Nazariteship and by his restoration. Judges 16: 31, compared with Judges 15: 20, marks outwardly this division. In Judges 15, God had preserved His servant in spite of himself, in a definite engagement with a woman who served other gods. But that did not rectify the natural tendency of his heart. And the first verse of this chapter shows us where this tendency led him. He had courted the idolatrous world, and now he goes after the defiled world, not fearing temporary association with it. A worldly propensity unjudged leads us necessarily to more serious falls. Thus it was, in the history of the church, that Pergamos led to Thyatira. Samson's connection with this woman was but a passing one, and he did not lose his strength there, for the secret between himself and God still continued. Waylaid all night, at the gate of the city, by his mortal enemies, he arose from his slumber, "and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron" (v. 3).

More than once does the history of Samson remind us of that of Christ; as, for instance, his victory over the lion of Timnath, and again in the achievement of the gates of Gaza. Like Samson, the Lord awaking from the sleep of death, has brought to nought the machinations of the enemy in breaking the gates of his terrible fortress. He has led into captivity that which held us captives; and, ascended on high, He has displayed the trophies of His victory. Death, the citadel of Satan, having no longer doors to hold us, has become for us a passage;* no bolt could imprison Christ there, no power is able to keep us there. The "hill that is before Hebron," the place of the risen Man who passed through death,** is a sure guarantee to us.

{*"Hebron" means "a passage."}

{**We have remarked elsewhere (Meditations on the Book of Joshua) that Hebron is always in Scripture the place of death.}

We have said more than once, that there is not a man of God who is not called to manifest, and who does not, in fact, manifest some traits of the person of the Saviour. Ah! how beautiful it would have been to have seen Samson a worthy representative of Christ in his victory over death, as he was in his victory over the ravening lion! Whence went forth this strong man with the gates of Gaza on his shoulders? For whom did he fight? Who had placed him in this extremity? In all these things, his history presents the most complete contrast to that of our adorable Saviour.

Let us pay attention to a still more humiliating recital (vs. 4-21). Samson, who had hitherto only formed a passing connection with evil, now went further. The daughter of the Philistines had been pleasing to his eye; the woman of Gaza had ensnared him for a moment; Delilah took possession of his affections. "He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek" (v. 4). This is the termination of the path of the child of God who gives way to, instead of judging, the first movements of his natural heart. Samson had hitherto guarded his intimate and secret relationship with God, in spite of everything. He possessed something which the world could not understand, and to the source of which it could not rise. His strength remained an enigma to his enemies; no doubt they saw the effect of it, but directed against themselves, and that made them all the more eager to wrest the secret of it from him, in order to find out what weapons to use against this servant of Jehovah. Doubtless, also, his long hair, a garb not common to all, was a public avowal of separation to God. But had his secret not been betrayed, the world would never have imagined that what was typical of dependence and of self-forgetfulness, was for the Nazarite a source of strength.

Samson loved Delilah. His heart was divided, and God could not go on with this. It is impossible for our affections to go out to the world and likewise to God. "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Luke 16: 13). In loving Delilah, Samson as much as said that he hated and despised God; when, in actual fact, he belonged to Him. This woman's influence over him increased more and more. "How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?" (v. 15). From that time his heart was taken captive, and it was not long ere he surrendered the whole of his secret. Three times — the seven green withs that never were dried, the new ropes that never were occupied, and the seven locks of his head woven with the web — had not been able to quench the power of the Spirit. God still sustained His poor, unfaithful servant. But when his secret was divulged, the mark of his dependence removed, the bond of communion between his soul and God abolished, what remained for him? All his strength had vanished. The past experiences of God's deliverances, in spite of his moral bondage, only served to deceive him and to lull him into security. Three times he had extricated himself at a critical moment. Why not a fourth? The blinded heart said to itself: "I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself." But, with communion lost, intelligence of the thoughts of God was wholly lacking. "He wist not that Jehovah had departed from him" (v. 20).

Not that Samson was very happy under the yoke of Delilah. "She pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death" (v. 16). That was all he got from what had most attracted him! He would gladly have refused but was no longer capable of doing so. A man of the world may find his joy in the world; a believer, never. At bottom, the heart of Samson was in a measure with God and the Israel of God. From that fact sprang all this conflict, struggle, vexation and misery. Our conscience speaks and we have no real rest, our joy is embittered. At last he took the final step, and "told her all his heart" (v. 17). That was followed by sleep: "She made him sleep upon her knees" (v. 19). The soul loses all sense of its relationship with God, and falls into heavy slumber in the dense atmosphere of corruption. Then the enemy in ambush, watching for this moment, advanced, bound the strong man, put out his eyes, and treated him as one of their most wretched slaves. A condition, alas, worse than sleep! Samson is now only a poor blind slave, the sport of the enemies of Jehovah. Let us not he mistaken as to this, that the enemy was more hostile to God than to Samson, for the vanquished Nazarite became apparently the witness of the victory of the false god Dagon over the true God. The lack of reality in Christians is the world's most powerful weapon against Christ. In despising the unfaithful believer, it is really Him which the world finds the opportunity of despising.

Thank God, the history of the last of the judges does not close with this defeat. God will have the final victory in spite of the unfaithfulness of His witnesses. Samson recovered his Nazariteship in this state of bitter humiliation. "Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven" (v. 22). Samson was not a man of prayer. Only twice in all his history do we hear him addressing God (Judges 15: 18; Judges 11: 28). Here, whilst his enemies were celebrating their triumph, Samson cried to Jehovah. For my own part I appreciate in a man of God an end brighter than the commencement, though, doubtless, this is not what is highest. The path of Christ, the perfect Man, was one of perfect evenness and uniformity in the very many varied circumstances through which He had to pass, and it is thus that we see Him in Psalm 16, and in the Gospels. And yet to end like Samson, whose life presented so many contrasts; to end like Jacob, whose course, full of schemes and human devices, closed with the glorious vision of Israel's future and by worship which recognized in Joseph the type of the promised Messiah; to end like that was far better than to terminate his career like Solomon, in idolatry, after a magnificent reign of wisdom and power. Yes, Samson's end was a splendid victory. "The dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life" (v. 30).

May we profit by this history, and not require such experience of ourselves, either by a bad beginning or a bad ending. Paul, a man subject to like infirmities as ourselves, avoided both, although weakness was manifest in his walk on more than one occasion. Let us learn to regulate our steps by those of our sinless Model; that was the strength of the apostle, and it will be ours. Then will God say of us: "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God" (Ps. 84: 7).

CHAPTERS 17-21.

MANIFESTATION OF THE RUIN AND FINAL RESTORATION.

Religious and Moral Corruption of Israel.

Judges 17-21.

The Levite of Judah.

(Judges 17).

Chapters 17 to 21 form a kind of appendix to the book of Judges, an appendix of all importance for the completion of the moral picture of the declension of Israel, but which, in reality, as to time, precedes the opening of the book we are considering, and goes back to the last days of Joshua and of the elders that outlived him. It was important to show that if, on the one hand, declension was gradual, that on the other, the ruin was immediate and irremediable from the moment that God had confided to the people the responsibility of preserving the blessings bestowed on them at the beginning. It was important, too, as we shall see later on, to demonstrate that the end God had in view was not the ruin, but the restoration of a people who might dwell before Him in unity, after the chastisements had run their course. It was, furthermore, of importance to show the connection of the priesthood with the ruin, and how it was associated therewith, and contributed thereto. All these weighty subjects, and many others besides, are touched upon in the small compass of the chapters which we are about to consider. The date of them is shown us in three passages which I mention for those who are interested in the arrangement of the book, and also that it may not be necessary to refer to them again. The first of these is in Judges 18: 1. We learn from Joshua 19: 47, that the tribe of Dan took possession of Leshem (the Leshem of Joshua being the Laish of Judges), at the time when the twelve tribes were called to conquer their inheritance. In the second passage, Judges  18: 12, "Mahaneh-dan" received its name from the expedition of Dan, whereas at the commencement of the history of Samson (Judges 13: 25) it was a place already known. Finally, in Judges 20: 28, "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it (the ark) in those days;" from which we necessarily conclude that those days followed immediately what is related in Joshua 24: 33.

These details established, we find in Judges 17 and Judges 18 the picture of the religious corruption of Israel whilst still in possession of their original blessings — a picture which does not offer a single spot where the heart can rest amid the ruin; and, when we come to examine it by the light of the word, we shall understand that our only refuge in this terrible flood of evil is God Himself.

These chapters are linked together by a characteristic phrase occurring four times. "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17: 6; Judges 21: 25). "In those days there was no king in Israel" (Judges 18: 1; Judges 19: 1).

Thus the state of the people is depicted by two facts. First: "There was no king in Israel." The time had not yet come when Israel would say: "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (1 Sam. 8: 5). Hitherto the people had Jehovah as their king; now, God was forgotten or set aside, although royalty after the manner of the nations was not yet established. The people had abandoned the system of divine government, without having as yet proclaimed that of the world, and this fact characterizes also Christendom in our days.

In the second place: "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." They had, as in the present day, the reign of liberty of conscience. Each laid claim to having the "light of his conscience" for guidance, whilst the true light of the word of God was set aside and no longer referred to. How greatly these times differed from those of Joshua, when the word was the only guide and the only authority for Israel, in all that they undertook (Joshua 1: 7-9; see also, amongst others, Joshua 3, Joshua 4: 6; Joshua 8: 30-35, etc). Now in reality, conscience, notwithstanding its immense value for man, is not a guide, but a judge — a wholly different thing. This judge which he does not listen to, man pretends to honour by choosing him as a guide. But how will it lead him, when perhaps it may become asleep, hardened, or even seared? These chapters show us where it led the Israelites when every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Idolatry had taken root alongside of some religious forms which still continued. They followed the impulses of their own hearts provided they thought they were doing right, and were precipitated into frightful iniquities. "They thought they were doing right" is in the present day, as it was formerly, a current phrase used to sanction even what is apostasy from Christianity.

Utter disregard of the injunctions of God's word characterized Micah, this man of Mount Ephraim, and his mother. The one stole, when the law had said, "Thou shalt not steal" (Ex. 20: 15), and his conscience was untouched when he avowed the fact. The mother "had wholly dedicated the silver unto Jehovah" for her son "to make a graven image and a molten image" (v. 3), although it had been said: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" (Ex. 20: 3, 4). She joined Jehovah's name to her idols, a worse thing than mere idolatry, and her conscience was silent. She set up a form of worship of her own, with which her guilty son fully identified himself. The so-called worship of the religious world in the present day does not differ so much from this as would at first appear; for the Lord's name is mixed up with many things coveted by the natural heart, as to all of which it is said: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5: 21). Art, music, gold, silver and articles of value adorn what is called divine worship; and man makes room for what the world esteems and runs after, wealth, influence and worldly wisdom.

"Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod and seraphim," associating the false gods with the ephod, a valueless part of Jewish worship when separated from the high priest who wore it. Then "he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest" (ver 5). More than ever was the word of God forgotten. His son had no right to the priesthood and Micah had no right to consecrate him.

A fresh circumstance arose. A Levite of Judah, having as such a connection with the house of the Lord, but without any right as to the priesthood, happened to pass that way looking for a place wherein to sojourn. Micah got hold of this man, who brought him a semblance of religious succession. "Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel and thy victuals" (v. 10). Micah was getting on; he had installed a bona fide Levite in his house; valuing him more highly than his son, he supported and paid him. This was a ministry of man's appointing, constituted on the same principles as what we have all around us in our days. Let us notice, in passing, how God recounts these things.

He does not censure, nor express indignation; He enumerates the facts, and places them before us. Those who are spiritual discern what God condemns and what He approves of, and learn also to keep aloof, as He Himself does, from all the principles of which this chapter gives us so sad a picture. The carnal man continues in his blindness. Micah, in doing that which was right in his own eyes, thought to conciliate the favour of Jehovah! "Then said Micah, Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest" (v. 13).

Dan and the Levite of Judah.

(Judges 18)

This chapter shows us the connection of one of the tribes with the religious system which we have seen set up in Judges 17. Dan had proved himself to be the weakest of the tribes of Israel. Forced into the mountains by the Amorites (Judges 1: 34), and lacking the faith to take possession of his inheritance, he sent out five men to reconnoitre, in order to search the portion he still lacked. Laish, a quiet and prosperous town, was situated at the northern extremity of Canaan, far from the Zidonians to whom it belonged, and did no business with any one. This city afforded Dan an opportunity for an inglorious conquest, but presented besides everything that the natural heart could desire. "A place," said the messengers, "where there is no want of anything that is in the earth" (v. 10). Apart from its wickedness, Laish, like Sodom before its destruction, was like a garden of the Lord; a conquest worthy of a Lot but not of an Abraham, but which was a temptation to the tribe of Dan in their enfeebled and lax state. Dan had a battle to fight, a victory to gain in his own boundaries, over the Amorites of the valley; but this combat would have cost him too much; he preferred a conquest without danger, won at the extremity of the land far from the eyes of Jehovah's witnesses and from the place where his real enemy was, who was left without a word in possession of Dan's true inheritance.

On their way, these five men met the Levite in the house of Micah and asked him: "Who brought thee hither? and what makest (doest) thou in this place? and what hast thou here?" (v. 3). These questions ought to have opened the eyes of the Levite, if anything could have done so. What answer, in fact, could he give? His own will had brought him there, for he sought to establish himself; he did what Micah told him to do; he had money, a salary — just so many characteristics of all ministry of human appointment, which can go on entirely without God, being dependent upon men, and working for a salary.

"And they said unto him. Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous" (v. 5). Of such an one do the men seek direction as to their course, and they get the answer that they desired: "Go in peace; before Jehovah is your way wherein ye go" (v. 6). Under penalty of not being considered a properly appointed minister, it was necessary to mix up the Lord's name to this false pretension of being the oracle of the people.

Later on, when the tribe of Dan were again passing by armed, the first thing they did was to carry off Micah's gods and take absolute possession of his priest. They set before the latter in the most dazzling way the promotion that he would obtain: "Is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe, and a family in Israel?" (v. 19). He got a call to a more influential and lucrative position. As to the will of God in the matter, that never entered the mind of the priest. His "heart was glad" at being called away to a new post, and taking "the ephod, and the seraphim, and the graven images, he went in the midst of the people" (v. 20). He took away his idols with him, and it is with this one whom the men called "their priest" that idolatry assumed an official character in Dan.

Micah ran after these spoilers and said: "Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away; and what have I more?" (v. 24). What language! They had taken away his religion and the minister that he had appointed and he had nothing left! A man of faith would not have felt the loss of these things; God Himself, His word, His priesthood and His house at Shiloh would have still remained.

The children of Dan went their way, smote Laish, seized upon the city and "called the name of it Dan, after the name of Dan their father" (v. 29). The name of Dan had more importance for them than that of Jehovah. Such was, in a few words, the dark picture of the religious history of Israel.

The Levite of Ephraim.

(Judges 19)

Judges 17 and Judges 18 have shown us the religious condition of Israel and the influence exercised over them by the pseudo-sacerdotal class. This self-styled priesthood, religiously corrupted, kept up religious corruption among the people. If the scenes with which chapter 17 commenced, belonged as we have seen to the times preceding the Judges, their transmission was necessary in order to set before us a picture of the solemn gradation of evil in Israel. It is somewhat the line which the Spirit of God follows in Luke's gospel, where the facts are grouped out of their chronological order, for the purpose of giving effect as a whole to certain moral truths.

Samson, the last of the Judges, still invoked Jehovah on certain memorable occasions of his life. The Levite of Judah only invoked Him over the head of his images and seraphim. The Levite of Ephraim, whose history we are about to consider, did not, alas! invoke Him at all. As far as he was concerned it seemed as if Jehovah no longer existed, and yet this man belonged to a class set apart to the service of Jehovah, for that of the priesthood, and of the house of God.

In Judges 19, we have the Levite of Ephraim in his connection not with the religious, but with the moral, state of the people. The latter was even worse than the former. The woman that the Levite had taken, left him, after being unfaithful to him. He went after her, following the bent of his own heart, and united himself to this degraded women, doing just what pleased himself. This satisfied the woman's father, who saw therein the reinstatement of his daughter. Alas! this act was also, without his being aware of it, the justification of the evil and a sanction to the defilement — all the more serious, carrying with it, as it did, the weight of the sacred position of this man. The father detained his son-in-law, for the longer he remained, the more public and conspicuous did the reinstatement of his daughter become. The kindness of the world is manifested toward us in proportion as we serve its interests; it does not object to alliance with the family of God. The Levite allowed himself to be belated on his way. Having only his conscience, instead of God, as his guide, he yielded to the influence of others, missed his opportunity, and fell into evil.

This man, who had allied himself to a prostitute, would not turn in to the Jebusites. It is sometimes thus with Christians. They shrink from open association with the world, whilst at the same time the hidden springs of their own lives are impure. It is possible to be very strict as to one's public walk and yet very lax as to personal holiness. "We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel" (v. 12). The Levite was more attached to his people than to Jehovah, or rather, he did not take the latter into consideration at all. Avoiding the Jebusites from national pride rather than from piety, he seemed to imply that whatever came from Israel must necessarily be all right, when Israel had already outrageously abandoned Jehovah. These principles remain unchanged, and the ruin of our day is as much characterized by them as that of God's ancient people. Every sect in Christendom is boasted about in contrast with the heathen nations; when, as to matter of fact, Christendom itself has become the haunt of every sort of corruption, moral and religious. The Levite soon perceived that he was not received in the midst of a people whom God had expressly commanded not to forsake the Levite (Deut. 12: 19). Corrupted profession did not offer a shelter to the servant of Jehovah. (I do not speak here of the moral character of this man). We see in verse 18 the feelings which such treatment produced in his heart: "I am now going to the house of Jehovah; and there is no man that receiveth me to house." An isolated stranger who sojourned amid the corruption of Gibeah, and like Lot in Sodom, aware of it, for he said: "Only lodge not in the street" (v. 20), received the traveller into his house. A frightful thing ensued. The impure passions of men who bore the name of Jehovah equalled in horror those of the accursed city. Such things, taking place in Israel, were worse than the history of Lot, for, as dead flies cause the ointment to stink, so the corruption of the people of God is the worst of all. Moreover, we do not see any intervention of angels to deliver the just. Like Lot, the host of the Levite speaks at the door, accepting one evil to avoid a worse, and this is necessarily the principle of action of believers who go on with the world. God preserved this man from seeing his house defiled by these infamous wretches, but for him there was no other way visible. The Levite gave up his wife to dishonour. This issue might have been avoided by an appeal to God, remembering His protection in former days. Could He not, as formerly, have smitten the people with blindness? But no cry of anguish went up to Him; from the heart of the Levite to Jehovah the passage was barred.

The wretched woman, recovered from her earlier course of prostitution, without repentance or exercise of conscience, died from the dreadful consequences of what she formerly hankered after. God allowed the evil to run its full course, but, as the succeeding chapters will inform us, out of this frightful evil He brought glory to Himself.

The word of God presents two great subjects to us. What God is on the one hand; what man is on the other. God never attempts to cover up man's actual state, for, if He did, He would not be the God who is light; and His word would be false in both its presentations. As to man, God depicts him as indifferent, amiable, or religious according to nature, violent or corrupt, always selfish, hypocritical, ungodly, apostate; without law, under law, under grace, and that in all circumstances and in every degree- — while God also shows us the work of His grace in the heart of man under all its forms and in all its gradations. We obtain thus a divine picture of our state, and are forced to the conclusion that we have no resource in ourselves, and that our only resource is in the heart of God.

Breach and Recovery.

(Judges 20)

Following on the crime of Gibeah, all the tribes from the extreme North to the extreme South were gathered together as one man unto Jehovah in Mizpeh" (ver 1). Very little seemed wanting in this unanimous protest against evil. There was zeal to enquire into, and to purify themselves from, it, and also a sense of Israel's corporate responsibility, which, later on under Deborah, Gideon and Jephthah, was lacking. The assembling together, the actions and the sentiments of the eleven tribes presented above all a fair appearance of unity (vs. 1, 8, 11), for the smallest tribe, and what was more a guilty one, was the only one absent. The centre of the people's unity was acknowledged, for it was "unto Jehovah" that they gathered together in Mizpeh (v. 1). What then was wanting in Israel? One thing, "the first love," which finds expression both towards God and towards those that are His. Towards God, this love had waxed cold in Israel. They had hearkened, deliberated, decided, and then consulted God (v. 18). In place of commencing with the word of God they had left it to the last. Not that it was omitted, but it no longer occupied the first place. This was a mark of having left their first love. "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." "If a man love Me, he will keep My word" (John 14: 21, 23). "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5: 3). Another mark was, that their hearts were more alive to the shame inflicted on Israel, than to the dishonour done to God (vs. 6, 10, 13). How often does this tendency show itself in assembly discipline! It is because God no longer has His right place in our hearts.

The forsaking of first love also betrays itself in our conduct towards our brethren; indeed intercourse with God and with our brethren are closely connected. "And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also" (1 John 6: 21). Israel looked upon Benjamin as an enemy, and, notwithstanding the fair appearance of unity, did not regard the sin of one tribe as that of all of the people. They said: "What wickedness is this that is done among you?" (v. 12) — not "among us." What a difference between this love and that which is described in 1 Cor. 13: 4-7! Zeal was not wanting, but that did not make up for having left their first love. "Thou canst not bear them which are evil" of Rev. 2: 2, was found here; but, as further on in the address to Ephesus, the Lord could say to His people: "I have somewhat against thee." They added: "that we may put away the evil from Israel" (v. 13), but where was their brotherly affection? This is indeed always the danger in connection with discipline, and the Corinthians were exhorted to confirm their love toward the one who had fallen, after the discipline had done its work. If on the one hand, the people addressing Benjamin said "you" in place of "us" in verse 12; on the other, "us" and "we" usurp an undue place in the next verse: "Deliver as the men . . . . that we may put them to death and put away evil from Israel." Leaving the first love opens the door to self-importance.

As for Benjamin, they had grievously sinned in upholding evil in their midst, and the remonstrance of Israel, instead of humbling them, incited them to the most serious act: "to go out to battle against the children of Israel" (v. 14), and then what was far worse — they allied themselves with evil. The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together at Gibeah, they numbered the inhabitants of Gibeah, and they went forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites (vs. 14, 15, 21). The absence of humiliation on their part led to terrible results; not only did they not judge the evil, but as a necessary consequence, they fatally excused it, taking sides with the evil-doers against the people of God. It is true that they put on an appearance of being without the inhabitants of Gibeah (v. 15), but they numbered them and availed themselves of their seven hundred chosen warriors. In this army the "left-handed" were equal in numbers to the chosen men of Gibeah, weakness which became strength in the Lord's service when it was an Ehud who fought. Here the left-handed were skilful against the Lord; the hand which ought to have been apt in defence, was strong to attack and deceive those who confronted them.

When every preliminary was exhausted, Israel asked counsel of God (v. 18). Judah shall go up first, was the reply of Him who was about to discipline Israel, and twenty-two thousand men of Judah were destroyed down to the ground. What grace God displayed in this defeat! Israel must learn that, in contests between brethren, there could be neither victors nor vanquished, but that all must be vanquished for the Lord to triumph at the end. God made use of this defeat for the restoration of His beloved people. Israel came forth strengthened from a combat which had cost him his troops, for he came out of it judged in reality by God himself. When the twenty-two thousand fell, the men of Israel encouraged themselves (v. 22). See what fruit their chastisement bore: First: It led them to seek again the presence of Jehovah. Secondly: Instead of human indignation, they were filled with sorrow according to God and their tears were the proof of it. Thirdly: Their sorrow was not transient, for they wept until even. Fourthly: They learnt to depend more truly on the word of God, and no longer say, "Which of us shall go up first?" but "Shall I go up again?" Fifthly: Affection for their brother in his fall is at length revived, for they say: "The children of Benjamin my brother" (v. 23). How worthy of God was such a result! It was not victory but defeat which brought about these things, blessed fruits of the discipline, and meanwhile other fruits were yet to be produced. "And Jehovah said, go up against him."

Eighteen thousand men of the children of Israel were destroyed down to the ground in the second defeat. Then, in the first place, "All the children of Israel, and all the people went up, and came unto the house of God." No one was missing; they were unanimous in seeking Jehovah. Secondly: Instead of weeping until even, they wept, and sat there before Jehovah. Their sorrow before God was deepened and of longer duration. Thirdly: They "fasted that day until even." That was more than sorrow; it was humiliation, judgment of the flesh and repentance. Fourthly and fifthly: They "offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah." They recovered those two things of inestimable value, a true sense of the value of the sacrifice and of communion. Dependence on the word of God and the realization of His presence became more highly valued, through God's discipline. The people had the consciousness of being before God Himself, who dwelleth between the cherubims over the ark, and drew near to Him, by a living High Priest who interceded for Israel. Sixthly: Their own will at last completely broken. "Shall I yet again go out or shall I cease?" (vs. 26-28)

What thorough restoration! And that which brought it about was a horrible evil; not that God makes light of the enormity of the evil, but in the interest He bears towards His people, He makes use even of the evil for their blessing. From that time God could bless and assure them of victory.

Then the battle took place in which Israel restored, yet experiencing his own weakness and insufficiency, obtained the victory, but lost nearly a whole tribe. Benjamin was defeated by a humbled people who showed themselves weaker than he. It is the principle of all discipline in the assembly. Without love, without dependence on God and His word, without self-judgment, discipline will always be defective, and it is only under such conditions that an assembly can purge out the old leaven.

Fruits of recovery.

(Judges 21)

The restoration of Israel had as a result the absolute refusal of any connection with the evil. "Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying there shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife" (v. 1). Let us remember that, in a day of ruin, when souls, under the action of grace, recover their first love for the Lord, they never become more tolerant of evil.

The closer our communion is with God the more does it separate us from evil, but the affections of the saints' hearts towards their brethren are not blunted by this separation, as we see here. For the third time the people went up to the house of God, for this place having been found again, became indispensable to them. Defeat first drove them on that road, victory led them on to it again. "And they abode there till even before God."

On the previous visit, "they wept and sat there before Jehovah;" on this occasion, the first thing was to abide there. "When thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face Jehovah will I seek" (Ps. 27: 8). It is our happiness, amid the evil and the sorrow of the present day, to seek the face of the Lord and abide till even before Him. Tears then flowed and such tears!" They lifted up their voices and wept sore." For the first time feeling all the bitterness they said: "O Jehovah, God of Israel, why is it come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?" They did not say: The evil is put away, we are at length in quietness and tranquillity. The bitterness was in proportion to their recovery of their affections for Jehovah and for their brethren. The breach had been made, one tribe was wanting; it was like the body suffering from the loss of a limb. Israel's God had been dishonoured, the God before whose eyes, in His tabernacle, was the golden table with the twelve loaves of showbread thereon. Israel no longer thought of their own dishonour as they had before their humiliation, for the tears of bitterness were shed before Jehovah; and it was when the unity seemed hopelessly lost, that its realization was made good in the hearts of the people, which, in the eyes of Jehovah was more true unity than the semblance of it by the people in a state of declension in the beginning of Judges 20.

The earliest rays of the morning found Israel at work building an altar. The people might say, with the Psalmist: "Early will I seek Thee." Humiliation and ruin did not hinder worship. What grace that there remained an altar to Jehovah amid such a state of things! Three things preceded this worship and led up to it — resolute separation from all evil, getting back into the presence of God, the ruin deeply felt and acknowledged. It was there that they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings; then that the heart entered into what the sacrifice of Christ was for God, and the portion God has given us with Him in it.

All these blessings recovered in the path of humiliation, were the starting point for the judgment of Jabesh-gilead. The inhabitants of that place had not come up to Jehovah to Mizpeh. That was indifference to the judgment of the evil by which God had been dishonoured in Israel's midst, and it was at the same time contempt for the unity of the people established by God, and which had been confirmed in such a striking way by the attitude of the eleven humbled tribes. The people of Jabesh-gilead had doubtless said, that it was no concern of theirs. How frequently do we hear such expressions in our days! Their state was even worse than that of the evil-doer. For such a refusal, there was no mercy; but before, the execution of the judgment, Israel delighted to contemplate mercy. "And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, there is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing that we have sworn by Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?" (vs. 6, 7) Moreover, the judgment was but the exercise of this mercy, for the cutting off of Jabesh-gilead was with a view to the restoration of Benjamin. Such was the way that Israel came out of that long and painful conflict. Happy indeed are they who learn from such circumstances, and know how to combine perfect hatred of evil, with unmingled love for their brethren. The four hundred young virgins of Jabesh-gilead were given for wives to the poor remnant of Benjamin.

But that did not suffice; the wound must be completely bound up. Love was ingenious in finding the remedy and suggested to Israel a way of helping their brethren without disowning their obligations toward God, or lowering the standard of separation from evil. Israel allowed themselves to be plundered at Shiloh (vs. 17-21), as it were under the eyes of Jehovah. Exchanging the victor's place for that of the vanquished, they permitted their brother, so sorely tried by the discipline, to have the last word.

"And it shall be," they said, "when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes, because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war" (v. 22). Israel did not say: They reserved not, but "we reserved not." What delicacy and tenderness did those words evince, and how different from those recorded in chapter 20: 12. "What wickedness is this that is done among you?" Israel no longer separated their cause from that of their brethren and the unity of the people, formed by God Himself, recovered its due place of importance in the eyes of the faithful in those sorrowful days of declension.

God grant that such may be the case with us, my brethren! If men, if Christians even, lightly esteem the divine unity of the church, or, when forced to avow that it is outwardly gone, seek to substitute for it a miserable daubing with untempered mortar and content themselves with an appearance of unity which does not deceive even those upholding it; if, in a word, men form alliances between their various sects, proving the very ruin they seek to justify; — let us turn away from such things, humbling ourselves on account of the ruin of the church (looked at on the side of human responsibility) without conforming to it; boldly proclaiming that "there is one body and one Spirit," "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4: 3, 4), refusing all fellowship with the moral and religious evil of the day, "and above all these things putting on love, which is the bond of perfectness" (Col. 3: 14).

Such is the instruction contained in the book of Judges, which closes with the solemn repetition of that which characterized the evil days. "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (v. 25). God did not change that deplorable state of things; He simply states the fact; but He led His own away from the confused light of conscience, which while it judged never guided them; and brought them back to the pure light of His own infallible word which was able to conduct them, to build them up, and to give them an inheritance among all them which are sanctified (cf. Acts 20: 32). "To the law and to the testimony," this is our safeguard in a day of ruin! (Isaiah 8: 20)

Ruth

Ruth

Meditations on the Book of Ruth

by H. L. Rossier

Introduction

The events of the Book of Ruth take place during the sad conditions and circumstances characterizing the rule of the Judges; yet there is nothing in common between this account's train of thought and that of the account preceding it. The Book of Judges describes the ruin of the people of Israel left to their own responsibility. This ruin was without remedy despite the tender care of divine mercy which sought to restore the people and often succeeded in partially restoring them. In contrast to the drought and barrenness of the ways of unfaithful man in the Book of Judges, the Book of Ruth is full of freshness. Here we find the “waterbrooks...springs, and...deep waters” that Moses spoke of (Deut. 8: 7). The Book of Ruth is as fresh as a morning sunrise. Everything in this book breathes grace and no discordant note disturbs its delightful harmony. It is like a green oasis in the desert, a pleasant idyll amid Israel's somber history. When we meditate on this little book of four chapters, it becomes infinitely great to our souls. The scene has not changed, and yet we can say that heaven's feelings and affections have come down and made themselves at home on earth. It is difficult to understand that this country, the witness of so many wars, shameful deeds, and abominable idolatries, was at the same time the theater of events whose lofty simplicity takes us back to the blessed times of the patriarchs.

Yet this can be explained. From the time of the fall two histories have been unfolding side by side: the history of man's responsibility and its consequences, and the history of God's counsels and promises along with the way in which He would carry them out in spite of all that is to the contrary. This is grace. Only grace is involved when it is a matter of divine counsels and promises; for man in responsibility cannot attain them, his guilt is unable to change them, a scene of ruin is incapable of fettering them, and God Himself rebukes Satan when he attempts to oppose them (Zech. 3: 2).

In the measure in which evil spreads, the history of grace develops in ever-increasing proportion and with irresistible progress until it attains its appointed purpose. Grace begins in the heart of God and centers in the person of the Lord Jesus. Its final culmination is the radiant glory of the Second Man and the blessings we shall share with Him. This is why the Book of Ruth ends with the prophetical mention of Him who is the Root and Offspring of David, the glorious Redeemer promised to Israel.

But if Ruth is a book of grace, it is necessarily also a book of faith. Grace and faith ever go hand in hand, for it is faith that lays hold of grace and appropriates it, and that cleaves to the divine promises and to the people who are the subjects of these promises, and it is faith that finds its delight in Him who is the bearer of the promises and their heir. Such is the marvelous character of the book we are about to consider.

Ruth 1

“And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land” (v. 1). These words indicate the specific circumstances of the scene. We are in the days of the judges in the land of Israel. But there is a famine, this is a period when God's providential ways are operating in judgment on His people. “And a certain man went from Bethlehem-Judah, to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.” Bethlehem, the city which would become the Messiah's earthly birthplace (Micah 5: 2) and which would have the privilege of seeing the brightness of Israel's long expected star at the moment of its first appearance, saw only man's poverty and absolute destitution during the days of Naomi. The hand that had supported the people was now withdrawn and the people had nothing. This truth, thoroughly developed in the Book of Judges, is merely noted in the Book of Ruth, but with certain important facts added in verses 2 to 5.

During these days of ruin and under God's disciplinary ways Elimelech, (whose characteristic name means “God the king”) leaves his country together with Naomi (whose name signifies “my pleasantness”) and his children. Under divine government they seek refuge among the Gentiles. In the midst of this desolation Naomi is still, in spite of all, united with her husband and her children. Her name has not changed and she still bears it in spite of the ruin. But Elimelech, “God the king,” dies, and Naomi is left a widow. Through their connection with the idolatrous nation of Moab her sons profane themselves and likewise die. To all appearances the stock of Elimelech is extinguished without hope of posterity and “My pleasantness,” in mourning and henceforth barren, is plunged into bitterness.

“And she arose, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the fields of Moab; for she had heard in the fields of Moab how that Jehovah had visited His people to give them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah” (vv. 6-7). On hearing the news that the Lord had shown grace to His people Naomi rose up and set out to return to her own land. Israel's condition had remained unchanged, but God Himself had put an end to the days of providential judgment which had befallen the nation, and this poor widow, bowed down under the weight of affliction, could again hope for better days. As we have said, grace is the first and dominant note of Ruth. All the blessings contained in this book depend on the fact that “Jehovah had visited his people to give them bread.” The Old Testament uses this well known expression to characterize the benefits that will be brought to Israel by the Messiah. “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread” (Ps. 132: 15). Oh! if only the nation had so desired, these blessings would have been her portion permanently when Christ appeared in her midst, multiplying bread for 5000 and for 4000 men!

Naomi's daughters-in-law accompany her, moved by the thought of returning with her to her people (v. 10). But this good intention is not enough, for nothing less than faith will do in order to enter into relationship with grace. The behavior of Orpah and of Ruth illustrates this principle. In appearance there is no difference at all between them. Both leave with Naomi and walk with her, thus demonstrating their attachment to her. Orpah's affection is real: she weeps at the mere thought of leaving her mother-in-law; and full of sympathy, sheds still more tears when she finally leaves her. Orpah, the Moabite, also loves Naomi's people: “They said to her, We will certainly return with thee to thy people.” But it is possible to have a very amiable character without having faith. Faith makes a gulf between these two women who are so similar in so many ways. Confronted with impossibilities, the natural heart draws back, whereas faith is nourished on impossibilities and so increases in strength. Orpah gives up a path which has no outcome. What could Naomi offer her? She was ruined, stricken by God, and filled with bitterness; did she yet have sons in her womb to give as husbands to her daughters-in-law? Orpah kisses her mother-in-law and returns to her people and to her gods (v. 15).

Here at last the secret of the natural heart is unveiled. The natural heart may attach itself to God's people without actually belonging to this people. A woman like Naomi surely is worthy of awakening sympathy, but that is not the sign of faith in operation. In the first place faith separates us from idols, causes us to give up our gods, and turns us to the true God. This was the Thessalonians' first step in the path of faith, too (1 Thess. 1: 9). Orpah on the contrary turns away from Naomi and the God of Israel in order to return to her people and her gods. Confronted by this difficulty, she shows that she is unable to endure the test. She indeed weeps as she leaves, but she does leave, just like that charming young man who went away sad, unable to decide to separate himself from his possessions in order to follow a poor and despised Master.

Ruth's case is quite different. What precious faith she displays: full of certainty, resolution, and decision! No objection can change her mind. How clearly faith sees its goal! She listens to Naomi's words but her decision has been made, for she knows only one path, which for her is the necessary path. What are nature's impossibilities before faith's necessities? Ruth neither allows herself to be deterred by the prospect of not finding another husband, nor even by the Lord's hand stretched out against her mother-in-law; in the obstacles that mount up she sees only so many new reasons for clinging to her decision. Naomi is everything to Ruth, and Ruth cleaves to Naomi.

“Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee!” (vv. 16-17). To accompany Naomi, to walk with her, live with her, and die with her who was the only possible link with God and His people for Ruth: this was the longing of this woman of faith. But her thoughts go farther than simple association with Israel; she identifies herself with the people, whatever their state might be, in order to belong to the God of Israel, the true God who does not change: “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Having turned her back on Moab and its idols, she now belongs to a new cause with which she identifies, excluding every possibility of separation. Only death can break such bonds. Here we see how God and faith meet, understand one another, and unite together. How clearly this account leads us to understand that faith is the only means of bringing sinful man into relationship with God! Just as Ruth clung to Naomi, so faith clings to the Mediator, the object of God's counsels, who alone can give an assured relationship with the true God and an unshakable position before Him.

How precious and touching is the journey of these two afflicted women returning to Bethlehem! Naomi had gone out rich and full and she was returning poor and empty. Was there any desolation to be compared with hers? Deprived of her husband and her two sons, too old again to belong to a husband, with no human hope of an heir, Naomi was a true picture of Israel: for her everything on the side of nature and the law was ended. Moreover, the hand of the Lord was stretched out against her and the Almighty Himself, who it seemed ought to have been the support of her faith, filled her with bitterness under the weight of His chastening. She had exchanged her name “My pleasantness” for that of “Mara” (meaning Bitterness), because Jehovah's hand had gone out against her and the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with her. Her companion Ruth, likewise a widow and without children, (but who had never yet borne children), and who was moreover a foreigner, the daughter of a cursed people, had not known Israel's past blessings and had no right to their promises. So these two went together, the one fully recognizing her condition and the hand that was weighing down upon her, and the other having no connection with God other than her faith and Naomi. Their path is strewn with difficulties but they see a shining star guiding them. Grace has dawned: God had visited His people to give them bread. The two women return to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, thus coming to the place of blessing at the very moment it is being dispensed. There they will find Boaz!

Readers who are even slightly familiar with prophecy cannot fail to see in this scene a picture of Israel's past history and of the Lord's ways toward them in the future. Although they have been driven among the heathen on account of their unfaithfulness, certain bonds still subsist between the people and God. Has not the Lord said through one of their prophets: “Although I have removed them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries whither they are come” (Ezek. 11: 16). But their Elimelech is dead; the only head of the family of Israel, Christ the Messiah, has been cut off; and so the nation has become like a widow deprived of children and barren in the midst of the Gentiles. But when she acknowledges and accepts God's judgment upon her and drinks this cup of bitterness in humiliation, then the dawn of a new day will arise for this poor people. God's ancient Israel, in their ripe old age the object of God's ways in foreign lands, in its bitterness of soul sets out once again to find the blessings of grace. With ancient Israel a new Israel rises up, a Lo-ammi who was “not His people,” but who, springing as it were from Ruth, return as a poor remnant from the fields of Moab in order to become “the people of God.” They are presented to us under the figure of a foreigner because on the basis of the law they have no right to the promises, and because new principles, principles of grace and faith, bring them into relationship with the Lord. On this basis God will recognize them as His people and give them a place of high honor, associating them with the glory of David and of the Messiah. A refreshing fountain has sprung up out of fruitless ground: a fountain which, however, sprang up only at that moment when all human hope was lost. This fountain becomes a stream, a deep, wide river, the river of divine grace carrying Israel to the ocean of messianic and millennial blessings!

Ruth 2

In chapter 1 we have seen the admirable expression of Ruth's faith. Indeed, it is admirable, for such is the character of all that comes from God. Did not Jesus Himself admire the centurion of Capernaum who through faith acknowledged his own unworthiness and the omnipotence of the Lord's word to heal his servant? Chapter 2 now shows us different characteristics of this faith and the blessings that grace brings to it.

Up to this point Ruth's faith was resting on the work of grace which God had done on behalf of His people: but her faith must have an object, a personal object, and it is impossible for her not to find it. Ruth does not yet know the mighty man spoken of in verse 1, but she hopes to meet him on the basis of grace. Listen to her speak to Naomi: “Let me, I pray, go to the field and glean among the ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find favor” (v. 2). Surely this land of Israel where God had visited His people to give them bread would also have some ears of grain for her. Although she is poor and without rights she knows she can count on the Lord's resources. Her path is clear, as faith's path ever is, but she does not choose her path of her own will. We often incline to consider the result of our own thoughts or the fruit of our natural hearts' desires as the path of faith, whereas faith never acts except in full dependence on the Word of God. Ruth consults Naomi and Naomi tells her: “Go, my daughter!” Certainly God will guide her in this path. His providential grace brings her into the field of Boaz.

Boaz, a member of the family of Elimelech who had died, takes his place, so to speak. Naomi has a protector in Israel: a wealthy and powerful head of her family. “In him is strength” to restore this poor, completely ruined house. He bears the name of one of Solomon's future temple's two pillars (1 Kings 7: 21), erected by the king as witnesses of the establishment of his kingdom, the glorious period that would follow the afflictions of David's reign. Boaz comes from Bethlehem, calls out the blessing of the harvest to his servants (Ps. 129: 8), and immediately notices Ruth in the midst of the reapers. Just so, grace goes before faith. When asked, the servant who is set over the workers bears witness to the Moabite woman. She came poor and humbly supplicating, he says, set to work immediately, and has allowed herself scant any rest. Just like this servant, so the Spirit of God today bears witness to the character and activity of our faith. “Remembering unceasingly your work of faith,” the apostle writes to the Thessalonians. Faith takes pains and does not rest until it has gathered in the blessings that God scatters upon her pathway.

What a touching beauty is in this first meeting of Boaz and Ruth! The words falling from the lips of this wealthy man resound like heavenly music in the ears of the poor stranger. Will he reproach her for intruding? Who could think thus of him? No, “Hearest thou not, my daughter?” he says. In my very field, and not in another I desired you to be and desire you to remain. Let nothing induce you to leave it. — He associates her with his maidens. She need not fear anyone; has he not given orders concerning her? And just as Boaz's field offers her nourishment, so there she also finds what is needed to quench her thirst. How many are the favors here heaped up for Ruth. But wait: this chapter has yet fresh gestures of grace in store for her and the following chapters others yet. They multiply and grow greater until they reach the bounds of eternity! What should Ruth say to all this? If faith is already admirable, how much more admirable is He who is faith's object. What majesty united with deepest condescension, yes, with almost maternal tenderness are seen in him! He towers up like the pillar of brass in Solomon's temple, he stoops to the most minute and delicate attentions of love, a love that has nothing in common with human passion, a love full of holy, merciful majesty, raising up its beloved object to himself after having consented to stoop to her level. This is Boaz, this is our Jesus!

The understanding of the resources of grace does not come to us in a moment. These resources are ours according to the measure of our faith's activity. Bit by bit Christ opens to us the enjoyment of the infinite treasures of His heart.

The first thing Ruth does is to fall on her face and bow down to the ground. Should she not be thankful when Boaz expresses himself in this way? You who profess to know Christ have never truly believed if the words of His mouth have not bowed you down at His feet. Oh, what dried up hearts and arid souls you have, you rationalists of our day who dare call yourselves Christians but judge the word of our Lord instead of receiving it! You fools who proudly exalt yourselves in His presence and sling out your criticisms and cutting remarks at Him, criticisms really more insulting than the blasphemous curses of uncouth soldiers. You ought to cast yourselves down, overwhelmed, at His feet! Go, get back, persevere in your pride until judgment reaches you; Boaz's fields and His promises and His person will never be yours!

In turn, Ruth opens her mouth. “Why,” she asks, “have I found favor in thine eyes, that thou shouldest regard me, seeing I am a foreigner?” I love this “why” that demonstrates the deep humility of this young woman: “I have no right.” she says as it were, “to such favor.” She is not concerned with herself except to confess her unworthiness, but how she appreciates him! “You took notice of me when I was nothing to you!”

The servant had given witness to the poor Moabite woman; now the master himself declares what he has found in her. She was not standing before him with her righteousness as Job once did before God. Her experiences had begun where Job's experiences ended, and he before whom she was bowing down takes it upon himself to bring her character to light, for he knew everything. “It has fully been shown me, all that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law since the death of thy husband, and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come to a people that thou hast not known heretofore.” In Ruth Boaz sees the work of love, the fruit of faith; her care for Naomi, a type of the afflicted, distressed people of God, had not escaped the master. Yes, this poor daughter of Moab was a true Israelite in whom there was no guile. Also as a true daughter of Abraham she had left her land and her family and had made her way to a people unknown to her. Boaz sets his seal of approval on such love and faith; then he offers her a reward: “Jehovah recompense thy work, and let thy reward be full from Jehovah the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge!” The reward is not faith's object, but rather serves as its encouragement.

Ruth answers as Moses once did in Exodus 33: 13. Boaz's praise does not puff her up; she is well aware that all is grace and she desires to find yet more grace. She recognizes his authority over her and declares herself to be his unworthy servant. Then he singles her out for honor by inviting her to his feast. Ruth sits at Boaz's table! What a mark of favor for this poor foreigner! “She ate and was sufficed, and reserved some.” Isn't this scene similar to that of Jesus multiplying the loaves?

The fellowship that Ruth has just found at Boaz's table does not cause her to forget her task. On the contrary, she draws new strength from it for fresh activity with more abundant and more blessed results than ever before. In order to be effective our work must flow from what we have received for ourselves and it will be all the richer in results the greater the measure in which we have personally enjoyed the Lord's presence.

A heart nourished and refreshed by Christ can never be selfish. Is it not written: “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38)? Ruth thinks of Naomi, and when she returns she brings her the remainder of her meal and that which she had gleaned. Likewise, the believer devotes the fruit of his labor to God's people and seeks their prosperity. How few Christian there are who realize these things! What importance does the prosperity of Christ's Church have for those who prefer their own church or their own people and their own gods? God's poor, afflicted people do not appear to be worth caring for to these indifferent hearts. They may perhaps insist on the work of the gospel before the world, but a heart that is in fellowship with the Lord does not sacrifice the one for the other. The apostle Paul was just as much a minister of the assembly as he was a minister of the gospel. He loved the Church which Christ in His love had purchased with His own blood. It was far from Paul to love a sect or a church of his own invention; he knew only Christ's Assembly, and he was jealous as to her with a jealousy which was of God, so that he might present her to the Lord as a chaste virgin.

Naomi's heart is full of gratitude toward the man who had shown regard for Ruth when he might have rejected her as a foreigner. What sweet conversation is this exchange between these two God-fearing women! Ruth speaks the charming name of Boaz, and Naomi responds by giving thanks to Him who had not left off His kindness toward the living and the dead.

What a touching character Naomi displays! Ruth shows more the initial enthusiasm of young faith, whereas Naomi reveals the experience of a faith matured in the school of testing. Young Christian souls, don't heedlessly pass over the experience of those who have known the Lord longer than you have. Naomi helps her daughter-in-law to know him better: “The man is near of kin to us, one of those who have the right of our redemption.” Experience always goes hand in hand with intelligence. Naomi is aware of what is becoming in Israel; she knows the order that is to adorn God's house. The counsels of Christian experience always bind souls to the family of God and to Christ just as Naomi's counsels attach Ruth to those who surround Boaz. These counsels, however, also separate her from every other field (v. 22). These other fields might well afford just as many ears to the gleaners, but they would lack the presence of the one to whom Ruth's heart was henceforth indissolubly bound as well as the peace and joy that he dispenses. The experience of those who have grown old in the path of faith is precious, for such experience promotes a walk in holiness among the young! This voice of experience also will ever understand how best to give thanks, for it knows the grace and kindness of the Lord in the past as well as in the present. Ruth cleaves to Boaz and dwells with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 3

Naomi, as we have said, presents us an example not only of experience, but also of intelligence. How fortunate for Ruth to find such a guide! Naomi commands, but her orders are in no way irksome, for they are the commandments of love. “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?” (v. 1). That which she directs she does in view of her beloved Ruth's well-being, but also because she knows the heart of Boaz: “Is not Boaz of our kindred?” Ruth, the woman of faith, obeys: “She … did according to all that her mother-in-law had bidden her” (v. 6). May we obey in the same way. Obedience is easy to those who know that God loves them and desires only their rest and well-being, that Christ loves them and constantly bears them on His heart. But obedience becomes difficult when the soul aims to satisfy itself and to find happiness outside of Christ.

Boaz's labor was approaching its end. After the grain had been harvested he must winnow it in the threshing floor and then he would gather it into his barns. His heart was merry; would he drive the poor Moabite girl away? Naomi is full of confidence and is able to indicate the pathway of blessing to Ruth. “Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thyself, and put thy raiment upon thee, and go down to the floor; make not thyself known to the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be, when he lies down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall have lain down, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thyself down; and he will show thee what thou shalt do” (vv. 3-4). Ruth must prepare herself for this encounter; she is to lie down at his feet and wait for his word. This will characterize also the poor remnant of Israel who will be found faithful at the moment when the Messiah will arise after their long night of waiting. But, I would ask, should not this character be ours too, for even greater reason? We have heard the call telling us to wash ourselves, to anoint ourselves, and to adorn ourselves for Him alone. Have we forgotten that voice? Where are we now? Have we gone into His threshing floor to spend the night or into the threshing floor of strangers? Have we answered like Ruth from the depths of our heart, “All that thou sayest will I do”? Yes, He desires that we should be worthy of Himself in a practical way, that lying down at His feet, acknowledging His rights over us, we should quietly, peacefully wait for His word throughout the night hours. Soon our Boaz will break His silence. Will it be to reproach us severely or to express His approval of our conduct?

In the middle of the night Boaz recognizes the woman who has placed herself under his protection and blesses her. The Book of Ruth, this tale of grace, is full of the blessings of the giver and of those who receive. Every heart rejoices from the moment that Boaz enters the scene. His presence stimulates praise and thanksgiving for around himself he sows the favors of grace. What infinite joy to be able to praise our Boaz! But is it not also a joy to receive, as Ruth did, the testimony of his satisfaction with regard to us? May we be eager for Christ's approval! It humbles us to think that we seek it so little. Men's praise inflates us but His praise never does. He approves us for what His infinite grace sees in us, and He sees in us that which His grace has produced and which answers to His thoughts.

Boaz praises Ruth because she had shown “more kindness at the end than at the first.” She had first exercised love toward her mother-in-law who represented the people of God to her, and now she was acting out of love for Boaz. She had not gone after young men, poor or rich; she had not sought companions according to her natural inclinations, but she had come to him whose rights she acknowledged. He reassures her and promises to grant her all her requests (v. 11). What encouragement for believers! We receive everything from His grace, but He also gives us according to the measure of our obedience and according to the measure of our devotion to Him. “Give, and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over!” (Luke 6: 38). As soon as Ruth had known Boaz she did everything with him in view; and now, he is doing everything for her. He is not satisfied simply not to be indebted to us; He desires to give to the faithful in heart according to all their needs.

“All the gate of my people knows that thou art a woman of worth.” Ruth unites in herself the qualities of which the apostle Peter speaks, which make one neither idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of the Lord. To her faith she adds virtue, and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, endurance; and to endurance, godliness. To brotherly love she adds love and shows more kindness at the end than at the first. And so she receives an abundant entrance into the kingdom. This faithfulness touches Boaz's heart: “All that thou sayest will I do to thee!” What an example for us! Let us be ambitious to receive an answer like this. The church of Philadelphia receives such an answer. She has kept Jesus' word, and like Ruth has walked in His patience and in practical holiness, and Jesus tells her: I will do everything for you! The Lord will also bless the poor Jewish remnant in the end times according to the virtue, holiness, and practical righteousness they will demonstrate in their ways. Today He blesses us in the same way: “Whatsoever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments, and practice the things which are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3: 22).

But there was an even nearer relative who had precedence over Boaz as to the right of redemption. Would he be willing, would he be able to avail himself of this right? We will come back to this. Meanwhile, Ruth has the privilege of continuing to lie down at Boaz's feet until morning. This will be the portion of the remnant and it is also ours. As long as the night lasts we can rest at His feet. Isn't this a blessed place — at His feet, enjoying His approval as to our walk, recipients and objects of His promises, filled with the assurance that He has heard us and that all the toil of this miserable life will soon end, giving place to the public manifestation of our relationship with Him and to the possession of the glorious fruit of His work!

Now it is Boaz (v. 14) who looks out for Ruth's reputation and vindicates the righteousness of the one whom he will make his companion. But before taking up her cause openly he fills her cloak with barley, secretly giving her the pledge of what he will do for her (v. 15). He acts in the same way toward us. The dawn is about to break, but before we can see Him and “recognize Him” He has already given us the Holy Spirit of promise as the earnest of our future inheritance.

Richly laden, Ruth returns to her mother-in-law and tells her, not what she has done for Boaz, but “all that the man had done to her.” Her heart is full of him but she needs her mother-in-law's exhortation to patience. She will not have long to wait, for he who has taken her cause in hand will not delay to make it triumph. “The man will not rest until he have completed the matter this day,” says Naomi. Why? Because he loves her. This is the great and the unique reason for His work on our behalf.

And we, my brothers, do we speak like Naomi? Do we have this blessed consciousness of the love of Jesus for us? Do we wait for Him as the One who will not rest until he will have completed the matter today? This “today” stands for the daily expectation of our Lord. He wants to have us with Himself. Yet a little patience, for He that is coming will come and will not delay!

Ruth 4

Naomi spoke the truth. Boaz would not rest until he should have completed the work that he in his kindness and energy had undertaken. He wanted the one he loved to find rest and that it might be well with her (Ruth 3: 1), and he knew that this could only be possible when united with himself. So it is with the Lord and us. His life on earth was a life of toil for our sakes crowned by the unspeakable “travail of His soul” on the cross. Thus He has fulfilled His promise, “I will give you rest.” We already possess rest of conscience in the knowledge of His work and rest of heart in the knowledge of His adorable Person. But the Lord continues to work today to bring us into the future rest remaining for the people of God, satisfied love's rest where all will correspond to the thoughts of His heart eternally.

Boaz was also determined to give rest to his well-beloved because she had toiled and suffered with the people of God. Likewise, the Holy Spirit tells us: “It is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to those that trouble you, and to you that are troubled repose with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven” (2 Thess. 1: 6-7). “God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and the love which ye have shown to His name, having ministered to the saints, and still ministering” (Heb. 6: 10).

This Book of Ruth speaks much of work and rest: of work and rest in service, the work and rest of faith, and the work and rest of grace. The reapers work and rest; so does the lord of the harvest; so does Ruth, the bride of his choosing. How peacefully she rests at Boaz's feet during the hours of the night! And how she rests afterwards while waiting for her redeemer's efforts to prepare for her the rest of which our chapter speaks!

According to the custom in Israel it was a question of raising up the name of the dead and of re-establishing his inheritance. This duty fell to the nearest relative. Now there was a man there who had closer rights than Boaz over Elimelech's inheritance. Boaz speaks to him in the presence of numerous witnesses. Indeed, this man would like to have had the inheritance, but knowing that “the seed would not be his own” he does not consent to take Ruth to himself. Had he done so he would have impoverished himself and marred his own inheritance, for Ruth's children's possessions would not have returned to him nor to his family.

This close relative is a graphic type of the law. Indeed, like this man, the law which had prior rights over Israel demands; it takes, and it gives nothing. It would just no longer be the law if it could undertake the work of grace. Nevertheless, its weakness does not come from itself, but from those to whom it is addressed. The law expects something from man; but man shows that he is incapable of pleasing God. It promises life on condition of obedience, but since man is a sinner and disobedient the law can only condemn him. The law is a minister of death and cannot give life to the dead. Barren as it is, the law will never produce a posterity and cannot give birth to sons as divine progeny of the Messiah.

Grace alone can undertake such a task. Declaring man to be lost and expecting nothing of him, grace imposes no condition on him, makes no promise to him, but gives to him liberally, unceasingly, and eternally. Grace begets through an incorruptible seed and communicates life; grace puts man into relationship with God, produces fruit in him that God can acknowledge, and introduces him into glory.

Thus the law declares that it is powerless in the presence of the “Second man” who comes after the law, that is, in the presence of our Boaz in whom is strength. He will resurrect His people Israel and “He shall see a seed,” as Isaiah says, but only, as we know, after having “poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53). In the meanwhile all the result of his work at the cross applies to us Christians. As for our souls, we are already raised together with Him; as for our bodies, we will soon be raised just as certainly as He has been. For us, Boaz is a type of the resurrected Christ.

The nearest relative removes his sandal — the law cedes its rights to Christ: rights that are acknowledged by the witnesses brought together for this very purpose. Boaz redeems the inheritance in order to possess Ruth, for he has more interest in this stranger's well-being than in all that belongs to her. Christ has done even more for the Church. He surrendered all that was His in order to purchase her. The poor remnant of Israel will also recognize this with joy when they shall see their Messiah who was once rejected return in glory.

The witnesses of this scene, the people and the elders, acclaim and bless mighty Boaz, for such kindness is worthy of all praise. The Holy Spirit places prophetic words in their mouths: “Jehovah make the woman that cometh into thy house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel!” (v. 11). The history of the people will begin once again, so to speak, with this poor Moabite. It will recommence on the basis of grace. Here it is not Leah but Rachel, the beloved wife, the wife of Jacob's free choice, the one for whom he had served so long, who comes first. In every respect and detail the Book of Ruth fixes our gaze on grace. “And acquire power in Ephratah, and make thyself a name in Bethlehem!” These cities, the witnesses of grace, will also be the witnesses of Boaz's power: “And let thy house become like the house of Pherez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which Jehovah shall give thee of this young woman!” May his seed, like Pherez, be established according to the election of grace!

“And Jehovah gave [Ruth] conception.” In the presence of this heir whom grace has given, the women again take up the people's prophetic line of thought. To Naomi they say, “Blessed be Jehovah who hath not left thee this day without one that has the right of redemption!” They transfer the right of redemption that Boaz had exercised to the head of his son, and thus foresee the future redemption to be accomplished by the man born of Ruth. In Him, they add, the old age of the people will find a nourisher, their weakness will find a restorer, and His name will be associated with that of Ruth — this poor remnant with her affections set on Naomi, the much afflicted people of God, to whom she is worth more than a perfect number of sons (v. 15).

Naomi nurses Obed in her bosom; he comes forth, like the Messiah, from this barren people. Then the neighbor women also raise their prophetic praise: “There is a son born to Naomi!” The circle becomes more intimate and along with this comes an increasing measure of intelligence. The nearer one is to God's people the more one appreciates Christ and His grace. If one is content with the relationship of “the elders and all the people” one will not go beyond their level of spiritual intelligence; whereas the heart that is attached to the Church will have a more intimate and more personal knowledge of Christ. “There is a son born to Naomi!” Just so the Israel to come will rejoice before Him as in the joy of harvest and as when one divides the spoil, and they will say: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9: 6).

“And they called his name Obed.” Obed means “He who serves.” This is the Lord's title of glory before all His other marvelous titles. This Servant is the Root and Offspring of David, the bearer of royal grace. Do not all our hearts beat with joy when we call Him by this name? He the Counselor, the Mighty God, has served, is now serving, and will remain a Servant for ever for the benefit of those whom He loves! Our highest blessings are comprehended in this title of Servant: His devotion to God, His love for us, His entire work even to the sacrifice of His own life, His present grace which condescends to wash our feet, and His eternal service of love when one day we shall be with Him in the glory of the Father's house!

As saved by faith,

Fruit of Thy victory,

When Thine own in glory,

Shall ever be with Thee,

There, in celestial courts,

Beneath the Father's gaze,

Thy love's eternal service

Is ours through endless days!

1 Samuel

1 Samuel

Meditations on the First Book of Samuel

H. L. Rossier

Contents

Introduction

1 Samuel 1 - 3 Eli, or the Ruin of the Priesthood

1 Samuel 4 - 8 Samuel, Judge and Prophet

1 Samuel 9 - 15 Saul, or the King According to the Flesh

1 Samuel 16 - 31 David, the King According to Grace

INTRODUCTION

The Book of Samuel is the continuation of the Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth. As it opens, the period of the Judges is not yet over: Eli the priest was one of these judges (1 Sam. 4: 18), and Samuel, the first prophet (Acts 3: 24; Acts 13: 20), was also a judge over Israel (1 Sam. 7: 6). He thought he could establish his sons as judges after himself (1 Sam. 8: 1), but their unfaithfulness put an end to this dispensation. Moreover, the period of the judges had a rather transitory character: the judges brought temporary relief to the wretchedness of the guilty people of Israel who, instead of exterminating the enemies of the Lord, had allowed them to live. Drawn away into iniquity and idolatry by these nations, Israel, as chastening for her disobedience, was obliged to bear their yoke. Under this tyranny, the people groaned and cried out to the Lord. Full of pity, He sent them deliverers who gave them respite by delivering them from the the hand of their spoilers. Alas! this did not change their heart. “And it came to pass when the judge died, that they turned back and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way” (Judges 2: 19).

During the period of the judges, the priesthood remained the immediate and recognized link, the point of contact, between the people and God. It represented the people in their relations with God who was Himself the King of Israel. Sometimes in those days when “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21: 25), the role of the priesthood might appear to have been eclipsed, but the link subsisted nonetheless.

The Book of Ruth is inserted, as it were, toward the end of the history of the Judges, in order to reveal God's secret thought concerning a new dispensation, that of kingship or the kingdom. There we see God preparing a king according to His own heart; like Shiloh in Jacob's prophecy, he must proceed from Judah. Therefore this book begins with Elimelech, a man of Judah, and in closing it proclaims the name of King David, showing us beforehand who will be the Lord's anointed.

Let us note here that the relationship with the Lord differs under the priesthood and under the kingdom. Under the priesthood, this relation was immediate, for the priest represented the people before God, whereas the kingdom is an authority established over the people. The people were subjected to the king who was to govern according to the mind of God. It was the king whom God expected to be faithful; he it was who was responsible before God for Israel's unfaithfulness, and the destiny of the people depended on his conduct.

Until the final establishment of the king, we have in the First Book of Samuel a period of transition. The first great fact noted in this book is that the priesthood had proven unfaithful and could no longer serve as the foundation of a relationship between the people and God. Without doubt, the priesthood was still necessary and could not be abolished, but it ceased to have the first place. A new basis of relationship was established in the kingship. God was about to raise up “a faithful priest, who [should] walk before [His] anointed continually, instead of being, as in the past, the link between the people and God (1 Sam. 2: 35).

All this explains why the First Book of Samuel begins with the tribe of Levi and the priesthood, and not, as the Book of Ruth, with Judah and the kingdom.

Elkanah was a Levite.1 Eli was the high priest;2 thus we are on the ground of the priesthood. Had the priesthood remained faithful, there would have been no occasion for a change of dispensation; therefore it was necessary, first of all, to ascertain that it was ruined before the true king should enter the scene, for God could not remain in relationship to the people through the medium of a corrupted priesthood.

But, on the other hand, it was necessary to show, now that God was introducing His king as the intermediary between Israel and Himself, that this relationship could not be established on the basis of the flesh. This is the reason for Saul's entire history from 1 Samuel 9 to the end of the book. God could, without doubt, use a king according to the flesh to deliver His people, but this function did not qualify him morally to be the leader of Israel. The Book of Judges presents the same truth in the history of Samson. The gift and the moral state of a man are two very different things. Saul, who was later reproved, might be “among the prophets”; Balaam might bless Israel; Judas might do works of power together with the other disciples and all the while be an instrument of the enemy to betray the Lord, his Master.

CHAPTERS 1-3

ELI, OR THE RUIN OF THE PRIESTHOOD

1 SAMUEL 1

Hannah has a remarkable trait: her character is that of the believer in all ages. Hannah means “grace”; but before answering to her name, she represents the flesh incapable of bearing fruit for God. We must always begin there. The Word of God teaches us that the natural man has two characteristics: wickedness and incapacity, and the law has no other purpose than to convince us of this. But it is easier to confess that we are guilty than to admit our incapacity, for to admit the powerlessness of our flesh is deeply humiliating. Hannah felt this, but her trial was not limited to this alone. Like Sarah of old, she was the object of the hatred and disdain of the wife according to the flesh. This wife was prospering fully, for Peninnah “had children” when Hannah had none. But the hatred of the first wife was all the greater as the love of their husband turned toward Hannah, the wife who was miserable and barren.

Poor Hannah was full of bitterness and wept abundantly. One resource remained to her: to present her affliction before the Lord. Only God's heart could give her an answer in grace; therefore she presents herself before Him at Shiloh. A new trial awaits her there. She encounters the lack of intelligence in the spiritual leader of her people who, confusing the activity of the Spirit of God with the activity of the flesh, believes that she is drunken when she is in fact anguished. What suffering! She has no resource within herself; the world is hostile to her; those who bear the Lord's name judge her and do not understand her! How can she eat and drink and rejoice, when her soul's only desire has found no response. She does not desire this son for herself; she is entirely disposed to “give him to Jehovah all the days of his life,” to make of him a Nazarite for God; but what she needs is a sign of God's favor; what she needs is “grace!” Did God give her, the barren wife, this name in vain? Grace alone remains for her, and this is the point to which she must come.

Eli has conscience sufficient, for after all he is a true servant of God, that the language of truth brings its weight to bear on him and causes him to reverse his first impression. He blesses Hannah on behalf of God: “Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition which thou hast asked of Him” (v. 17).

Hannah's faith at once lays hold of grace even before receiving its effects. “And the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more as before” (v. 18). This assurance of faith is enough to strengthen her heart and fill her with a joy that is visible to all.

Now she is full of thanksgiving. It is not enough for her that she has found joy and rest after anguish. What will she return to God for such a great blessing? She will render what she promised Him in verse 11: the complete consecration of her son, a true separation for Him. When her request is answered by the gift of Samuel, she does not withdraw her offer: “that he may appear before Jehovah, and there abide forever.” This humble wife of Elkanah the Levite brings a costly sacrifice to the Lord — ”three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a flask of wine” — but one that is nothing in comparison to the gift of Samuel. She parts with her only son, given her by God Himself, from him whom she had “asked of God,” thus showing that for her God was more precious than this son whom she had so desired.

May we have such faith! In order to manifest it, God puts our hearts to the test. Just as with Hannah, this trial will not be an occasion of joy at the beginning, but rather of bitterness and sorrow, but then it will bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it.

1 SAMUEL 2: 1-11

Consciousness of her irremediable condition, brokenness, and humiliation had prepared Hannah to receive the grace that God was granting her in giving her Samuel. But hardly was she holding him in her motherly arms, than she must part with him in order to consecrate him to God. Her life was to be more solitary than ever, and this at a time when the people's condition was increasing the ruin all around her. Nevertheless Hannah is full of a joy which overflows in a song of triumph: “My heart exulteth in Jehovah … for I rejoice in Thy salvation” (v. 1). This is because God had revealed Himself to her in grace; because He had revealed Himself again to his faithful servant who, having received everything from Him, had kept back nothing for herself and had returned everything to Him. Having deprived herself of her son, she better understands all that God is in Himself; she appreciates all the more all that He is for her. Abraham, having sacrificed Isaac at the Lord's command, had made a similar experience. It was then that God had revealed to him the full extent of the promises that he had received and that God was confirming to his seed (Gen. 22: 15-18; Gal. 3: 15-16).

Along with joy, Hannah found strength: “My horn is lifted up in Jehovah” (v. 1). This power “is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12: 9); after she has repudiated all that is elevated, everything of renown in Israel, God shares this strength with a weak woman, humiliated and despised. Hannah's beautiful song therefore begins with her painful personal experiences, although it goes much further. In the course of this book we shall see the same thing produced in David. The inspired psalms are the fruit of his experiences, but the bearing that the Spirit gives them goes far beyond that, concentrating prophetically on the sufferings and the glories of Christ, on the person of Him who is the fulfillment of all the promises, of all the ways, and of all the counsels of God.

This is how we must interpret Hannah's song. Her personal circumstances serve as an introduction to things still unrevealed, reserved till then in God's counsels.

The main theme of Hannah's song, the great principle presented in it, is the sovereign grace and power of God, who abases the proud and the one who puts his confidence in the flesh, and who lifts up the weak and powerless, “for the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and He hath set the world upon them.” On His grace and power He has established the entire order of created things. Israel, miserable and fallen, and a faithful remnant that was poor and weak, needed to know these things and to learn that everything depended on Him alone, that He alone could keep the feet of His saints, silence the wicked, bring all man's strength to nothing, break all His adversaries and, lastly, give strength to His King and raise up the horn of His Anointed,3 for Heintervenes in Israel's favor by giving strength to His Christ. He does not give strength to His people, but to His Anointed. He raises up the King on whom everything depends, the pivot of all things, the only means of sustaining a relationship between Himself and His people.

Let us take up again one or two details of this song. Verse 1 celebrates the salvation of the Lord. All is pure grace on His part, for it is “grace … which carries with it salvation.” Verse 2 celebrates Jehovah's holiness. The believer cannot separate these two traits one from the other; one who has found God as Savior understands that He is “holy … for there is none beside [Him].” But it is necessary to be holy in order to belong to Him; this is why He has sanctified us for Himself. All our conduct should henceforth display this characteristic.

This great truth was brought to light at the Passover. The Israelites had been sheltered by the blood of the Lamb, which had been delivered up to judgment instead of themselves. The people appropriated this sacrifice by eating the lamb together with unleavened bread which typically represents Christ's holy humanity. From this moment on, they were enjoined to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. As He who had called them was holy, they also were to be holy in all their manner of behavior (1 Peter 1: 15-16).

Verse 3 is a warning to the wicked, typified by Penninah. They are placed in the presence of God who knows all and who weighs men's actions.

In verses 4 to 8, we find the reason for the discipline which had come upon the faithful. This was so that the character of grace might be brought to light by lifting them up to glory, and so that the character of righteousness might be brought to light in granting them vengeance on the wicked. This grace goes so far as to give seven children to the barren woman — the perfect number, which Hannah never reached (v. 21), for she had only six children. The promised blessings will not reach their fullness until the glory that is in store for the restored remnant of Israel.

Verse 10 predicts, as we have seen, the coming of Messiah, the true King. God will exalt the horn of His Anointed. Direct association with Him is the power granted to Hannah in verse 1: “My horn is lifted up in Jehovah.”

1 SAMUEL 2: 12-36

The continuation of this chapter shows us the ruined state into which the priesthood had fallen. “Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial”: a terrible pronouncement, when it concerned those in Israel who were the closest to God! The sin of these men had two characteristics: they disregarded the rights of those who came to worship the Lord by confiscating their portions (vv. 13-14); they disregarded the rights of the Lord, laying profane hands on the Lord's portion, seeing to it that they themselves were served before He was, thus taking precedence over God Himself (vv. 15-16). They made themselves fat with the Lord's offerings and caused men to abhor them.

Are not these the principles of any clerical system, whether pagan, Jewish, or Christian — no doubt, more or less coarse and despicable according to the case — but, in the final account, the principles of every class of men who appropriate to themselves authority or privileges over other men in religious matters? (Matt. 24: 48-49). They pretend to have rights over simple believers, they see that they themselves are served at the expense of these same believers, and in their opinion even the priest's servant has more authority than the worshippers themselves. They usurp, in a measure, God's prerogatives and, in sum, cause Him to be despised, in order that they themselves may be honored instead of Him.4 They did not know the Lord (v. 12); “There [was] no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3: 18). Without this fear, there is no hatred of evil. Is it surprising that they displayed the most shocking corruption? (v. 22).

In the midst of all this ruin, was the high priest's function at least being maintained? Alas no! Eli, godly Eli, lacked spiritual discernment. Nevertheless he showed himself to be capable of teaching God's mind and ways to young Samuel. Furthermore, he formed a righteous judgment of the evil, and his heart bled at the sight of the dissolute life of his sons. He did not hide it from them. Doubtless no one had expressed his disapproval as plainly as their father had: “Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil deeds from all this people. No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make Jehovah's people transgress. If one man sin against another, God will judge him; but if a man sin against Jehovah, who shall intreat for him?” (vv. 23-25).

You ask, What was this man of God lacking? Just this: He judged the evil, but he did not separate himself from it. It is a sad and humiliating thing to state: this is the situation of the majority of God's children in Christendom. Their bonds, their relationships, their affections, and their customs to which they are more attached than to the Lord's glory prevent them from recognizing that one is liable for an evil which one judges but from which one does not separate oneself.

This is what the man of God is charged to declare to Eli. In no way was Eli personally following the ungodly and disorderly behavior of his sons, but nevertheless these solemn words are addressed to him: “Wherefore do ye trample upon My sacrifice and upon Mine oblation which I have commanded in My habitation? And thou honorest thy sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the primest of all the oblations of Israel My people” (v. 29). “Thou honorest thy sons above Me!” Poor Eli! despite all his piety, there were men, his sons — his behavior proved this — whom he was honoring more than the Lord. God had been patient with him, but now he was about to reap the bitter fruit of the lack of holiness in his walk, for holiness is nothing other than separation from evil in view of God's service. The house of Eli, the descendant of Ithamar, was about to come to an end; it could not, in the condition in which it was found, “walk before [God] forever” (v. 30). “For them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (v. 30). Did this righteous man, Eli, then despise the Lord? Yes, for “no servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other” (Luke 16: 13). And so a terrible judgment is pronounced on the house of Eli (vv. 31-34). But God, the God of grace, takes no pleasure in judgment; He uses it in order to establish before Himself a priesthood once for all. He entrusts the priesthood to Eleazar's descendants: “And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind; and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before Mine Anointed continually” (v. 35). Simultaneously with the establishment of a priesthood according to His heart, the Lord makes known the change of dispensation which is to follow, but prophetically, this reaches far beyond the priesthood of the sons of Eleazar under David and under Solomon. The Anointed is Christ, and when He shall be on high as king and high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, on earth there will be, during the Millennium, a faithful priesthood of the family of Zadok whose functions will all tend to glorify the chosen king, the Man at God's right hand (Ezek. 44: 13-15).

May we profit from Eli's example. We are living in times characterized by a certain activity in service. This activity often presses itself upon ourselves and others, for it has the appearance of great zeal for the Lord and for His work. It may even be accompanied by eminent gifts, but the gifts and activity are of little significance, if there is not the corresponding moral character. This moral character was grievously flawed in Eli's case; and without this character there can be no true service according to God.

Samuel offers a striking contrast to this state of things in every detail. In his case, we may trace the uninterrupted development of a life of holiness, despite more than one weakness, for perfection is found only in Christ.

When he was still only a small child, it is said of him, in 1 Samuel 1: 28: “And he worshipped Jehovah there.”5 Just so, a “newborn babe” in Christ must immediately take his place as a worshipper before Him. In 1 Samuel 2: 11 his second act is: “And the boy ministered to Jehovah in the presence of Eli the priest.” This attitude will characterize Samuel's entire life, but here he serves under Eli's direction, for being still very young, he needed to learn before becoming capable of teaching others.

In his third act (v. 18), Samuel does not serve before Eli, but rather more directly, “before Jehovah, a boy girded with a linen ephod,” that is to say, in a priestly character, for the linen ephod was the special clothing of the priesthood (1 Sam. 2: 18). Now that the priesthood had fallen, the Lord clothes this young Levite with it, provisionally, so to speak. The scene is the same later on in the case of David, who wore the ephod before the ark (2 Sam. 6: 14) However, the Christians' situation is different: they are perpetually kings and priests before God the Father.

In his fourth act (v. 21), “the boy Samuel grew before Jehovah.” The point here is his intimacy with God, without which service cannot be effective.

In his fifth act (v. 26), “the boy Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with Jehovah and also with men.” I call this the intimacy of favor. The relationship of affection between Samuel and the Lord caused his walk to draw the attention of men, who took note of it as a walk pleasing to the Lord. Intimacy with God was reflected in the face of this young boy. This is what is told us of John the Baptist (Luke 1: 80), and for how much greater reason, of Jesus: “Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2: 52). All the power of our Christian testimony depends on a secret life spent in the Lord's presence.

May God grant us to resemble young Samuel in our conduct more than Eli, instructed as he was in the knowledge of the Lord's mind through his age and his public functions!

1 SAMUEL 3

Let us pursue the parallel in this chapter between Eli and Samuel. Eli continues in his downward path, whereas Samuel grows until all Israel knows that the Lord has established him as a prophet.

In verse 1, Samuel is depicted in the same way as at the beginning of his career: “The boy Samuel ministered to Jehovah before Eli” (cf. 1 Sam. 2: 11). There is no progression in this passage: the Spirit of God once again lays the basis of what is to follow.

In 1 Samuel 2, the consequence of Samuel's service was to ascribe to him certain attributes of the priesthood which was soon to be removed from Eli. In a time of ruin, the functions of the house of God are not as clearly defined as in a time of spiritual prosperity. Such is the case today too with regard to gifts in the Church. As all the members of Christ are not fulfilling the functions which have been apportioned to them, the Lord often confides to a single member capacities which, in a normal state of things, He would have distributed among many members. In no way am I here speaking of the principle of the clergy which pretends to amass on one man's head gifts acquired by study and confirmed by examinations.

In our chapter, Samuel's service leads him to prophecy. Through service one acquires a good degree (cf. 1 Tim. 3: 13). If we do as Samuel who did not go out of the sanctuary, so to speak, God will entrust other services to us. When, like Samuel, one serves the Lord from his youth, and when one grows in His presence, one may then be usefully employed for the benefit of His people.

Nevertheless two things were still lacking in Samuel's spiritual development, without which there can be no public testimony: “Samuel did not yet know Jehovah, neither had the word of Jehovah yet been revealed unto him” (v. 7). The point here is personal knowledge of the Lord, for Samuel belonged to Him, served Him, and worshipped Him from his infancy, but he had not yet met the Lord face to face. It may happen in our Christian career that we joy in the finished work of the cross on our behalf without knowing the Lord personally. Knowing salvation and knowing the Author of salvation are two different things. Now, there is no power for testimony in one who does not know the person of Christ. The secret that would allow the Corinthians to be the epistle of Christ, known and read by all men, lay in the contemplation of the glory of the Lord with unveiled face.

“Neither had the word of Jehovah yet been revealed to him.” Often in times of ruin the revelation of the mind of God is hindered by the enemy. Just so it is said in verse 1: “The word of Jehovah was rare in those days; a vision was not frequent.” But although hindered, the word had not been stopped, for grace provides for the needs of each era, and most consolingly, it is often in the darkest days of decline that God gives the most new light in order to guide and encourage His own. In a time when the vision was not widespread, God raises up the first prophet, properly speaking, in Israel. Through the priesthood's unfaithfulness the ordinary means established by God for approaching Himself were at the point of being lost, but the grace of God could not leave His people without help and without a means of communicating with Himself. He gives Samuel, that is to say prophecy, through which in sovereign grace He approaches man and communicates His mind. Samuel is the first of this long line of prophets who transmit God's word to a people whose unfaithfulness, without this provision, would have left them without resource (Acts 3: 24; 2 Chr. 35: 18; Jer. 15: 1).

Thus God reveals Himself personally to Samuel and makes him the depository of His word. This young boy is raised to the dignity of a friend of God and, like the man of experience and of faith which Abraham was, God hides nothing from him of what He was about to do. Until that moment Eli's teaching had instructed Samuel concerning the way to enter into communication with God (v. 9); now he is in direct relationship with the Lord who is entrusting His secrets to him. Samuel proves himself faithful respecting this trust and, like Paul with the Ephesians later (Acts 20: 20), he kept back from Eli nothing that was profitable to him. Poor Eli — set aside and obliged to receive God's thoughts from the mouth of a young boy! What a humiliation for this aged man, whose path is sinking lower and lower, whereas the path of his pupil is rising and reaching regions that the feet of the high priest never attained!

In 1 Samuel 1, Eli lacked discernment; in 1 Samuel 2, he lacked the moral courage to separate himself from evil; here, his eyes are dim and he cannot see, and nevertheless the lamp of God had not yet gone out — a striking image of his moral condition. And what is more, this leader of the simple proves himself to be dull of understanding. It is not until the third call that “Eli perceived that Jehovah was calling the boy.” Yes, “dull of hearing”: that is exactly what he had become. Samuel was simply ignorant, which is a thousand times better. When there is godliness, God remedies ignorance. If the new-born babe desires “the pure mental milk of the word,” he will not be refused. Here on earth we know only in part and we will never know otherwise than only in part. That we are not responsible for; but it is a question of growth: “That by it ye may grow” (1 Peter 2: 2), and our responsibility is to seek, to this end, spiritual food.

Here we find a feature of Eli's spiritual weakening that is not mentioned in the first two chapters: “For the iniquity which he hath known, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not” (v. 13). Eli knew the evil, and he had authority to repress it in his sons, but he did not use it.6 What profit was it to him that this authority had been entrusted to him by God? How often the spiritual weakening of the head of a family stems from his slackness when he should have maintained order and discipline in the sphere where his authority was meant to function? This is a great cause of ruin. Without doubt, like Lot, Eli was “distressed with the abandoned conversation [manner of life] of the godless,” but like him, he displayed a sad forgetfulness of what was due to the Lord's holiness.

Samuel was holy in all his conduct. God entrusts a revelation to him; he administers this trust faithfully; and this is the means by which he receives a new revelation. So, we are told: Samuel grew; he continued to grow (1 Sam. 2: 21; 1 Sam. 3: 19). His spiritual development followed a walk which was gradually rising. “And Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.” Thus, all Samuel's words were preserved by Him who witnessed his speech. And so Samuel was the God's organ to express His mind, and he spoke “as oracles of God” because God was with him to preserve him. Thus he acquired the reputation of prophet in the presence of all Israel. One revelation leads to another: the Lord continued to appear to him at Shiloh and revealed Himself to him by His word (v. 21). So, Samuel grew both in personal knowledge of the Lord and in the knowledge of His revealed word.

As for Eli, how comforting it is to see at our chapter's close, the humble submission of this aged man to the judgment which he had merited. “It is Jehovah: let Him do what is good in His sight” (v. 18). God's will is good and his soul bows to it. May God grant us Eli's spirit in the presence of His discipline: the humility which precedes recovery, a broken heart which does not rise up against the will of God in an effort to resist it, but which accepts His will with all its consequences, because it is indeed “that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

CHAPTERS 4-8

SAMUEL, JUDGE AND PROPHET

1 SAMUEL 4

This chapter presents, not only the ruin of the priesthood, but also the ruin of the entire people; therefore judgment comes upon the one as well as upon the other. “And what Samuel had said happened to all Israel” (v. 1). Samuel's word, the prophetic word, had an infallible character. The judgment it pronounced would certainly come to pass.

“And Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Eben-ezer” (v. 1). Eben-ezer is mentioned here only in order to indicate to us the place where Israel pitched their camp, for it did not receive this name until later (1 Sam. 7: 12). This place was at Mizpah (1 Sam. 7: 6), a fact which is of great importance for appreciating the moral condition of the people. For Israel, the place of meeting before God was Gilgal under Joshua and Mizpah under the judges. At this time the name of Mizpah meant nothing to the affections of the people and was not even pronounced (cf. Judges 11: 11; Judges 20: 1; Judges 21: 1, 5). The natural consequence of forgetting God's presence is that the people do not consult Him. The immediate result of this is that “Israel was smitten before the Philistines” (v. 2).

They ask: “Why has Jehovah smitten us today before the Philistines?” They do not understand the cause of their defeat, having no conscience of their condition. In order to rise again after the blow that had leveled them, they attempt to associate the ark, God's throne, with their ruined state, as it had been associated with them at the beginning of their history. They do not dream of presenting themselves before God in order to learn from Him the reason why He had abandoned His people. They pull God to themselves, so to speak. The same thing may be seen today. Two Christianized nations fight against one another and each side says: God must be with us.

The God who sits between the cherubim allows Himself to be led by Israel, but as Judge rather than Deliverer. He judges everything; first the priesthood, then the people, and finally their adversaries after His glory has departed from Israel.

The people appear to highly acknowledge God's power; when the ark comes into the camp they raise such a great shout that “the earth shook.” In the same way Christendom uses Christ's name in order to exalt itself in the midst of unjudged iniquity. The outward sign of God's presence is sufficient for this system which boasts: We have the ark. Israel thinks that God cannot abandon them without exposing Himself to shame. But God does exactly this: He exposes Himself to shame; He allows the world seemingly to become His conqueror. In reality, this scene is the accomplishment of God's word through Samuel, but God, delivered into the hands of enemies, is the One who judges. As it was with the ark, so it is with Christ. He who is rejected, despised, He to whom men did all that they would, is established by God as Judge of the living and of the dead.

What became of the triumphal shout in verse 5? A “noise of … tumult” replaces it. Israel is smitten, the priesthood is destroyed, shame and powerlessness are evident, and God's glory is delivered into the hands of the enemy!

The piety of poor, guilty Eli shines out in this disaster. The end of his career speaks to us of something yet besides God's judgment, however real and terrible His judgment may have been. With a self-judged heart he had humbly accepted God's judgment on himself and his sons (1 Sam. 3: 18); now his thought is only for the ark of the Lord. “His heart trembled for the ark of God.” (v. 13). When the messenger speaks of it, Eli falls from his seat and dies (v. 18). It is not the judgment on his family that leads to his death, but the dishonor inflicted on the Lord and His departure from the midst of His people.

Phinehas's wife's last moments also shine with a similar consoling light! The catastrophe brings her pregnancy to a premature end and causes her death, but in dying she calls her son Ichabod: “The glory is departed.” In the person of her own son, she proclaims Israel's ruin and its consequences. The witnesses of the times of the end may be recognized by this feature. The dishonor done to God through our own unfaithfulness humbles us, and, instead of attempting to remedy the state of things this has provoked, we bow our heads under the judgment, for there we perceive the holiness of the Lord.

CHAPTERS 5 - 6: 13

On this account the ark, “the glory of God,” is now captive in His people's enemies' hands; but they cannot boast themselves in this. God is about to prove to them that nothing is more glorious than His glory humbled and captive. In this way, the humiliation of the cross glorified the Son of Man and God in Him (John 13: 31).

In the hands of Gentiles God is about to lay claim to His holiness in judgment. This judgment will be complete, falling on false gods, on men, and on the land of the Philistines.

The ark, God's testimony, which cannot be associated with the people's unfaithfulness, can no more be submitted to idols. In fact, it can rest only where it is pleased to dwell in grace. God leaves Israel in judgment, but only in order to return to Israel on the entirely new footing of grace, as we shall see in what follows. This is not yet rest, for “the ark of [His] strength” would not enter into this rest until the the reign of Solomon, type of the reign of Christ.

We have said that the glory of God cannot be submitted to idols. Indeed, set this humiliated glory beside Dagon, as the men of Ashdod did, and the world's idol will be overturned and broken. But this changes nothing about the worship that the world offers to its idol. It prefers its mutilated false gods, objects of disdain and derision, to the glory of God that makes it uncomfortable. “Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day” (v. 5). Their superstitious practice itself remains as a permanent testimony to the degradation of their idol, and also proves that its judgment could bring them to God.

The presence of the ark also draws judgment down on the men who had thought to prevail over God, as we have said. For the Philistines there is misery and death. Anguish, secret pain, a shameful sore, the result of divine wrath (cf. Deut. 28: 27) fall on them — ”the cry of the city went up to heaven.” It went up to a heaven which was empty for them, while God was in their midst without their realizing it, judging them on earth. The result is, not that they turn to God, but that they send Him away, hoping to rid themselves of Him. At the same time we see here the egoism that characterizes the world. As long as Ashdod is undisturbed, what does it matter that Gath be tormented? As long as Gath is undisturbed, what does it matter that Ekron be tormented? They do not want to die, but that does not prevent death, accompanied by deadly dismay, from coming (vv. 11-12).

The counsel of the princes of the Philistines to the people's question “What shall we do?” (v. 8) is therefore without result. The people then question the priests and the diviners “What shall we do with the ark of Jehovah?” (1 Sam. 6: 2). They do not know what to do with the throne of God, the mercy-seat, the vessel of the mind of God! Animated by the same spirit, the Gadarenes prayed the Lord to withdraw from their borders. It makes them uncomfortable because it judges them. For them the question is how they shall send this disturbing guest away, not whether they ought to send it away. It does not occur to them to address themselves to Him, but their clergy must surely know the way of being rid of God. This clergy, at least, despite their extreme ignorance is candid. Acknowledging God's hand in these plagues, they try to determine how to “give glory to the God of Israel.” They tell the people not to harden their hearts against Him; they recall His exploits in Egypt; and, finally, they suggest a means of knowing whether it is really He who has caused this great evil or whether the thing was only accidental. All this denotes conscience in the absence of the light brought by revealed truth. God always takes account of conscience, even of an obscured conscience, and gives a clear answer.

The men had been stricken with haemorrhoids, and the land itself devastated by mice (v. 5). Judgment was complete, as we have seen. At the counsel of the priests and diviners, they offer up golden haemorrhoids and golden mice as a trespass offering. A trespass offering — when they had made war against the people of God! when they had esteemed Dagon to be the master over the Sovereign God, the Creator of heaven and earth! An offering without the shedding of blood when atonement for sin was necessary!  -  But God takes account of the very least cry of conscience. He gives a clear answer, we have said. “The kine went straight forward on the way to Beth-shemesh; they went by the one high way, lowing as they went; and they turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” (v. 12). Such are the Lord's ways, always right! (Hosea 14: 9).

God, the Judge, now in grace returns to His people. Only He is expecting them to acknowledge Him with humiliation.

1 Samuel 6: 13 - 1 Samuel 7: 1

God's public ways may be in judgment, as we have just seen, but His secret ways always bring Him back into the midst of His people in grace. The ark returned to Beth-shemesh without Israel feeling the need of it, or expressing any desire for it.

What a marvelous thing is this ark of the Lord! First of all, the ark is God's throne, His governmental presence in the midst of His people. Next, it is characterized by the mercy seat, symbol of Christ's work, the place of approach for a sinner received in grace and justified. Lastly, considered as a whole and considered in detail, it is the image of the person of Christ Himself. As the ark contained the tables of the law, so Christ said: “Thy law is within My heart.” Like the ark of testimony, the Lord here on earth was the witness and the expression of all God's thoughts. As in the golden pot that contained the manna, in Him we find the union of perfect humanity — the bread come down from heaven in the wilderness — with divine glory. He was the mercy seat toward which the faces of the cherubim of glory were turned so that they might contemplate it, overshadowing it with their wings. Thus the ark was, above all, the image of Christ Himself, the Son of God and the Son of Man in a single person.

The people of Beth-shemesh “rejoiced to see [the ark]” (v. 13). How could there fail to be joy, when, after having lost sight of His perfections, one is once again found in the presence of Him whose presence brings security, salvation, the feeling of God's presence, a moral beauty before which angels bow in worship? Thus, hardly had the ark come, but burnt offerings are offered once again and the Levites resume their service anew. The princes of the Philistines see this scene and return; a spectacle of this sort is interesting to them, but does not touch their heart and their conscience.

But the joy elicited by the contemplation of grace is not everything. It is combined with respect and fear, if one is aware of being in God's presence. The God of grace judges according to the work of each one; the God of grace is holy. This is what the people of Beth-shemesh had forgotten. “They had looked into the ark of Jehovah” (v. 19). They abused the intimacy in which God desired, in grace, to present Himself to them. This is important to note. Because Jesus came down to us, our fleshly spirit is tempted to treat Him as a companion with whom we may do as we wish. Today people boast of familiarity with Jesus, and write books to show that spirituality consists in this. We do not have the right to call Him our Brother, but “He is not ashamed to call [us] brethren.” This shows the difference clearly. What will my feelings be if a person of high degree condescends to associate me, an insignificant person, with Himself and is not ashamed of me in public when he would have every right to despise me? If I understand this condescension, my feelings will be deep and humble thankfulness, attachment, limitless devotion, and infinite respect for Him who does not fear to compromise His dignity by lifting me up to His level.

This absence of respect and fear led the people of Beth-shemesh to look into the ark. There is little that better characterizes the spirit of the present time than this profane spirit. Men think themselves capable of distinguishing that which is proper to the human nature and that which is proper to the divine nature of the Savior and to fathom this mystery. This amounts to the same thing as looking into the ark which contained a secret known to God alone, for, “no one knows the Son but the Father.” This attitude inevitably leads to lowering His humanity to the level of our sinful humanity. Men discuss the child Jesus's education, the schools available to Him for learning the Scriptures, His scientific education and opinions, more or less conformed to those of His time, the reality of His temptation and His capacity to sin, etc. Remember, you profane Christians, that the Lord struck the people of Beth-shemesh. If you are not concerned about the Lord's glory, God will show His concern for it and will not allow anyone to touch His ark with impunity. Soon, instead of the blessings of His presence, you will have to learn under His blows of judgment that He cannot tolerate anyone who fails to remove his shoes in order to approach Him.

The men of Beth-shemesh said: “Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?” (v. 20). To their own detriment they knew this holiness which they had despised. Alas! instead of humbling themselves, they had only the thought, previously formulated by the Philistines, of removing this disturbing guest far from themselves: “To whom shall He go up from us?” “Come down,” they say to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, “fetch it up to you” (v. 21); thus they lose all the blessings connected with the Lord's presence. Others profit and understand that someone must be sanctified to keep watch over the ark: “The men of Kirjath-jearim … hallowed Eleazar, [Abinadab's] son, to keep the ark of the Lord” (1 Sam. 7: 1). This trust was faithfully kept in the “fields of the wood” (Ps. 132: 6). May we be faithful keepers of the ark of our God!

1 SAMUEL 7

If it pleases the Lord for His ark to return in grace into the midst of Israel, the moral state of this people must be brought into accordance with such a favor. “And it came to pass, from the day that the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years.” Thus the ark was within Israel's territory, in a sanctified place, but God's communications with His people were not re-established. Twenty years passed by in waiting, whereas judgment had lasted only seven months (1 Sam. 6: 1). The state that could re-establish the people's communion with God could not be produced except through repentance. How long does it take for this repentance to be manifested? Strange gods and Ashtaroth still remained in the midst of Israel while the ark was staying temporarily at Kirjath-jearim. Could the ark associate with the idols of Israel when it could not do so in Philistia? It takes thirty-four times as long as the duration of the judgment to bring Israel to reject such an outrageous sin. There must be a work of conscience corresponding to grace, as we see in the history of the prodigal son. It is a solemn thing, seen every day, that it takes a believer much longer to be restored than to deliver himself up to do evil.

Israel began to “[lament] after Jehovah” (v. 2) — this is already a favorable sign. They were lacking something, then; the Lord's presence had become necessary to them — the first symptom of a work of God in the soul of the people. Here Samuel serves as the Lord's mouthpiece (v. 3) to call the people to repentance: “Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If ye return to Jehovah with all your heart, put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and apply your hearts unto Jehovah, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines” (v. 3). The believer's return to the Lord is similar to his initial conversion. The soul begins by separating from idols or evil: “Ye turned to God from idols,” it is said to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 1: 9); then the soul cleaves to the Lord and serves Him: “to serve a living and true God.” The result is deliverance; God is no longer obliged to discipline the believer.

In this work the activity of Samuel, this faithful servant of God, is particularly remarkable and blessed. After having spoken to the people, he adds (v. 5): “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray Jehovah for you.” Gathering the people of God is the function of every servant of the Lord who understands his ministry. But beyond this, Samuel is an intercessor; prayer, the fruit of his intimacy with the Lord, characterizes him. Is it not said of him: “Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name: they called unto Jehovah, and He answered them” (Ps. 99: 6)?

Israel must be gathered at Mizpah. As Gilgal was the place of gathering under Joshua, the place of circumcision, of the judgment of the flesh, in order to obtain victory, so Mizpah is under the judges the usual place of gathering after the angel went up from Gilgal to Bochim, the place of weeping, where conclusive ruin is undeniably established. Mizpah is the place of repentance without which there is no victory. At Mizpah (1 Sam. 4: 2) Israel under Eli had met only defeat, for they went there without a work of conscience which could have raised them up again. In ruin, we must remember that Mizpah is just as precious as Gilgal, although much more humiliating; there we learn anew to put our confidence in nothing of man, but only in the Lord's strength.

“And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Jehovah, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against Jehovah.” These things could take place only after what is reported in verse 4: “And the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served Jehovah only.” The fruits of repentance are different from the fruits of conversion; here we have three of them: “water poured out, that is to say, affliction combined with the realization of irremediable weakness before God (2 Sam. 14: 14; Ps. 22: 14); fasting, for in mourning one does not feed the flesh; and lastly, a true confession of evil: “We have sinned against the Lord.”

These fruits are the result of Samuel's intercession for the people. Such too was the case with Peter when he fell: “I have prayed for thee,” Jesus told him. On this basis the people can be restored: “Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.”

“And the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah; and the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel” (v. 7). The gathering of the people cannot suit the enemy. The enemy doubtless does not understand the work of conscience which has produced the gathering, and does not see in this gathering anything but a power opposed to his own power, one which must be suppressed at any price. “And the children of Israel heard it, and were afraid of the Philistines.” In 1 Samuel 4: 7, when their conscience was yet unreached, Israel was unafraid, and it was the Philistines who were full of fear. Now, having experienced their weakness, the people are terrified, for they do not yet have the assurance that God is for them. In one sense, this fear is no doubt wretched, but it is good to see it on the path of restoration. Isn't this better than the “great shout” which Israel had raised previously that had made the earth tremble (1 Sam. 4: 5)?

“And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry to Jehovah our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines” (v. 8). They sense that their future and their salvation are dependent on Samuel's intercession. Samuel, their mediator, “took a sucking-lamb, and offered it as a whole burnt-offering to Jehovah”; for his office could not be effective except by virtue of an accepted sacrifice. On this basis, he could be the advocate of God's people. We, too, have an Advocate with the Father, and He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2: 1-2). “Samuel cried to Jehovah for Israel, and Jehovah answered him” (v. 9). God hears Samuel's request, which is based upon the burnt offering. God is for us and has given us all things, He who spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us. In verses 10-11 the Lord strikes the enemies of His people and drives them out, so that His people need do nothing more than pursue a beaten adversary. Though it is true that help comes entirely from God, yet victory can not be complete without the deployment of the energy of faith.

Samuel takes account of this divine intervention. “Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, and said, Hitherto Jehovah has helped us” (v. 12). Eben-ezer, already mentioned in 1 Samuel 4: 1, does not receive its name until after this victory. “Hitherto”: this basis having been established, the enemy no longer attempts to raise his head. (v. 13). Restoration, for the moment at least, is complete.

We have seen Samuel as prophet, priest, intercessor, and judge: precious qualities in this man of God. His activity for the Lord and His people does not slacken: “Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah” (places which characterized his activity according to God), “and judged Israel in all those places.” Even at Ramah where his house was, he was occupied only with the well-being of the Lord's people. The Word adds: “And there he built an altar unto the Lord” (v. 17). The first expression of his service had been to worship before the Lord (1 Sam. 1: 28); the worshipper's altar is the last expression of his service. Is not this life of faith fittingly framed by these two acts?

1 SAMUEL 8

“And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. And the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah; they judged in Beer-sheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice” (vv. 1-3).

The history of the judges, like that of the priesthood, ends in complete ruin. Samuel himself is lacking in spiritual discernment here. He makes his sons judges without any direction from the Lord, as though the function that God had entrusted to him could be transmitted to others, for there is no transmission of gifts or even of charges by succession.

The elders of Israel with reason disapprove of Samuel's sons' conduct (v. 4), but they make this the occasion to ask for a king (v. 5): “Appoint us a king to judge us, like all the nations.” The evil they were complaining of does not push them toward the Lord, but toward the Gentiles; they seek human assistance to remedy man's ruin, thinking that they can in this way escape their own misery as God's people.

Their desire for a king was, in reality, giving up the Lord, the denial of His direct government through the judges, but their capital sin was the request for a king like the nations. Was it not God's counsel to give them a king according to His own heart, an Anointed whom He would have chosen for them Himself (1 Sam. 2: 35; 1 Sam. 13: 14)? Their desire for a king like all the nations was a renouncing of their title as God's people and involved assimilation to the world. Due to their unfaithfulness, a system established by God was being jeopardized in their hands. Christendom on its path of apostasy has acted no differently when, instead of humbling itself and mourning, it has sought the world's support in order to maintain itself.

Samuel, reproachable as he had been in the matter of his sons, had not, like Eli, honored them more than the Lord. The elders' request: “Give us a king to judge us” (v. 6), displeased him. The despising of God's direct government and of His glory affects him. In his affliction he has recourse to prayer (v. 6). May we follow this example daily in every circumstance!

And the Lord says to Samuel: “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the deeds that they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day, in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee” (vv. 7-8). Precious encouragement given by God to His servant at the very moment when he was personally undergoing a discipline of which the elders of Israel had become the instruments. Nothing could be more consoling to his heart than the assurance of being, after all, on the Lord's side, and now that the Lord had been rejected, the necessity of being rejected himself as well. Is it not an honor to share the shame that the world casts on our Lord in spurning Him? Is it astonishing that the world acts in the same way toward us? Even while He is disciplining him, God identifies Samuel with Himself, whereas the people, under an appearance of judging evil, were identifying themselves with the nations. It is better to be a humbled Samuel, disregarded, alone with a rejected God, than an Israel, armed with a powerful outward organization which gives them the illusion of being able to do without God and act according to their own will, whereas they were in fact the slaves of the world and of Satan.

“And now hearken unto their voice; only, testify solemnly unto them, and declare unto them the manner of the king that shall reign over them” (v. 9). Samuel's rejection qualifies him for a new office: he gives a very clear testimony to what would happen to the people. The king according to man's heart would make them his instruments to accomplish his plans, an unbearable yoke, but one that they would be unable to shake off (vv. 10-18). In the same way, the world entirely disowns Christians who seek its help and gives them nothing in exchange except a feeling of their wretchedness without any compensation whatsoever. The world does not grant its help unless one consents to serve it. This is not the easy yoke and the light burden of the bondservant of Christ, but the anguish of cruel slavery.

The people who have been warned refuse to listen to Samuel's voice and prefer to follow their own pathway; Samuel has the Lord alone as his resource, and he rehearses all the people's words in His ears (v. 21).

Thus God has used discipline in order to strengthen His servant of whom He wishes to make an instrument of new blessings in that which follows. Having received this divine instruction, Samuel, who had established his sons without consulting the Lord, waits until God has told him: “Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king” (v. 22).

1 SAMUEL 9 - 1 SAMUEL 15

SAUL, OR THE KING ACCORDING TO THE FLESH

1 SAMUEL 9

Saul enters the scene. In these new circumstances Samuel's character shines with incomparable brilliance. God had said to him: “Make them a king”; Samuel still waits to establish this king until God points him out. This is the true character of a servant: dependence in obedience, such as was seen in the Lord at the death of Lazarus (John 11: 6). This is all the more striking here as Samuel is rendering service in a matter which is repugnant to him, but if God is dealing in this way, how could Samuel do otherwise? God puts Himself at His people's service in order to choose a king according to man's principles for them. Indeed He says in Hosea 13: 11: “I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath,” but if God so acts in judgment on His people, it is no less true that He also has a purpose of grace. “And he will save My people out of the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry is come unto Me” (v. 16).

On the other hand, this choice put Israel to the test. In the flesh they had asked for a king according to the flesh; neither God nor Samuel raised an obstacle to this request; on the contrary, God chooses the most excellent person that the flesh could desire, and Samuel acknowledges him as such: “On whom is all the desire of Israel set? Is it not on thee?” (v. 20).

Saul possesses all the natural qualities of a leader of the people. He is strong and valiant, handsome, tall, a choice man. (vv. 1-2). His moral qualities are no less remarkable: he is subject and affectionate toward his father (v. 5), disposed to listen to the counsel of his inferiors (v. 10), little in his own eyes, whether it be in his tribe or in his family (v. 21). If the trial that God is about to make does not succeed with such a man, it is definitely because man's condition in general leaves no hope.

Let us add that without this trial of the king according to the flesh the ways of God toward David, His anointed, would not have been complete. What would have become of David's sufferings and affliction, the necessary prelude to his glory, if Saul had not been raised up?

Let us now return to Samuel's lovely character. In the preceding chapters he prays, he intercedes, he consults the Lord; here we see him in a relationship of even greater intimacy with God. In him, God realizes what we find in Psalm 32: 8: “I will instruct thee and teach thee the way in which thou shalt go; I will counsel thee with Mine eye upon thee.” Whereas Saul is only a blind instrument in God's designs, Samuel is conscious of them, and is the confidant of His secret. “Now Jehovah had apprised Samuel one day before Saul came, saying, Tomorrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him prince over My people Israel” (v. 15). This communication is given to him without his request. Nothing comes from him; he receives the thoughts of God directly, without any intermediary: “Behold the man of whom I spoke to thee! this man shall rule over My people” (v. 17). Samuel is conscious of his gift (v. 19), but it is in order to communicate the mind of God to Saul. Before Saul met him, Samuel had already appointed his portion beforehand (v. 23). There was no jealousy, when he might have resented the elders setting him aside; God's will is enough for him, and he rejoices in it. The establishment of a king according to the flesh is an evil, but Samuel had learned in communion with the Lord not to oppose evil when God Himself did not oppose it: something that is certainly difficult to learn.

Notice again in this chapter how even the most insignificant events work together toward the establishment of God's designs, of the goal He has in mind: the loss of the asses, Saul's useless efforts in the land of Israel, the thought that came to his servant, the maidens at the well, Samuel's presence in the city on that day, the peace offering — indeed, every step, every decision, every word of the prophet acting in communion with His God.

1 SAMUEL 10

Samuel anoints Saul as prince over God's inheritance and foretells the signs that will happen to him in the way in connection with his anointing as king. These signs were of great importance: Saul's entire future depended on how he would understand them. He needed only to meditate on them. Their meaning escapes his heart which is lacking in intelligence and spiritual discernment. In this regard, this passage is often a touchstone for our state. Notice that in this scene Saul is not left to himself — leaving him without excuse. Samuel tells him: “God is with thee” (v. 7), and later it says: “The Spirit of God came upon him” (v. 10).

Three signs are given to Saul; they occur in a God-given order.

First, there is Rachel's sepulcher in the border of Benjamin. Benjamin, the head of Saul's tribe, was born the day his mother died. In order to correspond to God's thoughts, Saul's history must start there. It was up to him to become the son of Jacob's right hand, the Benjamin of God, if man according to the flesh could attain to this place. Rachel's sepulcher could be the beginning of his kingship. Death, separating him from his entire past, could make way for a new life for him, a life issuing out of death in which he would walk freely as the Lord's anointed.

Passing onward, Saul would meet three men going up to God at Bethel. Bethel was the first stage of Jacob's journey, the place where God had promised the banished patriarch never to leave him. In the midst of Israel's ruin, God's faithfulness to His promises was thus manifested to the future king, so that he might govern his conduct according to that faithfulness. Saul should have seen that Bethel was assured to him, and that he could count on divine protection. Amid the sad circumstances in which the people found themselves, Saul meets worshippers of God, be they but three, going up where Jacob had worshipped Him, where He would be worshipped forever. At this time Bethel was the place of grace where God had revealed Himself, the center of Israel's religious life, the beginning and the end of the wanderings of its founder. Saul could and should have entered into relationship with those going to this place of blessing and, although so few in number, giving complete testimony (indicated by the number three) to the reality of the faith still remaining in Israel. They inquire of him; he who had nothing to give the prophet was to receive the necessary nourishment from them. Having found grace in their eyes, he ought to have joined these men of faith.

Finally, Saul would come to the hill of God, to the seat of His power, in actual fact in the hands of the Philistines, that is to say, invaded and dominated by the enemy. After meeting those in Israel who remained faithful to God at Bethel, Saul ought here to have taken account of the true state of the people, and that should have spoken to his conscience. But, in this same place, God was entering into relationship with Israel through the prophets. Divine resources were not lacking and, despite the Philistines, the Spirit could act in power and in grace. The troop of prophets and the little remnant worshipping God at Bethel ought to have opened his eyes and indicated the path to the Lord's anointed, who could thus become the leader and deliverer of the people. It was due to the Spirit of God that Saul, joining these men, became His instrument for Israel, and that “God gave him another heart” (vv. 6-9).

The sign takes place; the Spirit of God comes upon Saul (v. 10). Through him God could once again have taken up the course of His relationship with Israel, but faith was not active, and the witnesses to this scene are not misled. Although Saul, changed into another man, prophesies, those who knew him beforehand have no confidence in him. “Is Saul also among the prophets?” And one of the same place answers: “But who is their father?” Does Saul have the same father as God's servants?

The signs completed, Saul receives a new direction for action, for signs are not everything; the Word is also needed. He is directed to go down to Gilgal and to wait seven days until Samuel should come to him to show him what he is to do. Later on, we shall see the result of this order when, after two years, the king decides to go down to Gilgal (1 Sam. 13: 1).

Samuel calls the people together before the Lord at Mizpah, but already the fair days of 1 Samuel 7 are over, for since the people had been unfaithful once again their relationship with the Lord was spoiled anew. In asking for a king they had rejected their God (v. 19). Alas! this seems to weigh less upon their conscience than when they were under the Philistines' yoke. Now their circumstances were outwardly happy and easy, but God was rejected. The people had demanded a king; far from hindering them, God had helped them in every way, in making the best choice possible for them according to man. What would the result be?

When the office of king is instituted (vv. 20-27), Saul demonstrates his humility and modesty (v. 23); he knows how to overlook an injury — lovely natural qualities which must be acknowledged but which in no way qualify him for accomplishing the work of God. When the ceremony is over, Saul goes to Gibeah. “And with him went the band, whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said, How should this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no gifts.” This is a good picture of the world: these children of Belial who had rejected God in order to demand a king despise that king when God sends him to them; but the true believers in the company of Samuel and later in the company of David, knowing the mind of God, accept as coming from Him the authority of a man who will manifest himself to be the most implacable enemy of the Lord's anointed. This is still our place in the world today; we recognize even the most ungodly authorities and obey them (except in case of conflict with the obedience due to God), because we accept the authority of God who has instituted them.

1 SAMUEL 11

Hardly has the office of king been established than Nahash the Ammonite comes on the scene, Israel's dreaded enemy, but not their great internal enemy like the Philistine encamped at the hill of God, about whom God had said, “And he will save My people out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam. 9: 16). In order to avoid combat, the men of Jabesh-Gilead propose an alliance with the enemy in exchange for their servitude. Nahash responds to this proposal only with scorn; such is all we can gain from our weak concessions to the world and from our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh do not even think of the deliverer whom God had just given them, for the people had not acknowledged Saul except in respect to those qualities which the flesh accepts: outward beauty and natural qualities.

Messengers from Jabesh announce to the all the tribes the extremity to which their city is reduced; Saul, by chance, is present. “The Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those words, and his anger was kindled greatly” (v. 6). This is a very serious thing to consider: without a work of the conscience, the Spirit of God, acting in power, does not save man. Saul under the influence of the Spirit had “another heart,” was “turned into another man,”7 and is later found reproved when he manifests the true depths of his natural heart. All these qualities of nature, and even the gift of prophecy conferred by the Spirit of God, have not made him a man of God! Balaam and Judas are dreadful examples of this; Samson, although his condition is somewhat doubtful, gives occasion for the same remarks; as does the unprofitable servant of the parable (Matt. 25: 30).

Thus the Spirit of God comes on Saul, but I am inclined to believe that the ardent wrath of the flesh reveals his personal state; he threatens, instead of gaining confidence and appealing to faith: “Whoever comes not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” (v. 7).

Be that as it may, “The fear of Jehovah fell on the people.” Jabesh is delivered; Samuel renews the kingdom that had already been established in 1 Samuel 10, but which had now been proven. This renewing must take place at Gilgal (v. 14), the place of circumcision, where the flesh is cut off. Morally, Saul does not count for anything in this action. According to Samuel's injunction in 1 Samuel 10: 8 his faith would later be put to the test at Gilgal. Saul shows his generosity, even acknowledging the Lord's hand in the deliverance granted to the people (v. 13). Thus God in His condescension toward the natural man is with him and grants the flesh the means and the help necessary in order to walk in His presence.

In this chapter, we find the people (1 Sam. 11: 11-12) distinguished from the true believers whose hearts God had touched (1 Sam. 10: 26) and the children of Belial (1 Sam. 10: 27). “The people” belong to neither the one nor the other. They disappear in the day when the heart is put to the test, but they speak openly in favor of Saul and against the children of Belial (v. 12) when they find it advantageous to be associated with the king. The whole nation is never on the side of a despised Saul (1 Sam. 10: 27), or of a rejected David, as we shall see later. Today things are no different, and even during the Millennium the unconverted nations will submit themselves to Christ only to attain some advantage.

1 SAMUEL 12

By renewing the kingdom Samuel's career as judge naturally comes to an end. 1 Samuel 12 is, so to speak, the testament of all his activity as Israel's leader. “I have hearkened,” he says, “to your voice in all that ye said to me, and have made a king over you. And now behold, the king walks before you; and I am old and gray-headed; and behold, my sons are with you; and I have walked before you from my youth up to this day” (vv. 1-2). Samuel had not been two-faced in his ways; in listening to the people, he had simply followed the Lord's commandment; therefore he could say a bit later: “Jehovah has set a king over you” (v. 13). In this we also see the lovely impartiality of a man who is in communion with God; he had forgotten the wrongs and the injustice of the people and the elders against himself personally and had renounced his official functions without a murmur, transferring them to a king who certainly was of less worth morally than himself. He says: “My sons are with you,” thus putting in their rightful place those whom he had wrongfully set up in the past. This act, so natural in appearance, but one which had brought him a measure of discipline from his God, seems to me to be properly judged by this little phrase: “with you.” His sons were false judges, whereas he himself, the true judge, had walked “before” the people. And now the king was walking before them.

The last of the judges goes on to give his evaluation of the people's behavior and of God's ways toward them. “And now stand still, that I may plead with you before Jehovah of all the righteous acts of Jehovah which He did to you and to your fathers” (v. 7). But in order to speak thus, a man must be above reproach, and this fact is of the greatest practical importance for us. We can have no authority with regard to God's people if our actions are not in accord with our gifts and our words. But it is not only a question of conferred authority that counts; one cannot reach consciences without moral authority.

The people are obliged to bear witness about Samuel that his life afforded no ground for reproach or criticism. Like the apostle Paul later on, he was manifested to the consciences of God's people. His moral authority was a thousand times more important than his official authority. Saul had the latter, and this did not prevent him from being reproved, even though this authority was established by God.

“It is Jehovah who appointed Moses and Aaron” (v. 6). To his own loss, Samuel had forgotten this for a moment when he appointed his sons on his own initiative. In the Church at present — and it is certainly appropriate to take note of this — there is no official appointment, but the gifts that are necessary remain in spite of the ruin, just as does the moral authority based on the practical holiness of the one exercising it.

Samuel's speech (vv. 6-17) goes back to the deliverance from Egypt which had brought the people into Canaan, for this was the purpose in God's powerful intervention on their behalf. But in Canaan they had forgotten God and, instead of serving Him, they had worshipped idols. Oppressed by the enemy, they had cried out to the Lord who had delivered them by the judges, from Jerubbaal to Samuel, and had made them “[dwell] in safety” (v. 11).

But now that Nahash, king of the children of Ammon, was threatening them, they had said to Samuel: “Nay, but a king shall reign over us; when Jehovah your God was your king” (v. 12).

Here the Spirit uncovers their hidden motives for asking for a king. At the bottom, it was not the reason which they had given to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8: 5: “Behold, thou art become old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.” Man often colors his motives in the eyes of his fellow man in this way, but he cannot hide them from God or from His prophet. Fear of Nahash, and simply that, reigned in the depths of Israel's heart, coupled with an absolute lack of faith and of confidence in God. The Lord was their king, but they preferred the help of a king such as the nations had and the security that he could afford them to the “wings of Jehovah,” in whose shadow they should have sought refuge, rejoicing.

Despite all this God condescends to their request, and thus their history in responsibility continues under another form of government: “Jehovah has set a king over you” (v. 13). Would Israel's heart change under this new dispensation? That which follows reveals the answer. For the moment, it was a question of convicting them that “[their] wickedness [was] great, which [they had] done in the sight of Jehovah in asking for [them]selves a king” (v. 17). Samuel gives them signs of this in thunder and rain falling from heaven out of season; but at the same time he cries out and intercedes for them. Never throughout his whole career did this man of prayer slacken in his supplications.

Once again the conscience of the people is reached, but how many times had this not happened already? Witness the lovely stir at Mizpah in 1 Samuel 7. Here they say to Samuel: “Pray to Jehovah thy God for thy servants, that we die not; for we have added to all our sins the wickedness to ask for ourselves a king” (v. 19). The intercession of the man of God is their only resource; this is true, but the evil has been done and subsists; it is not according to God's ways to re-plaster a cracked wall, to give a house in ruin an attractive appearance. One thing remains to them, our resource as well in the circumstances in which we live: there is the possibility of walking in the midst of ruin in a way that glorifies God. “Fear not,” Samuel tells the people, “ye have done all this wickedness; yet turn not aside from following Jehovah, and serve Jehovah with all your heart” (v. 20). If there are souls in the present day whose only purpose is to honor God and serve Him, their path will truly be light in the midst of the darkness that surrounds them. Moreover, these souls, depending on three things that ever abide, will find resources that ruin cannot exhaust nor diminish: “For Jehovah will not cast away His people for His great name's sake; because it has pleased Jehovah to make you His people. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you; and I will teach you the good and right way” (vv. 22-23). These things are the three pillars of the Christian life. Ruin does not change the grace of God which remains our assurance forever. The intercession of Christ, of which Samuel's intercession is but a weak type, is able to bring us through all difficulties. Lastly, the Word, of which the prophet was the mouthpiece to the people, “[teaches] us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and justly, and piously in the present course of things … ” (Titus 2: 12).

In closing, Samuel says to the people: “Only fear Jehovah, and serve Him in truth, with all your heart; for see how great things He has done for you” (v. 24). May we not forget that the knowledge of His “great salvation” is the true means of fearing Him as He desires to be feared, and of serving Him as He desires to be served. May we also remember that the knowledge of the grace of God in no way weakens the responsibility of His people. “But if ye do wickedly, ye shall perish, both ye and your king.”

1 SAMUEL 13

Samuel's activity as judge having come to its close, the first verse of our chapter begins a new subject.

It is important to notice at the beginning of this new division of the book that Saul does not represent the flesh's premeditated opposition to the work of God, but much rather the efforts of the flesh to accomplish this work — the flesh introduced into a position of testimony. This makes Saul infinitely more responsible and his activity more guilty than if he entered the scene as an enemy of God and of His anointed. Christendom, of which we are part, occupies the same position, with the consequence that the teachings of these chapters are of solemn bearing in the present day.

This chapter could be entitled: The foolishness and the weakness of the flesh. After a first victory, won by Jonathan (v. 3), a victory which we will consider once again in the next chapter in order to present a well-rounded picture of this man of God, the Philistines are moved. “Saul blew the trumpet throughout the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel heard say, Saul has smitten the garrison of the Philistines, and Israel also has become odious to the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.”

Addressing the Lord's people, the king calls them Hebrews. The Philistines or the enemy nations surrounding Israel spoke no differently (cf. 1 Sam. 14: 11), and this title proves that Saul was trusting in the gathering of the nation as being equal to the Gentiles, and that he understood little better than the latter the people's relation with their God. It is more or less the same in our day, where men fail to apprehend the true relationship of the people of God, of the Church, to Christ. How can it be otherwise? Can the flesh understand the relationship of intimacy and affection that the Spirit has established between the Bridegroom and the bride? From this ignorance have issued all the so-called religious systems that constitute Christendom and that replace living relationships which the flesh cannot know.

Saul attributes Jonathan's victory, faith's victory, to himself (v. 4). When God acts through His instruments at the beginning of a revival, as was seen during the Reformation, and gains the victory over the enemy, all those who profit by this victory not belonging to the family of faith do not fail to attribute the victory to their own merit and vaunt themselves in it.

Never does the flesh seek to gather souls around Christ: it makes itself the center. This is how Saul acted in seeking to frighten the people by these words: “Israel also has become odious to the Philistines.” In 1 Samuel 11: 7 he had constrained the tribes to follow him by threats, here through fear. The result of this way of acting is to gather Israel after himself (v. 4), but the moral consequences are not long in following. Those who put themselves under the flesh's leadership in order to find some measure of security soon feel that they have no security at all. Their distress is undiminished; they follow Saul “trembling” (v. 7), Seeking shelter, they go over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead (v. 7), leaving the land properly called Canaan in order to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the enemy. This lack of faith causes them to forget the only thing which was important: it was not Saul who dwelt in the midst of the people, and their cause was not resting in his hands.

Finally Saul came down to Gilgal, where Samuel had previously made an appointment with him in these terms: “Thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer up burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou wait, until I come to thee and inform thee what thou shalt do” (1 Sam. 10: 8).

The difficult circumstances he was passing through remind Saul of the necessity of following Samuel's directions. At the end of two years he remembers the prophet's injunction. Saul, we are told, “waited seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed.” The flesh can imitate faith up to a certain point, but no further; the flesh draws back from the consequences of its own inactivity; nothing is more difficult or more impossible for the flesh than to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Its patience is often impressive and may even impress Christians, but it ends at the moment when faith is required, the faith that does not reckon with difficulties or impossibilities, for faith cleaves to God who is above all these things. The natural man can walk a long time in a path of patience and in appearance act according to this principle, but he does not realize his own weakness and incapacity and, lacking a relationship with God, he cannot seek resources other than in himself when he is really put to the test.

After the seven days Samuel had not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from Saul (v. 8). The people did not find sufficient authority to guard them and defend them in the man who had gathered them through tactics of fear. Then Saul loses patience; he does not know the patience of faith which is “strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory.” His patience stops where faith should begin. When the people scatter, when man's support fails him, everything fails this poor king. His flesh, driven to action, immediately usurps the place which belongs to the prophet, reversing and trampling under foot the order established by God. Saul says: “Bring hither to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And he offered up the burnt offering. And it came to pass, as soon as he had ended offering up the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came” (vv. 9-10).

God's help arrives at the moment when the flesh has just attempted to come to its own rescue. What use is this help to him therefore? Saul is not an unbeliever and does not openly despise Israel's God; he knows that a sacrifice is necessary in order to approach Him; far from despising the prophet, he “went out to meet him, that he might salute him” (v. 10). But being a man according to the flesh, he was absolutely unable to act otherwise than he had done. Nevertheless, he is extremely responsible. “What hast thou done?” Samuel asks him — the same question that God had addressed to Cain! As always, the flesh has excellent reasons for acting, and consequently for disobeying: “Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou didst not come not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines were assembled at Michmash” (v. 11). The flesh has an excuse, even a pious excuse, for its disobedience; “The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to Jehovah” (v. 12).

And Samuel tells Saul: “Thou hast done foolishly.” Man's wisdom, reasonings, counsels, and decisions are foolishness to God, because they are disobedience. “Thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah thy God, which He commanded thee” (v. 13). Obedience is the first, the only characteristic of faith. Without it there is no faith. It is allied to dependence. Who could offer a sacrifice well-pleasing to God but Samuel, here a type of Christ?

This is why God responds to Saul's sacrifice by rejecting him as king! Kingship according to the flesh, responsible although established by God, has just proven not only that it is incapable of maintaining itself, but also that man has no other resource but grace. This is what God wanted to demonstrate. Then, He establishes kingship according to grace, after His own heart. “Jehovah has sought Him a man after His own heart, and Jehovah has appointed him ruler over His people” (v. 14).

Gilgal, the place where the flesh is judged, had become through Saul's unfaithfulness the place where the flesh was affirmed. Samuel leaves it and goes to Gibeah of Benjamin, the only place where, in the person of Jonathan (cf. v. 2), faith is still maintained in Israel.

Saul appears insensible to the seriousness of his deed; he continues in the same path by numbering the people who are with him (v. 15). Ravagers out of the camp of the Philistines were invading the entire land of Israel, and the people had no weapons: “For the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.” And all Israel went down to the Philistines to sharpen their farming tools or to sharpen an ox goad. If we depend on the world to furnish our weapons, we will find ourself resourceless for combatting it. Our weapon is the Word. How can we use it against the world, if we consent to give the world the right to teach the Word to us and to dispense the Word to us? In this way the world has the means in its hands to bring us into bondage, and it will not leave us any portion of this Word except that which poses no threat to itself. And just so, children of God are all too often found without arms in the face of enemies who attack their faith.

1 SAMUEL 14

This chapter is in absolute contrast with the preceding one. In Saul we have seen the foolishness and the weakness of the flesh; in Jonathan we find the wisdom and power of faith.

Jonathan's career (1 Sam. 13: 2-3) had begun with a victory, but at that time he was still associated with Saul's military system; a thousand men were with him and two thousand with his father. Jonathan had overcome, but instead of being to the Lord's glory his victory had been advantageous to Saul. It is always so when it comes to our association with the religious world; it takes advantage of this association to attribute the results of our struggles to itself; thus the victory of faith is annulled and the combat must be entered into anew.

In effect, this combat begins anew in 1 Samuel 14, but the first experience has not been lost on Jonathan. He says to his armorbearer: “Come and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison which is on the other side. But he did not tell his father,” for faith does not expect any help from the world. By his individual action he separates himself from the political and religious world; from the religious world, for the priest, the ark, the ephod, and the altar were with Saul. But faith possesses God's secret, which neither Saul, nor the priest, nor the people possess. Jonathan keeps his secret to himself; he cannot depend on any man, whoever he may be. On the other hand, he associates himself in thought and in all his actions, with Israel. Saul appealed to the “Hebrews” (1 Sam. 13: 3); Jonathan says: “Jehovah has delivered them into the hand of Israel” (v. 12). Jonathan makes great progress in this chapter. His confidence is in God alone, in no way in himself. This is great faith, but we must seek the secret of his strength in his individual separation.

The sharp rocks of Bozez and Seneh, raising their insurmountable peaks opposite Michmash and Gibeah, are nothing to faith. Faith, moreover, has a clear, distinct view of this world: “Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised” (v. 6); it has just as clear a view of what God is, that is to say, a Savior: “There is no restraint to Jehovah to save by many or by few.”

Jonathan acts contrary to all the wisdom of the world; he waits for the Lord's direction; he is in no wise uncertain; he knows that on the path of faith we may be called to advance or to stand still: “If they say thus to us, Stand still until we come to you, than we will stay in our place, and we will not go up to them. And if they say thus, Come up to us, then we will go up; for Jehovah has given them into our hand; and this shall be the sign to us” (vv. 9-10).

Jonathan fights without human weapons, obliged as he is to use his hands and feet in order to climb up before the Philistines (v. 13), and in this condition he wins God's victory.

As for Saul, in appearance he lacked nothing, but in reality he was lacking everything. God was not with him. The priesthood which seemed to support him had previously been judged (1 Sam. 2: 31; 1 Sam. 3: 13); he himself had been rejected as king (1 Sam. 13: 14). With him he had the army, that is to say, strength, but it was a strength that dissolved when the Philistines approached (1 Sam. 13: 8), thus proving his weakness.

Jonathan was conscious of the judgment that the people deserved. “Perhaps,” he says to his young man, “Jehovah will work for us”; but when he adds: “There is no restraint to Jehovah to save,” he shows that he knows God's power and mercy as to this judgment.

Let us not forget Jonathan's companion. His faith is united with that of his leader, whose affection for the Lord and for His people he knows. His master's devotion is sufficient for this single-hearted man and replaces all reasoning for him. Are not his words lovely: “Do all that is in thy heart; turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart” (v. 7)?

Faith does not dissemble, does not fear to show itself, to expose its designs: “Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we will shew ourselves to them.” While displaying a boldness which in the eyes of the world is pure recklessness, Jonathan is wary of a path of self-will and seeks a sign to indicate the will of God. “This shall be the sign to us” (v. 10).

How could the Philistines be anything but blind to the true character of men of faith? “Behold,” they say, “the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.” The world despises and mocks believers.

Thus Jonathan climbs up unarmed: in his mind, he is but the representative of the true Israel against the world. (v. 12). The weapons that his young man carries behind him only serve to affirm the Lord's victory. The enemies are terrified: the result of this victory — in appearance a victory over twenty men, but in reality over an entire people. It is often thus; we have only to enter into the conflict immediately before us, whether it be against one or against a thousand enemies, it matters little. God directs the results; they will go beyond all man's expectation and thoughts. “The watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on slaying one another” (v. 16).

In the presence of this extraordinary phenomenon Saul (vv. 17-19), void of faith, nevertheless thinks of inquiring of the Lord, but he gives up this idea in face of the increasing tumult. Poor Saul! He was sacrificing to the Lord when he ought to have waited for the prophet to do so (1 Sam. 13: 9), and now he esteems it useless to consult or seek the Lord when victory is at the door. In truth, in spite of all appearances he has not the least spark of faith. And whereas Jonathan's victory gathers the deserters of Israel (v. 21), separating them from the world which had brought them into bondage, and making of them soldiers in God's cause; whereas Jonathan's victory encourages the timid whose hearts have been reassured to pursue the enemy (v. 22), their king, who lacks even the elements of religion, does not know how do anything but establish a carnal ordinance which deprives the people of God of a good portion of their strength. Ordinances established by the world of necessity weaken those who submit to them, for they always have a legal character: “Cursed be the man that eateth food until evening, and until I am avenged on mine enemies” (v. 24). “Cursed”: isn't that the law? “That I may be avenged”: isn't that the flesh and man? What a contrast to Jonathan who sees only the salvation of the Lord for His people in the victory!

The result of Jonathan's faith is that the Lord saves and works a great salvation in Israel (v. 45). The result of Saul's ordinance is that the people were distressed and very faint (vv. 24, 28, 31). The carnal ordinance is not long in bearing its consequences: the fast and weariness imposed on the people lead them to transgress the first principles of the Word of God; they slay sheep, and oxen, and calves on the ground and eat them with the blood (v. 32). Saul does not want things to go so far and does not want Israel to act contrary to the divine ordinance. “Ye have acted perversely,” he says (v. 33); “Sin not against Jehovah in eating with the blood” (v. 34). But can he by seeking to palliate it remedy the evil that he had incited? Then in the very place of this profanation Saul builds his first altar to Jehovah (v. 35), choosing to worship in the place where the Lord had been dishonored!

Jonathan had not heard the oath that Saul had forced the people to swear; faith is equally foreign to carnal ordinances as to the world's entire religious system, and so faith continues its work in the liberty of the Spirit, and benefitting from the encouragements that God gives, it drinks of the brook in the way” (Ps. 110: 7).

How could Jonathan, who receives the help prepared by God for the weariness of the battle and avails himself of it, fail to censure that which is paralyzing the people, this disastrous ordinance, even if it has proceeded from his father's mouth? “My father has troubled the land.” Yes, the intervention of the flesh is only a source of trouble and a hindrance to victory.

Saul begins by ordering the pursuit of the Philistines during the night in order to destroy them utterly. The priest who earlier had withdrawn his hand (v. 19) nevertheless has the courage to say: “Let us come near hither to God” (v. 36). Saul inquires of the Lord who does not answer him. God allows everything in this adventure to have extreme consequences and to lead to Saul's humiliation. He asks for “a perfect testimony” (v. 41); finally he receives it, but the response condemns all the king's actions. Saul himself sees nothing but Jonathan's condemnation! This is how the flesh interprets the Word of God. The Lord protects His faithful servant, whereas the king according to the flesh is judged. The people deliver Jonathan because they recognize that he had wrought with God (vv. 44-46).

The carnal man is capable of a certain heroism so as to maintain his religion and the ordinances that he has established. One may perhaps see him, as here, not sparing those closest to him, but at the bottom it is only an effort of Satan to destroy the servants of God. God watches over His own and saves them, causing that witness be borne to them even by the mouth of the assembly of Israel, whose authority asserts itself here against the pretensions of the flesh.

Despite all this, God acts by means of Saul without wearying, according to the promise that He had made (1 Sam. 9: 16), and this does not prevent Saul from continuing to rely on the flesh in order to fight the Philistines: “When Saul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to himself.”

Thus this entire chapter teaches us that the flesh and faith, far from helping and assisting one another, can only enter into conflict and opposition one against the other.

1 SAMUEL 15

The concise depiction of Saul's reign ends with the last verse of 1 Samuel 14. The chapter we shall now speak of gives a sort of separate history because of its contents' importance. Here we find the reason for Saul's final rejection, a rejection making necessary the introduction of David — the king according to God.

We have seen that Saul represents the flesh professing to serve God, and, as such, engaged in His work. In order to prove its incapacity in these conditions, God has been putting it to the test in many ways ever since 1 Samuel 9. One final trial remains. What will the flesh, which pretends to act for God, do in the conflict with Amalek?

It was written: “Remember what Amalek did unto thee on the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; how he met thee on the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, all the feeble that lagged behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God. And it shall be, when Jehovah thy God shall have given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; thou shalt not forget it” (Deut. 25: 17-19).

Now God had seen to it, in spite of all Saul's faults, that Israel had “rest … round about.” The hour had struck for Amalek, that cruel and cowardly enemy who had massacred those of Israel who straggled behind. The Lord had sworn that there would be war between Himself and Amalek from generation to generation (Ex. 17: 16). Therefore whoever had God's glory and that of His people Israel at heart must, when the time was come, completely destroy and not spare Amalek who had lain in wait for the people of Israel when they had come up from Egypt (vv. 2-3). “His latter end,” according to the prophecy Balaam had been forced to utter, “shall be for destruction” (Num. 24: 20). Doubtless God had been able to use him as a rod to chasten His disobedient people (Num. 14: 39-45), but for all that, he remained the pre-eminent enemy, a type of Satan who from the beginning of the wilderness journey seeks to oppose the people of God. There is no truce in the Christian's conflict against him: the Christian is called upon to stand fast against the wiles of the devil and to fight against the spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies (Eph. 6: 11-12). In this conflict Israel had once been the victor, after they had drunk the water from the rock — that is, after in figure they had tasted the presence of the Holy Spirit following the death of Christ. Led by Joshua, who represents Christ in the power of the Spirit, they had then been called upon to face this great enemy. Would the flesh be able to fill this role now, or would it prove that it was incapable of so doing?

At the beginning, in appearance, the flesh displays its capacity to do so. At God's command Saul rises up, places himself at the head of the people, separates the Kenites who had shown themselves to be friends of God's people (Judges 4: 11), and smites Amalek and all his people. Only he does not thoroughly execute God's command. This the flesh will never do. The flesh cannot remain inactive to the end when God bids it do so: we have the witness of this fact in the seven days at Gilgal (1 Sam. 13: 8); nor can it be active to the end, as our chapter's account witnesses. To fail to execute His commandment thoroughly, for the Lord is to fail to execute it at all. God declares: “It repenteth Me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned away from following Me, and hath not fulfilled My words” (v. 11).

What deep sorrow for Samuel! Though knowing this man to be rejected, he intercedes for him all night long. Samuel, as we have often noticed, is always praying and interceding — for the disobedient, for the wicked, and for everyone. He mourns, he prays, but he obeys; this is peculiar to faith — the most absolute contrast with Saul's behavior. It says: Samuel “cried to Jehovah all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning.” The latter had in the meantime set up a monument, attributing his victory to himself, for the flesh, even when engaged in the work of God, cannot do this work for Him.

As Samuel comes to meet him, Saul says: “Blessed art thou of Jehovah: I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah.” How prompt he is to vaunt himself! In verse 20 we shall see him excusing himself, and in verse 24, accusing himself with the same quickness. This quickness is stamped on everything. But God is not to be bought off by words: “What means then,” says Samuel, “this bleating of sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of oxen which I hear?” (v. 14). Saul, who had just said, “I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah,” now acquits himself of the fault and transfers it to the people although he and the people (v. 9) had acted in accord. “They have brought them from the Amalekites, because the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto Jehovah thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (v. 15). In these few words we see Saul vaunting himself, accusing his accomplices, and coloring his disobedience with the name of service to the Lord. What blindness! Samuel will convict him of this; but first he reminds Saul that at the beginning he had been modest, little in his own eyes; that was his natural character, and God had blessed it. Why had he now rebelled against Jehovah's commandment? Saul answers: “I have indeed hearkened to the voice of Jehovah, and [I] have gone the way which Jehovah sent me, and [I] have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and [I] have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Jehovah thy God in Gilgal” (vv. 20-21)

For Saul, sacrifice is better than obedience; but, “Has Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, attention than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and selfwill is as iniquity and idolatry” (vv. 22-23). Sacrifice without obedience — solemn truth —  is no better than idol worship. The first attribute of faith is obedience. Paul had received his apostleship “for obedience of faith among all the nations” (Rom. 1: 5). Moreover, there are many things that God prefers to sacrifice. “I delight in loving-kindness,” He says, “and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6: 6). “Go and learn,” the Lord said to the Pharisees, “what that is — I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” (Matt. 9: 13)

Obedience is what characterizes all the men of faith, from Abraham onward, the father of the faithful, who “obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Here are the results that Saul's disobedience brought upon him: “Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, He hath also rejected thee from being king” (v. 23). In times past at Gilgal, the Lord had said to him through Samuel: “Thy kingdom shall not continue” (1 Sam. 13: 14). Now the final blow has been struck: “God hath rejected thee.”

How does Saul receive this sentence? He confesses his sin, but without humiliation, without contrition, still hoping to be able to avoid the consequences. “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of Jehovah, and thy words, for I feared the people, and hearkened to their voice.” Always some excuse, but an astonishing quickness to confess the evil he had denied a few moments earlier. In all this there is no exercise of conscience. Saul prefers to plead his cowardice before the people as a mitigating circumstance than to take full responsibility for the sin. What a contrast to the exclamation: “I have sinned against Jehovah” out of David's mouth after his fall! Saul hopes thus to obtain pardon and be restored. It is too late; the sentence is conclusive, for God is God, and “the Hope of Israel will not lie nor repent.” “I have sinned,” says the poor king a second time; “honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel” (v. 30). To the end he has himself and his own reputation in view. Samuel does, in fact, honor him, but then leaves him. As long as God has not executed His sentence on the powers established by Himself, we are to acknowledge them.

“Saul worshipped Jehovah” without benefit to God or to himself. From now on God's sentence against Amalek is confided to Samuel's hands; it is he who hews Agag in pieces at Gilgal. Then he goes to Ramah, his father's house, but for him it is the place of weeping and mourning. Saul goes to his own house and from this point onward there is a complete separation between him and the prophet.

1 Samuel 16 - 1 Samuel 31

DAVID, THE KING ACCORDING TO GRACE

1 SAMUEL 16

Here the history of the true king according to God begins, the history of the king according to the flesh having been virtually terminated by his conclusive rejection.

This chapter, as we shall see, gives us a general idea of David's position before coming to the throne. But first of all, we will consider certain details which are very important for us of Samuel's character.

When it is a question of human thoughts, even those of a judge and prophet, we find that they are no better than those of any other man. The Word affords us many examples of this. Here the question is not one of positive failures, but by his manner of thinking Samuel betrays a state that is not one of true communion with God. After Saul has been rejected Samuel continues to mourn for him to the point that God must reprove him: “How long wilt thou mourn for Saul?” (v. 1). Then instead of rejoicing that God has “provided [Himself] a king,” he responds: “How shall I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me” (v. 2). How shall I go? — when it is God Himself telling him to go! Was it not likewise with God's servant Moses (Ex. 4) who, faced with the Lord's commands, raised objections based in appearance on humility (Ex. 3: 11), on distrust of men (1 Sam. 4: 1) and of himself (1 Sam. 4: 10), but which, in short, beneath an admirable outward appearance hid unbelief and the mistrust of the natural heart?

Finally in verse 6, seeing Eliab, Jesse's first-born, he says: “Surely Jehovah's anointed is before Him” (v. 6). Even this man of God is judging according to outward appearance, and God is obliged to reprove him, saying: “For it is not as man seeth; for man looketh upon the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh upon the heart” (v. 7). Samuel thus was here judging as a man, and his discernment was given over to the same outward qualities that Saul had possessed. With touching grace God condescends to reprove and instruct His servant on all these points.

And so in the end faith predominates: “Samuel did what Jehovah said,” and went ahead, counting on God's word to direct him. Once he had learned that the Lord looks at the heart, he proves himself faithful and his communion with the Lord is manifest, for he immediately judges that “Neither has Jehovah chosen” the other sons whom Jesse, their father, made to pass before the prophet. At last he anoints the only one of them whom the Lord had chosen. Once in the path of God, Samuel no longer fears. Whereas the elders of Bethlehem “trembled at his coming,” he who beforehand had trembled now reassures them.

David appears on the scene. His character is remarkable from the beginning of his career. Forgotten of his father, who does not remember him except at Samuel's pressing request; despised of his brothers, of whom the eldest even taxes him with “pride” and “naughtiness of heart” when the Spirit of God is stirring him to action (1 Sam. 17: 28); and lastly, unknown to Saul, to whom his qualities are revealed (1 Sam. 16: 18), who loves him greatly (v. 21) because of his goodness and because of the care with which he surrounds Saul, but who forgets his origin so completely that he later asks Abner whose son he is (1 Sam. 17: 55). Such was David's character in terms of his relationships. In appearance outwardly he “was ruddy, and of a lovely countenance and beautiful” (v. 12).

This world offers different types of beauty. Saul was “choice and comely; and there was not among the children of Israel a comelier person than he.”8 Eliab also had a handsome appearance that captivated Samuel's eyes, but such beauty alone is of no value except in men's eyes. There is another kind of beauty that may be joined with outward beauty in men of faith, but that God esteems as being the refection of character: the beauty of a pure soul or of simple faith, the outshining of a heart from which evil and sin are excluded, of a guileless heart. This is the beauty of the little child Moses of whom the Word says: He “was exceedingly lovely,” literally, “fair to God” (Acts 7: 20). This is the beauty of Joseph, “of a beautiful form and of a beautiful countenance,” but a Nazarite among his brothers (Gen. 39: 6); this is the beauty of Daniel (Dan 1: 4), humbly cleaving to his God in order to guard himself from the world's defilement; and lastly, this is the beauty of David developed in the wilderness by the pastures for the sheep where in secret he experienced the strength and the glory of His God.

But what is this moral beauty added to physical beauty, and yet always incomplete, in the presence of Christ's beauty? He had no form nor comeliness, His visage was marred more than any man, but all the moral glory that filled Him shone upon His face and shed light all about Him. Grace was poured into His lips, and so it is said of Him: “Thou art fairer than the sons of men … therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever” (Ps. 45: 2).

In all these men of faith, as in their perfect Model, true beauty is in reality nothing other than the shining forth of grace. David is the king according to grace and his name means “Beloved.” This character necessarily makes him a suffering man, an afflicted man here on earth, a true type of the Savior.

But the one who knows Jesus finds in Him not only the perfection of the Humble Man and of the Man of Sorrows, but also other character traits, and primarily the beauty of strength. Like David, to his friends “a valiant man” (1 Sam. 16: 18), the Lord is for His own the One who calms the sea and the storm, before whose majesty His enemies recoil and fall backward; who says, “I will,” and the thing is done; who binds the strong man and through His miracles spoils him of his goods.

Like David, He is “a man of war,” and if it is true that He will come to Zion, lowly as in former days and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass (Zech. 9: 9), it is just as true that He will gird His sword upon His thigh, a valiant Man, in His majesty and splendor, and that His right hand shall teach Him terrible things (Ps. 45: 3-4), that He will sit as Overcomer on a white horse, followed by the armies of heaven, smiting the nations with the two-edged sword going forth from His mouth (Rev. 19: 11-16).

Like David again, He is “prudent in matters” (v. 18 KJV), for “God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10: 38), and “the Spirit of Jehovah rest[s] upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah” (Isa. 11: 2).

Lastly, as “Jehovah [was] with him,” with how much more reason is He with Christ. Yes, indeed, “God was with Him” (Acts 10: 38).

God's providence brings David to the king's court, but before he reigns his faith must be put to the test by all manner of sufferings. He must be the dependent man, the humbled man, despised, hated, persecuted; in the midst of this life of renouncements and strife he will experience that his God is sufficient for everything. Thus the Lord's anointed will be tried for many long years in order to manifest to the eyes of the people all the qualities of grace that constitute, according to God's mind, David's rights to Israel's throne and to glory. This grace triumphs in his feelings toward Saul, his relentless enemy.

Hardly is David called to the throne but what Saul's moral condition changes completely. Until that day the Spirit of God had been with the king according to the flesh, and this explains each of Saul's successes against the enemies of Israel. Now the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David (v. 13) and departs from Saul, who is left in the power of “an evil spirit from Jehovah” (v. 14). This is a judgment from God, a chastisement upon the king who becomes henceforth in this history that which he had not been previously: a type of the Antichrist. At the same time God demonstrates that His Spirit alone is capable of raising and dispelling the evil spirit, when David takes a harp and plays with his hand before Saul.

1 SAMUEL 17

1 Samuel 16 has provided us with a general description of David's character in his position as the Lord's anointed and, in a special manner, in his relationship with Saul. 1 Samuel 17 takes up, so to say, the description of his history from another point of view. This is why we have the seemingly superfluous repetition of his family relationship that we find in verses 12 and 13.

We have before us now no longer the character but the career and activity of David, a type of Christ, from its beginning to its final and conclusive result, the complete victory over Goliath. In a word, the entire history of Christ, the Victor over Satan, is summarized in this period of David's activity. The Philistines had already been conquered many times, but not their leader, the giant Goliath. Sure of his strength, he presents himself before the assembled people and challenges them; and when he has succeeded in inspiring terror in those whom he wishes to subjugate, he cries out: “I have defied the ranks of Israel this day!” He does not know that it is not with Israel that he has to do, but with God, and that he is defying God Himself in defying His people. This is his downfall.

As for David, he presents himself here (v. 17) as the one sent by his father to his brothers; his service begins with them. But God's purpose is a deliverance extending far beyond this limited circle. Joseph had done likewise (Gen. 37: 14) and had become not only the savior of his brothers, but also the savior and master of Egypt.

David sets out on his mission, having already exercised a secret ministry in the wilderness where he kept the sheep. That is where he had smitten the lion and the bear, a type of Christ when He bound the strong man. Before entering into combat with the Philistine he had delivered his father's sheep when the enemy sought to snatch them away and devour them.9 Christ did the same during His lifetime; not one of the sheep that His Father had given Him had been lost. He bound the strong man so as to set at liberty those who had been bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4: 18-19). He stood alone in the breach, saying: “Let these go away.” But He had much more to do than that, for He must abolish the power of the enemy himself.

Like Christ, David is here a true servant. He “[rises] up early in the morning” (v. 20) and takes his charge, so as to accomplish his father's will. Already anointed, he is the Spirit's man for this service, while at the same time maintaining his character of humility in the pastures of the sheep.

He comes into the camp, where his brothers accuse his confidence in God and his faith of being pride and naughtiness of heart (v. 28). We too can ever expect the same treatment ourselves in following the simple path of faith. Our relatives can no more understand our motives than the Lord's brothers could understand His. David answers Eliab: “What have I now done? Was it not laid upon me?” (v. 29). What had he done to deserve being insulted? Did he not have a reason for going down to his brothers, when the God of Israel was daily being insulted by the enemy?

David asks what will be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel (v. 26). He learns that the king will enrich him with great riches, will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free. But it is not to obtain this reward that he enters the campaign; it is for God, for Israel's deliverance, to make the Lord known in all the earth, and that all the congregation should know how the Lord saves (vv. 46-47). Doubtless his victory gives him, like Christ, great riches, a bride, and the liberation of his father's house, but this is the result rather than the purpose of his work.

David announces to Saul what he is going to accomplish (v. 32). The king, who can think of nothing but human methods, wants to provide him with his own armor; but David cannot go with weapons belonging to the flesh, and he has never even tried them. He wants no other weapons than those a shepherd uses to defend or regather his sheep. As for us, the Word is that weapon that faith alone can use; it overthrows Satan. Human labor can have no part in such a conflict.

When he presents himself before the Philistine, although David is “a valiant man and a man of war” (1 Sam. 16: 18), he does not look like a warrior. Even his beauty, the reflection of the Lord's grace, is disdained by Goliath (v. 42). He is here the representative of God whom the Philistine had defied. To glorify this God whom Satan had dishonored: such was David's purpose, and such was Christ's purpose. Their strength consisted of fighting in His name: “I come to thee in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied” (v. 45). In David's spirit there was not a doubt about the results of the contest. “This day will Jehovah deliver thee up into my hand” (v. 46). Often when engaged in conflict we doubt; even a Jonathan is not sure of the result and says: “It may be” (1 Sam. 14: 6); here, there is nothing of the kind; rather, there is absolute faith which has the secret of the Lord and counts upon great things. Here David is the true type of Christ, for he represents God before the enemy.

With his first blow his sling strikes Goliath on the forehead; he falls, and David kills him with his own weapons (v. 51). Through death Christ overcame him who had the power of death, that is to say, the devil. Then the victor withdraws to his own tent (v. 54), carrying off the trophies of his victory, like Christ who has gone up to His own dwelling place, leading “captivity captive.”

Goliath's defeat is also the Philistines' defeat; the world, like its leader, is now a conquered enemy; we may well take courage in facing it, even though, on the other hand, trouble and tribulation are our necessary portion.

Although he was relieved by Jesse's son, Saul does not know David's origin. “Whose son is this young man?” he asks Abner. Does this not recall the Jews' ignorance in John 7 about the origin of Christ and the place from which He had come? Saul does not know him any better when he presents himself, holding in his hands the sure earnest of victory.

1 SAMUEL 18

Here we enter the third period of Jonathan's history.

In 1 Samuel 13, he had won a victory that was without profit for God's people. In 1 Samuel 14, a great deliverance was wrought by the energy of his faith, displayed in the fight against the enemy. Here Jonathan enters into a personal relationship with David, Goliath's conqueror. In type he is one who knows Christ as the One who has conquered Satan through death but who is nevertheless rejected by the world. This knowledge corresponds to the knowledge Christians have today, although Jonathan properly is the type of the remnant of Israel to whom the Lord will make Himself known before taking the kingdom, and who love Christ even though He is still rejected by the people.

Up to this point Jonathan had the character of a young man, strong in faith, who had fought with the enemy; now he goes further: his soul is bound up with David's soul when he hears him speak. He appreciates the moral beauty with which his words are impressed more than his own outward advantages; he finds in David a soul to whom his own soul answers; suddenly a special bond of love and fellowship develops between them, produced by the charm of David's words.

The power of God having helped Jonathan, he might have been led to attribute some measure of strength to himself; he sees and hears David and immediately he realizes that he is nothing. Whatever he possesses is good only to present to the conqueror; he strips himself of that which he possesses in order to give it to David, the only one worthy in his estimation. Jonathan's robe and garments, tokens of his royal dignity, belong to David; his sword, the instrument of his victories, belongs to David; his bow and the belt of his strength belong to David, for all strength belongs to the son of Jesse (v. 4)!

Not only does Jonathan give him everything, but he “loved him as his own soul” (v. 1). No longer are strength and energy at work in him, but rather the affections drawn forth by this all-powerful attractiveness, the perfect character of the Lord's anointed. To Jonathan's love the love of his friend responds. “Very pleasant wast thou unto me,” David later cries out in his grief of heart on the dark day when his brother is taken away from him (2 Sam. 1: 26).

Saul believes he has rights over David; he “would not let him return to his father's house” (v. 2), whereas Jonathan who has the intelligence of faith makes a covenant with David (v. 3), seeks his protection, and recognizes that there is no security except with him. Faith is the basis of Jonathan's love; he shows this clearly by saluting David as the true king.

The continuation of this chapter presents the progress of David and of Saul; progress for good in the one, and progress for evil in the other. A feeling of animosity produced by Satan of necessity leads to other expressions of ill-will; it is enough that the tares are sown by the enemy in the wicked heart of the man for them to grow all by themselves and finally invade his entire being. “Saul was very wroth … and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed the thousands; and what is there more for him but the kingdom?” (v. 8). This is not yet irritation against David, but rather irritation against men's opinion which was elevating David and lowering the king at the very moment when Jonathan's faith was sacrificing everything for the beloved. This is because the flesh can never bear being nothing in Christ's presence.

From this day onward Saul eyed David (v. 9). The next day the depth of his heart is revealed; the evil spirit comes upon him. When he was among the prophets he had been able to give the impression that he was dependent on the Spirit of God; delivered up to Satan, the fruits of his wicked heart are immediately seen, and this man who “prophesied in the midst of the house” casts his spear in order to “transfix David to the wall” (vv. 10-11).

In verse 12, Saul was afraid of David and, being unable to endure his presence he “removed him from him” while giving him an apparent honor, for he made him “captain over a thousand.” This honor — and this is what he desired — removes David from his sight, but delivers up the poor king to every suggestion of pride and hatred when he no longer has in his presence his servant, the model of humility and grace. Poor Saul! he deliberately deprives himself of the only person able to soothe him and serve him as a bulwark against the attacks of Satan.

Soon the king, who is already a murderer in his heart, becomes that in reality (v. 11), seeking in an insidious way to rid himself of the object of his hatred. He promises his daughter Merab to David, but this is only a sham. “Fight Jehovah's battles,” Saul tells him, full of outward respect, while in the depths of his heart hatred is boiling and the desire to see “the hand of the Philistines … upon him” (vv. 17-19).

Michal, Saul's second daughter, loves David. Saul tells himself: “I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be upon him” (v. 21). In his thoughts this union is a new means of getting rid of his future son-in-law. He dissimulates and orders his servants to speak to David secretly, saying: “Behold, the king has delight in thee, and all his servants love thee” (v. 22). He pretends to feel affection toward him in order to push the son of Jesse to his destruction all the more surely.

David's great humility in face of the king's proposals only moves Saul further along in his wicked plan. Man's hatred and pride never could comprehend the humility and the love of Christ.

The wiles of the adversary are finally foiled when David wins the victory and receives the king's daughter as his wife, because the destruction of the Lord's enemies is required of him in exchange for her.

The result for Saul is that his fear increases and his hatred becomes continual enmity: “Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul was David's enemy continually” (v. 29).

During this period we observe David's progress in every sphere and in every direction: “David went forth; whithersoever Saul sent him he prospered … and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants” (v. 5). “Jehovah was with him … and he went out and came in before the people. And David prospered in all his ways, and Jehovah was with him … all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them” (vv. 12-16). All these qualities of necessity made David esteemed; but we must not forget that human love has many different traits and that only one of these traits has value in the sight of God.

The daughters of Israel, the people, and Saul's servants love David for his deliverances. Even Saul, at a given moment (1 Sam. 16: 21), “loved [David] greatly,” because of the relief that he brings him in his sufferings. Michal loves David according to nature — which does not hinder her from despising him later on (2 Sam. 6: 16). Lastly, Jonathan loves him with the only love which is true, good, and enduring; he loves him as his own soul; he cherishes him for what David is in himself.

Thus David succeeds better than all Saul's servants, and his name was much esteemed (v. 30); a lovely picture of the Lord at the beginning of His career (Luke 4: 15)!

1 SAMUEL 19

In the preceding chapter Saul had used roundabout ways to rid himself of the Lord's anointed; here he contrives a genuine conspiracy against him: “Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should slay David” (v. 1). Jonathan preaches grace to his father by presenting to him what David was, what David had done for him at the risk of his own life, and by reminding him that he himself, Saul, had at first rejoiced after he had witnessed these things: “Thou didst see it, and didst rejoice” (v. 5). How far superior was David's activity to all that Jonathan could do for him (and Jonathan was conscious of this), even though he loved David as his own soul!

Saul listens to Jonathan and swears: “As Jehovah liveth, he shall not be put to death!” (v. 6). By presenting grace to the heart of the natural man God allows his wickedness to be momentarily arrested in its development, but this is not conversion. Saul's murderous intention is changed, yet nevertheless he does not repent. He retracts his decision, makes a new resolution when faced with the exhortations of a man of faith, but hardly is this resolution made than he shows himself to be in no way free from his impulses and by his behavior proves that he is a miserable slave of Satan.

As for David, he does not change. “He was in his presence as previously” (v. 7). The grace that has led him up to now remains impressed upon his person and upon his behavior.

A fresh triumph of David's re-awakens the evil spirit that had taken control of Saul. As long as the believer does not trouble Satan by victories won over his followers his hostility remains asleep, as it were, but his mortal hatred soon awakens. We see this hatred against David at the very moment when the evil spirit seems to be subdued by the gracious relief which David procures for the king. A moment comes, then, when the only thing the believer can do is to flee, to escape like a bird out of the fowler's net. Now David's death is irrevocably decreed. Michal, motivated by her natural affection for David, comes to his help in her own way, God using here the human feelings that animated her (vv. 11-17).

This passage also reveals to us the fact that there was an image (a teraphim) in David's house. Certainly, David did not worship it, but its presence allows us to conclude that he put up with it. The teraphim was not an idol, properly speaking, and the Word is careful to distinguish the one from the other. (See Hosea 3: 4; Zech. 10: 2; 1 Sam. 15: 22-23; 2 Kings 23: 24; Ezek. 21: 21; Gen. 31: 19, 30, 32-35; Judges 17: 3-5; Judges 18: 17-18, 20) The image (teraphim) is somewhat inferior to the idol; it is a sort of demi-god whose domain is the household; it is clothed with a certain importance, and is even consulted on occasion. Such superstitions quickly lead to true idols; this is exactly how Jacob judged the matter, when he told Laban to take back his gods (Gen. 31: 32). Often the believer lacks the energy to banish these occasions of stumbling from his family, and each one of us must be earnestly mindful of this even though, like Jacob et David, we may not personally attribute to them any influence over our life. The image had evidently been introduced into David's household by Michal, Saul's daughter, who was thus a snare to the man of God.

Michal avoids her father's wrath by acting before him as though she were one of David's enemies, constrained by his threats to allow him to escape: “He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?” (v. 17). How different her heart is from Jonathan's who openly, at his own risk and peril, took up the defense of the one whom he tenderly loved.

“David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth” (v. 18). David tells everything to Samuel, God's representative and prophet. He becomes his companion, and the two of them dwell together. Such is, for David, the result of this trial.

This leads us to consider the Psalms that speak of David's afflictions. We assume that none of our readers are ignoring the fact that the Psalms are prophetical songs, describing the moral circumstances the remnant of Israel will pass through in the last days. This remnant will be sustained during the tribulation by the Spirit of Christ, of the One who has in grace passed through analogous circumstances, although much more terrible, because His walk of obedience, dependence, integrity, holiness, and love resulted but in death, and He could only be delivered “from the horns of the buffaloes.” It is therefore natural to see David used as the principal organ to express prophetically the feelings of the remnant and of Christ. Is not his life, as we have already observed many times, a striking type of the life of the Messiah who was to come, and as such had David not passed through all the phases of rejection, humiliation, and persecution which except for death represent the Savior's sufferings? We are not saying this with the intention of entering more deeply into this subject, so often treated in detail by others, but to underscore the fact that the Psalms of David which carry us so high and so far into the prophetical future are in first line drawn from his personal experiences. In them, too, we can find a faithful expression of his heart's condition in the midst of trial, the results produced by God's discipline with regard to him, and the resources that were his when tribulation overtook him. From this restricted point of view only, as events progressively unfold we will consider the Psalms that are related to them.

The account in this chapter has its counterpart in Psalm 59, inspired “when Saul sent, and they watched the house [of David] to kill him.” While Saul's messengers, men of blood who were gathered against him, went round about the city during the night, David was raising his heart in supplication to the Lord. He was looking to Him for deliverance (vv. 1-2), assured that He would be gracious toward him (v. 10), for they sought his life not “for [his] transgression, nor for [his] sin,” but rather because he belonged to the Lord. For the moment he is not asking the Lord to slay his enemies (v. 11), to kill Saul, in order that David's people may not forget these things. The profane king must remain alive until the patience of the Lord's anointed shall have had its perfect work. Later God will consume the enemy in order to establish his reign.

Isn't it touching to see this man of God at the very moment when he is so closely pressed and when his life could be cut off entirely occupied with the Lord, with His designs, and with His deliverance. Indeed, he does not question either the love of God nor His will to deliver him. “But as for me, I will sing of Thy strength; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy loving-kindness in the morning” (v. 16). In the morning? when his enemies “howl like a dog” during the night of anguish, as they watch his house and go round about the city! Thus he was sure of deliverance because he counted on God, and he can add in this extreme peril in anticipation of this deliverance: “Thou hast been to me a high fortress and a refuge in the day of my trouble!” (v. 16).

Let us return to our chapter. In verses 19-24, all Saul's efforts against David fail, and yet he has his messengers follow him, even when he finds refuge under his protector Samuel. Against their own will these instruments of the enemy experience the influence of the Spirit of God in whose power they prophesy, a serious warning which neither converts them nor saves them. Even Saul — and this not for the first time in his life — is here forced to prophesy by the Spirit of God. In 1 Samuel 18: 10 he had done so by the evil spirit which had come upon him. God is able to speak through the mouth of a Saul who at other times is the mouthpiece of Satan; He can do the same through the mouth of a Balaam or of a Caiaphas. This only proves that God uses someone as an instrument if it suits Him; but it is necessary to distinguish between the quickening activity of the Holy Spirit and His various operations in power. Power may communicate a great knowledge of the Word and perhaps also the energy that uses this knowledge on behalf of others, but it never leads us to self-judgment and appropriation of Christ as the One answering to our needs. It gives neither repentance nor faith; there must be a work of the Spirit in the heart in order to reach the conscience, to give an awareness of sin, to lead a soul to God. Without this, there is no new life. The hearts of Saul and of his messengers were not changed, but God had come upon their spirits through prophecy in order to expose their foolishness and in order to save David, His beloved.

1 SAMUEL 20

“David fled from Naioth by Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity, and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeks my life?” (v. 1). Whereas the natural man remains under the terrible “What hast thou done?” once addressed to Cain (Gen. 4: 10), the man who is justified by faith, persecuted without cause, can say like David: “What have I done?” But David could speak like this only at this point in his career. Later, when persecuted by his son Absalom, he could no longer say, “What have I done?” Still later, when he had committed the serious sin of numbering the people, he is obliged to confess to God while under His judgment: “I have sinned greatly in what I have done” (2 Sam. 24: 10). Yet nevertheless, at the very moment when he was under discipline he is presented to us as a type of Christ standing in the breach in order to save his people, when he says: “Behold, it is I that have sinned, and it is I that have committed iniquity; but these sheep, what have they done?” (v. 17).

But only One could say: “I do always the things that are pleasing to Him [that has sent Me]”; only One at the last moment of His career could receive the testimony from the mouth of the converted robber: “This man has done nothing amiss” (Luke 23: 41).

David, who is such a precious type of Christ, also receives this public testimony before Saul through Jonathan's mouth: “Why should he be put to death? what has he done?” (v. 32). What a privilege it is for the believer to have through the Holy Spirit the possibility of copying the Lord in this, as in every other thing. Only, in order to produce this fruit of righteousness the Lord never needed discipline as David did or as we do. All His afflictions were on the one hand the fruit and the witness of His grace toward us. They brought out on the other hand the absolute perfection in Him, whether in His life or in His death. In Him the meal offering, just as the burnt offering, caused an unmixed “sweet savor to the Lord” to rise.

We shall see more than once, even during this period of his life when David could say: “What have I done? that certain details of his behavior necessitate God's intervention in discipline. Thus we find even here in verse 6 a lack of truth which, although understandable, is no less to be condemned. In David the truth was below grace: it was reserved for the Word become flesh to bring into this world unmingled grace united to perfect truth. (John 1).

Whereas David, the man of faith, knows perfectly well the danger to which his faithfulness exposed him and, seeing only a step between himself and death (v. 3), knows that his only resource is in God, Jonathan is still counting on the assistance that he believes he can give his friend (v. 2). He has a certain confidence in his father's character; he wishes that the Lord might be with David as He had been with Saul (v. 13). He really does not reach a high level of spiritual intelligence nor of appreciation of the human heart. It is always so for the believer when he is associated with the world by any links whatsoever. Jonathan has still not understood that God has rejected Saul, even when on the other hand all his confidence is in David. Is he not assured of his power in the future and of his goodwill? “Thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever, no, not when Jehovah cuts off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth” (v. 15). He continues to forget himself here in proclaiming that the kingdom belongs to his friend. And when is it that Jonathan chooses to commend himself to David's protection? At the moment when David is fleeing, his life exposed at every instant! Is it not the same for us? Have we not found our protector, our refuge, and all our hope in a rejected Christ?

It is beautiful to see this absence of egoism in Jonathan in presence of the one who would inherit all the rights that birth would appear to have conferred on Saul's son. Ah! this is because he loved David as his own soul; because from the beginning he had given power, authority, the kingdom — in a word, everything — to the son of Jesse. Saul cried out: “As long as the son of Jesse lives upon earth, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom” (v. 31), for to him his son's being established was more than all of David's glories. To him it was a shame to company with the true king: “Thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own shame and to the shame of thy mother's nakedness” (v. 30). Such words deeply wound Jonathan's heart; he leaps up at this insult, but he is grieved, not on account of the insult to himself and his mother, but “for David, because his father had done him shame” (v. 34). He loves David, dishonored and cursed by Saul, with the same ardor with which he had once loved him in the splendor of his youth and victory.

Jonathan comes to David's assistance in this extremity. In a last touching interview “they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded” (v. 41). How Jonathan's lovable and sympathetic character endears him to us; yet nevertheless he lacked one thing, one thing only; he did not have enough faith to follow the rejected king. His position, it is true, made such a step very difficult, but for faith difficulties ought not to count. Jonathan should have shared David's afflictions more fully than with his heart alone, and because he did not do so he was later obliged to share his father's defeat and ruin.

1 SAMUEL 21

In the preceding chapter David had shown himself to be somewhat below his usual quality of character. Here it is likewise, for he lies to Ahimelech and uses a ruse that is not to his honor in the presence of Achish. Yet nevertheless at Nob (vv. 1-6) he presents us with one of the most important features of the rejected Messiah. This incident is noted in Matthew 12: 1-8, Mark 2: 23-28, and Luke 6: 1-5.

In the first of these passages the Lord having proclaimed that true rest is found in Himself (Matt. 11: 28-30), leaves his disciples free to carry out an act permitted by the law (Deut. 23: 25), but which in the eyes of the Pharisees violated and profaned the Sabbath. The situation had been the same for David at Nob, for it was on a Sabbath day, the day when the shewbread was replaced (cf. Lev. 24: 8), that he presented himself before the priest. Now why did the Lord act in this way? It was because like David He Himself, the Beloved, had been rejected by the people whom the legal system ordained by God had proved unable to lead to recognize their Messiah. The Sabbath, sign of the covenant between God and His people, was thus being violated by the fact that the people were rejecting their God. There was no more rest under the old legal system. Henceforth the Father was obliged to work anew, and the Son Himself was working with Him. Man's Sabbath had ended, and the rejection of God in the person of His Son had as consequence the abandoning of the legal system of the Jews, the right of the Son of man to use the Sabbath as He saw fit, and the introduction of a new system in which He associated His disciples and companions with Himself. Christ having been rejected, as David had been, there was no more rest for the creature in this world, but rather a rest outside of this world based upon the work of redemption and which could be possessed through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

A second fact accompanied David's rejection. He had Ahimelech give him the shewbread which only the priests were allowed to eat once it had been removed from the table. This bread taken from before God's presence was “in a manner common” (v. 5). In the presence of the rejection of His king, what value could the shewbread, which presented the true Israel in Christ to God, have in God's sight. So David could consider this bread profane. Sovereign grace rose above legal ordinances, for it was more important to feed David and his followers than to preserve that which had become old.

David asks for a weapon. Ahimelech has no arms other than Goliath's sword. This instrument of David's victory was kept behind the ephod wrapped in a cloth, looked after and set in a place of honor under the very eyes of God. Likewise the testimony of Christ's victory, death, by which He conquered the prince of death, has been carried as a memorial into the most holy place where Jesus has entered in by His own blood.

David said: “There is none like that” (v. 9). Let us not forget that, if David is a type of Christ, he is often also at the same time a type of believers. Like David, we go weaponless to meet the enemy, but one weapon alone is sufficient for us: the death of Christ and our death with Him. We find this in the sanctuary. There is none like it and Satan can do nothing against this weapon which has vanquished him.

Armed in this manner, David goes to Achish, the king of Gath (vv. 10-15). Why then is he struck with fear as he presents himself before this king? It is because he was led there by his natural wisdom and not by the Lord. No more than Egypt for Abraham ought Philistia to be a refuge for David. Thinking to escape Saul in this way, he merely exchanges one enemy for another and finds dishonor and contempt.

But it is very comforting to consider in the two psalms that are attributed to this point of his history the experiences that David had of which the historical account tells us nothing.

Psalm 56 was composed “when the Philistines took him in Gath.”10 The weakness of his faith had caused him to seek refuge with Israel's enemies. What does he find there? Man, who instead of helping him oppresses him and would swallow him up (v. 1). He whom carnal fear had led to flee from Saul now learns what the flesh is. He whom confidence in man had made to go down to Achish now finds what man is. He finds only danger and threats. His enemies gather together, they hide themselves, marking his steps and lying in wait for his soul, wresting his words all day long, formulating their thoughts against him for evil; but he still has God. He has learned to trust completely in God: “In the day that I am afraid, I will confide in Thee” (Ps. 56: 3). This is the great lesson that God had taught him. If God is for him, what can the flesh do to him? “In God I put my confidence: I will not fear; what can flesh do unto me?” (Ps. 56: 4). What will man do to him? “In God have I put my confidence: I will not fear; what can man do unto me?” (Ps. 56: 11). Now, delivered from death, he desires to be kept from falling in the future. Nothing makes our walk steady like trial, discipline, and the experiences that are related thereto: “For Thou hast delivered my soul from death; wilt thou not keep my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?” (Ps. 56: 13).

Psalm 34 was composed “when [David] changed his behavior before Abimelech,11 who drove him away, and he departed.” This psalm celebrates the Lord's tender care of the believer under trial and expresses David's confidence, flowing out of the fact that in his affliction, God had taken his cause in hand. This man of God in seeking help from Achish had had only a broken reed in hand. Now, instructed by God, he can say: “I sought Jehovah, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears” (v. 4). “This afflicted one called, and Jehovah heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (v. 6). He had learned the lesson that God was teaching him through His discipline. The experience he had just had enabled him to encourage others: “Taste and see that Jehovah is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him!” (v. 8).

Moreover he learned from experience that deception and lying could not procure good: “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile” (vv. 12-13).

David's experience at the court of Achish had been deeply humiliating, for the dignity which God had conferred upon him had been compromised by his behavior. His heart was broken and his spirit overwhelmed because of this, but under this discipline he had learned to know himself and to know the Lord in a more intimate way, and what more could he desire? “Jehovah is nigh to those that are of a broken heart, and saveth them that are of a contrite spirit” (v. 18).

Thus in his prophetic songs the soul of this man of God expresses what he had learned personally through the afflictions and the discipline which were necessary for him.

1 SAMUEL 22

“And David departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam” (v. 1). That is where he composed the beautiful 142nd Psalm which expresses the feelings filling his soul in his solitude. “There is no man that knoweth me: refuge hath failed me; no man careth for my soul” (v. 4). “In the way wherein I walked have they hidden a snare for me” (v. 3), This is written when — what mockery — Saul had the audacity to accuse him, saying: “My son has stirred up my servant as a lier-in-wait against me” (1 Sam. 22: 8). But David found, precisely because all human refuge failed him, a sure refuge for his soul: “I cried unto Thee, Jehovah, I said, Thou art my refuge” (Ps. 142: 5). He could count on the God of Israel for deliverance from his persecutors, for they were stronger than he (v. 6). Could David ever regret being found at such an extremity, abandoned by all, since there it was it that his soul knew and appreciated the sovereign refuge that is found in God? Thus the psalm ends with the assurance that filled his soul, for his time of solitude and of being forsaken would come to an end. “The righteous,” he says, “shall surround me” (v. 7).

After this pouring out of his soul, in that same cave of Adullam David receives the Lord's answer as the firstfruits of his confidence. He is no longer alone. “And his brethren and all his father's house heard it, and they went down thither to him” (1 Sam. 22: 1). David, a type of the rejected Christ, becomes a center of attraction for his brothers. His family, all his relatives, gather themselves around him. They were for David, as for Christ, “the excellent of the earth.” They recognized the Lord's anointed in him, the one through whom the Lord would save His people, the instrument of grace in Israel. They knew that they, even as the head of their family, could expect nothing from the world but contempt and and persecution; so their only resource was to seek refuge in the one who from the human point of view was himself without resource.

But another class of people also sought refuge with David in the cave of Adullam: “And every one in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one of embittered spirit collected round him; and he became a captain over them” (v. 2). Not only those related to him because they shared a common origin, but also such who had no such bond, joined David. Their common characteristic was that they had lost everything. Some were “in distress,” not knowing which way to turn; others were “in debt,” unable to pay; and finally, others were “of embittered spirit,” having sorrows for which there was no remedy, created by the state of things in Israel.

All these found a sure refuge with David as is found today with a rejected Christ. But they found much more. David is able to create, to form, the most wretched beings in his own image. The reflection of his moral beauty falls on those who have nothing to bring him but their misery. In the dark cave of Adullam the light shining forth from David shines on these four hundred men who surround him, and that which grace made of them in the day of tribulation will be recognized by all eyes, acclaimed by every mouth in the day of glory which is already approaching. All these outlaws will surround the king's throne and will be called “David's mighty men” (2 Sam. 23: 8).

But that was not the full extent of the resources included in the cave of Adullam for the companions of the son of Jesse: Gad the prophet (v. 5), God's mouthpiece and the one who bore His testimony, was there with David. The revelation of God's mind, absent from Saul's court and from his people, found refuge there. Lastly, the king's murderous act against Nob drives Abiathar the priest to David (v. 20). Later he comes to him with the ephod in his hand (1 Sam. 23: 6). The means of approaching God, of consulting Him at all times, of entering into fellowship with Him, is the happy privilege of these vagabond people whom the world dishonors and despises.

Dear reader, have you found refuge with the rejected Christ? A person doesn't do so until he is without resource and has lost all hope of helping himself. The world in this case will despise you, but not as much as you will despise yourself. And nonetheless you will lack nothing. The felt presence of the Lord Jesus experienced by your soul; the treasures of the Word placed at your disposition and known, as even a Jonathan clinging to Saul's court was never able to know them; and finally the means of approaching God, furnished by the priesthood of Christ who brings us into fellowship with Him: such are the benefits which our David dispenses during the time of His rejection.

Nothing more is wanting than that He be manifested in glory to the eyes of all, for already He is manifested as the center of His Assembly, even if this, as here, should consist of only four hundred faithful souls united around Him.

In verse 5, David obeys the word that Gad brings him: “Abide not in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” Here he is then in the very territory of the enemy, but what does he have to fear and what can Saul do to him? The Lord is with him. What does it matter if he acts contrary to all human prudence? God has designs of grace and blessing in what He commands; our business is to obey.

Saul summons Ahimelech and accuses David of conspiring against himself and of lying in wait for him (vv. 7-8, 13). Ahimelech with noble frankness openly speaks the truth and bears witness to David, that peerless man, who is “faithful … who is the king's son-in-law, and hath access to thy secret council, and is honorable in thy house.” Surely this is no insulting word, but it is a severe lesson given to Saul. The delicacy of his feelings prevents Ahimelech from mentioning the lie that David had used to have the bread and sword given to him: a lie that would have compromised him in Saul's eyes. But it is this lie which finally leads to the ruin of the priest and all his house. David is well aware of this when he tells Abiathar: “I am accountable for all the lives of thy father's house” (v. 22). Thus he judges himself. But at the same time he is from God's side a type of the One who is the believer's safeguard: “Abide with me, fear not; for he that seeks my life seeks thy life; for with me thou art in safe keeping” (v. 23). This is a perfect compensation for what Abiathar and his father's house had to suffer for the sake of the Lord's anointed.

This is where Psalm 52 comes in. David had learned that “Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.” And so he announces judgment without mercy on the Edomite, Israel's sworn enemy. But that does not at all destroy the confidence and assurance of the man of God. Much to the contrary, against the dark background of this wickedness the believer's blessed portion stands out in all its splendor: “But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I will confide in the loving-kindness of God for ever and ever. I will praise Thee for ever, because Thou hast done it; and I will wait on Thy name, before Thy godly ones, for it is good (Ps. 52: 8-9).

1 SAMUEL 23

The Philistines fight against Keilah. David could have refrained from intervening and could have left the trouble of helping them up to Saul, but such abstention is far from the thoughts of this man of faith. Here the rejected David becomes a savior to Israel. He stands in the breach, but not without having consulted the Lord. Abiathar had not yet come down with the ephod; David was still lacking this means ordained by God for consulting Him. The outward resources may be beyond reach but access to God will never be, for this is free and wide open to all. David speaks with God as with a friend. Full of condescension, the Lord answers and — strikingly — in a manner more intimate and more detailed than when David consults Him with the ephod. He fills the heart of His beloved one with confidence and assurance. Whatever his companions may say (v. 3), David, acting on the word of God does not allow their fears to stop him, and he fights for the people of Israel even though they are the tool of his worst enemy. So it is with our salvation through Christ, wrought for us in our condition of enmity toward Him.

We find this truth, already perceived in the history of Jonathan, here again: that the fight of faith is waged outside of man's religious system which can only hinder it. On the rare occasions when he inquires of the Lord Saul does not receive an answer, or receives an answer by the lot which pronounces judgment on his entire behavior (1 Sam. 14: 40). David without the outward aid of divine ordinances converses directly with his God.

From this point onward we see David hounded, pursued, and betrayed, hiding in caves, in forests, endangered in cities, seeking refuge in strongholds, wandering on the mountains, on the hills, living in the wilderness of Judah, in that of Ziph, of Maon, of Paran, having no place to rest his head.

He enters Keilah. Saul in his terrible blindness can say: “God has cast him off into mine hand,” although he had heard Samuel's solemn word: “[Jehovah] hath also rejected thee from being king!” (1 Sam. 15: 23). What hardening of heart! The persecutor of the “beloved one” believes that he knows God and has Him on his side, but he does not know the God of Israel any better than he knows himself. So, just as it says in Psalm 2: 4: “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision”; so the Word answers here with well-deserved irony: “God did not give him into his hand” (v. 14).

When the ephod is brought (v. 6) God answers by the ephod and David receives adequate direction. It is lovely to see him take on the character of a servant here. He, to whom the kingdom belonged, claims only the most humble place before God. “Jehovah, God of Israel, Thy servant hath heard for certain … will Saul come down, as Thy servant hath heard? Jehovah, God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell Thy servant” (vv. 10-11). In this, is he not a lovely type of Christ who, knowing that the Father had placed all things in His hands, came not to be served but to serve God and His own?

In the wilderness of Ziph Jonathan comes to visit David (vv. 16-18). On many an occasion Jonathan had proved, as we have seen, how dear David was to him. He had warned him of the danger that he was risking (1 Sam. 19: 2), had spoken well of him to Saul (1 Sam. 19: 4), had made a covenant with him, acknowledging his rights to the kingdom (1 Sam. 20: 12-17), had borne shame and had suffered for him (1 Sam. 20: 34); what then still remained for him to do? A visit to David to reassure him of his affection? No. In the life of a man of faith there always comes a critical moment when he must break his ties with the old system according to the flesh which, in actual fact, is in the hands of the enemy of God. God is going to judge this political and religious system. Today the situation is the same in Christendom as it once was in Saul's world. That which is allied to the system will fall with it and will be involved, even if only outwardly, in its loss. Well as he loved David, Jonathan was walking in this old order of things, established around the king according to the flesh, that was going to disappear. What was there to do but leave it when it was raising hateful, direct opposition to the Lord's anointed? He needed to break off with his father's court, take his place with David, with those bankrupt men at Adullam, a humiliating position for a king's son; he needed to stay at Ziph with David, in his thoughts taking not the next place to him (v. 17), but like Abigail the place of a servant of the servants of his lord. Alas! Jonathan had a position to maintain, and whereas David returns to the wood Jonathan goes to his house! (v. 18).

Yet nevertheless God grants him the lovely privilege of encouraging David in his pathway. Jonathan, it says, “strengthened his hand in God” (v. 16). And what is more, he brings David the prophetic word: “Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father will not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel,” but he adds: “and I shall be next to thee.” When it is a matter of himself he completely loses the prophetic view, and this corresponds very well to the mixed-up condition of his soul.

Keilah would have betrayed David; Ziph positively betrays him and takes part in Saul's evil designs. There is the same hardening on part of the king, who uses the Lord's name to cover his own iniquity. “Blessed be ye of Jehovah; for ye have compassion upon me!” (v. 21). And speaking of David he says: “It is told me that he deals very subtly” (v. 22). Subtly! when the Lord whom he consulted was warning him against his enemy's ambushes! This phrase “very subtly” was a direct insult against the Lord though Saul was beyond being accountable for it!

This is where Psalm 54 comes in, composed “when the Ziphites came, and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself with us?” In contrast to Saul who invokes the name of Jehovah, David, rejected from the midst of the people, without any apparent link to Jehovah, calls on the name of God: “O God, by Thy name save me, and by Thy strength do me justice” (v. 1). What God is as God is the resource of his soul. “Strangers,” the Ziphites, had “risen up against” him, “the violent,” Saul and his bands, “[seeking] after [his] life”; and all the while they were invoking the name of the Lord “they [had] not set God before them” (v. 3). But this God whom they did not know was David's helper (v. 4), and when his enemies would be destroyed and he himself be delivered from every distress, he would be the one to celebrate the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel whose relationship with His people would thus be re-established.

In the wilderness of Maon David is in dire distress, but man's extremity is God's opportunity. He directs the events and counts the hours, the minutes, the seconds. All our times are in His hand. At the very last moment a messenger comes to inform Saul of an attack of the Philistines (1 Sam. 23: 27), and the king abandons his pursuit. This is how our God shows Himself to be superior to the difficulties that seem bound to swallow us up.

Psalm 63 is a magnificent example of the intimate experiences of David's soul “when he was in the wilderness of Judah.” He considers it a desolate place, for he remembers the sanctuary where he had contemplated God; but if there is thirst it is thirst for God, and he desires that the power and the glory of the sanctuary accompany him in the wilderness and manifest themselves in his life here upon earth. The wilderness drives him to God and makes him desire that He manifest His character in the difficult circumstances through which he is passing. God answers his request by showing him his loving-kindness. His loving-kindness is His glory. David finds it to be more precious than life, preserved by the power of God from Saul's ambushes. And this power will continue to sustain him: “Thy right hand upholdeth me.”

The result of this knowledge of God in the wilderness is that David's soul “followeth hard after [Him].” Thus, his heart is bound more intimately, more practically to his God through the experiences of this desolate place. As for Saul, he will “be given over to the power of the sword,” whereas the king, the Lord's anointed, anticipates rejoicing in God on the day when every mouth will be stopped, a joy which he already is tasting in the wilderness (vv. 5, 7) so that his soul is satisfied.

1 SAMUEL 24

Saul, returned from his campaign against the Philistines, gathers three thousand chosen men to lay hold of David. Thus in the same pursuit he includes Israel's enemies and her savior. An outward zeal for safeguarding the people of God may very well ally itself with a veritable hatred for Christ.

Saul enters a cave located near the sheepfolds to relieve himself and rest. At the back of the cave with his little troop is the man whom Saul wrongly esteems to be his enemy. God's providence at this moment is delivering Saul, defenseless, into David's hands. David's companions in their ignorance conclude that God Himself is furnishing their master the occasion to avenge himself, but David's spiritual intelligence is not fooled. His character as the rejected king is that of grace and not of judgment (it is the same with Christ), and divine providence here offers grace an admirable occasion to manifest itself.

There is also another reason for David to refrain from drawing the sword. As long as God has not Himself executed the sentence pronounced upon Saul he still bears the name “the Lord's anointed.” Whatever the evil may be, we have no right to destroy that which God allows to subsist. Doubtless there must be full separation between ourselves and evil, but we are not called to set the bounds of God's longsuffering. A spiritual Christian recognizes the authority which God has established even if it be enemy and apostate, and he leaves to God the care and the timing of executing judgement against it. Providential circumstances are not ordained to govern our conduct or to direct it, but to put our faith to the test. Such was the case with Moses at Pharaoh's court where God's providence had placed him. When the moment was come he refused to be part of that court and left Egypt, not fearing the king's wrath (Heb. 11). It was faith that directed him and not the providential ways of God.

Nevertheless David cuts off the skirt of Saul's robe. This was a token intended to give the enemy proof of the grace which was sparing him. David's heart (not his conscience) reproaches him for even this act, for viewed outwardly, he had been lacking in the respect and deference due to the Lord's anointed although down deep he was full of grace toward his persecutor.

“And David checked his men with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul” (v. 7). His companions are formed by him and by his example, and in this way David's character is reflected in all those who surround him and who have acknowledged him as their leader.

The skirt of this cut robe serves to vindicate before Saul the character of the servant whom he was misjudging and to open his eyes as to his own state: “For in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou liest in wait for my life to take it” (v. 11). Thus God often calls sinners through circumstances where His grace has preserved them by drawing their attention to the fact that their state deserved judgment. Nevertheless, if one hardens his heart after this he must know that judgment will not be delayed. “Jehovah judge between me and thee, and Jehovah avenge me of thee” (v. 12).

A lovely feature of the character of the man of God comes out here. In his own eyes he is less than Saul, less than nothing: “After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a single flea.” In this vein Paul says of his dear Corinthians: “The ignoble things of the world, and the despised … and things that are not” (1 Cor. 1: 28), and of himself: “Neither the planter is anything” (1 Cor. 3: 7). But those who are nothing in their own eyes are something in God's eyes, and this exalts and glorifies Him: “Jehovah therefore shall be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and do me justice in delivering me out of thy hand” (v. 15). “If God be for us, who against us?” The love of God for us: that is what glorifies Him!

“Saul lifted up his voice and wept” (v. 16). Seeing himself so miraculously preserved, he acknowledges (but for how long?) the grace and righteousness that are in David: “Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil” (v. 17). He even acknowledges that the kingdom belongs to David: “And now behold, I know that thou shalt certainly be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thy hand” (v. 20). An reprobate heart — it is very serious to consider — may be softened in the presence of grace without being changed. God does not ask us for feelings, however righteous they may be; it is faith that counts, for faith alone is able to regenerate and save a sinner.

“Thou hast showed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me!” (v. 18). How different is this “this day” from the words of an Abigail who through faith says, even before David had proved it to her: “Evil has not been found in thee all thy days!” (1 Sam. 25: 28).

Saul goes so far as to count on David to preserve his seed. David, a beautiful example of grace, “swore to Saul” (v. 22), for grace will not be limited. Will Saul know enough to avail himself of it? No: “Saul went home.” Alas! godly Jonathan, his son, had done the same thing (1 Sam. 23: 18). Whatever step the flesh may have taken, whatever truth the flesh may have acknowledged, there is always a point at which the flesh stops: the point where faith alone can act. Before “Come, follow me,” even the most amiable flesh turns its back, perhaps with sadness, but it prefers the “great possessions” of its home above the shame of Him who has no place in this world to rest His head! (Matt. 19: 22).

How sweet it is to witness David's feelings in Psalm 57 “when he fled from Saul in the cave.” He knows that “God … performeth” [The French says: “brings to a good conclusion”] all for him” (v. 2). His faith already takes hold of imminent deliverance: “He will send from the heavens and save me; He hath covered with reproach him that would swallow me up” (v. 3). “They have digged a pit before me; they are fallen into the midst thereof” (v. 6). This fixes his heart (v. 7) and prompts him to trust himself completely to the hands of Him who “hath sent forth His loving-kindness and His truth” in order to save him. Prepared in this way, he does not seek to avenge himself, but he commits himself to Him who has said: “Vengeance is mine … saith the Lord.” Thus on every occasion David is prepared by the Spirit of God to commit his cause into His hands, thus free to be occupied only with the Lord and with His praise. “My heart is fixed: I will sing, yea, I will sing psalms … For Thy loving-kindness is great unto the heavens, and Thy truth unto the clouds!” (vv. 7, 10).

1 SAMUEL 25

Samuel dies (v. 1), and his death is like a prelude to the last period of Saul's history. The faithful servant who had judged Israel during difficult times and who had performed the functions of the priesthood on her behalf in the midst of the collapse that had followed the ruin of the priesthood, the man whom God had chosen to anoint the king according to the flesh and then the king according to grace, the prophet before all — the first of the prophets — was no more. In the midst of these dark times the grace of God maintained communication with the people through the prophetic word. In all the important acts of his life Saul had met the prophet who came so that he might know God's thoughts, orders, counsels, and judgments. No doubt he had not listened to them, but he had been able to hear them. It is an immense privilege as well as an immense responsibility to have the divine word within reach, and Saul had enjoyed this privilege. Samuel himself during his lifetime had transmitted the Word to prophets raised up of God in order to teach others. Now these prophets themselves were no longer answering (1 Sam. 28: 6, 15). This whole dispensation had come to an end for Saul and for his people. The priesthood, destroyed by him, had sought refuge with the true king. Gad the prophet accompanied David in the wilderness and in the caves. Israel and her king were left like a disabled ship without pilot and without compass, driven toward the abyss in the darkness, while a new dawn was about to rise for the faithful.

Is it surprising that Israel gathered together and mourned over Samuel? He who had interceded for them and even for their king ardently without respite was no longer. What was left for them? What terrible judgment when God withdraws His grace, resolutely despised! No other resource remained for Saul but to return to those things he had vomited forth (1 Sam. 28: 7). Do we not find in him a picture of apostate Christendom returning to idolatry when God withdraws His Spirit of truth and leaves it as a prey to the lying spirit?

But before we get occupied with Saul's last days God unfolds a new scene in our chapter. Nabal, a violent man who knows no restraint, despises and insults the Lord's anointed. This is one of the characteristics of the man of sin in the end times.

Nabal, we are told (v. 3), “was a Calebite.” As a family trait these two men shared energy of nature, but this energy in the service of the flesh produces a Nabal, whereas in the service of faith it produces a Caleb, for one may yield one's members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness or to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6: 13).

The only effect of grace on such a man is to excite him to evil and rebellion. A Saul may sometimes allow himself to become softened (1 Sam. 24: 17); a Nabal: never.

David and his companions continue dwelling in the wilderness of Judah, waiting on God for the hour and the signal for their deliverance, but there David has occasion to prove himself the protector of the weak, exposed to a thousand dangers during the night watches. “Neither was there aught missed by them” as long as they were with him (v. 7).

David's activity in grace is not limited to this. If like the Lord when here on earth he is depending upon man for some refreshment, he to whom by rights everything belongs brings to the sinner, to Nabal, in exchange for this, peace through his messengers. “Peace be to thee, and peace be to thy house, and peace be to all that thou hast!” (v. 6). Does Nabal want this peace after the so evident protection of his men and his flocks? For such grace and courtesy did not David have the right to ask for some proof of thankfulness? What does Nabal answer? “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. And shall I take my bread, and my water, and my flesh which I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men whom I know not whence they are?” (vv. 10-11). This same expression later came forth from the mouth of the chief men in the presence of the Lord's work. “As to this man, we know not whence he is” (John 9: 29). This is how man treated the rejected Jesus; he despises His sovereign grace without apprehending His power in judgment and without thinking that this judgment is at the door. Nabal speaks of his bread, of his water, of his meat, and of his goods as though they belonged to him, and this at the very moment when calamity is about to strike him personally along with all that belongs to him. When he should have been falling down on his knees before the one who voluntarily had become his servant, he rather disdainfully calls him a “servant who has broken away from his master”! Without a scruple and without thinking that it signified rejecting David personally, he rejects his messengers. “He that rejects you rejects Me; and he that rejects Me rejects Him that sent Me” (Luke 10: 16). Their master had sent them to bless, and Nabal insults them (v. 14).

David is in danger of giving free vent to his indignation and of “avenging [himself] with [his] own hand” (vv. 26, 34). This is where, it seems to me, the experience of Psalm 35 is found: “They reward me evil for good” (v. 12; cf. 1 Sam. 25: 21). “They speak not peace” (v. 20; cf. 1 Sam. 25: 6). “I behaved myself as though he had been a friend, a brother to me” (v. 14). “Them that are wrongfully mine enemies” (v. 19; cf. 1 Sam. 25: 26). But David had learned the lesson God wanted to teach him. Instead of defending his rights himself he commits his cause to the Lord: “Stir up Thyself, and awake for my right, for my cause, my God and Lord” (v. 23). “Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine adversity” (v. 26), and he commits judgment to Him: “Let destruction come upon him unawares!” (v. 8).

Before having received this teaching from the mouth of godly Abigail, David had girded on his sword and had ordered his companions to do the same. He was getting ahead of the moment for vengeance; the hour of judgment had not yet struck; it would come through the means of One greater than David. Of Him it is said: “Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Mighty One, in Thy majesty and Thy splendor” (Ps. 45: 3); but as long as David was a stranger in his inheritance it was still the time of grace.

Abigail's faith understood this. This weak woman, knowing what was appropriate to grace, becomes God's instrument to keep the greatest of His servants, the very anointed of the Lord himself, from evil. Only one Man — Grace in person, the grace of God which has appeared to all men — being infallible, never needed to be reminded of the feelings that befit the position that He had taken here on earth.

We can all learn in Abigail's school. One rarely finds a more disinterested affection based on the perfections her faith was discerning in David.

When she learns that “evil is determined” against Nabal and against all his household she hastens to prepare everything that her husband had refused to David, and much more besides, without stinting, and she quickly goes to meet him. Oh! that souls who have heard that evil is decided against them might do the same. There is no time to lose: haste is essential; the avenger is already on His way. When the announcement of judgment is received as a divine testimony one hastens to escape it. This is faith. There is no other resource but to go to meet Him who is going to judge. Abigail had but one fear: that she might not meet David before his sword was drawn. She knew that then it would be too late. But she had no fear about the result of their meeting, for she knew the character of the one whom she would address.

“And when Abigail saw David, she hasted and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let the iniquity be!” (vv. 23-24). Here again Abigail makes haste; she hastens to acknowledge David's lordship, his rights over her, and her own unworthiness. She supplicates him and thus recognizes that she is dependant on his good pleasure. Much more, in taking this attitude she, the woman of faith, recognizes herself as being guilty, taking on herself all the consequences of her association with Nabal. She does not come to plead her innocence, although she had had no knowledge of what had happened (v. 25). In David's presence she has no other wish but to find herself guilty, and she hastens to confess it for she knows David's grace.

She makes haste yet one more time toward the end of the chapter (v. 42). This is when she is called by David to become his companion in suffering (cf. 1 Sam. 27: 3) and later to share his reign. “And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her as his wife … And Abigail hasted, and arose … and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife” (vv. 39-42). No delay; she hastens to meet the one who loves her, to meet the king of grace; she does not postpone her departure for better times when David's throne would be made firm. She leaves everything without thinking for an instant of what she was leaving behind. And she even declares herself unworthy of such an honor; for hers is the most humble place. Such a destiny cannot on the other hand fill her with pride, for she understands that if the king's favor is calling her to share his sufferings so as to then raise her to the highest place, the service of the king must humble her to take the lowest place. “Behold, let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” What humility in this wife of the king! Only fellowship with grace, with Jesus, will enable us to abase ourselves in the dust like this, but just as Abigail abases herself, so the king increases in dignity and in majesty, and this is what his wife's heart desires.

Let us not forget, dear Christian readers, that one of faith's characteristics is to hasten. Abraham made haste when it was a matter of the Lord's service (Gen. 18: 6-8); Zacchaeus did so when the Savior invited him to receive Him into his house (Luke 19: 6); Mary did so when the Lord called her to come to Him (John 11: 29). If it is a matter of Him and of His Person, can we ever hasten enough? But on the other hand, should we not keep ourselves from the haste that so often characterizes the flesh and the old man? “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood” (Prov. 1: 16; Prov. 6: 18), “to strive” (Prov. 25: 8), “to be rich” (Prov. 28: 20, 22). When it is a matter concerning ourselves, let us not do as the world, spoken of here, for it says elsewhere: “He that trusteth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28: 16; Rom. 9: 33).

She is admirable, this Abigail, for her appreciation of David. We find everything in her from her sense of her lord's dignity that impels her to bow down before him to the rapture that his beauty of character brings about. “My lord fights the battles of Jehovah, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days” (v. 28). How could her heart fail to be attracted by the sight of perfection in a man? Yet still, David, a type of Christ, is in himself only an imperfect man. Christ would never have been in danger of procuring justice for Himself. Only the grace of God preserves David when he had already resolved to leave none of his enemies alive. Abigail is the instrument used by God to cause him to retract his decision and to prevent him from losing the character of grace befitting to the Lord's anointed.

Everything Abigail says is the fruit of her communion with God's thoughts. It is not prophecy, but she knows what will happen to David because she knows what God thinks of him. “The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with Jehovah thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out from the hollow of the sling” (v. 29), and “Jehovah … shall appoint thee ruler over Israel” (v. 30). Saul, the king of Israel, is in Abigail's estimation only “a man … risen up to pursue [David] and to seek [his] life.” In his antagonism against the son of Jesse he does not even merit the mention of his name.

It is easy to see that Abigail's words are not inspired by fear of what might happen to her household, but she is indignant at the evil that one has dared to wish on such a man; she desires that his character be preserved from dishonor; without reserve she admires the future king of Israel.

And so David blesses her. He will indeed remember her according to her request. Her “Remember thy handmaid” finds an ear just as attentive as does much later the “Remember me” of the converted thief. David sends her back to her house with the peace which Nabal had not desired and with the assurance of his favor (vv. 6, 35). There she will patiently wait for the message of the beloved one calling her to himself.

But during this time judgment overtakes Nabal. “He held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king.” Such is man! Nabal substitutes himself for David and only thinks of treating himself well. He becomes drunk and is in no condition to know anything of what awaits him. His doom is fixed. When he does learn of it “his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.” He is already dead before being actually stricken dead ten days later.

Men's fate hinges on this alternative: whether they despise Christ today during His rejection, or whether they esteem Him as God esteems Him and appeal to His grace which alone can “accept their person.”

Happy David! He has found a wife according to his heart, a wife whom he blesses and whose wisdom he blesses (v. 33), a true helpmeet in the difficulties of his career. He blesses her for hindering him from doing evil which would have dishonored his God. Saul had blessed the Ziphites who had offered themselves to carry out his evil plans against David, and in the name of the Lord had hailed as deliverers those who would have helped him to make war against His anointed!

1 SAMUEL 26

The Ziphites reappear with their offers of betrayal. Without caring about the king's lack of righteousness and about the grace David had shown to him they turn to the one from whom they hope to obtain advantages or whose displeasure would be able to harm them. Such disdain for David's person and character are perhaps more terrible than Nabal's crude affront. The Ziphites are a true picture of the Christian world today. In appearance it welcomes Christ and in reality it betrays Him. The favors it covets cannot be given by Jesus; therefore they turn to the enemy to obtain them, “deny[ing] the Master that bought them” (2 Peter 2: 1).

Saul has forgotten everything: the grace which spared him in the cave of En-gedi, his own words of repentance, and the generous oath that David had sworn to him to spare his seed. His old hatred rises again; a proposal from the Ziphites is enough to kindle the fire smoldering within him. Animosity against Christ may lie dormant in the natural man; some occasion revives it; then one sees that nothing is changed in the sinner's heart and that it is, as always, desperately wicked.

David sends spies and is informed of everything while Saul is still searching for him. There comes a time for the believer when a certain confidence in his enemies is no longer justified, when we must be on our guard and refrain from revealing to them our secrets which they would only use as weapons against us. We are not ignorant of their designs and, if the Word recommends that we be guileless as doves, it also at the same time exhorts us to be prudent as serpents. That is what characterizes David here and what characterized the Lord Himself when He was asked whether it was necessary to pay tribute to Caesar.

But when it is a matter of confidence in God, all of David's prudence disappears. He advances boldly — the world would say “recklessly” — with Abishai alone into the midst of three thousand adversaries and fearlessly goes to seek out his enemy. Faith that feeds on difficulties grows through meeting them. The hill of Hachilah where David goes towards Saul is the witness of greater faith than was the cave of En-gedi where Saul inadvertently fell into David's hands. But however varied the circumstances may be in which faith is involved, the principles that direct faith are unchanging. Saul, although on the verge of judgment, remains the Lord's anointed to David as long as God has not given the final signal. For David to act otherwise toward him than in grace would be to deny his character all the more seriously since he had received the Lord's approbation at En-gedi. Abishai, David's companion, lays a snare for him here without even realizing it himself, and probably because of the very affection he bears for his master. Knowing that David will not avenge himself, Abishai offers to avenge him. (v. 8). Had this taken place, the rejected king's character of grace would have been entirely compromised once again. This is one of Satan's principal objects with regard to believers. If he can induce us to take our own interests in hand, to avenge ourselves, to demand our rights in this world, he makes us fall from faith because at the same time we become like the world we deny our confidence in God alone. David had been in danger of giving up this principle in the matter with Nabal, but he had learned his lesson; God had strengthened him and his own heart had no need to reproach him as at the “rocks of the wild goats.” “Destroy him not,” he says to Abishai, “for who can stretch forth his hand against Jehovah's anointed, and be guiltless?” (v. 9). This unchanging principle follows him until just after Saul's death, when he has the pretended murderer of the king struck down: “How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy Jehovah's anointed?” (2 Sam. 1: 14). Thus until his last breath Saul remains inviolable for David, as being the Lord's anointed.

Often we fail where David triumphed. In the face of the persistent unrighteousness of men after having acted in grace once or twice this seems enough to us, and we think we are right to resist and protest against iniquity. If we walk with God we will learn very quickly that by protesting we move out of His pathway, and if we act contrary to this knowledge Satan will quickly make us his prey.

The deep sleep that God had caused to fall on Saul and on all the camp might have given birth to the thought of taking advantage of such a moment. This was not so. God had sent this sleep to preserve His beloved and not to give him an occasion to avenge himself. God would save him in view of the work of grace He would call Him to accomplish toward Saul. Grace is reserved for David; judgment is reserved for the Lord. But David takes a token, as he had taken one in the cave. The spear and the cruse of water are two witnesses by which the events that had taken place are confirmed. The weapon that Saul had sought to use against David more than once is now found in David's hand. Would he use it against the Lord's anointed as he had once used Goliath's sword against this enemy of Israel? In no way. It is enough for David to take away from Saul that which he had used in his effort to harm David, to show the king that he was well aware of his weapons and that they were powerless against him.

Now David goes far away from sleeping Saul and puts “a great space … between them” (v. 13). To have acted otherwise would have been blind confidence in man. Sometimes the world must see the distance that separates it from the children of God. If they do not distance themselves from the world they often support it in its illusion as to its condition.

In speaking to Abner (vv. 13-16), not without irony, David shows him that there is more interest and care for the world in a child of God than in those who pretend to support, help, or defend it.

And now (vv. 17-20) Saul is summoned to answer the one whom he is pursuing like “a partridge on the mountains.” “Why?” “What have I done?” These questions elicit only silence. Before them every mouth will be closed forever. If it is the Lord who has stirred up Saul against David why does He deliver David from his hand? If it is men let them be cursed, those men who have driven David from his inheritance and compared him, the Lord's anointed, to idol worshippers, as later they compared Jesus to demons. This sin will not be forgiven them.

But all that David asks is that his “blood [not] fall to the earth far from the face of Jehovah” (v. 20), that he may serve the Lord, and that his death be approved by Him in the very place from which the king of Israel is seeking to chase him. Just as Jesus later on, so David must suffer in Judah; this is why the word of the Lord had sent him there (1 Sam. 22: 5), and if he must die to glorify the Lord, that is where he must die.

Saul says: “I have sinned … I will no more do thee harm … I have acted foolishly, and have erred exceedingly” (v. 21). How many times had he not already said or acknowledged that this was so? Did that change his ways in the least? Often we allow ourselves to be deceived by appearances when it is a matter of appreciating the condition of souls. David is not fooled. He confides in God alone and not at all in Saul's feelings. He returns his weapons to him, knowing that Saul can do nothing without God's will. The king's life had been precious to David, but David does not count on his life being precious to Saul. “And behold, as thy life was highly esteemed this day in mine eyes, so let my life be highly esteemed in the eyes of Jehovah” (v. 24). He counts on the Lord. The life of David, a flea, a partridge on the mountains, is of great price in the eyes of Him who had chosen him, called him, and kept him as the apple of His eye. Thus God glorifies Himself in those who are little and weak.

What does Saul's blessing matter? He who had told the Ziphites: “Blessed be ye of Jehovah,” can say to David: “Blessed be thou, my son David” (v. 25); he who had said: “Thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own shame” (1 Sam. 20: 30), can well say: “Thou shalt certainly do great things, and shalt certainly prevail” (v. 25). Is Saul also among the prophets? All this has no more value in David's eyes than in the Lord's eyes. David is content with his God's approval and promises and that suffices him perfectly.

1 SAMUEL 27

“And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me to seek me any more within all the limits of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand” (v. 1).

Isn't it surprising to see David's weakness here after so many striking marks of divine protection? Just yesterday he had said, full of confidence: “Let my life be highly esteemed in the eyes of Jehovah, that He may deliver me out of all distress!” (1 Sam. 26: 24). Today his courage is gone and he says: “I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul.” We must often experience that a great victory is apt to be followed by a great despondency. When God was with us, did we not happen to attribute something to ourselves? When David said to Saul: “Jehovah will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness” (1 Sam. 26: 23), God alone knows whether or not there was some self-satisfaction in these words. Therefore God leaves us to ourselves (I am not saying, of course, that He forsakes us) in order to show us that we cannot have any confidence in the flesh. Thus we learn to probe “the division of soul and spirit” which is so subtle that in the fight of faith we are often unaware of the mixture of the two, and that gold which has been refined, or which appears to have been refined, still needs the crucible to be purified from every alloy. This clearly explains the weakness of believers at the very time when their faith has been shining so splendidly.

Elijah is a striking example of this (1 Kings 19). Heaven had been closed at his request, he had escaped the wrath of Ahab, had performed miracles, had vanquished the priests of Baal, had confronted an entire people, and now look at the great prophet of Israel who trembles and flees from a woman. Let us remember that having been used by God does not mean that we know ourselves yet, and let us remember that this self-knowledge is indispensable for us to appreciate grace. We often have this experience after times of special blessing. The enemy takes advantage of the situation to make us fall when, armed with God's power, we have illusions about our own strength, esteeming ourselves to be unassailable. Therefore a time of special favor and power is often an occasion for the flesh to act. Being introduced into the third heaven does not preserve us from this and the purpose of God's discipline, as we shall see, is to lead us to examine all this and many other things besides.

Is it God who is commanding David to save himself in the land of the Philistines? Were not the experiences he had had at Achish's court sufficient (1 Sam. 21: 11-15)? Was it God who had sent him there then? No, God through the mouth of Gad had then given him a positive commandment to go into the land of Judah (1 Sam. 22: 5). Had this command been revoked? And why didn't he inquire of the Lord as he had done at Keilah (1 Sam. 23: 1-13)? Headlong haste, discouragement, forgetfulness of God's word, seeking help from Israel's enemies, confidence in his own thoughts while neglecting to seek divine direction: all these weaknesses are concentrated in David here.

The lovely walk of faith which had characterized him seems to be annulled by a single false step. But it is a good thing for our souls to fathom these precipices. We cannot be the companions of Christ unless hold the beginning of our assurance firm to the end (Heb. 3: 14). For David to save himself by fleeing to Achish could in no way be a type of Christ. There was no altar for Abraham in Egypt; David's second stay among the Philistines did not inspire him with any psalm.

It is an exceedingly serious thing to consider that often one false step causes us to lose all the benefit of a long life of faith. One day while hiking high in the mountains my feet slipped toward a chasm; I was done for when the strong hand of my guide succeeded in holding me back — already disappearing over the edge. Without him I was lost, His hand saved me (that is grace), but in an instant I had measured and realized the terrible consequence of one wrong step.

Grace alone is able to prevent our fall, but often we must long experience the consequences of a walk which did not have the Lord's approval. This course delivers David from Saul's pursuit: “And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more for him” (v. 4). At what price? The following chapters inform us, and this chapter instructs us already.

The stay at Gath gives rise to falsehood. Under pain of appearing to be their enemy the Philistines cannot be told that one has had to depart from Israel. Some success is had against the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites, but to openly declare one's self to be their adversary would be to expose one's self to many dangers. David is a guest of the Philistine who from this fact deems him brought into subjection: “He shall be my servant for ever (v. 12). How can one then make war against their race? One uses words that have a double meaning to hide one's real sympathies (1 Sam. 28: 2). Just see how many serious consequences the search for the world's assistance brings with it! The Christian swamped by “social conventions” to which he is subjected loses his true character there and has no more effect on the consciences of those around him. He lives in fear of displeasing the world which is protecting him; he seeks like David to destroy all the witnesses who could come forward to give evidence of his hostility against the enemies of God's people; he no longer has a good conscience. Although he is a child of God he is following a path of hypocrisy.

“Achish trusted David.” The world believes us and flatters itself to have broken the ties that united us to God's people (v. 12). David through God's grace will be restored and in what follows his behavior will awaken Achish to his deception. But how many Christians tangled in this net never awaken the world to their deception, lose their strength, their peace, and their joy there, sacrifice their testimony there, and finally leave this scene to go to be with the Lord feeling that they have been nothing for Him during their lifetime, nothing for Him who however has done everything for them!

1 SAMUEL 28

The day comes — David cannot escape this juncture of events — when the Philistines once again gather together their armies to go to war against Israel. David's false position in their midst will thus be made evident. Poor David! What to do? How can he draw back after having fooled the enemy about his enterprises and his sympathies? Let us remember that it is easier to enter a wrong pathway than to leave it. We shall see that God does not abandon David and that He saves him in spite of himself from the danger of fighting against God's people, but we shall also see how severe the discipline which he will have to endure will be.

Is it surprising that Achish, deceived by David, is counting on him? This proof of confidence ought to cover the man of God with shame: “Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to the camp, thou and thy men” (v. 1). A wrong walk is not only deplorable for ourselves but it draws after us into evil those whom we are called upon to guide as well. David's answer is ambiguous like all of his behavior: “Thereby thou shalt know what thy servant can do” (v. 2). Later, alas! this will be only too evident when he attempts to vindicate himself before the king and the princes (1 Sam. 29: 8). Achish, deceived, replies: “Therefore will I make thee keeper of my person for ever” (v. 2). Here then is the “beloved” being called upon to support Israel's hereditary enemy! This is his reward; he advances in dignity. He, the true king of Israel, becomes Achish's bodyguard. What a promotion, what an honor! Though a Christian is nothing in his own eyes, he is a king in God's sight; he is called upon to walk according to this dignity. If he receives the world's honors he loses his royal character, for he becomes a slave and has no part in his master's benefits except in the measure in which he is in bondage to him.

In verse 3, God's word returns to Samuel's death. As we have seen, this death left Saul and his people disabled. But Samuel's presence and Saul's profession of serving the Lord had resulted in Saul himself performing an act of purification: “Saul had put away the necromancers and the soothsayers out of the land.”

The enemy gathers together: Saul “was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And Saul inquired of Jehovah; but Jehovah did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets” (vv. 5-6). This position was more miserable than when Israel had followed enchantments and strange gods! At least these had given the appearance of answering Israel — an illusion no doubt, but an illusion which for the moment had raised their flagging spirits. Now: nothing but silence. The house that was swept had no statue, no ephod, and no teraphim (Hosea 3: 4). What to do? Whom to consult? Whom to lean on? What uncertainty for Saul! Judgment is at the door: how can it be evaded? Oh! in this darkness where he is floundering, if even a feeble ray of light would show him a way out! Nothing is more wretched than his condition. He is aware of his inevitable fate and in his great anguish is seeking a means to escape it. Now Saul takes account of the horror of his condition. Death would be better, but death offers no shelter from the judgment which he sees steadily advancing toward him from afar and which he knows to be without pity.

“Seek me a woman that has a spirit of Python, that I may go to her and inquire of her” (v. 7). Christendom in our day is no different, about to be “spewed out” of the Lord's mouth. It is calling up spirits and indulging herself with satanic illusions, for at one and the same time there is frightening reality and shameful illusion in these practices. The reality is that a demon puts itself at the disposal of the Pythoness; the illusion is that she is able to call up the dead. The demon only clothes itself with a shadowy appearance, for Jesus holds the keys of death and of Hades and no power but His own is able to open its doors. Satan himself cannot call up the dead. Those who have not believed and who have died are and remain “the spirits in prison.” God alone by making an exception can permit Samuel to come forth from the realm of the invisible and appear.

“When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice” (v. 12). This was not the result she had expected from her sorcery. The spirit that she knew was not there to clothe itself with an illusory form like those which she had had her followers witness. Before she can even call up the spirit a personage who greatly frightens her suddenly rises up before her. This is not just another appearance but a divine reality, “a god ascending out of the earth” (v. 13), an personage on whom her enchantments have no hold. It is Samuel himself, recognized by the king before whom he had walked for so long. The woman does not recognize Samuel, but Saul does. He alone, Israel's head, was important enough to receive such an extraordinary vision. As for Saul, he cannot mistake the person, still less the words of Samuel. God who is not answering by the prophets posthumously answers one last time by Samuel, but only to ratify the judgment already pronounced.

Saul exposes his distress, his abandonment, his isolation, and the anguish of his soul (v. 15). It is too late; the measure is full; God has forgotten nothing; now He has become the enemy of Saul (v. 16) who has both God and the Philistines against him. And why? Saul did “not hearken to the voice of Jehovah” nor “execute His fierce anger upon Amalek” (v. 18). Moreover, beside the fact that he had “kept not … the word of Jehovah” he had “inquired of the spirit of Python, asking counsel of it, and he asked not counsel of Jehovah” (1 Chr. 10: 13). Disobedience and independence characterize man without God, and in spite of all appearances Saul was one of these. Because of these things the death of Saul and of his sons was decreed as well as the defeat of Israel (v. 19).

But yet another decision is announced to Saul, and this for the third time: “Jehovah has rent the kingdom out of thy hand, and given it to thy neighbor, to David” (v. 17). He had already heard this twice from Samuel's mouth (1 Sam. 13: 14; 1 Sam. 15: 28), but David's name had not yet been mentioned. Today he learns from the mouth of God what he in his hatred had long ago suspected (1 Sam. 24: 21): his “neighbor” was this despised, hated, rejected David whom he himself had pursued, and this David is the chosen one, the anointed one, the beloved one who will have the place of honor and to whom the kingdom belongs! All that Saul had feared now rises up against him. No more pity, no more pardon. David, the king of grace himself, who had spared Saul so many times, had soothed him so often, who had returned him good for evil without tiring, could no longer from this moment onward present himself to Saul except as a judge.

Saul “fell straightway his full length on the earth, and was sore afraid because of the words of Samuel” (v. 20). It is only when man finds himself before his inevitable fate that he really appreciates all its bearing. Until then there is always room for some illusion which hides the horror of our future from us. The king has no strength; he is faint with hunger but will not eat; he finally accepts some material help from the hand of one who is reprobate just like himself (vv. 20-25).

What a solemn picture of the end of the man, the king according to the flesh! All the principles of his activity are called to his remembrance and weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, are found to be only disobedience, independence, and enmity against God and against His anointed. Nothing, absolutely nothing of that which has led Saul can stand before God. All his motives, all his ways, become just so many objects of judgment.

1 SAMUEL 29

The armies of the Philistines and of Israel reach the place where they set themselves in battle formation. “David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish,” for according to the king's promise they have been made his bodyguards. The princes of the Philistines challenge this: “What are these Hebrews?” This is what always happens when a believer places himself in a false position by seeking the world's protection. He cannot gain the world's confidence unless perhaps the world is depending upon him like Achish because he has made God's people abhor him and has given himself into bondage in this way. Moreover Achish, we must observe, has still other motives for confidence, and we cannot help but see in him a certain natural nobility, won over by the apparent uprightness of David's character (Alas! it is not even apparently so in God's sight). Achish defends David before the princes: “I have found nothing in him since the day of his falling away to me to this day” (v. 3). Achish bears testimony to him: “As Jehovah liveth, thou art upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the camp is acceptable to me; for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming to me to this day” (v. 6). A most favorable testimony, but one based on the fact that “David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel” (v. 3), had become and would remain the servant of Achish.

Did David have a good conscience at having merited these praises? Was his heart really at ease before the high opinion of the uncircumcised king who was showing himself more noble and more honest than the Lord's anointed? Could he receive this praise as he had once received that of Abigail (1 Sam. 25: 28)?

However that might be, Achish's confidence does not succeed in overcoming the distrust of the princes, for it was precisely David's character of faithfulness which could move him to return to his old master. Not so long ago he had smitten his ten thousand Philistines, in this in accord with Saul who had smitten his thousand. Why should he be for Achish today rather than for Saul? The lack of a clear-cut position in regard to the world can only produce conclusions like these. Our very faithfulness in the past is turned against us. Achish is obliged to reckon with the opinion of the princes, a policy unknown to a faithful believer, for God's mind, opinion, and will direct him. But God uses men's mistrust to save His beloved from a more serious fall than when he went up against Nabal to avenge himself. “Now,” says Achish, “return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines” (v. 7).

In the face of this animosity David (and this is one of the most humiliating points in his history) denies his faith and his character: “But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee to this day, that I should not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” (v. 8). What have I done? David could say this in truth to Jonathan (1 Sam. 20: 1) and to Saul himself (1 Sam. 26: 18) but he could not in good conscience say this to Achish. Knowing nothing of David's secret undertakings against Israel's enemies, the Philistine king could not find him at fault. But it is his own people whom David is asking to fight against; his people whom he terms “the enemies of the king”!

Achish acknowledges yet more explicitly the purity of David's intentions: “I know that thou art acceptable to me, as an angel of God” (v. 9), but the conclusion is that he must return. “Depart,” Achish tells David (v. 10). In sum, weighed in the same balance the opinion of the world surrounding him carries greater weight with Achish than the supposed integrity of David.

All of this shows us the abyss separating the family of God from the world, since even in respect to the child of God who is unfaithful to his calling the world is apprehensive and refuses his co-operation. This is only just. God makes us to feel, and it is grace on His part, that in this position we have nothing: neither the approval of God nor the favor of the world.

David returns back. What a helping hand the Lord has extended to him, although against his own will at the most critical moment of his entire life up until now! God has not abandoned him for a single instant. What grace! But what has become of the happy fellowship of heart with the Lord which had found expression in the songs of the sweet psalmist of Israel?

1 SAMUEL 30

A walk according to the thoughts of his natural heart had deprived David of fellowship with his God. In the path he was following he could not like Enoch have “the testimony that he had pleased God.” Left to himself he, one of the excellent of the earth, had been in danger of making shipwreck of the faith just like another and in danger of embracing the cause of his people's worst enemies. Their leader recognized in him an upright and irreproachable character, but this was just one more danger for his soul. In the midst of these reefs when he would surely have gone down had he been left to his own strength, God, no longer able to lead him by His eye, had used the “bit and bridle” (Ps. 32: 9) — that is to say, a series of circumstances contrary to the will of His servant — in order to preserve him from an irremediable fall.

In our chapter we see how God restores David, using the discipline that his lack of holiness had made necessary. But there in the midst of this discipline God (and this is infinitely precious) could be with him. God who was absent in the day of Achish's favor is now present in the midst of disaster. David is stricken in that which is dearest to him and this is a cause of great sorrow, but it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness. How could we then regret that God's hand weighed heavily on His servant? The character of this man of God, formed by discipline, is of great beauty and full of instruction for our souls.

In David's absence Amalek, no doubt in order to avenge themselves (cf. 1 Sam. 27: 8), had seized Ziklag, David's city (1 Sam. 27: 6), and after having burned it had taken the entire population away captive with the spoil, but “they had put none to death.” What grace of God! In this cruel attack of a pitiless enemy all the captives had been spared. Thus God was judging His servant by measure and with a judgment which had his restoration as its object. Nevertheless the discipline must be felt deeply in order to bring forth its fruits: “David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep” (v. 4). Those dearest to David are among the captives: noble Abigail, linked by faith to her husband's wandering life and sufferings, innocent of his conduct at the court of Achish, is taken into captivity. And to make the cup of bitterness overflow, the companions whom he had directed until now, full of vexation because of their sons and daughters, consider him responsible for this calamity, turn against him, and speak of stoning him (v. 6).

But for the man of God discipline is a bitter cordial that strengthens his soul instead of weakening it. When he has lost everything David again finds God as his resource. He “strengthened himself in Jehovah his God” (v. 6). This faithful God known by him, who had helped him in times past in all his distresses, had not changed, and again today he finds Him to be the same as He was yesterday and will be for eternity.

And David also finds again that which had previously characterized him. He “said to Abiathar … Bring near to me, I pray thee, the ephod. And Abiathar brought the ephod near to David. And David inquired of Jehovah” (vv. 7-8). As Samuel was the man of prayer and intercession, so David at the time of his strength was the dependant man who consulted and inquired of the Lord. He returns to this. The Lord who had refused to answer Saul answers David. “Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And He said to him, Pursue; for thou shalt assuredly overtake them, and shalt certainly recover” (v. 8).

Strengthened by this answer David takes up the pursuit without hesitation. At the torrent Besor two hundred men too weary to follow the troop stop and are left behind to guard the baggage. They lacked strength; nonetheless their function was useful to David and their brethren and should not be despised. The function of active combatants is highly visible and exposes us much more to spiritual pride than does a more humble position. David's companions prove this in what follows in this account by attributing to their own prowess the victory which was prepared for them and then granted by God alone (v. 22).

An Egyptian slave left behind to die puts David on the enemy's track. One sees God's hand in this circumstance. Without this poor man dying of hunger the expedition would have failed miserably. When we strengthen ourselves in the Lord our God, what mighty help He accords us, and how unexpected! (vv. 11-15).

While the enemy is eating, drinking, and dancing, “sudden destruction comes upon them.” “David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken: and David recovered his two wives. And there was nothing missed by them, neither small not great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken: David brought all back” (vv. 18-19) together with an abundance of spoils (v. 20).

The trial is over; Discipline has borne its fruits; but by the grace of God it continues to bear yet more. See with what wisdom David, now restored, confronts the “wicked men, and men of Belial, of those that had gone with” him (v. 22), how he reproves them by giving the Lord all the place, all the merit: “Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which Jehovah has given us, who has preserved us, and given the troop that came against us into our hand” (v. 23). God distributes the various services among His own; He is the only judge of the activity that they display; He does not measure the reward according to the value of the gift but according to faithfulness in the administration of that which He entrusts to us. That is why the share of those who stay with the baggage is like the share of those who go down to the battle (v. 24). This principle established by David has become “a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day” (v. 25). It was the principle of grace joined to righteousness that a restored David proclaimed, and how can we be surprised that its consequences have been lasting?

In his prosperity (vv. 26-31) David forgets none of those who had helped in the time of his adversity. He overwhelms them, and I see scarcely any but the Ziphites who were excluded and had no part in his generosity: those informers who had desired to deliver up the king of Israel. David's liberality gives all the faithful tangible proof that the Lord is with him and that it is good to accept him as master and to place one's self under his law — whereas infidelity toward Christ will one day, perhaps long afterward, bring its inevitable consequences. And in contrast, a glass of water given to David in the wilderness is recorded in the book of Him who values all our deeds according their usefulness, whether more or less, to Christ.

1 SAMUEL 31

According to the word of God spoken by Samuel (1 Sam. 28: 19) Israel falls before the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. The three sons of Saul — Jonathan is one of them — perish. Saul is the last one remaining. He had been very much afraid at Samuel's announcement of judgment (1 Sam. 28: 20), he had been afraid and his heart had greatly trembled at the presence of the Philistine army in the presence of the bare preparations for judgment (1 Sam. 28: 5); how much more so when judgment is being executed: “He was much terrified by the archers” (v. 3). Thus from the moment when the sinner finds himself before God's judgment all his strength leaves him and gives place to terror. “It is a fearful thing falling into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10: 31), when having made a profession of faith one has then given it up. Saul wishes to die in order to escape this nameless anguish and he only hurls himself into an agony of a quite different nature, into the torments of the invisible realm where the worm never dies and where the fire is never quenched.

“Draw thy sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me” (v. 4). The words “these uncircumcised” express even at the point of death his outward religion based on his disdain of those who were not Hebrews.12 As for Saul's circumcision, could it save him? Is it not rather circumcision of heart that God respects?

Saul and his armorbearer take their own lives in order to escape the enemy's abuse. The fear of God, had it been before their eyes, would have prevented them from doing so. A dead Saul does not feel the abuse but undergoes it nonetheless. The Philistines behead the king and may think that they have taken their revenge for the death of Goliath. Saul's armor is placed in the house of Ashtaroth (v. 10), apparently proclaiming the victory of their idols over the true God. A similar thing took place when the ark was taken. Israel flees, the enemy capture their cities and establish themselves there. Jabesh-Gilead, once saved by Saul (1 Sam. 11), shows pity upon the dead, but God remains silent as though indifferent to all this ruin; one might believe He had been overcome by man.

This book is like the end of everything. Here we see the end of the priesthood, of the judges, of kingship according to man. Everything crumbles; God allows it, for this is exactly what is necessary. Everything must fall before David. Let him abide: that is enough. This defeat, this judgment, this ruin of man are for God the dawn of the reign of the beloved!

2 Samuel

2 Samuel

Meditations on the Second Book of Samuel

H. L. Rossier

Introduction

The historical books of the Old Testament deal with God's ways toward Israel beginning with their entry into Canaan. On every page of these books this people's conduct and the lives of men of God offer great moral lessons. And lastly we find here in various types the person, the work, and the glories of the Lord Jesus.

Naturally we find these three important subjects in the First and Second Books of Samuel. The first of these books begins with the ruin of the priesthood, that which ought to have maintained Israel in direct relationship with God. But neither the judgment that fell on Eli's sons, the capture of the ark, nor the breaking off of His relationship with His people prevented the Lord from raising up for that same people a prophet, Samuel, charged with maintaining merciful relations with Israel. Then God declares that He will establish a new relationship between His people and Himself through a king, His anointed, before whom a faithful priest should always walk.

Instead of patiently waiting for the Lord's anointed the rebellious people asked for a king like all the nations. God granted this request in His wrath, but tempered this with mercy. Saul disobeyed and was rejected. Then the Lord raised up David, the king according to His own heart. Reproved, Saul persecuted the true king. The remainder of this book is filled with David's sufferings. Around Jesse's son there gathers a feeble remnant of the children of Israel, faithful witnesses of his afflictions who will share in his reign when he receives the crown.

The period presented in the First Book of Samuel is a type of the Messiah's sufferings in the midst of Israel. This period ends with David's victory over Amalek, a type of Satan in the Scriptures (Ex. 17: 8-16). The king according to God's mind smites the enemy which Saul had spared. But the king according to the flesh, who had once conquered the Philistines, now falls when they attack him, and all the initial successes of his career come to nothing.

The beginning of the Second Book of Samuel presents David, the conqueror of Amalek, and how first Judah and then all Israel gradually recognize his dominion. Yet this dominion is not really complete until Solomon's glorious throne is set up in Jerusalem. Thus we find in this book the establishment in power of David, the king of grace, a striking picture of the Messiah at the beginning of His reign.

The First Book of Kings opens with Solomon, the king of righteousness and peace, whose glorious dominion over the entire world is a magnificent type of Christ's millennial reign.

Nevertheless, let us note that in the book before us David is not only a picture of the Messiah, but also the responsible king to whom God has entrusted the government of His people. In this respect his rule was a failure, as every other divinely instituted relationship also has been. This is why in this book we find David's fall, its terrible consequences, the discipline exercised upon him, his restoration, his confession; and at the very end, when sin had given occasion for sacrifice, we find this sacrifice staying God's wrath and establishing at the altar on Moriah a place of meeting for the Lord and His people.

All the experiences of David, a fallible man, are full of solemn instruction for our souls. They also serve as a model anticipating the experiences of the remnant of Judah, driven out of Jerusalem and then restored, experiences which are expressed prophetically in the Psalms.

Contents

Introduction

2 Samuel 1 GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON ISRAEL AND SAUL

2 Samuel 1: 1-16 The Amalekite

2 Samuel 1: 17-27 The Song of the Bow

2 Samuel 2 - 4 THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED OVER JUDAH

2 Samuel 2 Hebron

2 Samuel 3 Abner

2 Samuel 4 Ishbosheth

2 Samuel 5 - 24 THE KINGDOM OVER ISRAEL

2 Samuel 5 - 10 DAVID BEFORE HIS FALL

2 Samuel 5: 1-10 The Stronghold of Zion

2 Samuel 5: 10-25 Victories

2 Samuel 6 The Ark at Zion

2 Samuel 7 Communion

2 Samuel 8 New Victories

2 Samuel 9 Mephibosheth

2 Samuel 10 Hanun

2 Samuel 11 - 20 DAVID'S FALL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

2 Samuel 11 The Fall

2 Samuel 12 Forgiveness, Discipline, and Restoration

2 Samuel 13 Amnon

2 Samuel 14 Joab

2 Samuel 15 David's Flight

2 Samuel 16 Friends and Enemies

2 Samuel 17 Service

2 Samuel 18 Absalom's Death and David's Broken Heart

2 Samuel 19: 1-40 Grace

2 Samuel 19: 41 - 20 Conflict Between Brothers

2 Samuel 21 - 24 EPILOGUE

2 Samuel 21: 1-14 Rizpah

2 Samuel 21: 15-22 The Sons of the Giant

2 Samuel 22 The Song of Deliverance

2 Samuel 23: 1-7 David's Last Words

2 Samuel 23: 8-39 David's Mighty Men

2 Samuel 24 Moriah

2 SAMUEL 1

GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON ISRAEL AND SAUL

2 SAMUEL 1: 1-16 — THE AMALEKITE

Two events mark the dawn of David's reign: the judgment of Israel and of Israel's prince on the mountains of Gilboa, and the victory over Amalek won by the man who will soon be king. Christ's reign will bear the same characteristics. His reign cannot be established except by judgment of the Antichrist and the apostate Jews, and by a victory rendering powerless the great enemy of God and of His Anointed and of men. Indeed, Satan will be bound for this very purpose: for the introduction of Christ's millennial reign (Rev. 19: 19-20: 3).

Scarcely is Amalek conquered than a messenger comes from Saul's camp “with his garments rent, and earth upon his head.” He bore the outward marks of sympathy, mourning, and grief, and was bringing homage to the one he presumed was king. “And as soon as he came to David, he fell to the earth and did obeisance” (2 Sam. 1: 2). Anyone but the man of God would have been influenced by these marks of deference, but simple communion with the Lord, along with the prudence of a serpent (Matt. 10: 16) in matters of relations with the world, prevent him from falling into this snare. In a similar situation we ourselves might perhaps have had difficulty in deciphering the intentions of the enemy — but let us always guard against making hasty decisions. This is what David did. “Whence comest thou?” “Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped.” “What has taken place? I pray thee, tell me.” “How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?” It is only at David's third question that the liar is unmasked. David, a spiritual man, already suspects the unlikelihood of this story: “I happened by chance to be upon mount Gilboa.” What? by chance?  - in the thick of battle? “Behold, Saul leaned on his spear; and, behold, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.” Here the Word itself convicts this man of lying. Saul had leaned upon his sword and it was not the horsemen but the archers who had threatened him (1 Sam. 31: 3-4). The remainder of his account is a bare-faced lie. Saul could not have asked the Amalekite to end his life, for the king's armorbearer did not kill himself until he had seen that Saul was dead (1 Sam. 31: 5). “So I stood over him and put him to death” (2 Sam. 1: 10).

This lying spirit emanates from that great enemy who could not understand the heart of Jesse's son. How could Satan, the wicked one, imagine that David was full of grace and love toward his enemies, that their defeat would fill his heart with unfeigned sorrow? But he was seeking above all to seduce David into receiving Saul's crown, the sign of his investiture with the kingdom, from his hand. His plot is foiled. Later, he will transport the Messiah, David's Son, to the top of a very high mountain, and there offer Him all the kingdoms of the world on condition that He render homage to him, and in this will suffer a new and supreme defeat.

When he learns of the fall of the royal family and of Israel, David immediately mourns. How touching is his attitude! “Then David took hold of his garments and rent them; and all the men that were with him did likewise. And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Jehovah, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword” (vv. 11-12). The man of God has forgotten everything: hatred, ambushes, persecutions, and the continual danger threatening his life; he remembers only one thing: that the Lord had entrusted His testimony to Saul and had anointed him, and that he had formerly led Israel to victory. He also mourns for Jonathan. And guilty as the people of God might be, he does not set himself apart from them as though he were not part of them, but weeps over their calamities.

What a solemn lesson for us! Judgment has already been pronounced and is ready to fall on Christendom which hates, despises, and often persecutes Christ's true witnesses. Do we have David's true feelings toward Christendom and her leaders? Do we mourn rather than rejoice? Are we distressed rather than condemnatory? Are our hearts afflicted at the thought that Satan is getting what he is expecting in the overthrow of that which bears Christ's name or professes to belong to Him? Such should always be the case. Tears shed over the ruin, and grace and pity toward those gone astray speak more to the hearts of the Lord's sheep who are mixed up in this state of things than do the most righteous criticisms. They also open the Lord's people's eyes to the necessity of seeking refuge with the Shepherd of Israel when the sword is already being raised for destruction.

The messenger silently witnesses this scene of affliction without understanding its meaning. He does not suspect the fate hanging over his head. Only then does David ask him his last question: “Whence art thou?” When Satan who can disguise himself as an angel of light seeks to tempt us, we must compel him to tell his origin and confess his real name. If we are with God, he will always in the end betray himself. This liar who had probably come to Gilboa only to spoil the dead had already let the name of his people slip from his mouth when he had reported Saul's supposed talk with himself. Now he cannot contradict himself. “I am the son of an Amalekite stranger” (v. 13). “How wast thou not afraid,” David says to him, “to stretch forth thy hand to destroy Jehovah's anointed?...Thy mouth has testified against thee” (vv. 14, 16). No, there can be nothing in common between David and Amalek, and David will never accept the crown from this Amalekite's hand. If indeed our hearts must be full of mercy with regard to the necessities and tribulations of God's faithless people and of those who, rejected like Saul, still bear His testimony, they must, however, be without mercy for the instruments sent by Satan to tempt us; they must without any hesitation whatsoever call evil evil and the enemy the enemy.

2 SAMUEL 1: 17-27 — THE SONG OF THE BOW

“And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan.” In this lament he expresses his grief over the disasters of Israel's leaders and their army, but this song of the bow is to be learned by the children of Judah (v. 18). It is an instruction for them. As witnesses of Israel's disaster they must know how to avoid such disaster in the future. Saul had been overcome by the archers (1 Sam. 31: 3) when he himself had been deprived of archers. Indeed, from 1 Chronicles 12: 1-7 we learn that before Saul's defeat the band of archers belonging to the tribe of Benjamin and in large part to the family of Kish had rallied around David and had joined him at Ziklag. This is why Saul “was much terrified” (1 Sam 31: 3) by the archers.

This Song of the Bow has a poignant refrain: “How are the mighty fallen!” (v. 19). “How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!” (v. 25). “How are the mighty fallen, and the instruments of war perished!” (v. 27). What did they lack? The bow which had overcome Saul!

Throughout Scripture the bow is the symbol of strength to conquer the enemy. The sword is used in hand-to-hand combat; the bow is used to attack from a distance, opposing the enemy's approach. The archer sees the enemy approaching in the distance, takes account of his movements and his plans, and levels him to the ground before he has opportunity to attack. The bow is a weapon requiring greater skill than the sword, but it is above all the symbol of strength, for it takes powerful arms and hands to draw a bow and make proper use of it.

Israel's mighty men with Saul at their head had met the bow of an enemy stronger than they. The error that led to their ruin was esteeming their own strength to be sufficient. But there is no strength without dependence, for strength is not to be found in us, but rather in Him whose strength is infallible on our behalf. The Man Jesus Christ is the example of this. He did not seek strength except in God nor would He otherwise have been the Perfect Man. Smitten by the archers (Gen. 49: 23-24), His strength did not leave Him. When His weakness appeared to succumb to the enemy's power His bow remained strong — His strength was full. This strength existed only in dependence: “The arms of His hands are supple by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Had He not already manifested God's power in His life through complete dependence on Him? All His acts were proof of this. Thus at the tomb of Lazarus He demonstrates His might by the resurrection of one who was dead and adds, “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me” (John 11: 41).

In His death, although crucified in weakness, He was nevertheless the power of God. Before the cross all the strength of man and of Satan was reduced to nothing. Through death He overcame him who had the power of death. It is especially there that His bow remained firm and that His hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.

His resurrection is the public demonstration of this power of God in whom He trusted. God declared Him to be the Son of God in power by raising Him from among the dead. He had the power to take up His life again as He also had the power to lay down His life, but even when it came to His resurrection, His soul dependently waited on the power of God: “Thou wilt not leave My soul to Sheol, neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to see corruption” (Ps. 16: 10). “From the horns of the buffaloes hast Thou answered Me” (Ps. 22: 21). “He brought Me up out of the horrible pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and set My feet upon a rock” (Ps. 40: 2). “Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6: 4). “The surpassing greatness of [God's] power...in which He wrought in the Christ in raising Him from among the dead” (Eph. 1: 19-20).

This is not all. His bow will remain firm; His strength will be full forever. When the Son of Man comes to judge the nations the bow of brass that will strike down sinners will be in His hand. There again, it is His God who will gird Him with strength, who will teach His hands to war (Ps. 18: 32, 34). In this dependence He will pierce His enemies so that they cannot rise (Ps. 18: 38). His arrows will be sharp and will strike the heart of the king's enemies (Ps. 45: 5).

Yes, His bow remains firm and the arms of His hands are made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob until He comes to sit on the throne of His power forever.

Man may have a bow, but in his hands it fails when he uses it. “The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle” (Ps. 78: 9), and as for the Lord's enemies, “the bow of the mighty is broken” (1 Sam. 2: 4; Ps. 46: 9; Jer. 49: 35; Hosea 1: 5; Hosea 2: 18).

As for ourselves, fellow Christians, our bow will remain whole on condition that we place our confidence in God who communicates His strength to us. “Go in this thy might,” the Lord says to Gideon (Judges 6: 14), and the apostle himself experienced that when he was weak, then he was strong (2 Cor. 12: 10). Nothing is weaker than a Christian who has given up Christ as his strength. We need to know how to use our bow and then, like Christ, the arms of our hands will be strong through the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob. Let us learn the song of the bow by exercising ourselves in drawing it, by aiming the arrow toward its mark. The more we use it, the stronger we will be against the enemy. The archers of Benjamin who found refuge with the son of Jesse — his faithful followers at the eleventh hour just prior to Israel's defeat — showed by this action that they did not trust in their bows, with Saul as their master, but rather trusted in the strength of the despised David. Let us do the same; let us gather around the rejected King. Let us not weep over our weakness, as though we were resourceless: this would not be faith, nor confidence in Christ. In very humble dependence let us count on His strength to make our hands firm to war for Him until the day when, the conflict ended, we shall enter His eternal rest.

David's lament is the touching expression of the affections of this man of God. A heart full of love has no room for resentment or complaints. If in the past David had wept at unjust accusations and hatred, he has now forgotten everything. There is no word of reproach against the man whose bones now lay under the tamarisk at Jabesh. But it is not enough for this noble heart to merely forget. He loves to remember. He recalls that Saul had been the Lord's anointed, the bearer of His testimony, that he had led His people to victory. He recognizes the natural gifts that had made him pleasant during his life and had attracted Israel's love to him. He sees him magnificently dressing the daughters of his people. His song expresses respect for and grief over the man who had always hated and persecuted him. His lament is Israel's lament — Israel against whom in a day of weakness he had thought to fight by joining himself to the Philistines. David now identifies himself with Israel and shares in its tears. Joy may be the portion of the daughters of the uncircumcised, but never will David share in it. Let the mountains of Gilboa, the witnesses of God's people's defeat, be accursed!

His anguish over Jonathan is unbounded. Oh! how the tender heart of the son of Jesse valued the affection of his friend! “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant wast thou unto me; thy love to me was wonderful, passing women's love” (v. 26); his was a completely selfless affection, something that affection for one of the opposite sex can only with difficulty be. Jonathan had indeed stripped himself of his dignities and glory and the bow of his strength to give them to David in the day of his victory over Goliath. Then with all the warmth of his convictions he had pleaded the cause of his friend. Lastly, his admiration for the son of Jesse had not diminished during David's time of shame and exile — he had visited him then, although it is true he had lacked the courage to follow him. David says nothing about this last point. He covers the memory of his friend with inexpressible tenderness. He does not speak of his own love for him, but gives proof of it by exalting Jonathan's love.

Oh, how these words all bear the odor and fragrance of the heart of Christ! Only David had to be molded through discipline to produce such outpourings; Christ's heart had no such need. His entire life was only love and grace. “I have called you friends,” He says to those who were at the point of either denying Him or of fleeing and leaving Him alone. “Ye are they who have persevered with Me in my temptations,” He says in Luke 22: 28 to those who shortly afterward could not even watch one hour with Him! Let us follow the example of this perfect Model!

2 SAMUEL 2-4

THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED OVER JUDAH

2 SAMUEL 2 — HEBRON

While voicing a lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, David's purpose, as we have seen, was to teach the sons of Judah to use the bow. We have noted that for the believer the bow signifies God's strength which is manifested only in dependence. At the beginning of 2 Samuel 2 David's behavior illustrates this truth. The days of his affliction are past; a new era is beginning; the path to the throne is opening up before him; he is about to take the place that God had long before purposed for him. The first thing David now does is to consult the Lord, to show that he depends completely on Him. We could say that above all else, dependence is the characteristic feature of his career. Whether it be in the pastures of the sheep, grappling with the lion and the bear, confronting Goliath, in the wilderness of Judah, at Keilah, or at Ziklag (1 Sam. 30: 6-7), David is a dependent man and consequently a strong man. Nothing is more pleasing to God than this. Our walk's uncertainties and vacillations are explained by our lack of dependence. Where this dependence exists we will ever be asking ourselves that most important question: “What is God's will? What work has He prepared for us? We will inquire of Him to know the answer, for we consult Him when we depend on Him. Thus our path will be simple and blessed because it will be God's path. The path will not be a complicated one unless we fail to turn to God before making a decision.

Nevertheless, there were occasions in David's life when he forgot to consult the Lord. Often the enemy attacks us at points where we consider ourselves invulnerable. We can say that David's history, a model of dependence, shows us independence and its dangers and consequences more than the history of any other life. Twice we have seen David going down to the court of the king of the Philistines on his own initiative. The first time he reaped only disdain and humiliation; the second time, governed by fear and thinking to save his life, he forsook the blessed experiences of the wilderness of Judah, lost his character as a witness, and ran the danger of allying himself with the uncircumcised in a project of fighting against God's people. Under discipline, he learned again to consult the Lord and recovered everything that he had forfeited through his lack of faith.2 In 2 Samuel 6 we shall see that lack of faith was the cause of the “breach upon Uzzah.” All these incidents are sources of practical instruction for our souls.

“David enquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah? And Jehovah said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And He said, Unto Hebron” (2 Sam. 2: 1). It is God who chooses the special place where His anointed is to go. David left to himself might perhaps have hesitated to choose from among many places, but God designates one place alone for His servant: that place was Hebron.

In the book of Joshua3 we have noted the significance of Hebron: a burial place, a place of death, the end of man, a striking picture of what the cross of Christ is for us. According to God's mind, it was necessary that David go up to Hebron, for Hebron was the point at which his reign, typically speaking, must begin, David's reign being but a type of Christ's reign which is based on the cross. Christ's kingdom is the consequence and the reward of His cross. The elders gathered around the throne sing a new song: “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because Thou hast been slain” (Rev. 5: 9). He will usher in all the governmental ways of God, ways that lead Him to His millennial throne, because He has suffered and shed His precious blood — eternal wonder! In heaven we see in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb slain who is the center of all. He is not on the throne, but in the midst of the throne (Rev. 5: 6). All God's counsels written within the book and all God's ways written on its backside issue forth from Him, its center, and head up in Him. He rises; these ways open up; the four living creatures, these attributes of the divine judgments, begin to move; the kingly rights of the Lion of Judah are established; and God's counsels are accomplished forever. The “it is done” of eternity has its starting point at the shameful gibbet where the Son of Man suffered, where the world nailed the Son of God!

But Hebron is also the gathering center of those whom David loves. There his companions dwell around him. “His men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household; and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron” (v. 3). There where David resides, his own have many dwellingplaces. Thus the Lamb that was slain, the King of eternity, will be “in the midst of the elders” who are types of all the glorified saints. While we are awaiting this glorious moment His cross is that which gathers us around Himself. It remains and will always remain the gathering center of the children of God.

Hebron also becomes the gathering center of all the tribes of Israel (2 Sam. 5: 1). When God's earthly people recognize Him whom they have pierced and submit themselves to Him, they will be the primary object of the blessings of His reign. Still another event seems to be indicated in these verses. “David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite” (v. 2). The man of sorrows, the rejected king, not only has companions and a people at Hebron, but also his wife and bride. Abigail, like Rebecca, is one of the rare types in the Old Testament who prefigures the Church; she is the Bride, David's voluntary, humble, joyful associate during the days of his rejection. Ahinoam, who is more in the background, represents rather, as I see it, the remnant of Israel who have entered into relationship with the Messiah before the establishment of His reign.4 However it may be, at Hebron David has ties more intimate than merely his relationships with his people. Thus at the end of Revelation we see the Bride of the Lamb associated with Him in all His glory, and in the prophets Jerusalem is recognized as the beloved of the Lord. Thus by His death Christ becomes the center of blessing for all.

“The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah” (v. 4). Just as with David's reign, so the reign of Christ will not be established in this world by a sudden dramatic stroke. His judgment will be sudden, but not His reign. That would not be according to the mind of God who desires to give the consciences of those who are His own time to be exercised. Christ must have a willing people in the day of His power (Ps. 110:3) — not a people like those of the nations who, except for the great multitude of those saved from among the Gentiles, will only approach the king with flattering, lying words of apparent submission. Here David is first recognized by those who had been his companions during his rejection, and next Judah gathers around him. Then (2 Sam. 5: 1) the other tribes come after they have lost the support of the flesh, pictured by the person of Ish-bosheth. Lastly (2 Sam. 5: 11) the nations approach, charmed by the king's grace and delighted to serve him.

The continuation of this chapter offers important events, part of which we will return to in the following chapter. First, according to the spirit of grace that characterizes him, David praises the men of Jabesh-gilead because they had showed kindness toward Saul and had buried him. He tells them that Judah has anointed him as king, and thus this news penetrates to the far  borders of Israel's territory.

Next we find Abner, captain of Saul's army, who is unwilling to submit to David. Abner is an honorable man according to the world's standards, very valiant, with natural nobility of heart, but he has a violent and proud character. In supporting Ish-bosheth he is supporting the principle of succession by fleshly ties, clothed with the appearance of right, for Saul had been chosen by God. Men defend this principle to the extreme, for it is the principle of their fathers' religion, national religion, which is much more respectable in man's sight than the opinion of some who make themselves conspicuous by following the son of Jesse. An entire political system is linked with this religious system. It must be good since God has put His seal on it in a far past and thus respectable period. Abner uses his natural energy to defend it. What objection is there? Only that this entire system is opposed to the mind of God and makes war against His anointed. Men fight for their own cause and, like Saul of Tarsus at a later date, they find themselves enemies of Him to whom God has given supremacy.

It is worth noting that David does not appear in this conflict and plays no role in it, even when it appears that it concerns him. One of his attendants, Joab, accompanied by his brothers, leads the king's servants. In 1 Chronicles 2: 16 we see that they were David's nephews, his sister Zeruiah's sons. Accordingly, they held a high position and were closely related to the royal house. Joab, an ambitious man, seeks to advance in the world and to win the first place in the kingdom. Though he is not named — with just cause — among “David's mighty men,” he is a man of courage. He can appreciate righteousness and unrighteousness, but he does not oppose unrighteousness except when it runs counter to his personal designs; and when something righteous runs contrary to his interests he suppresses it. Nothing stops him; he has no scruples in satisfying his ambition. Someone has said of him: “We find Joab wherever there is evil to do or much to gain.” Joab is a figure of political flesh. It is to his advantage to support David's cause. If we compare Abner with Joab, Abner is the better man. Nevertheless Joab comes on the scene as a champion of the testimony. On this man the weight of military and other matters will soon be resting; he is the man who will direct things in an under-handed way and who will set many an intrigue in motion. In the presence of such cleverness David himself feels weak (2 Sam. 3: 39). The moment the flesh takes over the testimony, see the result: ruin, nothing but ruin. One man is fighting for David, and the other for one whom God no longer recognizes. Is one better than the other? When the flesh is supporting David — or Christ — the results are no better than when the flesh is supporting the Antichrist.

The two troops meet (vv. 12-17). For what purpose? To test their strength. Where is God? Absent. Where is David? His name is not even mentioned. It is a matter of who will come out on top in this tourney. Not a single one of the contending parties escapes. David loses his servants and his cause is not advanced in the least.

The sequel of this singular contest is an ordered battle in which Joab loses a cherished brother toward whom Abner had shown his natural nobility of character. But Asahel would not take heed; he charges forward, filled with presumption and, victim to his own desire for glory, falls to the ground, struck down by Abner's spear. Joab will not forget this death but will satisfy his desire for vengeance then when this will bring him the greatest advantage.

Alas! what is the result of all these struggles? We find nothing of God and nothing for God in them. Even the world in appearance contends under Christ's banner. The soul of the faithful has no other resource but to seek refuge at Hebron with the one who is the only center of blessing and whose presence gives peace, happiness, and wonderful rest. But when our David rises to do battle let us follow Him bravely, for to fight with Him is to win a sure and enduring victory over the enemy.

2 SAMUEL 3 — ABNER

At the beginning of 2 Samuel 2 we have seen David's blessed dependence at the moment when he was named king of Judah. The gradual establishment of his kingdom has turned our thoughts to the future when Christ's reign will be established in power. But 2 Samuel 2 also mentions a fact not yet alluded to and worth noting. The kingdom has barely been established when the tone of the account changes, turning our attention to sad, humiliating circumstances.

This is because David is not only a type of Christ but also — we will see this many times as the book continues — the representative of a kingdom entrusted to the hands of man and responsible to maintain it. As king, David possesses power (but not yet all power) on behalf of God. He is free to use this power for good as he sees fit; he is free to humble or exalt the men who surround him at his pleasure and to engage them for his purposes; lastly, he is free to issue ordinances and decrees for the good of his people and for the glory of his God. But, alas! this formidable responsibility and this almost unlimited power have been entrusted to a mere man. Indeed, originally royalty was not restricted, as in our days, by all sorts of laws, nor was it more or less under the control of the will of the people. The king, according to the Word, was responsible only to God. He answered for the behavior of the people, and if the people fell into error the king had to bear the consequent judgment. We shall see what becomes of this authority in David's hands.

2 Samuel 2 (vv. 8-32) already shows us the beginning of this history. David is surrounded by his relatives, valiant men who aspire to have the first place among the captains. The sons of Zeruiah might claim this rank according to the flesh, but according to God they had no greater claim to it than did the others: to the contrary. Abishai did not attain to the “first three”; Asahel was among “the thirty” (2 Sam. 23). Joab, as we have seen, is not even named among the mighty men. But courageous and clever as he was, as well as ambitious, deceitful, cruel, and a man of blood whenever he met an obstacle to the realization of his plans, and being very shrewd in playing on the king's spirit by flattering his weaknesses (2 Sam. 14), this man managed to direct matters, at least in appearance, according to his own will.

Throughout the entire second portion of 2 Samuel 2 the king disappears before these men. The men surrounding him become restless, make decisions, and fight against the enemy from the house of Saul without even dreaming of consulting the one who alone had the right to take any initiative. Sad accompaniment of power! In the days of his tribulations David, so to speak, breathed his own character into his companions, or on the other hand in face of their rebellion he sought refuge with the Lord and inquired of Him (1 Sam. 30: 6-8). Here, while responsible for the authority which he has, he lets it slip out of his control, and his companions who make it appear that they are using this authority for his cause in reality use it to compromise the character of the Lord and of His anointed. The designs of those who surround the throne create multiple difficulties for the king throughout his entire reign, and he confesses that he is too weak to direct their way of thinking and repress their acts.

2 Samuel 3 continues this same history. In presence of such difficulties David's only safeguard was to live in dependence on the Lord. Discipline will cause him to find this dependence once again. But here the Spirit of God wants to teach us that the believer who has received a position of authority from God soon loses the awareness of his dependence because of the flesh which dwells in him. As he exercises power he begins to have confidence in himself without realizing his need for the Lord's help, as he had back in the time when he wandered like a partridge hunted on the mountains. Before the crown was on his head except on rare occasions he would inquire of God, not taking a single step without Him; but from the moment he receives the crown he forgets his safeguard. He will again find this a little later after he has made bitter experiences, for we must remember that in David  - and this is one of the leading features of his character — discipline always bears admirable fruit. This continues to the very last moments of his life and to his very last words.

We too need to be disciplined in order to learn dependence. If we allow our will, which is nothing other than independence, to be active, the Lord must break us so that He may bring us back under His blessed yoke which is so light and easy to bear.

The first five verses of our chapter offer a striking example of what we have just said. David takes several wives at Hebron besides Ahinoam and Abigail, his companions in his wanderings. Had he inquired of the Lord before doing so, what would the Lord have replied? Read my Word! Dependence on God and dependence on His Word are one and the same thing. David had the books of the law in hand, and he needed only to meditate on them in order to see his path. Does it not say in Deuteronomy 17: 17 concerning the king: “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away”? He might have all sorts of good reasons according to man's mind for doing as he did: to secure a royal posterity and so on, but this was not according to God. To be convinced of this we need only trace the descendants of his wives. Had David had only godly Abigail as his companion, would he have seen an Amnon bring shame and dishonor upon his house, an Absalom rebel against his own father, or an Adonijah try to seize control of the kingdom and ask for the Shunammite to be his wife?

Not content with these marriages, this man of God who can do as he will — how dangerous this liberty is — demands from Ishbosheth his wife Michal (2 Sam. 3: 13-16), become an adulteress by taking another husband — Michal, Saul's daughter, who after having loved David in times past with a love according to the fleshly nature, will later show her disdain for the seed of God whose piety and devotion to the Lord's interests she could not understand (2 Sam. 6: 20-23). David takes this adulterous woman from her home, instead of leaving her to her new husband. Thus he breaks the heart of this man, an honest man after all, deeply devoted to his companion, and who follows her weeping without dreaming of rebelling against the established authority.

Such, alas, is this pious king as he makes use of the still limited but soon to be unlimited authority which God is placing in his hands.

We need not be surprised that Abner knowingly and willingly resists the Lord by supporting Ishbosheth. Abner knows that David is the Lord's anointed: “So do God to Abner, and more also, if, as Jehovah has sworn to David, I do not so to him!” (v. 9), and later (v. 18): “Jehovah has spoken of David, saying, By My servant David will I save My people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.” Abner is aware that he is not on God's side, but not having the Lord as the object of his plans and activity he hardly cares about such a contradiction between his opinions and his conduct. Abner only pretends to defend a politico-religious system of succession. It is an honor to be able to say that one is among the direct descendants of that which God had established. And if God has replaced Saul's kingdom and the forms of a lifeless religion with David's kingdom and with the religious resources which He gives His people in the midst of ruin, what does that matter to Abner? Despite all this he is determined to support the house of Saul. Ishbosheth relies on him, but let him beware of offending this firm supporter of his throne. When he wants to oppose Abner's corruption, Abner with his wounded pride will abandon his master and turn to David. “Am I a dog's head?” he asks, and openly announces his plans to Ishbosheth. He carries them out in broad daylight with all the openness of his character, and that poor king with no strength to reply can only tremble before his threats. But in all this we see divine providence which, hidden beneath men's passions and even working through them, is preparing the path of His anointed.

We watch these events without expecting anything for God on part of those who like Abner do not belong to Him. But what are we to think of David? Why doesn't he consult the Lord when this covenant is proposed to him? He had refused the crown from the hand of the Amalekite; he will refuse it from the hand of Ishbosheth's murderers; but will he accept it from Abner's hand? Yes, because he feels free to do so, because he has all sorts of reasons to act thus for the good of his kingdom. This covenant will smooth out difficulties; war has lasted long enough.... All this is very reasonable according to man, but it is not according to the mind of God.

Abner speaks to the eleven tribes, succeeds in convincing them — even the tribe of Benjamin, allied to Saul — and then comes to give David an account of his proceedings. “And Abner said to David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with thee, and that thou mayest reign over all that thy heart desires” (v. 21). But God is opposed to this; He does not wish David to receive the kingdom from any hand other than His own. No one is to boast of having established the Lord's anointed on the throne. And what is more, how could He permit the pride of man's heart to carve out the steps by which David rises to power? Abner is assassinated. God is able to turn man's very worst iniquities to fulfill His designs. He uses Joab's infamous act to cut off the man in whom David had already placed his confidence.

Joab commits murder in a time of peace and thus avenges himself for Asahel's death, even though Abner had “slain [him] in the battle” (v. 30), proof that there was nothing reprehensible in Abner's act (cf. 2 Sam. 2: 20-23). This is the personal motive behind this terrible act, but anyone knowing Joab and his ambition to become captain of the host suspects another motive. Joab fears Abner's worth and authority which at that time had been demonstrated much more than his own merits. If Abner should succeed in concluding an alliance, wouldn't he have the first place? Joab has everything to gain through his vengeance.

So Abner is not to restore the kingdom. Joab would be still less the one to restore it, for without divine intervention the murder he committed would have triggered a longer, more pitiless war than the one which had just come to an end.

What gains the heart of Israel is the king's indignation against this evil, his distress about a crime which had dishonored the character of the Lord and of His anointed. David's humiliation, his fasting, his public mourning in the presence of all the people — this is what wins over Israel. “And all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death” (v. 37).

Ah, how David recovers the precious features of his character in the midst of these difficult circumstances! Repudiating any solidarity with this evil, he proves that, “in every way [he was] pure in the matter” (2 Cor. 7: 11). He invokes God's judgment on Joab: “Let [the blood of Abner the son of Ner] fall on the head of Joab, and on all his father's house; and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that has an issue, or that is a leper, or that leans on a staff, or that falls by the sword, or that lacks bread!” (v. 29). And again: “Jehovah reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness!” (v. 39). Later this judgment of God pronounced by David is executed (1 Kings 2: 31-34).

When it comes to Abner, David the king again finds those accents of grace which David rejected had used with regard to Saul. He laments over Abner: “Should Abner die as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters; as a man falleth before wicked men, fellest thou” (vv. 33-34). He proclaims that “a prince and a great man” had fallen that day in Israel” (v. 38).

Alas, even with power in his hands what could he have done against these “wicked men?” God alone could have worked for good. The sons of Zeruiah were too hard for David (v. 39). He himself recognized his weakness as it became manifest at that time. How we can empathize with David when he says: “I am this day weak, though anointed king!” (v. 39). That which is taking place touches his heart as a serious form of discipline. Yes, you were weak indeed, beloved servant of the Lord, despite your anointing, but do not fear; God will be your strength and your safeguard in weakness, and your feet will be kept from falling if you seek your strength in communion with Him. Such is the case for us too. Two inseparable things are our safeguard: the realization of our weakness, joined with dependence on God and His Word. In this chapter David began by using his power and, acting on his own initiative, he did not consult the Lord. The events overwhelming him lead him to become aware of his incapability, but now once again he will be swift to learn the dependence which he had so quickly forgotten.

In the midst of all these events, Ishbosheth loses his kingdom. He was completely dependent on Abner who had assured him of victory and had maintained him on the throne. Once this man is removed, Ishbosheth has nothing left. When he tries to oppose Abner's lack of respect to his father's memory, he is abandoned by this man who had supported him. This too is what is destroying the whole strength of professing Christendom, which attempts more or less to establish itself on human religious succession. For its survival Christendom has associated itself with the governments and powers of a world at enmity against Christ, and so it has become their slave and is powerless to oppose their disorder or to reprove them. I am here speaking not so much of Roman Catholicism, which like the great whore pretends to “sit on the beast” and govern it (Rev. 17), as of the Reformation which soon degenerated by abandoning the principle of faith and seeking its support from this world's great men. The necessary consequence of this was ruin. Let us be content to separate ourselves from all man's intervention in religious things, and may we say like David, realizing our incapability to rectify evil: “These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me.”

2 SAMUEL 4 — ISHBOSHETH

This chapter is the last one that records the preludes to David's reign. Satan, the seducer, is not discouraged in his evil work against the Lord's anointed and, driven back the first time, does not fear to attack again. In 2 Samuel 1 he had offered the crown to David through an Amalekite. According to man's thoughts it would have been quite natural to accept it, but David cannot accept any gift whatsoever from the hand of an enemy. His faith triumphs. He punishes him who “was in his own sight a messenger of good.” “I took hold of him,” David says, “and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings” (2 Sam. 4: 10 KJV). Thwarted thus, the enemy is not afraid to take the offensive again. Meanwhile David had received the rule over Judah from the hand of God (2 Sam. 2). But with regard to the rule over Israel (2 Sam. 3) he had been tempted by Abner's propositions, proffered insidiously so that the king was less prepared to resist them. We have seen God intervening and delivering him, using Joab's iniquity to this end. Thus the covenant with the eleven tribes, the fruit of man's planning, is brought to nothing. Not from this quarter is David to obtain the crown.

Nevertheless danger is not averted, for the great seducer does not weary. Two wicked and criminal men assassinate Saul's son, whom David himself calls “a righteous person” (v. 11).5 Baanah and Rechab bring Ishbosheth's head to the king and by their crime open the way for him to reign over all Israel: “Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, thine enemy who sought thy life; and Jehovah has given to my lord the king to be avenged this day of Saul and of his seed” (v. 8). Instead of accepting their offer David, holy in his ways, judges the evil, hates it, and separates himself from it.

The arm of flesh was indispensable to Ishbosheth. When Abner was murdered “his hands were enfeebled, and all Israel was troubled” (v. 1), for the son of Saul had “a great man” to support his throne, and everything collapsed when this support failed him. Such was not the case with David. Experience had led him to know the value of man and the value of God. This experience, it is true, is often repeated in a believer's life. When every natural support fails, even that given by God Himself, we are found in most absolute weakness. This is a lesson we must learn, for as Christians we often place our confidence in foundations that can be shaken. Then our faith is put to the test, and it becomes a matter of knowing whether God is a sufficient resource for us.

Thus we experience what is mentioned in Psalm 30: 6: “As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.” David was a man of faith who had learned many things during the trials of the First Book of Samuel. But when he wrote the thirtieth Psalm as the “dedication-song of the house,” all the experiences of this First Book were already past. “Jehovah, by Thy favor Thou hadst made my mountain to stand strong” (v. 7). This is not Mount Zion, the mountain of God, which cannot be shaken, but here he is speaking of himself and the human resources that are his from God. If these resources fail us, what will our state of soul be? Will our hands be feeble like those of Ishbosheth, or will we enjoy settled peace and firm assurance? Alas! how often we must reply: “Thou didst hide Thy face; I was troubled” (v. 7).

Whatever our difficulties may be, we must watch that they do not influence our state of soul. If faith is active, we will refuse to seek help in external circumstances. Thus David says in Psalm 11: 1: “In Jehovah have I put my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?” When we go through trials the world tells us: Seek your help in the mountain; use the resources which you have laid up for yourself in this world. Faith answers with David: No, for there is no foundation here on earth which will not be destroyed, but “Jehovah is in the temple of His holiness; Jehovah — His throne is in the heavens” (Ps. 11: 4); that is where I take refuge.

At Ziklag David in anguish “strengthened himself in Jehovah his God” (1 Sam. 30: 6). Ishbosheth did not know this resource. In those happy days when God's favor gives stability and strength to our mountain we must carefully and daily seek the true source of our strength. Then if difficulties arise we will not be like fearful little birds carried about, one knows not where, by the stormy wind; but we will know how to seek our refuge in an evil day in the One who gathers His chicks under His wings, in whose shadow we will rejoice! (Ps. 63: 7).

By murdering Ishbosheth Rechab and Baanah blaze a path for David to the throne. We are faced with the question whether he had the right to take advantage of the situation. A more exercised spiritual sensibility would have caused him to refuse the covenant that Abner had proposed to him in the preceding chapter. Here he understands that not only can he not make use of the human assistance which is being offered to him, but that he must also refuse it as being offered by Satan. This is what we must do too when the world offers to help us.

This history shows us that God uses everything to accomplish His designs of grace toward David: Abner, Joab, Rechab and Baanah. He disapproves of them, certainly, but His providence causes even evil itself to contribute to the furtherance of His ways. Evil will be judged, but it will have served to advance God's counsels. Is not the cross the supreme proof of the way He works?

And now, if God uses these means do I have the right to use them? In no way, for God is sovereign and I am not. He may make use of evil, even of Satan himself, as He will; I am a creature, dependent upon Him, and I must obey. Obedience causes me to walk in the path that God's Word reveals to me, a path of holiness separating me from evil and from the world. When the world offers me its services I refuse them, for I have to do with God. “As Jehovah liveth, who has redeemed my soul out of all distress...” (v. 9). Such is the One in whom I trust. I will receive nothing from the world because I depend on the Lord.

At a time of revival not long ago (a revival spoiled from its very beginning by unscriptural doctrines which are still bearing their sad fruit today, but a revival in which God nevertheless worked in converting souls) someone asked a certain servant of God, Why do you not associate yourself in this activity? Isn't it evident that God is at work here through His Spirit? The servant answered in these words which, no doubt, were not understood: “The Spirit blows where He will, but I must obey.” This answer illustrates what we have just said. God is sovereign; He alone may use evil, but I have no option but to withdraw from evil.

This mixing of good and evil is like a stream flowing with polluted water. Shall I drink of this water that may poison me? I cannot, but this stream is absorbed by the river into which it flows. The river is a great waterway receiving water from the muddiest of streams and bearing them to the sea. So it is with the ways of God; His ways make use of the most unlikely elements to feed the vast sea of His counsels. The sea engulfs and deposits in its depths — in other words, judges — every impure element so that nothing but pure water rises from the sea to the sky to which the sun draws it. This is the work of the sea and the sun and not our work.

But David might have reasoned like this: By allowing this murder, God providentially is giving the throne to me; I am therefore free to accept the throne at the hands of these murderers. He would have been deceived, for even God's providence may place us in circumstances where our faith is put to the test in order that we may refuse to accept the things set before us. We have an example of this in Moses at Pharaoh's court. Providence had not led him here so that he might accept this position and enjoy “the pleasures of sin for a season,” but that when the moment was come he might separate himself from it by faith. Thus his faith was exercised and, confronted with the alternative of adoption by Pharaoh's daughter on the one hand or suffering affliction with the people of God on the other, he did not hesitate to choose the latter.

Likewise here to David the circumstances seem to open the way to the throne that God wanted to give him. With indignation David refuses any complicity with evil and orders the execution of the guilty men. These lessons are very important for us, for we are continually faced with the same principles. If God puts us in an easy position here on earth it is not His purpose to establish us in it. Rather He wants our faith to learn to break these bonds and, freed from hindrances, joyfully leave them to walk before the Lord. May we then know when evil is presented to us in any form whatsoever, to judge it like David did, and openly refuse it and have no fellowship with it.

David's act at the end of this chapter thus was according to God's mind. “David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron” (v. 12). David, having authority, was responsible to exercise it in holiness and righteousness in order that this terrible chastisement would serve as an example.

This chapter offers us still another instruction that is useful and should not be omitted, for despite his personal experiences David remains a type of Christ until 2 Samuel 11. The event I am speaking of here is that before obtaining kingly rights over all the tribes David is misunderstood by all: no one appreciates his motives.

Beeroth was a city of the Gibeonites with whom the people of Israel had once made a covenant (Joshua 9). Beeroth was considered a part of Benjamin (2 Sam. 4: 2), the tribe of Saul, David's ardent enemy. “The Beerothites had fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day” (v. 3). The cause of their flight is not definitely stated, but this event is presented in relation to Baanah and Rechab, the sons of a Beerothite. We may conclude the account of their flight to be anticipatory, and that it did not actually take place until after the judgment which David pronounced on these murderers. At that time all the Beerothites seem to have become frightened and fled to Gittaim.

This is because these men did not know David. They supposed that the king entertained a desire for vengeance and would seek to satisfy it by holding them jointly liable for the murder committed by two of Beeroth's citizens. If they had known David they would rather have sought refuge with him by entrusting themselves to his grace. Theirs is the attitude of the world toward the Lord Jesus. Being unable to trust in a heart which they do not know and fearing His judgment, the world prefers to flee rather than to enter into contact with Him. In the parable of the talents the servant who hid his talent in the earth likewise misjudged this master so full of grace. When called into His presence to give account of his stewardship, he said to him, “My lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man” (Matt. 25: 24).

In verse 4 an event following Saul's death takes us yet further back into the past. Mephibosheth's nurse had fled, carrying this five-year-old child in her arms. This story is the same as that of the Beerothites: the very same misapprehension of the son of Jesse, the very same feelings so natural to man's heart. David, learning of the death of Saul and Jonathan, had mourned and lamented over them, but it does not enter this poor woman's mind that he might not execute vengeance on his friend's son. She flees rather than running to the one who had sworn to Jonathan and even to Saul that he would not wipe out their descendants. She does not trust in David's love and sure word any more than sinners trust in the grace and word of Christ. The result was that Mephibosheth “fell, and became lame.” David finds him later, afflicted and lame as a consequence of the lack of faith of this woman who had not taken advantage of the favorable moment to entrust her burden to the hands of Jonathan's friend.

Rechab and Baanah are also ignorant of David's character, of this man whose heart rejects evil. They run headlong to their ruin because they did not properly know the holiness of the Lord's anointed. They think that they can approach him in their sin without David abhorring it, and without him thrusting aside these hands defiled by the blood of a righteous man.

In fact, only His own can know the true David and can approach Him in all confidence, being assured that His mercy endures forever and His promises are sure.

Thy words, always faithful,

Lord, will never pass away,

And our soul which believes them

Henceforth has nothing to fear!

2 SAMUEL 5-24

THE KINGDOM OVER ISRAEL

2 SAMUEL 5-10

DAVID BEFORE HIS FALL

2 SAMUEL 5: 1-10 — THE STRONGHOLD OF ZION

Moved by a spirit of vengeance against Ishbosheth, Abner had commended David to the eleven tribes: “Jehovah has spoken of David, saying, By My servant David will I save My people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies” (2 Sam. 3: 18). In one sense Abner was a messenger of the Lord to bring the hearts of the people back to His anointed; but there was a great gulf between his functions and his moral condition. We can find instruction for ourselves here. God may act through a man who proclaims truths that are according to God although in heart he has no relationship to God Himself. It was becoming for Israel to listen to Abner's words, but it was not becoming that they should be attached to his person. When we listen to those who present the Word of God we must be careful to distinguish between the person and the message he announces, and we must not attribute to the person an importance which belongs to the Scriptures alone. How happy it is if we see that the conduct of the one speaking is consistent with his doctrine and inseparable from it! Such was the case of Timothy with respect to the apostle Paul; he could know and follow both his doctrine and his conduct (2 Tim. 3: 10) because both were in such close accord in the great apostle to the Gentiles. It is well to insist on this point: gift is distinct from moral condition. When a man has a gift he must judge himself before God continually, so that his moral state may be consistent with the gift entrusted to him. If on the one hand there is great danger for listeners to follow a man because of his gift, on the other hand there is an equal danger that the one who speaks may act without having his heart and walk consistent with the truths which he presents.

Indeed, Abner's words had no real effect on the people because the Spirit of God was not at work in their hearts. In no way did they change their behavior until Ishbosheth had been removed from the scene and only then, when their prop had been taken away from them, did “all the tribes of Israel [come] to David to Hebron” (v. 1).

What is remarkable about the state of these tribes is that they knew and had always known what God thought of David. The people say: “Even aforetime, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel; and Jehovah said to thee, Thou shalt feed My people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel” (v. 2). They knew this perfectly well, but this knowledge had had no effect on their consciences. The same phenomenon occurs today among Christians. God's Word is familiar to them; they know God's thoughts concerning His Son and His Church, but these truths have no practical effect on them. These truths have not sunk into their consciences. This is where we must look for the main reason for the divisions existing among God's children. One follows one group, another follows another; one accepts this doctrine, another an opposite doctrine; one boasts in a certain man, another in another man. Such differences are not due so much to the state of their understanding as to the state of their consciences, and the fact that they do not feel it necessary to walk according to the truth they know.

The first three verses of our chapter show us that Israel lacked one more thing. They had had no affection for David; their affection had been for Ishbosheth. When the heart is turned to the world it cannot be turned to the man according to God. How can one possibly unite Christians around Christ when their thoughts are taken up with earthly things and their hearts are unreached by the Lord's grace and beauty? His person has little value for a divided heart; that heart does not seek after Him. But if consciences are reached, soon hearts will be reached also: “Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh” (v. 1). Now these Israelites proclaim their relationship to David; they had been well aware of this relationship, but they had failed to recognize it as a fact that should govern all else. Then all at once they remember what God had said concerning His beloved. When the Spirit begins to work in souls the conscience speaks up, the heart turns to Christ, and one is led to acknowledge His sovereignty and His rights. “They anointed David king over Israel” (v. 3). “David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Jehovah” and by this pact recognized Israel as being his people from that time forth.

This chapter inaugurates the second period of David's reign. From this time onward he is king over all Israel at Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit underscores this distinction in verse 5: “In Hebron [David] reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.”

So it will be for Christ: this book considered in the light of prophecy is of particular interest as a history typifying the establishment of Christ's reign. In the Second Book of Samuel, let us repeat, it is not a question of the kingdom being established (such will not be the case until Solomon), but rather it is a question of founding the kingdom in the person of David, which is quite another thing. Therefore we find here God's ways in founding David's throne, gathering the twelve tribes around him, and bringing the nations into submission to him by subjugating his enemies.

Now that David has been recognized as king by all Israel, we see a series of events taking place in relation to this proclamation.

The first of these events is of prime importance (vv. 6-9). Often facts of immense bearing are treated by the Word in a very few verses. We cannot measure the value that God sets on an event by the length of the account about it. Sometimes a short parenthesis contains a vast amount of most profound truths, for example: the parenthesis in the first chapter of Ephesians which unfolds the counsels of God concerning Christ and the Church (Eph. 1: 20-23). Likewise the first three verses of Revelation 21 introduce us into all the glories of eternity. And again, Psalm 23 in six verses gives us the entire life, conduct, and experiences of the believer on earth from the cross to his introduction into the house of the Lord. We could vastly multiply these examples. We find one such example in the passage before us now. It concerns the capture of Jerusalem. This is the beginning of an entirely new manner in which God now acts: it is the establishment of His grace in the person of the king — power united with grace in order to accomplish God's intentions when on man's side everything has failed.

The Book of Judges and the First Book of Samuel (not to mention the books of Moses) have already presented this latter truth: the complete ruin in man's hands of all that God had entrusted to his responsibility. Israel placed under the law was ruined as a people; the judges were ruined, the priesthood was ruined, and the kingdom according to the flesh was ruined; all this was now irrevocably ended. Faced with all this ruin, “What hath God wrought?” (Num. 23: 23). Once the end of the people's history under law has been manifested, His grace is manifested. Grace would not be grace if it did not concern itself with fallen creatures. Its fullness bursts forth when the people's history in responsibility has ended in irremediable ruin. God chooses the moment when the king according to His own heart is proclaimed to take possession of Jerusalem and give it to David.

What reason did God have to interest Himself in this place more than in another? There was no reason whatsoever except that He loved this city which had been under the power of the Jebusites, the enemies of Jehovah and of His anointed. His heart was attached to this place, for this is where He desired to definitively establish the throne of His grace on earth. “Jehovah hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His dwelling: this is My rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it” (Ps. 132: 13-14). “His foundation is in the mountains of holiness. Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob” (Ps. 87: 1-2).

This is what God says of Zion: He loved it. When His eyes looked out over the earth they rested on this special place in view of making it His dwelling place. “Why do ye look with envy, ye many-peaked mountains, upon the mount that God hath desired for His abode? Yea, Jehovah will dwell there for ever” (Ps. 68: 16). This is therefore the place which God chose, the place of His good pleasure, because this is where He in grace introduces and establishes His king. Is it not also the place where the Son of David would lay the foundation of eternal salvation? Jesus, the Root of David, is the King of grace when all is ruined, just as Jesus, the Offspring of David, the true Solomon, will be the king of glory.

Mount Zion offers the most complete contrast to Mount Sinai. In Hebrews 12: 22 the apostle tells the Jews who had been delivered from the law and become Christians: “Ye have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.” This is an absolute change in God's ways concerning Israel. 2 Samuel 5: 6-9 indicates to us the moment in history when this change took place, when God chose a new mountain in contrast to Sinai in order to establish the stronghold of David there forever. In actual fact, this transfer could not be realized for Israel at that time on account of the unfaithfulness of the king in responsibility, and the people must wait for the establishment of Christ's reign in order to be introduced into the blessings of this new covenant. For us Christians this transfer has already taken place. “Ye have come to mount Zion,” says the apostle. None of the requirements, none of the terrors of Sinai exist any more for those who believe. While yet here on earth we have found the mountain of grace in that place where the cross of Christ was set up. We have set our foot on this sure foundation, the first rung for ascending up into all the heavenly blessings, from “the city of the living God” to “the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.” All these things belong to us now; soon we will possess them in glory.

The various passages of this chapter correspond to other passages in First Chronicles, which sometimes gives us additional details concerning these events. The capture of Jerusalem is related in 1 Chronicles 11: 4-9. In our present chapter the Jebusites say to David: “Thou shalt not come in hither, but the blind and the lame will drive thee back” (v. 6). They were so sure of their walls and of their impregnable stronghold that they did not judge it necessary to use sound, healthy men to repel the king's attack; even these disabled people would be well sufficient for this task, they thought. “But David took the stronghold of Zion” (v. 7). Not another word about it; the project succeeded as simply as if it had cost nothing. In effect, this victory costs God nothing. This is how He will fight all man's enmity against Himself and against His Anointed. What divine irony! “Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us!” God answers: “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision!” (Ps. 2: 3-4).

David is indignant at these outrageous words of the Jebusites and his indignation is according to God. When we see the world occupying God's domain while yet the enemy of Christ, our hearts moved by the Holy Spirit may well be filled with indignation. We can ardently desire that the Lord might at last have the place that is His by rights, that He be no longer scoffed at by the world which has rejected Him, and that His reign may be established on earth after the judgment of the living nations. To feel thus is in order.

But we find another emotion, one we can approve of less, in David's heart. Besides that which he typifies in his person, he is the energetic man to whom God has entrusted power. His authority is contested; he is indignant — and his words display it (1 Chr. 11: 6): “Whoever smites the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.” What happens? “Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief.” Joab, the man whose craftiness we have seen from the very beginning; Joab, whose wickedness David had recognized, whom he had branded with the name “wicked man” before all the people, on whose head he had invoked God's judgment (2 Sam. 3: 28-30), whom he had declared to be “too hard for me”: this Joab is the man whom David's word gave occasion to become general in chief.

The fact that Joab is elevated to be head of the army is one of the most unfortunate events of David's reign, and here we see the king's weakness. A single word not dictated by the Holy Spirit and which stirred up fleshly rivalry brought such consequences in its wake. How easily man abuses the power which God has entrusted to him, using it in an independent manner! This fact should make us reflect. A fleshly word often results in more dangerous fruit than does an evil act.

At the end of verse 8 we read: “The lame and the blind hated of David's soul...! Therefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” Who is it that speaks like this? It is David himself. How he differs from Christ in this point! Coming into the world, the Lord Jesus did exactly the opposite: “Blind men see and lame walk” (Matt. 11: 5). He cannot meet a single one of these unfortunate souls but what His love and His power unite to give healing. Even when His wrath, divine wrath, is expressed, is it not marvelous to see it opening up the floodgates of His grace? “And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of them that sold the doves. And He says to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of robbers. And blind and lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them” (Matt. 21: 12-14). His wrath and indignation are expressed in the zeal of God's house which devoured Him (Ps. 69: 9), but He purifies His house, not to prevent the blind and the lame from entering it like David, but in order to introduce them there by healing them. We find a second example in the parable of the great supper. All the guests excused themselves from coming. “Then the master of the house, in anger, said to his bondman, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring here the poor and crippled and lame and blind” (Luke 14: 21). The master's anger against his guests results in seating the blind and the lame at the table of his great feast.

The same thing has happened to us. The Master's wrath against this people who would not hear His call of grace has opened the door of the marriage supper to poor Gentiles, strangers to His promises, incapable of seeing Him or going to Him.

All these facts prove how important it is if we are to have a proper understanding of this portion of Scripture to maintain the distinction between David as a man and David as a type of Christ.

2 SAMUEL 5: 10-25 — VICTORIES

The first result of the establishment of the throne on mount Zion is that David is acknowledged by the nations. “Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house” (v. 11), for Hiram wanted to contribute as best he could to the splendor of the reign that had begun. Later under Solomon this same Hiram works on the construction of the temple. In this history he plays an important role as representative of the friendly nations who will come willingly to submit to Messiah's reign.

The history of David as a type of Christ continues to unfold in this chapter. Among the nations there are those who do not acknowledge his supremacy and who seek to shake off his yoke. The Philistines come up against David; revolt begins with this internal enemy who occupies the people's inheritance. Later we will see the nations located on Israel's borders — Moab and the children of Ammon, then Syria and Assyria — revolting in their turn. Victory over the nations, just like the submission of the tribes of Israel, takes place gradually. Philistia is subjugated and the Lord will say of her by David's mouth: “Over Philistia will I triumph” (Ps. 108: 9 KJV). We must not forget — prophecy is very explicit on this subject — that Israel's ancient enemies which have now in part disappeared will reappear in the end times, whether it be to undergo their final judgment, or whether it be to share in the blessings of the millennium together with the people of God. The Philistines are subjugated and their idols are destroyed.

Simultaneously with the history of David as type of the Messiah the history of David as responsible king continues to unfold also. This history shows us many weaknesses requiring discipline, leading David to judge himself so that once he is restored he again enjoys fellowship with God. It is most profitable to learn to recognize ourselves in this history and to understand the requirements of God's holiness and His ways toward us.

The conclusion of this chapter gives us a special lesson. When Hiram comes to submit to the king something takes place that is both touching and characteristic. A special feature of David's character is the complete absence of self-confidence: he was humble and had retained this character from the time that God had taken him “from the sheepfolds.” While he appreciated God's favor in giving him a glorious throne he did not have a high opinion of himself. “David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom because of His people Israel” (v. 12); not for his own sake — David loses sight of himself — but for the sake of His people Israel. Knowing that this kingdom of which he is head is exalted because God is thinking of His people whose blessing He had in view, David does not set himself above the people as lording it over them by insisting on his rights, but places himself beneath them, having only their welfare in view. He sees the place that Israel occupies in God's heart and recognizes that God has directed all things with His people in view. Our perfect model, the Lord Jesus, through His sufferings has acquired a place in glory, but He has taken this place for us His people, His beloved Church. Thus David's character as a man answers to Christ's character, and so it ought always to be with us.

But now the same thing that took place at Hebron (2 Sam. 3: 2-5) again takes place at Jerusalem (vv. 13-16). We have said above that the traits of independence seen in David resulted from the fact that he was invested with sovereign power. He uses his power for himself and thus acts in opposition to God's thoughts (Deut. 17: 17-19). Beside his political and other reasons for taking many wives David may have forgotten God's prohibition. He should not have forgotten: “It shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life.” The majority of our disobedient acts stem from not maintaining living daily contact with the Word of God. To follow our own thoughts by neglecting this positive, absolute direction is disobedience.

Two things ought to characterize the walk of every child of God. David's career in First Samuel illustrates the first feature: dependence. But there is a second characteristic which we are not accustomed to regarding as important as the first: that is obedience. Dependence and obedience should never be separated in the child of God.

We have just seen David disobedient; we shall see him dependent without this lack of harmony influencing his spiritual life for the moment. But if David is in the school of God he will learn never to disassociate these two characteristics in the future. At the end of our chapter God obliges him, so to speak, to join one to the other, and when later in the following chapter David fails to meet this obligation and does not follow the will of God expressed in His Word, we see him come under discipline.

The Philistines go up against David (vv. 17-21); the king learns of it and goes down to the stronghold. His retreat was the place where God desired to dwell. “David inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? wilt Thou give them into my hand?” (v. 19). Here we see him depending on God as was his habit. Is it a question of going up against the enemy? David does not know what to do: God alone knows and David asks Him for direction, saying in effect: “What shall I do?” God answers him immediately: “Go up; for I will certainly give the Philistines into thy hand.” David goes up; the bulwark that the enemy attempts to set in his way is breached, and David and his army rush through like an overflowing torrent, swallowing up the Philistines and their idols. In 1 Chronicles 14: 12 we see what the king did to these idols: “And they left their gods there; and David commanded, and they were burned with fire.” In just this way the idols of the nations will be destroyed in the end times (Isa. 2: 18).

But all is not over. The enemy renews his attack: the conditions are the same, the people are the same, the methods are the same, the place is the same. David might have said to himself: Since the situation is identical I will do as I did at the first attack. No way! He depends entirely on the Lord's direction. He goes about the matter in the right way, for this time the Lord gives him a completely different answer: “Thou shalt not go up.” The circumstances of this attack were the same as before: why then did God show David a completely different way of fighting? “Turn round behind them and come upon them opposite the mulberry-trees. And it shall be, when thou hearest a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself; for then will Jehovah have gone forth before thee, to smite the army of the Philistines” (vv. 23-24). The reason for this change is that God wanted to bring together in His servant's heart the two things that David had more or less tended to separate, as we have seen in the preceding events. David needed not only to depend upon God but also to obey His word, whether or not he understood it. To obtain a new victory he had to obey, to follow out the order that God gave. “And David did so, as Jehovah had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou comest to Gezer.”

This is how God in His mercy granted David to experience the blessings that accompany dependence united with obedience. David might have taken some credit for this second victory himself and perhaps he might have become proud, but God does not want this. His servant must understand that he is accountable to obey, and to this end God gives him certain signs to observe. The marching army, the sound of which is heard in the tops of the mulberry trees, is the Lord Himself and His army. When David heard this sound he could set forward from the post assigned to him, for acting on God's word he would take the enemy from behind. Before him were the mulberry trees. He knew that the Lord would attack the enemy head on and that he, David, would rush upon them from behind: their defeat would thus be complete. The main part was the Lord's; David remains humble. He listens, he does what the Lord commands: this is obedience. He wins the victory.

How important this is for us! Our dependence and our obedience are seen not only in major circumstances as here but also in the day by day details of life. If we fail here, we will expose ourselves to chastening, and David is going to be an example of this.

2 SAMUEL 6 — THE ARK AT ZION

It is not sufficient that the seat of the kingdom of David — or of Christ — be set up at Zion, the mountain of grace. God Himself desires to dwell there with His king forever (cf. Rev. 22: 1, 3). Thus David is entirely within the current of God's thoughts when he goes to seek the ark in order to bring it back to Jerusalem. God's glory finds no rest except in the place of grace. The ark, God's throne, is intimately associated with the throne of David, the throne of the Son of God. The Lord who up to this point had no permanent dwelling place because of the unfaithfulness of His people may now dwell with that same people because He desires to dwell with His anointed.

The king gathers together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand, to go to get the ark (v. 1). This may appear unusual. When it is a matter of the Lord's battles we do not see men of God gathering their whole army together. It is rather the contrary. Gideon with three hundred men, Jonathan with a single man, together with so many other captains won most signal victories. God fought with them and what are few or many soldiers to Him? It may suit Him to test His entire people in battle — with Him it is not as with the nations. Numbers count for nothing in His victories.

When on the other hand it is a matter of giving testimony to the God who sits between the cherubim, of setting up the place where He is to be worshipped, all those who represent the strength of Israel are not too many. How little this is understood among the children of God! Do all the chosen men gather around Christ before the throne of God the Father to honor and worship Him? Does worship have more value in the sight of Christians than all the activity they carry out for Him, however blessed it may be? Many would make the Christian life consist only in fighting for the gospel — no doubt a blessed combat, but an activity for which it is not at all necessary to gather together “all the chosen men.” We would soon see this degenerate into work based on human association — while worship would be ignored, neglected, unfamiliar. The gathering center of God's children would be despised and they would continue to be scattered as sheep which have no shepherd!

Such was not David's thought, thanks be to God. The object of his entire life as a wanderer, of all his afflictions, had been to arrive at this moment at which our chapter opens. We find proof of this in Psalm 132 to which we will return later.

The connections between 2 Samuel 5 and 2 Samuel 6 are not limited to those we have mentioned. As a responsible king, David, despite his many failings was pleasing to God. The Lord did not hide His face from him. He loved David for his faithfulness, for the grace displayed in his ways, and for his humble and submitted spirit. As we have seen, He had taught him to join obedience to dependence. David understood these things when it was a matter of fighting the enemy. Would he understand them in the events about to unfold?

When the moment had come to gather the tribes of Israel around the ark, their divine center, what should David do? Consult the Lord. Even though in bringing back the ark he had God's mind, it was not for David to determine how to do this. Had he understood this he would have avoided serious chastening. Had he consulted the Lord and His Word he would have known in what manner he should bring the ark back to Jerusalem.

The Philistines had set the ark on a “new cart” to send it back to Israel's territory (1 Sam. 6: 7). They had acted in ignorance, but God instead of expressing His disapproval had taken into account the fear that motivated them. Evidently David remembered this when he imitated the nations' way of bringing the ark back to the place it was meant to occupy. “They set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was upon the hill” (v. 3).

But although God might take the ignorance of the Philistines into consideration He will not tolerate a positive act of disobedience to His Word on part of those who belong to Him. The Levites had been expressly commanded to carry the ark as well as all the vessels of the sanctuary (Num. 4: 15).

What David did ought to speak to the conscience of every child of God. Man has organized a system of will-worship according to his own ways and thoughts which are always opposed to God's thoughts. In God's eyes it is of greatest importance that His own obey Him when it comes to worship, the highest expression of the Christian life, as also in the minutest details of life, and God must deal with the disobedience of His children.

While David demonstrates a heart filled with piety toward God, he disobeys because he is ignorant of the bearing and consequences of his act; but David has no excuse, because he ought not to be ignorant of this. This is all the more striking as he was full of joy at the thought of finally giving His God the place due to Him. “David and all the house of Israel played before Jehovah on all manner of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, and with lutes, and tambours, and with sistra, and with cymbals” (v. 5). Nothing was lacking in the expression of their joy — yet nevertheless something was missing. There were no trumpets: those silver trumpets which ought to have sounded when the ark set out (Num. 10: 1-10; cf. Ps. 150 and 2 Sam. 6: 15). It was only a detail, you may say, like the new cart; but this detail revealed a fact of serious significance: David had not taken the Word of God as the rule for his conduct.

In spite of this all the house of Israel rejoiced. There was much piety in this solemn ceremony but it was spoiled by human arrangement. This was of little importance for these rejoicing hearts, but it was of great importance for Him who had said: “To obey is better than sacrifice.” There comes a time when man's meddling in the worship of God makes this worship limp in one way or another. “The oxen had stumbled” (v. 6), and naturally the men, thinking they ought to help, lent the support of their arms to this shaking system. They forgot that it is profane folly to want to help God. This was the problem of Uzzah, the son of Abinadab, who was the first, the chief agent of this transportation. He feels an entirely natural need to support what he had made and does not take into account that he is, as it were, laying his hand upon God. “When they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah reached after the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen had stumbled” (v. 6).

I am speaking here of the worship of God's children, but what should we add about the so-called worship of the world? The world does not only sin in a few particulars, for in its forms that appear to be divine worship there is not even a shadow of reality. Nevertheless we do not see God's judgment falling on this state of things. The reason is simple: God is absent. It was otherwise with Uzzah: “The anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God” (v. 7). His judgment was immediate, for when it is a matter of children of God whom the Lord has set in a place of testimony, He does not allow them to introduce any human element into worship without causing them to feel His judgment.

What happened to David here also happened to the Corinthians who had introduced a carnal element at the Lord's table. God could not tolerate such a thing. “On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 11: 30). God was a consuming fire for them, as well as for Uzzah, and we must remember this. David was forced to understand this. The Lord had made a breach before him against the Philistines at Baal-perazim; now God's judgment makes a breach against him. “He called that place Perez-uzzah [breach of Uzzah]” (v. 8).

The king's first feeling is that of vexation: “David was indignant, because Jehovah had made a breach.” This is understandable but it is not excusable. Here is a man full of desire to serve the Lord, of giving Him the honor due Him; here he is, full of joy and praise; he has arranged everything in order to re-establish the worship of his God — he fails in one detail and the wrath of God blazes against him! David's heart was more godly than ours. What a wound to his affections! How can God judge me in this way  - he might have said — when He sees my intention to glorify Him!

In verse 9 a second feeling arises in the king's heart, a feeling no more excusable than the first. “David was afraid of Jehovah that day.” He carries the ark aside. “How shall the ark of Jehovah come to me? So David would not bring the ark of Jehovah home unto himself into the city of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite” (vv. 9-10). Because of this discipline David regarded the Lord as a pitiless judge and was vexed with Him. At this moment he forgot that it was a God of grace who had chosen him, led him, kept him, made him victorious, and who had given him the kingdom on Mount Zion. He cannot understand that grace can judge him, and that the closer one is to God, the less God tolerates in His own anything that dishonors Him. But God is about to prove to him that others will profit from that of which David had deprived himself to his great loss. The ark's presence is a source of abundant blessings for the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. And Jehovah blessed Obed-Edom and all his household” (v. 11).

At last David had learned his lesson! He is told what had happened (v. 12) and we see that these things were fruitful for his conscience. In 1 Chronicles 15: 11-13 concerning this same incident, “David called for...the priests, and for the Levites... and he said to them...Hallow yourselves, ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of Jehovah the God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye did it not at the first, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought Him not after the due order.” David realized that this breach had been made because of his disobedience and that holiness can be found only in the path of obedience.

When the ark had been set on the new cart the priests and the Levites had no need to sanctify themselves, but when they carried it themselves they must do so; they could not come into contact with the objects of the sanctuary without self-judgment.

Thus the priests occupy the place that God has assigned to them, but what is more, David enters into an order of things that is in absolute conformity to God's thoughts regarding worship. “It was so, that when they that bore the ark of Jehovah had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatted beast” (2 Sam. 6: 13). David makes sacrifice the very center of this worship. The first time (astonishingly enough) they had forgotten the sacrifices! The cart (notice the importance of one omitted detail) had no need to stop, whereas when the priests and Levites carried the ark, pauses during which sacrifices were offered were necessary.

And the trumpets! And joy! And David rejoicing with all his might before the Lord! The king was clothed with a linen ephod (v. 14), the distinctive garment of the priests. Here we see him once more become a type of Christ in His future glory. There is a bit of Melchisedek in the person of David as he is presented to us here. Here we have kingship united to priesthood. Blessing goes up from the people to God by David's mouth, and blessing comes down from God upon all the people through His mediator (vv. 17-18).

“David danced before Jehovah with all his might” (v. 14). He made himself ridiculous; at least that is what Michal, Saul's daughter, felt and said when she saw her husband forgetting his dignity that he might exalt the Lord alone. Often the world judges the worship given to God by His children to be ridiculous; and the more it is according to God the more those who offer it will be despised. This is because the worshipper makes no account of himself. “We...worship by the Spirit of God,” says the apostle, “and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh” (Phil. 3: 3). David in himself was nothing; he was vile: “I will make myself yet more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight” (2 Sam. 6: 22). This cannot suit the world, but thanks be to God, there are simple souls who understand this abasement and esteem it an honor when the Lord is concerned: “And of the handmaids that thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor.”

David danced before the Lord and did it for Him, forgetting himself so that God might be glorified. He divested himself of his royal dignity. David was nothing more than a simple worshipper, full of joy in the presence of the Lord of hosts who is seated between the cherubim and who had come to make His dwelling forever in the midst of His people.

“They brought in the ark of Jehovah, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had prepared for it” (v. 17). All the people are blessed and are satisfied. Michal, left in her haughty solitude, to her shame is stricken with barrenness until her death. From that time on she is a stranger to David. The character of this daughter of Saul reflected that of her father. In Saul there was hatred; in Michal there was contempt for the Lord's anointed. There can be no more fellowship between her and the king. Typically speaking, He abandons the daughter of this fallen race to judgment while he, the chosen one of the Lord, is established as prince over His people Israel.

2 SAMUEL 7 — COMMUNION

The two preceding chapters have shown us the important changes produced in God's ways toward Israel by the establishment in Zion of David's kingdom. The king brings the ark to Zion, thus associating God's throne with his own government. This is not yet however, as we have seen, a perpetually established state of things as will be the case under Solomon's reign.

That is why we do not find the regular order of worship here. David brings the ark to Jerusalem but not the other furnishings of the tabernacle. He sets up a tent for the ark, but it is not the tent of the wilderness. “They brought in the ark of Jehovah, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had spread for it” (2 Sam. 6: 17). The tabernacle itself with the altar was found elsewhere.

In the First Book of Samuel the tabernacle and the ark are found at Shiloh. The ark is taken captive by the Philistines, but when it returns in grace it does not return to its place in Shiloh, to the place where God might be approached through sacrifice.

In the Second Book of Samuel Shiloh disappears, but the tabernacle is not transported to Jerusalem. It is found at Gibeon without any indication of how it got there. One thing is certain: the tabernacle and the altar of sacrifice are at Gibeon when David brings the ark to Mount Zion: “And [David] left there before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, Asaph and his brethren, to do the service before the ark continually, as every day's duty required...and Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of Jehovah in the high place that was at Gibeon, to offer up burnt-offerings to Jehovah on the altar of burnt-offering continually” (1 Chr. 16: 37-40). Later, at the time of the plague at Jerusalem when David at the Lord's command built an altar on Mount Moriah and sacrificed there, it says: “The tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah” (1 Chr. 21: 29-30). Again, at Gibeon Solomon sacrificed at the beginning of his reign: “And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer up upon that altar” (1 Kings 3: 4).

All this shows us a state of disorder or of great weakness with regard to the worship of the Lord during David's reign. Shiloh was virtually abandoned from the time of the ruin of the priesthood (Ps. 78: 60-61); the Lord's house was not yet built at Jerusalem and worship was, so to speak, divided between the ark at Zion and the altar at Gibeon. The other vessels were still in the tabernacle. They are mentioned in 1 Kings 8: 4. Gibeon was a city of the sons of Aaron (Joshua 21: 17). We would suppose that, as was the case at Nob (1 Sam. 21: 6), the furnishings of the sanctuary were kept guarded there by the priests.

However that may be, the worship of the Lord under David's reign was quite far from what ought to have been. But one thing was sufficient for David — the object of all his desires during his afflictions (Ps. 132: 1-8): he had found a resting place for the throne of the Lord of hosts, for the ark of His strength. There where David was established he now had with him the God of Israel, for the “name” (2 Sam. 6: 2) represents the person. His resource — precious above all else amid the dispersal of the holy vessels in this time of transition that would be succeeded by his successor's glory — his resource, I repeat, was the presence of God Himself with him and with His people Israel.

This also constitutes the blessing of believers in our present day. The Church is in a state of ruin and utter disorder, but one thing is enough for us: to have the Lord's personal presence in our midst. With such a privilege how can we allow ourselves to be discouraged by the state of things surrounding us? With Him, more so than in David's case, do we not have worship? This presence sufficed to fill the king's heart with joy and thanksgiving.

In 2 Samuel 7 David is dwelling in his house: God's power had given him rest from all his enemies; his kingdom had been proclaimed; the ark was with him. Now in his affection for the Lord he desires to build Him a permanent place of rest. Could the ark still dwell “under curtains” in a temporary dwelling place, when David was living in a house of cedar, solid and well founded in its beauty? He tells Nathan the prophet of his desire. It is the desire of a godly heart, for he wanted to see the glory established in Israel. Nathan approves: “Go, do all that is in thine heart; for Jehovah is with thee” (v. 3).

Though David was piously occupied with God's rest in Israel, neither he nor the prophet knew the time that God had decreed for this. David ought not do what was in his heart; he must depend upon God and wait upon Him. Nathan could not trust in his gift as prophet to direct David. The king, despite his godliness, is mistaken; the prophet with all his light makes an error.

David is a man who really depends upon the Lord, but how often does this dependence fail! He could not even depend upon his affection for the Lord, and he had learned this at the “breach of Uzzah.” He must inquire of God, nor was Nathan exempt from this obligation any more than the king. Each of us individually must depend upon God alone; even the most godly of men cannot replace Him. Lot walks with Abraham for a time. Alas! look at his end! Abraham walked with God. Let us consider the outcome of his conduct and imitate his faith. Certainly we can listen to counsel, ask counsel of those who are more advanced than we in understanding, in wisdom, and in true godliness; this is what humble hearts which have no confidence in themselves do. But we must depend upon God alone for our decisions and for our walk.

The Lord has compassion on His servant. He sees the desire in David's heart to honor Him, and He reveals His most secret thoughts to him. “It came to pass that night that the word of Jehovah came to Nathan, saying, Go and say to My servant, to David, Thus saith Jehovah: Wilt thou build Me a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but I went about in a tent and in a tabernacle” (vv. 4-6). He says in effect, Never have I rested up to now; I have always wandered with My people. As long as the final order has not yet been established I have not said a word about building a place of rest for Me.

Why so? Because God still did not feel He had found His ultimate rest. He continued to work. He sacrificed His own rest in favor of His people's and His king's rest. He was still actively working on their behalf in order to establish them in the mountain of His inheritance, to plant them, as it is said in the song of Moses: “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance” (Ex. 15: 17). God had not yet finished this work. He wanted to finish it and took the place of a worker on behalf of this miserable people, entirely setting aside His own interests, so to speak, so that He might establish His people in their ultimate rest that nothing will trouble forever. The word “forever” characterizes all the blessings of this chapter (vv. 13, 16, 24, 26, 29). Such is God's thought concerning His own.

We have the Lord who is working for our blessing too. Has He not said: “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5: 17)? He has not yet ceased working by His Spirit and He will continue to work until the moment when “He shall see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53: 11). Then God will be able to rest and give rest to His people and to His King whom He will establish as Head over all things; then He Himself will rest. “The king of Israel, Jehovah, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not; Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. Jehovah thy God in thy midst, a Mighty One that will save: He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will exult over thee with singing!” (Zeph. 3: 15-17). This is God's rest. When He will have brought all the objects of His love into rest, when He will have them round about Himself in glory without any more change to come, without the possibility of any cloud passing over them, then God's rest will be ushered in.

Us wilt Thou contemplate —

Pearl of Thy heart's deep longing,

Travail of Thy lone soul,

Fruit of Thy wondrous cross!

Yes, He will rest in His love. Creation's rest lasted for one day and was disturbed; redemption's rest will never be disturbed and will last “forever.”

The First Book of Kings presents this rest in type in Solomon's glorious reign, a feeble picture of Christ's reign. Then righteousness and peace will reign over the earth after having “kissed each other” at the cross (Ps. 85: 10). And that will not be the end. A new heaven and a new earth will succeed the first heaven and earth and righteousness will dwell there after its reign shall have ended (2 Peter 3: 13).

Before these things take place, here in 2 Samuel we find a period of transition when God is at work to bring about the full accomplishment of His counsels.

God tells David what He had done for him: “I took thee from the pasture-grounds from following the sheep, to be prince over My people, over Israel” (v. 8). This was his origin. “I have been with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are on the earth” (v. 9). God in grace had sustained him from his first step to his last step; He had been with him throughout and had wanted to make him powerful and honored.

“And I will appoint a place for My people, for Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and be disturbed no more; neither shall the sons of wickedness afflict them any more, as formerly, and since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel” (vv. 10-11). What grace, what tender pity for this people! With delight He calls them His people. And as for David: “I have given thee rest from all thine enemies,” but I want to do yet more for you. You desire to build a house for me? I am the One who is placing Myself at your service in order to establish one for you — not a house of cedar, but: “Jehovah telleth thee that Jehovah will make thee a house. When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. It is he who shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever (vv. 11-13). Is this only in the person of Solomon? No, God directs David's attention to Christ, the Seed of David. What thoughts must have filled the king's heart in the presence of such an honor conferred on his house! The promises of grace extend to the eternal kingdom: “I will be to Him for father, and He shall be to Me for son.” The son of David will be the Son of God! (Heb. 1: 5). What a prospect for David's heart! A river of grace flows to him and shall flow out from him!

After this God speaks to David of Solomon, no longer as a type of Christ, but as a fallible man to whom, as such, responsibility would be confided. He can fall under God's discipline and chastening. “If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men” (v. 14). But his lineage will be established forever: “My mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made firm for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (vv. 15-16).

Did God lie? David's lineage seems to have come to an end. The feeble vestiges of his throne seem to have fallen into the dust with Zerubbabel who does not merit the title of king, yet even now Zechariah's voice is heard crying out to Zerubbabel (Zech. 4: 6-10). “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh to thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zech. 9: 9). There is thus no interregnum.... But the Messiah, the true King, is rejected by His people! No doubt the throne is now lost and God's promise to David has not been realized. Where is the King? Where is the Successor of David's seed? The throne exists. Before God re-establishes it on earth it will be established in heaven. The Son of David has gone “to receive for Himself a kingdom and return” (Luke 19: 12). He is acknowledged as head of the heavenly part of His kingdom before the earthly part in its turn submits to Him. “The king is dead, long live the king!” men say when they acclaim the successor of a deceased sovereign. But Christ has died once — Christ, His own successor, lives eternally!

From the time of Christ's cross and His rejection by the Jews we have a parenthesis continuing from the formation of the Church to the moment when the Lord will rapture her and introduce her into glory with Himself. Only then will He claim His rights to the earthly part of His kingdom. All the “sure mercies of David” will be realized in Him whose kingdom will be established forever.

I love to give this chapter the title “Communion.” God is confiding all His thoughts to David, not only about himself and his people but also about Christ. David “went in, and sat before Jehovah” (2 Sam. 7: 18) and in complete freedom, complete confidence, he now speaks to the Lord of hosts who is seated between the cherubim, telling Him his thoughts, thoughts of deepest appreciation for all that God had done for him. He rejoices with God in what God is purposing to accomplish for him, for his people, and for his house.

The first thing worth noting is the king's humility. He has no thought of pride. Communion with the Lord, instead of exalting man, lowers him in his own estimation. “Who am I, Lord Jehovah, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?” (v. 18). David is well aware of his origin and glories in it because this origin exalts the God who took him from the sheepcote!

Can not we say the same thing? We have been drawn out from such depths to have part in that glorious era about to open up. “Who am I, Lord Jehovah, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto? and this hath been a small thing in Thy sight, Lord Jehovah; but Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant's house for a great while to come” (vv. 18-19). Thou hast shown me Thy greatness by giving me a great name though I am a poor, worthless creature. Oh, it is not I, it is Thou, whose greatness is so magnificent! “Is this the manner of man, Lord Jehovah?” (v. 19). “And what can David say more to Thee?” He stands before God, giving free vent to the emotions filling his heart, but knowing that his words will always be too feeble to be expressed. Then he blesses the Lord for what He has done for His people (vv. 23-24).

In verse 25 we come to the prayer that ends this chapter. Here we find the character of a true prayer of communion: Do as Thou hast desired to do and as Thou hast said. “Let the house of Thy servant David be established before Thee. For Thou...hast revealed to Thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house...Let it please Thee to bless the house of Thy servant...for Thou, Lord Jehovah, hast spoken it” (vv. 26-29).

Let us take this attitude as a model for ourselves. Having received divine communications in our hearts, let us sincerely request of God the things that He Himself has promised us. He loves to give us the things we ask of Him, to grant them according to our thoughts and our desires, for since these are the fruit of communion with Him they are His own thoughts and desires.

2 SAMUEL 8 — NEW VICTORIES

After 2 Samuel 7 which, morally speaking, is the high point of David's entire history 2 Samuel 8 relates a series of victories. The victories of this chapter grow out of David's communion with his God just as the victories of 2 Samuel 5 were the fruit of his dependence and obedience. When we are in communion with Him God has no need to discipline us as He did with Uzzah. Communion lets us advance, sure of being in God's pathway without needing special instruction to show this pathway to us. “I will instruct thee and teach thee the way in which thou shalt go; I will counsel thee with Mine eye upon thee” (Psalm 32: 8) will become reality to us. Our path becomes God's path because our thoughts do not differ from His. Thus it is said twice in this chapter: “Jehovah preserved David whithersoever he went”6 (vv. 6, 14).

Like the Lord will do at the end when He will judge the nations, so David applies judgment to them in various ways and measures: according to the character of his enemies or according to the way in which they have treated his people.

First of all he smites the Philistines and subjugates them (v. 1), capturing their capital city, Metheg-ammah,7 and these sworn enemies of Israel are thus deprived of what was the bulwark of their strength.

Moab is the proud enemy rising up against God and His anointed, a cruel people without pity for Israel. David destroys two-thirds of this people but extends grace to a remnant whose life he preserves: “He measured...one full line to keep alive. And the Moabites became David's servants and brought gifts” (v. 2).

Likewise the Syrians of Damascus who had come to help Hadadezer, king of Zobah, were conquered by David's power and “became servants to David, and brought gifts” (vv. 3-6).

In verses 13-14 Edom is completely subjugated. In 1 Chronicles 18: 12 they are overcome by the hand of Abishai, Joab's brother; in Psalm 60, they are defeated by Joab himself. Whatever the instruments employed may be, here the victory is attributed to David. Edom is the only one of all the nations re-appearing at the time of the end for judgment that will have no “remnant” preserved. God will judge the Edomites without mercy on account of the way they behaved toward His people, for they were the most wicked and the most desirous of destroying Israel. Had they not formerly “refused to give Israel passage through [their] territory” to enter the land of Canaan (Num. 20: 21)? “Remember, O Jehovah,” says the afflicted remnant in Babylon, “against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, Lay it bare, Lay it bare, down to its foundation!” (Ps. 137: 7). The prophet Obadiah who deals only with the judgment of Edom says: “The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle in them and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau: for the Lord hath spoken it” (Obadiah 18); whereas a “remnant” out of all the other nations is preserved. Thus this terrible word spoken by the Lord will be fulfilled at the time of the end: “I hated Esau” (Mal. 1: 3), for, says Obadiah, “the Lord hath spoken it.”

Another event takes place in verse 9 of our chapter. When Toi king of Hamath learns that David has smitten Hadadezer who was continually at war against him, he sends his son Joram to the king with vessels of silver, gold, and brass. Toi freely and willingly acknowledges the deliverance which God wrought by David and offers his presents without being constrained to (cf. vv. 2 and 6).

All this shows us that the nations will have quite varied characters at the time of the end. Some will be broken with a rod of iron and forced to submit; others will put on an appearance of submission, as it is said: “Strangers come cringing unto me” [i.e., render forced or feigned obedience] (Ps. 18: 44; 2 Sam. 22: 45 JND with explanatory note at Deut. 33: 29); and lastly still others — not like an isolated Toi, but a great multitude which no man will be able to number (Rev. 7: 9-10) — will submit themselves to Christ's yoke, accepting His victory as their deliverance.

David consecrates all the spoil from the victory over the enemy (vv. 11-12) as well as Toi's free-will offerings to the Lord. He claims nothing of all for himself. What purpose will these riches serve? 1 Chronicles 18: 7-8 shows us that they were brought to Jerusalem and that Solomon made “the brazen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass” for the temple of the Lord out of this great quantity of brass. In 2 Samuel 6 David had given the Lord's throne the place due to it in the government of the kingdom. Henceforth his only thought is that the fruit of all his victories be used to ornament the ultimate, unchangeable dwelling place of his God in the midst of Israel. The victories of 2 Samuel 5 had served to strengthen David's throne; the victories of 2 Samuel 8 serve to glorify the throne of God who is seated between the cherubim.

Two or three psalms are linked in a special way to the events of this chapter. It is interesting to see how David's prophetic songs are the fruit of his personal experiences or are related to them, but also how these experiences are only a minor factor in the prophetic course of events, a weak picture of Christ's sufferings and the glories that shall follow them.

Psalm 60 as it refers to this chapter proves, if this is necessary, that these events are not simply the history of David, but that typically they represent the future establishment on earth of Christ's kingdom.

8The heading of this psalm tells us that it is a “Testimony. Michtam of David; to teach: when he strove with the Syrians of Mesopotamia, and the Syrians of Zobah, and Joab returned, and smote the Edomites in the valley of salt, twelve thousand.” The beginning of this psalm is remarkable: “O God, Thou hast cast us off, Thou hast scattered us, Thou hast been displeased: Restore us again. Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast rent it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. Thou hast shown Thy people hard things; Thou hast made us to drink the wine of bewilderment” (vv. 1-3). There is no event in the Second Book of Samuel corresponding to these words, but this was precisely the history of Israel in First Samuel. Following their unfaithfulness under the priesthood and the rule of Saul Israel had in effect drunk the wine of bewilderment at the end of this book; Israel will drink an even more lethal wine under the Antichrist.

“Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth, Selah, that Thy beloved ones may be delivered” (vv. 4-5). What is this banner? It is David, as we see in Isaiah 11: 10. “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, standing as a banner of the peoples: the nations shall seek it; and his resting-place shall be glorious.” This blessing is only partial in this chapter; it will be completely fulfilled in “Jehovah-Nissi” (the Lord my banner), in Christ, the true Root of Jesse, before His establishment as the true Solomon in His reign. Christ will be the banner around which Israel will gather to go from victory to victory. “That thy beloved ones may be delivered”; in effect these victories of the true David will be the deliverance of the remnant of Israel.

“God hath spoken in His holiness: I will exult, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth” (Ps. 60: 6). Shechem and Succoth remind us of how Israel's history began with Jacob, their father (Gen. 33: 17-20). These are the first places where he settled when he returned to the land of promise after wandering in a strange land. So it will one day be for the remnant of Israel surrounding the true David and regaining possession of their land as they follow Him.

“Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim is the strength of my head; Judah is my lawgiver” (v. 7). All the tribes of Israel will acknowledge the true king.

“Moab is my washpot; upon Edom will I cast my sandal; Philistia, shout aloud because of me!” (v. 8). After the Messiah has been acknowledged the three great enemies of 2 Samuel 8 are subdued; Philistia acclaims the supremacy of the Lord's Anointed.

In verses 9 to 12 the remnant asks: “Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me unto Edom?” and answers: “Wilt not Thou, O God, who didst cast us off? and didst not go forth, O God, with our armies?” A greater than David, their Messiah, God Himself, will be there to lead them. This psalm, inspired by David's experiences and the events of his history, therefore applies in a positive way to the person of the Lord Jesus.

We find this same Psalm 60, at least in part, again in the fifth book of Psalms in Psalm 108: 6-13. The first five verses of Psalm 108 are borrowed from Psalm 57: 7-11 of the second book of Psalms. Psalm 57 was composed in the cave during David's flight from Saul. In verses 7 to 11 David rejoices in the results of the deliverance which the Lord wrought in his favor. He passes, as it were, from the First Book of Samuel to the Second and says: “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing, yea, I will sing psalms. Awake, my glory; awake, lute and harp: I will wake the dawn. I will give Thee thanks among the peoples, O Lord; Of Thee will I sing psalms among the nations: for Thy loving-kindness is great unto the heavens, and Thy truth unto the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God: let Thy glory be above all the earth!”

Verses 6-13 of Psalm 108 are the same as in Psalm 60, but in them the thought differs from the latter psalm; that is, David wins the victory so that the Lord may be celebrated among the nations and also so that His beloved ones may be delivered, whereas in Psalm 60, it is only a question of the deliverance of His beloved ones.

The circumstances before us in the fifth book of psalms, of which Psalm 108 is a part, are that Israel is returning to their land. They are not yet under the reign of Solomon, a type of Christ during the millennium. But rather they are under the reign of David, the king of grace, and in times (similar to 2 Sam. 8) that are troubled by the appearance of the Assyrian who at the dawn of the millennial period wants to capture the land of Israel. When all enemies are defeated and the king shouts aloud over Philistia (Ps. 108: 9, cf. Ps. 60: 8) the remnant asks who will lead them into Edom (v. 9-10). Isaiah 63: 1-6 gives us the answer: “Who is this that cometh from Edom...I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the peoples, not a man was with Me...For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of my redeemed had come...And I have trodden down the peoples in Mine anger.”

This will be the last of the Messiah's successive victories over His enemies: alone, He will tread upon them.

How interesting it is to relate all the history of the Old Testament to its Antitype and to go beyond the moral lessons that we may draw, for all the Word speaks of the Lord Jesus. He is the One whom we must seek above all else. If we study the Word prayerfully under the Lord's eye it will lead us to the knowledge of His Person. We need to be occupied with Himself above all else. Then the glory of His kingdom, His victory over the nations, the renewing of His relations with His people will all be subjects of great interest to us although these things do not concern us personally. We will rejoice at the thought of seeing Him occupy the place that is due Him, for Jehovah will establish this reign of glory over the earth for Him who has accomplished the wonderful work of redemption, the work which has thoroughly glorified God and saved us forever.

Here we have come to one of the divisions of this book. This division is marked by verses 15 to 18 of our chapter, 2 Samuel 8. We find these verses once again with some modifications in 2 Samuel 20: 23-26. These verses present the order of David's reign, and 2 Samuel 8 ends the history, properly speaking, of the establishment of the king as a type of the Messiah. But the presence of Joab at the head of the army and the exercise of the priesthood by two high priests prove that the ultimate order has not yet been established as it will be under Solomon's reign.

2 SAMUEL 9 — MEPHIBOSHETH

2 Samuel 9 and 10 are a sort of appendix. 2 Samuel 9 presents in type the Messiah's grace toward Israel and 2 Samuel 10 the same grace extended to the nations who reject it and bring down the judgment of God upon themselves.

In 2 Samuel 9 the time comes when David remembers the house of Saul. He looks for some survivor of this family that he may show him kindness on account of his friend Jonathan (v. 1). He finds Mephibosheth, a poor offshoot of this family, who bears in his person the consequences of the lack of faith of the woman who had had charge of him in his childhood.

As it was with David, so it will be with the Lord Jesus. The time will come when the Messiah will renew His relationship with the remnant of Israel whose fathers, like Jonathan, acknowledged Him during the days of His rejection and despite their weakness loved Him as their own soul. This first remnant converted during Jesus' time on earth ended, and merged, so to speak, into the Christian Church after the Lord's resurrection. At present the Church forms the great parenthesis that will be closed by the Lord Jesus' coming to rapture His saints. Only then will the true David remember Jonathan's offshoots, morally the descendants of the first Jewish disciples. He will be able to discover these descendants in a poor remnant that once turned their backs on the Messiah because they did not trust in grace and who now suffer the results of their unbelief.

This remnant will have two characteristics that again we find throughout the psalms. They will bear the weight of divine governmental wrath against a rebellious people from whom the remnant ought to have separated themselves. But this remnant will also, like Mephibosheth, bear the character of the grace that will be their portion. Through the mouth of the remnant the psalms express these two lines of thought which appear to contradict one another: first, God's government acting in outward wrath against the remnant because they are part of the people who crucified the Messiah and also called down upon themselves “bloodguiltiness” (Ps. 51: 14). Secondly, grace operating in the hearts of these righteous ones to lead them to acknowledge the Lord as Savior and to share the glory of His kingdom.

Let us now point out the features in our account that relate to our own relationship with Christ.

David gives free flow to his mercy toward those whom he desires to bless. There was no reason that his interest should be drawn toward the house of Saul; this house had ever made war against David and, as far as its present condition was concerned, only its misery could attract the king's attention. But it is precisely misery that attracts grace. David says: “Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?” (v. 1), and then: “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” (v. 3) — that is, divine kindness. Ziba comes to tell him that there was a poor miserable person, a man whose both feet were lame. They were lame because in time past he had fled from the one whose only thought was to bless him. The king sends for him, for this Mephibosheth who was numbered among “the lame and the blind hated of David's soul” (2 Sam. 5: 8), and this lame man presents himself before David. What emotions must have stirred in the heart of this poor cripple! With what anguish he must have pictured the fate awaiting him! David had indeed told Ziba that he would exercise mercy toward Saul's descendants, but when once he had this offshoot of the family which had hunted him mercilessly would David still dream of exercising the promised mercy toward him?

“And David said, Mephibosheth!” He calls him by name, the name that no one had pronounced in his presence. David knows me then; does he remember me? the wretch must be thinking. And Mephibosheth, bowed at the king's feet, says: “Behold thy servant!”

David does what the Lord always does when He desires to gain a sinner's confidence. He says to him: “Fear not,” when this poor soul terrified by the judgment he was expecting finds himself at the feet of his judge. “Fear not; for I will certainly show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake.” He remembers his covenant with Jonathan; he had bound himself to Jonathan by promises not to be repented of (1 Sam. 20: 14-17); he could not and would not break them. Mephibosheth had nothing to fear for his judge is telling him: “I will surely show thee kindness.”

But David does not stop there: I “will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father.” He gives Mephibosheth his inheritance. Then: “Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.” The king's grace gives Mephibosheth a most privileged place at his court. He eats with the king; and much more, he does so “as one of the king's sons” (v. 11). Before the eyes of one and all David gives him the title and relationship of a son!

To look at him, this man must have been wretchedness itself. This poor cripple could not move about by himself and must be carried to the king's table. What must outsiders who were present at a feast at the palace have thought of him? But to David he is a son, set in the highest place he could give him. Is not this what we find in Ephesians 2: 6-7? God “has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that He might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.” David acts in the same way toward Mephibosheth. The fact of his being seated as a son at his table was a thousand times more precious in the king's mind than the fact of being an heir, and so he repeats these words to him three times (vv. 7, 10, 13).

Notice that the fact of being introduced into this glorious relationship changed nothing about Mephibosheth's condition. The chapter ends with the words: “And he was lame on both his feet.” In the eyes of others and in his own eyes he is just the same. “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell,” says Paul in Romans 7: 18. In David's eyes it is quite otherwise; he is clothed in all the dignity of a son of the king. Thus we Christians who “have no confidence in the flesh” ought to remain where we are, considering what God has made of us. He no longer sees us in our misery. In order to exalt His grace He gives poor persons crippled in both feet a right to enjoy His presence in glory.

How does Mephibosheth respond, beholding himself as the object of such favor? “He bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” In David's presence he terms himself a dog, unclean and despicable, the very image of defilement; a dead dog, a foul and repulsive object worthy only of being kicked aside. Speaking in this manner to David he took — and others might well know this — the place that David had taken in reference to Saul, Mephibosheth's forebear: “After whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog?” (1 Sam. 24: 14). The powerful king before whom Mephibosheth stood had in time past taken the same place as he was taking; he had come to know the meaning of defilement, death, and rejection during the days of his sufferings. It was with such a savior that Mephibosheth had to do.

When the Syrophenician woman found herself in the presence of the Messiah He told her: “It is not right to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she replied. She accepts this sentence. “Yes, Lord,” it is true; I affirm what You have just told me; I am unworthy, but You are the very grace in which I confide. “Even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs” (Mark 7: 24-30). These words go directly to Jesus' heart. Faith which despite our profound unworthiness in no wise doubts His love and power is sure to receive an abundance of divine blessings in exchange. Our unworthiness only serves to bring to light the grandeur of grace.

The Jewish remnant in the end times will also come to thorough self-judgment in the presence of the One whom they have rejected. They will say: Is it possible that we “esteemed Him not,” the very Son of God? And as the object of my hostility He allowed Himself to be stricken in my place! He entered into my condition, like a lamb led to the slaughter, dumb, resolved to save me at any price.

Mephibosheth's portion cannot be taken away from him: He will “eat bread at my table continually” (vv. 7, 10); “He did eat continually at the king's table” (v. 13). “Thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever” (1 Sam 20: 15). He dwelt at Jerusalem, the same place that the king had chosen for his dwelling. We possess these same privileges, and this series of favors that were Mephibosheth's is also our present and future portion. We have the inheritance and we shall possess it. We dwell in the Father's house and we will dwell there forever. He has seated us at His table; we will be there forever. And truly, when we are at that feast in time to come the love that humbled itself to save us will consent to be servant of our joy eternally!

Like Mephibosheth we must measure ourselves in the presence of grace and, having judged ourselves, understand that our glorious position as children of God depends solely on the love that fills Christ's heart for poor creatures such as us.

2 SAMUEL 10 — HANUN

David's grace does not only address the Jewish remnant. In 2 Samuel 10 he extends it toward rebellious Gentiles. Moab and Ammon, Lot's descendants, for all practical purposes formed a single people . They had always been allies one with another and with Israel's other enemies, seeking to harm the people of God. “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not come into the congregation of Jehovah; even their tenth generation shall not into the congregation of Jehovah for ever; because they met you not with bread and with water on the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor, of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee. But Jehovah thy God would not listen to Balaam; and Jehovah thy God turned the curse into blessing unto thee, because Jehovah thy God loved thee” (Deut. 23: 3-5). Such is God's ordinance concerning them. Israel ought never to seek their peace nor their prosperity. Nevertheless, even if he cannot gain this nation as such David desires at least to win their head's heart by his grace, sending to comfort him.

It will be likewise in the end time: God's grace brought in by the reign of Christ will be offered to the nations. Messengers will be sent to urge the Gentiles to submit to Him. Many of them will find David's Son's yoke an easy one to bear; others, like Hanun, will refuse to accept anything from Him.

But this history, just like Mephibosheth's, speaks to us of yet other things besides Christ's future reign and His grace extended to the nations in the end time. In this history we also find God's ways for the present.

“David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me” (v. 2). We have no reason to think that this Nahash is any other than the one presented to us in 1 Samuel 11, whose pride and fury had sought the satisfaction of putting out the right eye of all the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead in order to put Israel to shame. God had delivered them by Saul's hand, but we see how decidedly this wicked, blood-thirsty man was the enemy of God's people. His natural character brings out all the more that which our chapter has to say about him.

“His father showed kindness to me.” The Word says nothing about this in the account of David's wanderings; the First Book of Chronicles makes no mention of it. In a word, history does not recall this kindness — but David, a type of Christ, remembers an act of kindness on the part of this man who must have hated him as the future king of Israel. At a time when the Lord's anointed was rejected this Nahash (in any case, God was above all his doings) had shown him good-will.

It may happen that the world or a man belonging to the world at enmity with the people of God may do something for Christ, may be inclined to offer some sort of assistance to those who here on earth represent the Lord Jesus. This man may forget his act. The world may forget it as well. It is nowhere recorded. But the Lord does not forget. Such a man does not receive a reward in heaven, but the eyes, heart, and thoughts of the Lord Jesus are drawn to him; He will not remain debtor to one who although he is essentially an enemy has done something for Him. “David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father.” Nahash was dead; no doubt he had been a good king to his people, and Hanun, his son and successor, grieved by this great loss needed to be consoled. David thinks of him.

So it is today. The Lord forgets nothing. In exchange for an act of kindness shown Him even by an otherwise evil man He sends that which may encourage him. These are consolations to comfort a soul burdened with the sorrow that sin has brought into the world. David knew the needs of Hanun's heart; he knew how to replace sorrow with feelings of kindness and joy. He does not send him presents, or riches, or honors, but rather what is infinitely better: consolation. This he sends at the hand of his servants; to receive these servants was to receive David himself.

Just so the gospel is announced to the world. How encouraging to think that the Lord's eyes are on each one and that He does not forget the hearts of sinners that may be inclined to Him, even if it be but for a single moment. He would extend His blessings to them and to their children.

What good Hanun would have enjoyed had he understood the king's intentions. Grace ever characterizes David. Grace, to say nothing of his sufferings and afflictions, makes him a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus. Had David not shown grace in this very book in presence of Saul's sad fate and the tragic fate of Abner and of Ish-bosheth? David has nothing but good to say of His enemies; he forgets their animosity and their insults; his large and noble heart rises above every personal consideration, viewing his enemies only in the pure light of grace. Thus it is that Jesus sends the message of salvation to His worst enemies!

Hanun is not receptive. Had he been alone his heart might perhaps have been touched; he does not immediately drive the messengers away, but he is poorly counseled; the princes of the Ammonites incite his distrust: “Is it not to search the city and to spy it out, and to overthrow it, that David has sent his servants to thee?” How easily such suggestions succeed when Jesus is not known! These men, they say, are hypocrites; their purpose is to make war against us.

Oh, how many times have such insinuations hindered the Lord's servants in their work of winning souls to Christ!

The world has more confidence in the opinion of its counselors than in the message of Christ. These counselors will do anything to turn aside from the gospel those of their followers who show any inclination at all to receive it. The distance between distrust and insult is shorter than we might suspect.

“Hanun took David's servants, and had the one half of their beards shaved off, and their raiment cut off in the midst, as far as their buttocks, and sent them away” (v. 4). This was the most shameful treatment that could be inflicted on the ambassadors of a king. They must pass through Hanun's territory dishonored, half naked, mocked at, and made a laughing-stock. Is it surprising that they were “greatly ashamed”? David sends to meet them and says, “Abide at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return” (v. 5).

The last message of grace — and how little Hanun suspected that it was the last — was refused. The consequence is a terrible judgment that begins in this chapter and continues in the following chapters, a judgment without pity, brought on by indignation against the insult to grace.

“And the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David; and the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians if Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men. And David heard of it, and he sent Joab, and all the host, the mighty men” (vv. 6-7).

Men insult the Lord Jesus and are afraid of Him; they show themselves to be His enemies, and hoping to escape judgment they join together to resist Him. “Why are the nations in tumultuous agitation, and why do the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the princes plot together, against Jehovah and against His Anointed: Let us break Their bonds asunder, and cast away Their cords from us! He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then will He speak to them in His anger, and in His fierce displeasure will He terrify them: And I have anointed My King upon Zion, the hill of My holiness” (Ps. 2: 1-6.) Events are developing rapidly in the world. The moment is not far off when a confederation of peoples will speak in this very way against the Lord's Anointed. Woe to them! Nor is the moment far off when God will mock at them and through His judgment exalt Him whom He has anointed King over Zion.

Once again we find indications of weakness in David. Shouldn't he have led his army personally instead of entrusting it to Joab? It seems that this life of continual struggle weighed a bit heavily on him, and that he thought he could delegate direction of the war to others so as to grant himself a little rest.

The children of Ammon come out to face Israel's army while Ammon's allies seek to surround them. Joab cleverly works out his battle strategy. Setting his brother Abishai against the Ammonites, he himself faces the Syrians. He says to his brother: “If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me; and if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee.” Joab adds: “Be strong, and let us show ourselves valiant for our people and for the cities of our God; and Jehovah do what is good in His sight” (vv. 11-12). Let us begin by being strong, says Joab. Let us fight for the honor of our nation and for sake of the cities of our God. This is what we are to do and then let the Lord do as seems good to Him — we will not refuse His help. This is more or less the motto of the world. Heaven helps those who help themselves. Joab's piety does not go beyond this level.

Joab wins the victory but it is a useless victory. The children of Ammon and the Syrians flee; the former re-enter their city. They are simply beaten back rather than conquered or taken prisoner. There is no fruit from this battle; it must all be begun again. David had delegated to another man's hands the responsibility God had entrusted to him personally. This lesson is brought home to him in all gentleness, for David does not suffer a defeat; but the Lord's instruction causes him to return to the true path.

The Syrians gather themselves together once again; then David “gathered all Israel, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him. And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven hundred in chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Shobach the captain of their host, who died there. And all the kings that were servants to Hadarezer saw that they were routed before Israel, they made peace with Israel, and served them. And the Syrians feared to help the children of Ammon any more.” This was a true and complete victory; a victory so complete that these kings submitted to Israel.

David must have received instruction from such an event. He had shirked his responsibility, but now in the school of God he had learned the danger of this holding back.

The children of Ammon must still be dealt with; this task is more difficult, as we shall see. But we will also witness the terrible experiences that David underwent because he failed to learn once and for all the lesson that the Lord had so mercifully given him.

2 SAMUEL 11-20

DAVID'S FALL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

From 2 Samuel 11 to 2 Samuel 20 we have the history of David as the responsible king. These chapters record the king's terrible fall, the discipline carried out on him, the consequences of his sin, and lastly, his recovery. 2 Samuel 20 ends, as we have previously said (cf. 2 Sam. 8: 15-18), with the declaration of the order of his kingdom, but an order less complete than the first as David is no longer being presented as a type of the Messiah.

It is a remarkable fact that the First Book of Chronicles does not mention a single word of the episodes about Bathsheba, Amnon and Tamar, Absalom, David's flight, or the king's restoration. 1 Chronicles 20: 1-3 contains 2 Samuel 11: 1 and 2 Samuel 12: 29-31. There is complete silence about all the rest. The explanation is simple. This omission is one of countless proofs of a divine plan in the various books of the Bible. Chronicles does not tell us of the responsible king who, as such, is put to the test, but rather it tells us of the king as established in grace and blessing according to the counsels of God.

In 2 Samuel 21 we find a new appendix setting forth the judgment of the house of Saul.

2 Samuel 22 and 23 relate the words of David as a type of Christ to the words of David as the responsible king.

Lastly, after enumerating David's mighty men the book ends in a wonderful way in 2 Samuel 24 with the sacrifice of Morijah which, as one has said, “ends the wrath of God through grace and establishes the foundation of the place of worship where He can meet with Israel.”

2 SAMUEL 11 — THE FALL

When reading this chapter, a feeling of deep humiliation fills the heart of every child of God. These events took place more than three thousand years ago, but the fact that three thousand years have passed do not change the fact that God was dishonored by one of His servants. It has been possible to blot out the sin but the shame brought upon God remains.

The sin is all the more serious in that it occurs in the life of this man who despite more than one weakness had received the testimony that evil had not been found in him all his days (1 Sam. 25: 28). And yet in the midst of his career this servant of God becomes an adulterer, a hypocrite, and a murderer! Oh, if we have any zeal at all for the Lord's glory, any affection for His redeemed, let us weep to see David in contradiction of his entire past trampling upon the Lord's holiness — David who ought to have been the representative of His holiness before the world! How humbling to think that David, the beloved, could compromise the Lord's name which he bore: David who had been favored by such special nearness to God and upon whom such marvelous grace had been heaped!

The lives of believers present very different features all at the same time:

We see believers, Christians, beginning their career poorly, but learning to judge themselves under God's disciplinary hand they finish their course well and sometimes even gloriously. This was the case with Jacob whose days were “few and evil” but whose life ended with a full vision of glory.

More frequently we see believers who begin their career well and finish it poorly. Such is the history of Lot who, not having Abraham's faith, nevertheless followed in his footsteps. His life then becomes morally weaker and weaker due to his love of earthly goods and it ends in a most shameful manner. Such is the history of Gideon, humble and distrustful of himself, courageous in cleansing his house of false gods, then leader of Israel and the victor over Midian — but at the very end he causes his house and all the people to sin through an ephod which he had made an idol. Lastly, such is the history of Solomon. He had everything: wisdom, practical righteousness, forgetfulness of self, understanding in the thoughts of God, the desire to glorify Him, and power. God uses him to communicate wisdom's sayings to future generations. But Solomon finishes badly. He loved many strange wives who turned his heart away after their false gods. The servant of the true God became an idolater!

Between these two paths we see the path of a believer who from beginning to end walks faithfully without faltering in a spirit of personal holiness and separation from the world. Such was the case with Abraham whose faith and dependence only rarely were in contradiction and who judged his walk whenever it troubled his communion with God. But such was, above all, the path of Christ, the uniform path of the perfect Servant as we see in Psalm 16. There we find not a single imperfection, but rather: absolute confidence, complete obedience, perfect dependence, flawless practical righteousness, divine holiness in a Man, unshakable faith, unlimited love, unfaltering hope. When we consider such a path we can only worship. But we can also follow Him, and He gives us the capacity and the power to do so. Between ourselves and Him there will always be the difference between the imperfect and the perfect, the finite and the infinite, but as long as our eyes are fixed on Him we will find the secret of a walk that glorifies Him to the end in this world.

David's case is rare but not unique in Scripture. David began well and finished well, but in the middle of his career there was a moral downfall. We could also cite the account of the apostle Peter, but we will not go into this.

Why did God allow this fall on part of David? The answer is full of instruction and in one sense is very valuable for us. Just as Abraham is a model of faith, so David in 1 Samuel is a model of grace. On every hand grace flourishes in him and governs his ways. He always manifests grace, whether it be toward his enemies, his friends, or all those who surround him. His heart is full of God's love and is permeated with unspeakable tenderness. The tears that he shed over Saul, his persecutor, are sincere; he has forgotten everything and there is no room in his heart for anything but grace. Yet nevertheless it was sufficient that such a man be given up to himself only a moment for him to sink into darkness so that every trace of what had previously filled his heart was wiped out.

We need examples like this in order to come to know the flesh in ourselves: “In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Rom 7: 18 KJV). There is no culture, no cleansing, no improvement possible for this flesh; the only fitting place for it is to be nailed to the cross.

After this sin is confessed to God this fall that was so rapid is followed by a long and painful work of recovery. Peter shed bitter tears when he went out of the courtyard that had witnessed his denial, but he did not regain fellowship with the Lord at that time. In the same way only later could David celebrate grace with a perfectly free heart. It was not enough that he had shown himself to be more or less faithful in his career; God wanted to show him His own grace, full and complete, in circumstances that had made a murderer out of David. David is a miserable object of judgment who becomes the man in whom God exalts and glorifies His triumphant grace.

But how could a man of God ever have fallen from such heights? The Lord had entrusted him with authority and responsibility. He was to use these in incessant activity of faith to serve the Lord and His people. What did David do? He rested. He rested at the season when the kings of the earth go forth to battle; for men of the world often deploy greater activity to successfully accomplish their purposes than Christians do to serve Christ. Believers think that they can rest for a moment and sit down by the side of the road. But we have not been engaged as servants in order to be lazy slaves.

“And it came to pass...that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel.” The lesson he had learned at the end of 2 Samuel 10 ought to have again set him at the head of his army. Such is the beginning, often so insignificant, of a fall. Once and again God reproves His servant; he fails and God restores him; he falls again and God allows him to follow his own path. David remains behind at Jerusalem; a little idleness detaches him from the interests of the war. A passer-by appears on the scene: this traveler is lust. The king's gaze is attracted by an object that seems desirable to him; his flesh is conquered; the authority at his disposition becomes servant to his desire; the evil is consummated; the Lord's anointed is an adulterer!

How long did the satisfying of his flesh last? Hardly has the fault been committed but it bears its fruits — a pregnancy. The situation is serious and the king is full of apprehension. His character is compromised; his sin will be revealed; he must hide it. We always behave in this way when we have lost the appreciation of God's presence. David is caught in these circumstances; he struggles, wants to handle them, and in his blindness fails to see that God is directing them.

He has Urijah brought from the camp and hypocritically asks him about Joab, the people, and the war (v. 7). Did he really care? Were not all his thoughts directed toward the single object of hiding his sin? Urijah, whom the king sent to his wife, instead slept with all the king's other servants at the palace door. “Why,” asks the king, “didst thou not go down to thy house?” What a beautiful answer Urijah gives: “The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in booths; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields: shall I then go into my house!” (v. 11). He had learned this devotion in the school of David himself. In 2 Samuel 7: 2 did not David say to Nathan: “See now, I dwell in a house of cedars, and the ark of God dwells under curtains”? This godly desire and this testimony on David's part had been received and had borne fruit among his attendants. Urijah speaks like the David of earlier days. What an unwitting reproach he addresses to his respected master! The man is simple and noble in heart. He says, God is calling me to perform a service, an activity for Himself, and as long as He does not rest I cannot rest.

David pays no attention to these earnest words; he is solely preoccupied with pushing Urijah to the act that will allow the king to cover up his sin. He gets his servant drunk, but in spite of this Urijah remains firm in his decision. Like a caged bird David struggles without resource against the hand that has shut him up. Satan suggests to him the only means of escaping public exposure of his fault; he becomes Urijah's murderer, responsible for the same sin that his people would later commit by putting to death “the just” who did not resist (James 5: 6). The same David who had said: “Let [the blood of Abner] fall on the head of Joab” (2 Sam. 3: 28-29) now takes this Joab, a murderer himself, as his accomplice and so becomes the slave of the man who had every interest in bringing him into bondage.

On receiving news of the death of Urijah, killed close to the wall of Rabbah along with certain of the “mighty men,” David sends this message to Joab: “Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devours one as well as another” (v. 25). Having achieved his purpose, David reassures his accomplice and then takes Bathsheba into his house, and she becomes his wife and bears him a son.

The story, instead of ending, only is beginning at this point. At the end of this chapter, so full of corruption and shame, we find a little expression, the only thing David had not thought of and the only one he ought to have remembered: “But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Jehovah.”

Let us take heed to our ways. It takes only an instant to fall, but to avoid falling we must constantly be on the alert in all that precedes the incident. Yes, we must watch daily to avoid walking in “any grievous way” so that we may be led “in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139: 24). In this path all is peace for our souls; this is the path of life that leads to unclouded rejoicing in God's presence: “Thy countenance is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11).

2 SAMUEL 12 — FORGIVENESS, DISCIPLINE, AND RESTORATION

A certain period of time passed after David committed this sin. The war against Ammon (begun in the preceding chapter, which covers nearly one year) still continued. The siege of Rabbah had not been brought to its conclusion, and we know that at this time a city could be besieged for years. During this entire period David's conscience was silent although his sin weighed upon him and the fruit of his transgression was evident before his eyes.

Then the Lord intervenes, after having waited a long time for David to repent. Nathan the prophet, bearer of His word, comes on the Lord's behalf to stir up the king's soul. How this chapter differs from 2 Samuel 7! Then, in a time of prosperity and joy, David served the Lord wholeheartedly and had but one thought: to build a house for his God. That first time the Lord had sent Nathan to him to tell him that the time had not yet come for this, but also to open up to him the treasures of His grace, for His object was to bring joy to David's soul. Now the scene has changed. The prophet is sent to him to set him in the light of a holy and righteous God whose eyes are too pure to behold evil and who must judge it.

Nathan speaks in a parable, and in his blindness David does not detect that he himself is the one this account is about. The prophet says, There were two men in a city, the one rich and the other poor. One had many flocks and herds; the other had only one little lamb which he cherished. A traveler came to the rich man who, in order to spare his own flock, took the poor man's lamb and butchered and cooked it for the man that had come to him.

Let us watch out for this sort of traveler, for we are all prone to be visited by him. Certainly when he appears it is better to close the door against him. This wayfarer is lust, a passing desire, and not one that we habitually entertain and feed. This wayfarer had entered the king's house, knowing he would find something to feed on there. Our hearts too ever contain that which it takes to succumb to Satan's temptations. David forgot to depend on God and thought he could relax instead of serving and fighting. This was enough to allow the traveler to open the door and let himself in and to mark his visit with disorder and ruin.

“David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As Jehovah liveth, the man that hath done this thing is worthy of death; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity” (vv. 5-6). David's heart and conscience are in a bad state, nevertheless his judgment continues to be righteous. Although he himself was under sin's yoke he judged it severely in others. Where we are not personally concerned we often have clear and full discernment of evil in others, although our own hearts are unjudged (Matt. 21: 41).

“And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man!” How suddenly everything caved in! David had pronounced his own sentence; he deserves death! Yes, this blow reaches his heart, but it also goes down to the deepest recesses of his conscience. Suddenly exposed to the light a sinner who does not know God may be convicted, may have his mouth shut without such conviction penetrating any deeper, but for a child of God such a state can only be momentary.

The Lord reminds David of all that He had done for him: “I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things” (vv. 7-8). The treasures of My grace were yours and you sinned in the presence of My love! “Wherefore hast thou despised the word of Jehovah to do evil in His sight?” How had David despised it? God had heaped blessings on him and David had preferred to satisfy his lust!

This same judgment was pronounced against Eli (1 Sam. 2: 30) because he honored his sons more than God. He feared the Lord, but he despised Him by allowing his sons to “trample upon [His] sacrifice and upon [His] oblation, which [He] had commanded in [His] habitation.” And so the Lord tells him: “They that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” We find the same truth in Luke 16: 13: “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” To covet the things the world can offer is to despise God. In general our souls are very little aware of this, but this is how God looks at things. “Because thou hast despised Me,” He repeats in verse 10.

David had preferred his sin to God. What a terrible thing! Do our consciences have nothing to say to us? Every natural heart has lusts that attract it. By “lusts” we mean not only the defiling things of the world but also “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” — pleasures, vanity, and ambition. These things find easy access into a Christian's heart. How many days and years often pass without our shutting the door to them! Every time we open the door to this visitor we are despising the Lord Himself. This is the reason for God's judgment on His servant here.

The graces granted to David were earthly; ours are “spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.” Do our hearts value these things so much that they offer no asylum to this “traveler”? The Lord's discipline and judgment will fall on us in the measure that we receive or reject this visitor.

The prophet announces three things to David: “The sword shall never depart from thy house.” God did not revoke this sentence of bloodshed. Then in verses 11-12: You sowed to the flesh, from it you will reap corruption. Violence and corruption, these two things that from the beginning have characterized the world which was made subject to sin (Gen. 6: 11), would now be habitual lodgers at this poor guilty king's house.

Before we expose ourselves to God's government in discipline let us remember that this government is inflexible. We cannot avoid the consequences of our acts, of our behavior; all God's Word proves this to us. The First Epistle of Peter shows us that even under the dispensation of grace the principles of God's government are unchangeable. No doubt the soul of a Christian who falls must be restored, but in this world such a one is not delivered from the consequences of his act.

David had this bitter experience to the very end of his career although his soul, fully restored, was once again able to take up the harp and sing the sweet psalms of Israel. Discipline itself then becomes a new reason for celebrating the riches of grace.

Nathan speaks but one phrase, “Thou art the man,” to convict David. David too says but one thing in God's presence: “I have sinned against the Lord.” When a soul has seen this it has taken a tremendous step forward. When a Christian has fallen and God has exposed his sin we habitually find the confession of his fault: “I have sinned.” But what difference does that make when this sin has already been brought to light? David says: “I have sinned against Jehovah,” not: I have sinned against Urijah or against Urijah's wife. Our sins against others may be forgiven by those whom we have offended; we may make amends in a certain measure for the sins we commit against ourselves, but what can we say when we have sinned against the Lord? One says: “I have sinned,” for he is ashamed of his sin because men see it; but it is quite another thing when one is convicted that the thing he has done is evil in the sight of the Lord.

Having produced this thorough conviction of sin, God does not keep his poor guilty servant waiting. Again He speaks but one sentence to him: “Jehovah has also put away thy sin.” He does not say: Jehovah will, but rather “has put away thy sin.” He had dealt with His servant's sin beforehand; He had made provision so that the sin was put away from David and so that it no longer came up before God. This is what we find at the cross of Christ.

Then Nathan tells David: “Thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, even the child that is born to thee shall certainly die. And Nathan departed to his house” (vv. 13-15). “Thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme.” Such is the consequence that the world draws from our faults. Satan uses each of our sins to produce open aversion in men's hearts against God and against Christ. Look, the world says, what their religion leads them to do! — and God is blasphemed. Satan excites lusts in a Christian not only to be able to accuse him, but also to produce aversion to Christ in those who witness his fall, so that these may not turn to Him for salvation.

David had been told that violence and corruption would be found in his house as the fruit of his sin. The third judgment is the death of his child. Death does not strike down David, the guilty one, but rather his cherished son. It is necessary for God's judgment to fall on the king's house in a visible, immediate way before the eyes of all. The child falls sick; the poor father is distressed and fasts and supplicates God. If it were possible, may God show him grace! No, discipline must run its course. What anguish for David's extremely tender heart in the presence of the innocent victim of his sin!

The child dies. David rises from the earth, washes himself, anoints himself with oil, and changes his clothing. It is as though he were a new man beginning a new career. He goes into the house of the Lord and bows down. Is he mourning? No, he acknowledges the righteousness, holiness, and love of God as well as the clearing of His character through discipline. David rises up a restored man; he can go to his house and call for a meal to be served him. After having bowed down before the Lord he is on his way to renewed fellowship with Him.

His servants say to him: “What thing is this which thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child alive; but as soon as the child is dead, thou dost rise and eat bread.” David answers: “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I thought, Who knows? Perhaps Jehovah will be gracious to me, that the child may live. But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (vv. 21-23). “I shall go to him.” Now David is satisfied to bear the seal of this discipline to which the death of his son testifies till the end of his career. “He will not return to me.” David can never know this joy, but he accepts as necessary the path of death through which he must one day walk in order to find his son.

The king is now able to console Bathsheba. Grace flows out to him anew. He has a son whom he names Solomon (meaning, Peaceable) and whom the Lord through Nathan calls “Jedidiah” (meaning, Beloved of Jehovah). Grace brings Bathsheba, whom defilement would prevent from having a portion in God's blessings, into the Messiah's line of descent (Matt. 1: 6). She becomes the mother of the king of peace and glory. Grace delights to work on behalf of fallen creatures whom it associates with Christ in order to show its “exceeding riches” in the ages to come.

In order to understand how David's soul was restored we must consider Psalm 51. Other psalms refer to the same circumstances, but as usual we are quoting only those psalms whose headings refer to the events which occasioned them. Psalm 51 is such a psalm: “A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” This psalm, which is prophetical as are all the psalms, goes far beyond the circumstances of David's life. Thus: “Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem” (v. 18), is about future events. “Bloodguiltiness” refers not only to the murder of Urijah but also to the killing of the Messiah. David himself, as we shall see in the continuation of this history, is a type of the remnant of Judah placed under the governmental wrath of God. This same psalm can also be used in preaching the gospel to describe the condition of a sinner who returns to God like the prodigal son and says: “I have sinned against heaven and before thee” (Luke 15: 18). But here we are looking at those special feelings produced in the soul of a believer who is deprived of fellowship through his fall, having lost the joy of his salvation.

Two thoughts dominate David's heart at the beginning of this psalm: his first thought is that grace is the only resource for his transgression (v. 1); the second thought is that he has sinned against God and God alone (this is what David said when confronted by the prophet Nathan, as we have seen), “that Thou mayest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest” (v. 4). I have sinned, the king says, in such a way that Thy righteousness against sin must be manifested. Oh God! Thou dost discover the means through my sin of justifying Thyself. Thou dost justify Thyself by showing that Thou dost not excuse sin. As for myself, there is only thorough condemnation, but as for Thee, Thou art able to bring glory to Thyself in this! These are feelings worthy of a saint whom God brings into His own presence in a self-judged and humbled condition.

Then the psalm shows us three conditions of heart found in the restored believer. These three conditions and their consequences are described in the three divisions of this psalm.

(Vv. 1-6). The first condition of heart is described in the words: “Behold, Thou wilt have truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part Thou wilt make me to know wisdom.” “Truth in the heart” — God's desire, first of all, is to produce this by bringing us into His presence when we have sinned. Often a soul will judge a particular action and go no further, but this is not yet all the truth in the heart. David judges his action: “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is continually before me” (v. 3); but he also judges his condition: “Behold, in iniquity was I was brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (v. 5). It is not enough for him to judge only his sin; he judges sin in him — that which he was from birth. He is not content to say, I have committed an outrage against God, but he goes back to the source of this outrage and realizes that the reason for all the evil was in his heart. Wisdom consists in discerning these things.

(Vv. 7-13). Truth in the heart has borne its fruit: a second condition of heart is the consequence: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v. 10). How could this clean heart be produced? “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (v. 7). He speaks of hyssop which was used to sprinkle blood on the leper, and then he refers to washing with water. Under the law at each sin the sprinkling of blood was to be renewed; for us the sacrifice has been offered once for all. But in addition to this the soul of the believer needs the washing of water by the Word continually, applied by our High Priest to the defilement we contract as we walk: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”  -  But in order to have a clean heart something other than our personal purification is needed: “Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities” (v. 9); it is essential that God Himself remember them no more. This was not yet an accomplished fact for a saint in the Old Testament, nor should we believers express ourselves in the same way as verse 9 does. But when our hearts have been cleansed from all iniquities we can present ourselves before God with a consciousness that He remembers them no more. The result of this is that the joy of our salvation returns and we are sustained in the spirit of liberty.

In verses 14-19 we find a third and final condition of heart, a condition which from the time of his fall and restoration until the end of his career would characterize David. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (v. 17). What breaks David's heart is to find himself confronted with “bloodguiltiness” (v. 14), to realize that he had shed the blood of righteous Urijah. This is a prophetic picture of the blood of Christ shed by Israel that remains upon this people and their descendants until that time when the remnant will return to Him, broken-hearted and humbled. We will return to this subject later. But let us remember that God disciplines us in order by degrees to lead us from the condition of a true and cleansed heart to that of a broken heart: the only condition becoming to us in the presence of the cross, the only sacrifice that God accepts with the sacrifice of praise (v. 15), and the only state of heart that does not expose us to fresh falls.

2 SAMUEL 13 — AMNON

David's soul is restored, his conscience is purified, and his heart is humbled; in spite of this the ways of God's government as they concern him must run their course. What Nathan had foretold: “The sword shall never depart from thy house...I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house...I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun” — all this must be fulfilled without fail: David will undergo this necessary discipline with a broken heart.

The incident recorded in this chapter is loathsome. It was infamy in Israel (vv. 12-13). God's Word relates it because it is “the truth” and depicts man as he is in all his ugliness so that we may abhor his corruption. These terrible acts of immorality and violence are the doings of two of David's sons, Amnon and Absalom, who are far from God, the one as much as the other. A friend named Jonadab who is a cousin and a counselor is there on the scene urging Amnon onward in his miry path (vv. 4-5); this same man later knows of Absalom's plot but does nothing to oppose it (v. 32).

How short-lived and vain are the pleasures of sin! Scarcely are one's lips moistened at the rim of the cup but already one is tasting intolerable bitterness! “Amnon hated [Tamar] with an exceeding great hatred, for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her” (v. 15). Immediately he abhors this poor unwilling victim of his infamous act. He judges everything except himself. Violent and crafty, Absalom avenges himself of his sister's dishonor by fratricide.

Nevertheless one thing strikes me that has a general application to David, now restored. He lacks a certain spiritual discernment, and this was not a feature of his character before his fall. Everything was already in order between his soul and God when in 2 Samuel 12: 26-31 he went to lay siege to Rabbah. The judgment of the children of Ammon was righteous and according to God's mind, but David seems to have injected his personal feelings both into his victory and his vengeance. His spiritual discernment no longer had the same acuity as it did earlier. He takes the king's crown and sets it on his head, whereas formerly (2 Sam. 8: 11; cf. 1 Chr. 20: 2) he had consecrated all the treasures of the nations to the Lord. He executes cruel vengeance on the people, part of which at least is omitted in 1 Chronicles 20: 3, in the book that presents the king according to the counsels of God. David had never done such things at other times.

But there is more. Here in 2 Samuel 13 all David's good intentions and his desires for harmony among his children turn against him. Unwittingly he acts in a way contrary to what he should have done. Thus it is David in verse 7 who sends Tamar to Amnon's house. Later, when Absalom's plans for murder have ripened David initially tries to resist, thinking that should he yield to his son's request evil might be the result; but he finally yields, sending his other sons along in order to protect Amnon. All this probably does not indicate a very clear spiritual judgment.

Verse 39 shows us moreover that wicked Absalom was the son David cherished. “And king David longed to go forth to Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.” In the following chapter David is easily persuaded to allow Absalom to return to Jerusalem, and this decision is the immediate cause of all the disaster which follows. No doubt through this means God fulfills His purposes, but all these events afford us a serious lesson. When a believer falls by yielding to his own self-will, his soul even though it is restored loses a certain spiritual acuity. If he has come to despise or set little value on fellowship with the Lord it takes him a certain time to recover the spiritual intelligence that accompanies this fellowship. It is as though the fall had brought with it a cessation of spiritual growth.

A soul exposed to the Lord's discipline and that of the assembly frequently is an example of this. The soul may be restored and may recover fellowship with God and with the saints; but a secret strength is lost when sin becomes active, and it is possible that the soul may never recover this strength.

May God grant us to esteem fellowship with Himself as extremely valuable, so valuable that we may jealously watch lest it be lost as well as the strength and discernment that accompany it.

2 SAMUEL 14 — JOAB

We have already noticed that 1 Chronicles is silent about the events now before us. In our account David is only incidentally a type of Christ. Here he is seen as especially representing the restored remnant going through the Tribulation with the guilt of the death of the Righteous One. Nevertheless all David's experiences in these chapters also have a direct application to us, because we like he are set in a responsible position and are therefore the objects of discipline as David was.

2 Samuel 14 shows us how Joab succeeds in winning David over to himself. We have already noted that Joab never does anything that does not serves his self-interest. If he is embracing David's cause his motive is not affection although he does demonstrate a certain attachment to his master, but because he thinks that David's side is more likely to advance his ambitions. These ambitions did not go so far as to covet the kingdom. Joab was sufficiently shrewd to know that access to the throne was closed to him; his ambition was limited to desiring the place of a “generalissimo,” to be minister of war and the king's counselor. If any obstacle to his plans should arise he was quick to overcome it, and if need be even commit a crime.

Above all, Joab sought to make himself indispensable. The best way to achieve this was to cater to the king's weaknesses. When David rid himself of Urijah by placing him in Joab's hands, Joab did not speak a single word of reproach; he acted without hesitation. Guilty David had gained a discreet accomplice, but he is an accomplice who through this very discretion becomes David's master. From now on the king's reputation depends on Joab. Only, Joab's plans are thwarted by divine intervention. God speaks and David acknowledges his guilt; the leprosy, spiritually speaking, instead of remaining hidden is publicly manifested and acknowledged in humiliation and tears not only before God but also before men.

And so, all Joab's plans are foiled, all his selfish interests are set back; he can no longer dominate his master by means of his secret crime; he must find another way to regain his influence. When Rabbah, already cut off from its water supply, was captured, Joab sent this message to David: “Now gather the rest of the people, and encamp against the city and take it: lest I take the city and it be called by my name” (2 Sam. 12: 28). What disinterestedness! But is not this the means by which he may regain control of the king's heart? David obeys. In the previous chapter we have seen that his victory over Rabbah is no credit to his spiritual instincts. Now Joab again has become indispensable and has regained the control that he had lost.

At the end of 2 Samuel 13 the king was longing for Absalom. This was an unfortunate weakness. Absalom was a murderer; the law of the Lord did not allow David to long after him. The murderer fell into the hands of the avenger of blood, and expiation could not be made except by the blood of the one who had shed blood (Num. 35: 33). David had demonstrated this in the cases of the Amalekite and Baanah and Rechab. When Absalom returned from his voluntary exile, the sentence ought to have been executed. To spare him would be to add disobedience to transgression. The fact that David had married Maacah, the daughter of Talmai the king of Geshur (Absalom had taken refuge with his grandfather), was already a transgression. Talmai was one of the Canaanite kings spared through the unfaithfulness of the people (Joshua 13: 2-3); Israel was forbidden any intermarriage with them (Ex. 34: 15-16). Long before this prohibition was pronounced Abraham's spiritual sense had made it a law for him (Gen. 24: 3). David had used his sovereign power to violate this ordinance instead of obeying the law.

All these humiliating facts ought to have suppressed David's affections; but Joab watches, interested in seeing the king turn aside from the simple path of obedience. “Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom” (v. 1). He is not a man to let this occasion pass without using to his personal advantage, and so he resorts to an unworthy intrigue in order to lead David to recall the fugitive to Jerusalem. The words he puts in the mouth of the woman of Tekoah lead us to suppose that Joab's hidden motive was that David might designate Absalom as his successor: “Deliver him that smote his brother...and we will destroy the heir also” (v. 7). “Why then hast thou thought such a thing against God's people?” (v. 13). “The man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God” (v. 16). In truth, in the words of this woman we can see that Joab had in mind to secure a future position for himself with Absalom, who would certainly be thankful to him for having brought him back to the court.

And in order to carry out this scheme Joab had the audacity to vouch for God's mind before the king: “God has not taken away his life, but devises means that the banished one be not expelled from him!” (v. 14).

In all this David was excusable, no doubt, when we think of the natural feelings of a father for his son, but as a servant of God he was guilty. Through the prophet's mouth the Lord had let him know (2 Sam. 12: 24-25) which of his sons He had chosen; this son was Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, whom God had called “Jedidiah, the beloved of the Lord.” Joab realized that David's heart secretly cherished the thought of having Absalom as his successor, although perhaps David would not even have admitted this desire to himself. Could the king hesitate between God's positive word and Joab's self-seeking insinuations? He ought to have understood that Absalom despite all his outward advantages (vv. 25-27), although he was a most handsome man and perhaps just as imposing as Saul, could not be the man according to God's counsels. He had seen his brother Eliab, of whom even Samuel had thought: “Surely Jehovah's anointed is before Him” (1 Sam 16: 6), set aside despite his handsome appearance to give place to himself, David, the poor keeper of the sheep. It is a serious thing to allow ourselves to be directed by our natural affections, however legitimate they may be, rather than by the spiritual judgment God has given us.

Certainly at this time not only weakness was to be found in this well-loved king. In his heart there was a divine cord that always responded faithfully when touched. Joab was well aware of this and did not fail to avail himself of it. An appeal to grace always found its echo in David; therefore the woman of Tekoah comes to plead with the king for grace. He yields, forgetting that grace is not the only principle involved; God is also a righteous God, and His grace cannot be exalted at the expense of His righteousness. Joab's counsel which David followed leads the king to an abuse of grace, which is all the more serious because his natural affections were involved. This is like the honey that was forbidden to be mixed with the sacrifices (Lev. 2: 11). Grace ought not to yield to feelings, human ties, or the gentleness of human nature. But it did with David. Yielding to his fatherly affection he did not sufficiently discern the work of the enemy, although this could not completely escape him: “Is the hand of Joab with thee in all this?” (v. 19.) The woman acknowledges: “Joab [has] done this thing” (v. 20); and the king says to Joab: “Behold now, I have done this thing” (v. 21). He now takes the responsibility for what Joab wanted to do. The enemy, Absalom, is received at Jerusalem — and what an enemy he proves to be!

Nevertheless David does not desire that this guilty person should present himself before him. Joab accepts his master's decision. Once, twice, he refuses to see Absalom who had called him, for he senses that it is in his interest to side with the king. Absalom in his fury sets Joab's field on fire, using violence against the man who had pled his cause had then gone to get him at Geshur, and had brought him back to Jerusalem, figuring on putting Absalom under obligation to himself. Joab, motivated by personal interest comes to ask Absalom to account for his deed and is obliged against his will to intercede with David that the king might consent to see his son again.

Joab found his master in Absalom. God allows all these things. He had already made use of Joab's deceits, his artfulness, his wickedness, and his cruelty in order to carry out His own purposes. He will use Absalom to the same end, and ultimately His ways will be only ways of grace toward David. But Joab is obliged to obey the man he had thought to dominate. He will not forget this. Absalom has become an obstacle to his designs, a power Joab can no longer count on and one who has turned against himself. At a favorable moment Joab will kill Absalom.

2 SAMUEL 15 — DAVID'S FLIGHT

If Joab all the while he is cooperating with David has none of this man of God's motives, Absalom's character from the beginning is that of a reprobate, morally a child of Satan who is “a murderer from the beginning.” Later all the evil instincts of his nature are unleashed to attain their object. He uses flattery and puts on an appearance of righteousness, disinterestedness (vv. 3-4), and love (v. 5) in order to steal the hearts of the men of Israel (v. 6). He deceives the simple (v. 11) and makes a pretense of worshipping and serving the Lord (vv. 7-8) in order to seize the kingdom and to take the place of the Lord's anointed, yes, of his own father, on the throne — for he hates his father; he hates everyone but himself. He allies himself with Ahithophel for this man had the reputation in the people's eyes that a prophet would have had: “The counsel of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired of the word of God” (2 Sam. 16: 23). Finally Absalom exalts himself, nearly deifying himself during his lifetime (2 Sam. 18: 18).

At the time of the end all these features will characterize the true King of Israel's great enemy “the Antichrist,” “the man of sin,” and “the lawless one” (2 Thess. 2: 3, 8). He will seduce the people, will support their national form of worship only to later overthrow it, will arise and exalt himself to the point of being worshipped as God, will present himself as the true Messiah, will deny the Father and the Son, and will at the same time be both the false king and the false prophet in one. We find him described from the Jewish point of view in the book of Daniel (Dan. 11: 36-39). The Lord warns His disciples, who until the rejection of the Messiah in their midst formed the first nucleus of the Jewish remnant of the end times, to flee as soon as they would see the abomination which Daniel had spoken of established in the temple at Jerusalem.

This is what happens here. David fleeing before Absalom is a striking type of the faithful Jews at the time of the end. In both David and the remnant we see bloodguiltiness, whether it be of Urijah or of the rejected Messiah. In both we see the soul restored after this crime. In both we see uprightness of heart mingled with deep sensitivity to the sin committed. And lastly, in both we see the consequences of this sin in God's government which does not leave the crime unpunished. But it also sustains the restored soul in the midst of the apparent wrath which that soul must endure before the eyes of all. This wrath is a burden from which the soul knows God will ultimately deliver it in order to bring it back to the cloudless joy of His presence.

David, such a beautiful type of Christ at the beginning of his career, has through his sin become a type of the suffering remnant. Only, throughout the Psalms the remnant is encouraged as they find — by the pen of David as prophet — that the Messiah Himself in sympathy for them and in order to show them the way has beforehand entered into the tribulations and distresses that they must undergo. Thus the faithful will be strengthened every day by the words spoken by the Spirit of Christ. In these they will find amid their distress the prophetic expression of their faith and confidence in God. Therefore in this part of David's history we will encounter the experiences of one undergoing the consequences of his sin and the encouragements which the Spirit of Christ gives under God's government.9

David flees in haste as soon as he learns that the hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. This is not cowardice or weakness on his part: it is faith. Faith never follows the path that the natural man would choose. Who would not at this moment oppose a budding conspiracy with an army trained to endure the hardships of war? Who would not at least once have had recourse to weapons while all Jerusalem was still with the legitimate king? David flees, not because Absalom is stronger, but because he is God's rod raised to chasten His servant. But David does not think of himself alone: he is thinking of Jerusalem, the city of the Lord, the city he desires to spare from the trial or ruin that resistance on his part would surely bring with it.

And so the king leaves and stops at the banks of Kidron. This hasty flight is nevertheless so calm that it has the appearance of a royal procession rather than a defeat. This is because the flight is dominated by the deep feeling that one is with God in tribulation. The fleeing king immediately becomes the center of his people during this exodus. Behind him walk his household and all the people who have remained faithful to him; at his sides are his servants; before him are his warriors. Isn't it striking that his soldiers are not his rear-guard when the enemy is at the heels of this defenseless people? But no, they march in front of the king, his heralds and his witnesses on the way of the wilderness. Absalom's companions may consider this march a rout for David; the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and the Gittites view it as a supreme honor. Now notice this: at the moment when through the rebellion of his people the true king of Israel becomes a stranger and fugitive strangers are set in the place of honor. The Cherethites and the Pelethites, Philistine tribes, were emigrants, it is said, from Crete; and the Gittites, (people of Gath), left that Philistine city and the land of their origin to join their lot to that of David. Their former king had lost his authority over them; the Lord's king had become the compass that would direct them from this time onward.

All this speaks to us of Christ. Rejected by Israel, He has become the center of attraction for nations who were strangers to the promises and who had no right to the blessings of the people. Rejected, He has become moreover the center of all, the One whom His own follow with delight because they find security nowhere else but in Him whom the world refused, because they know that the time of His rejection will come to an end, and that those who have shared in His tribulations will certainly share in His glory. Yes, this Man who still bears the character of a stranger, despised by the world, is the center of everything — the pattern to follow — the object of service, for His servants surround Him, attentive to His desires — the object of testimony — and what a blessed testimony it is!

It is during this period of David's history that hearts are manifested. Under the rule of the throne it is a question of submission rather than of love, but a rejected Christ attracts devotion and it is in these circumstances that we can see whether His followers are truly attached to Him. There were those at Jerusalem in those days who were well content with Absalom's godless rule. But thank God, there were also devoted hearts who did not doubt David and who knew in spite of everything that the Lord was with him. They bound their lot together with the king's and did not fear to endanger themselves by openly declaring their allegiance to him. Oh! this fear of endangering oneself! It is not surprising to find this among Christians who are Christians in name alone and who, when it comes down to it, belong to the world and do not want to separate themselves from it. But what a shame if this is found among God's children! What: you do not dare confess your Savior's name before men? Does the world's opinion have such a great influence over you then? Isn't the disgrace it gives your highest honor? Do you want to behave like an enemy of the cross of Christ? Is not this the very thing that caused the apostle to weep when he saw men bearing His name who preferred earthly things to the shame of the cross (Phil. 3: 18)?

Ittai the Gittite was different from these people. Every factor combined to excuse him from casting his lot in with David's. He was a stranger, an immigrant who had not yet acquired the right of citizenship in Israel, one come only yesterday. Morally he was like a little child venturing to take his first steps. David himself did not expect of Ittai the effort that it would take to follow him. “Return,” David tells him, “and take back thy brethren. Mercy and truth be with thee!” He even blesses him in order to make him realize that under such circumstances a lack of decision would in no way be imputed to him as evil. But this stranger gives evidence of great faith. In order to have great faith there is no need of great intelligence nor of a long Christian life; it is enough to have a high estimation of the Lord, to know that nothing can be equal to Him nor compare with Him, to know that He alone is capable of completely satisfying all needs. Even though David excuses him, dismisses him, exhorts him to return, nothing convinces him; he remains, he knows no other place, no other master. Whom could he serve if not David? Is not Absalom his lord's enemy? What will stop him? Death? But if David must die, death is welcome to Ittai. He is expecting it and puts it first: “Whether in death or life.” For him life comes after death. In whatever manner, whatever place, wherever David may be “even there also will [his] servant be.” How such feelings refresh the heart of the fleeing king, the heart of our well beloved Savior. What Ittai desired is what Jesus promises to us: “If any one serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall be my servant. And if any one serve Me, him shall the Father honor” (John 12: 26). The Lord tells us: In death, perhaps, but certainly in glory. In serving Him we are assured of the glory because that is where He is forever. Note again that the Father's heart is satisfied with devotion to His Son. If we have served Him in His humiliation then we may be sure that the Father will give us a place of honor because we have not been afraid of sharing His shame before the world. A poor ignorant Gittite will have this place; a poor Moabite will occupy it also — she who did not hesitate to follow Naomi, the ancestress of the fugitive king: “Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1: 16).

“Go and pass over!” the king tells Ittai, and he goes over the brook Kidron, turning his back on the triumphant enemy, having the desert path before him (v. 23). What does it matter? David is his shepherd; he will lack nothing.

What a contrast between this stranger and Peter, the Jewish disciple who had followed the Lord from the beginning. Oh! how quick that one was to say, unbidden by Jesus: “Lord, with Thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death” (Luke 22: 33). Peter thought of what he himself was; Ittai thought of what his lord was to him. Poor Peter! Although he did not suspect it, his faith was the least, the most miserable that could possibly be found, for he had a high opinion of himself.

And now Zadok and Abiathar appear bearing the ark of the Lord. David refuses it; he cannot accept such an honor. The ark has entered into its rest and cannot again begin the wanderings of the wilderness with David. Here David once again takes the role of the repentant, suffering remnant. The nations may apparently with reason ask him, “Where is thy God?” and mock his confidence, as in the second book of Psalms which expresses the feelings of the remnant fleeing far from Jerusalem from before the Antichrist (Ps. 42: 10; etc.). With such feelings David says to the priest: “Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favor in the eyes of Jehovah, He will bring me again, and show me it, and its habitation. But if He thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good to him.” What an admirable result of the action of God's Spirit on a heart exercised by discipline. What perfect submission to God's will, knowing that one deserves judgment — what perfect confidence in His goodness that endures forever and in His interest in His own although they are unworthy of it! All that happens to him is righteous but David counts on grace, accepting this humiliation and leaving to God the care of justifying him, for “It is God who justifies.”

These feelings are in contrast to Ittai's, but the one are no less beautiful in their place than the other. We find God's power in faith, but it is just as marvelous when it produces “all patience” in a poor, weak creature beaten by the tempast with no strength in himself to resist the rising flood of evil.

David goes up the ascent of the mount of Olives weeping, barefoot, with his head covered. The people following him mourn like he. Christ endured and bore this humiliation toward the end of His career in sympathy for his loved people. He who wept over Jerusalem found Himself grappling with Satan's terrible assault at Gethsemane. Doubtless it was a greater and more far-reaching question than that of sympathy for the suffering remnant of Israel, and a much more important work than that of the final deliverance of His people, but it did consist of this as well, for “in all their affliction [Christ] was afflicted.” Here at Gethsemane the man who had eaten with Him lifted up his heel against Him (as Absalom had done), betrayed him with a kiss; here too in the anguish of His soul He shed more than David's tears and His sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground.

At this moment the poor king is overwhelmed by all. He learns of Ahithophel's betrayal. Every resource fails him save one, but that one is perfectly sufficient: He bows before the Lord. “Turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness,” David asks Him.

God gives an immediate answer to his servant's prayer. Hushai, the king's intimate friend, rejoins him. David, filled with spiritual discernment, sends him back, knowing that God has destined him to “defeat the counsel of Ahithophel.”

Hushai returns to Jerusalem. Whatever our preferences may be, we must ever be in the place where Christ would have us. A servant of Christ can always be there where the ark and the priesthood are found, for he finds Christ there. Is He not at the same time both ark and priest? We are called to various occupations in His cause. The testimony and service are one thing, the struggle to cause Christ's name to triumph against the wiles of the enemy another, and coming into His presence to worship Him yet another. All these various occupations are ours. Hushai's was a difficult task; so it is today for those who struggle against Christ's enemies who like Ahithophel pretend to be prophets in character, but who when it comes down to it are false prophets who know the Lord's thoughts and use their knowledge to deny His authority. But if the Lord sends us into the midst of enemies let us go without fear. Is not defeating Ahithophel's counsel really restoring to our David the place that belongs to Him?

2 SAMUEL 16 — FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

The circumstances David is passing through test the state of hearts; so too, the various characters of the men who come to the king are very instructive for us in this respect.

We have seen Ittai, a heart born but yesterday for David and by this very fact a simple heart. The king, whose servant he has become, is everything for him. When one has such an object one is always well directed. Zadok and Abiathar are not wrong in esteeming that the ark ought to be with the king; they have a general understanding of God's mind but take His ways with David less into account. David himself teaches them this by sending them back. He must count entirely on God to bring him back, for he has merited this discipline; and were he even to be completely rejected, David submits, for all that God does is good.

Hushai has another character, one just as beautiful in its way as that of Ittai and, indeed, he is much better acquainted with God's thoughts. Hushai is David's intimate friend; a great love unites them and they have no secrets from one another but yet Hushai in contrast to Ittai consents to be separated from his friend for a time. This is painful for this man who had come to David to express his sympathy, but he chooses the best way to serve him and returns to Jerusalem. With his deep, calm love for his friend Hushai has an understanding that not even the high priests had. This understanding is communicated to him by David himself: Thou shalt “defeat the counsel of Ahithophel.” It is in intimacy with Christ that we receive the communication of His thoughts.

2 Samuel 16 tells us first of Ziba who is prompt to act and prompt to serve. He saddles the asses and loads them with all that is necessary for the king's companions in flight: he spares himself no trouble. What beautiful zeal, the lovely result of grace at work in his heart, for nothing obligated him to do this. Nevertheless this zealous heart lacks uprightness, or to say the least, it imputes to Mephibosheth motives foreign to him. I do not believe that he lies knowingly; he does not say that Mephibosheth had told him of his plans, but since he noticed delay in his master's decisions he attributed intentions to him that, as we see in 2 Samuel 19, were far from his heart. Nothing is as dangerous as to pretend to read the thoughts of others in order to know their motives. A certain keenness of judgment joined with a certain knowledge of the human heart easily leads us to do this. Our conclusions are always lacking in charity. We have little interest in discerning another's good intentions, insisting rather on those that are evil. But God reserves for Himself the right to judge hearts; He alone knows what is in them and He judges their secrets. The Lord tells us: “Judge not, that ye may not be judged” (Matt. 7: 1); let us therefore refrain from exposing ourselves to being judged by others. This is what later happened to Ziba in Mephibosheth's presence. David, who is not a type of Christ here, seems to lack a certain sharp-sightedness. He changes his decision later (2 Sam. 19: 29); notwithstanding here he affords us a beautiful example of the One who will reward what is done for him a hundredfold, however weak His servants may be: “Behold, thine are all that pertained to Mephibosheth” (v. 4).

After this example of devotion we find an example of hatred. God allows this for it is part of His discipline toward David, but it was also Christ's portion: “They hated Me without a cause” (John 15: 25). How could it be otherwise for His disciples? But He alone could say: “Without a cause.” The motives for Shimei's hatred were doubtless unjust and David had in no wise given occasion for them, but the humbled king looks upon his enemy's judgment as true. Shimei maligns David: “Away, away, thou man of blood and man of Belial! Jehovah has returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and Jehovah has given the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and behold, thou art taken in thine own evil, for thou art a man of blood” (vv. 7-8). Unworthy calumny! So David was accused — David who had spared Saul when he slept in the cave and in the midst of his camp, who had returned Saul only good for evil, and who had shown himself righteous, patient, and holy in all his ways (1 Kings 15: 5). David had never avenged himself, had always respected Saul as the Lord's anointed, and had honored his enemy's death with a funeral lamentation!

All of David's integrity might rise up against such an accusation  - and yet indeed he was a bloody man! Shimei did not know it, but God knew it. This wicked man was a divine instrument to remind David of his fault: “So let him curse, for Jehovah has said to him, Curse David!” (v. 10). David accepts the curse; his broken heart seeks neither defense nor excuse nor compensation of any kind for his past righteousness. For him this is God's judgment and his only recourse is grace: “It may be that Jehovah will look on mine affliction, and that Jehovah will requite me good for my being cursed this day” (v. 12). Isn't this once again a striking type of the Jewish remnant: integrity, practical righteousness, and humiliation caused by the murder of the Just One — of whom they had said: “His blood be on us and on our children” — united in one and the same heart?

Abishai, Zeruiah's honorable son, tries to turn David aside from humble submission to God's ways in discipline. “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.” We cannot expect Abishai to call himself a dead dog as Mephibosheth does or as David did before Saul. Despicable as Shimei might be, he and Abishai are equal in God's eyes. The realization of our unworthiness preserves us from using insulting words against the race to which we belong. A misanthrope is always a man who considers himself better than others. Yet the occasion seemed to justify these words. God had been despised and insulted. Shouldn't Abishai have taken sides against this violent man? This is what Peter did when Judas the traitor's band led his Master away. Was Peter right when it was a matter of One greater and more worthy than David? “Return thy sword to its place,” Jesus tells him, “for all who take the sword shall perish by the sword.” (Matt. 26: 52). Besides, Abishai's words display a complete incapacity to enter into David's sufferings under God's discipline, to understand his humble submission as well as his unswerving resolution to walk in this path. How can the flesh, whose will being at enmity with God can never submit to Him, understand perfect dependence that has no other will but that of the Father? Peter again provides us with an example. After the Lord had shown His disciples that He must suffer much from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and that He must be put to death, “Peter taking Him to him began to rebuke Him, saying, God be favorable to Thee, Lord; this shall in no wise be unto Thee!” What does the Lord say to him? “Get away behind Me, Satan: thou art an offense to Me: for Thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men” (Matt. 16: 22-23). David says to Abishai: “What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah?” Their thoughts could only be produced by the flesh and came from the enemy. David accepts the cup from God's hand, as Jesus did later in Gethsemane. “It may be that Jehovah will look on mine affliction, and that Jehovah will requite me good for my being cursed this day.” What a statement! We can well be assured that God is the God of grace and that cursing is not the end of His ways toward those whom He loves any more than cursing was the end of His ways with regard to Christ!

Hushai is welcomed by Absalom. He does not oppose Ahithophel's counsel as to David's concubines. His intimacy with David is a great help to him for he could not be ignorant of what God had told the king and he must let the divine decree run its course (2 Sam. 12: 11-12). Ahithophel, thinking to strengthen Absalom's hands in this way, only worked out the accomplishment of God's word, advanced the goal of His ways, and hastened the restoration of the man he thought to destroy. This wicked man will soon be caught in his own snare. Ahithophel, who seems to have had no motive for doing evil but simply the desire to do evil, ends up like Judas whom he resembles: this “familiar friend” who lifted up his heel against David (Ps. 41: 9) hangs himself and dies.

2 SAMUEL 17 — SERVICE

As we have seen, the king had sent Zadok, Abiathar, and Hushai back to Jerusalem in order to utilize them in his service. Demonstrations of devotion are not enough, however dear thay may be to the master's heart, but are only the prelude to service. So it is for us Christians; and like Hushai and the priests, we do not have the option of choosing the place or the manner in which we are to serve the Lord. He will decide this. Here it was a matter of defeating Ahithophel's counsel, of preventing this false prophet from ruining David's cause.

In verses 1 to 4 we discover the enemy's hidden design: he wants to get at David. With reason he figures that if David is done away with, everything will fall to pieces and the people will become Absalom's prey. “I will smite the king only; and I will bring back all the people to thee” (vv. 2-3). This is how the prince of darkness operates: all his efforts are directed against Christ. To this end he stirred up the world against Him, but at the cross instead of winning the conflict, he lost and his power was broken. But he will not admit defeat. In the future at a time he believes favorable he will stir up the kings of the earth to break off Christ's yoke. Then “He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision” (Ps. 2).

And the saying of Ahithophel “was right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel” (v. 4), who were convinced that the plan this man was proposing was excellent. How was it then that Absalom decided to call Hushai the Archite also to hear his advice? How is it that after hearing Hushai Absalom and all the men of Israel say: “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel” (v. 14)? It is because God is directing the circumstances, men's decisions and their appreciations — in short, everything — as He will and to carry out His designs. Outwardly it would seem that God is indifferent to what is taking place; evil is triumphing, evil is reigning, men are exceeding the imaginations of their hearts; but God is hidden behind the scenes. Nothing can resist God: even Satan serves as His instrument. For us, Satan's power is formidable; for God it is less than a speck of straw that a puff of breeze blows away. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” we are told. It is neither the mighty Creator nor the God of vengeance who will break this formidable power; it is the God of peace. This act costs Him no effort; He will peacefully bruise this enemy under His saints' feet.

The fragrance of service pervades this entire chapter. Everyone cooperates in this activity in order give their master his rightful place, a place the wicked have taken away. Hushai, David's friend, is the first to face danger, but also the first instrument of victory. The priests are his first confidants. Their sons, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, carry the message that is to save David and his band. A simple obscure servant girl (v. 17) is used to forward it to them. The woman of Bahurim is equally obscure and as seldom mentioned as the Mary of Matthew 26: 6-13; she is just as deferential as Mary in the sphere that God has entrusted to her responsibility as a woman keeping her home. She renders service to the messengers and arranges a hiding place for them that the enemy is unable to discover. Though it has the two messengers as its immediate object her service is a “good work” on behalf of David. In this scene there is an uninterrupted chain of service working together toward a common goal. Had one link been missing David would become Absalom's prey. The poor servant girl's devotion is just as valuable to the king as Hushai's lovely disinterestedness. None is to be despised and the most humble will perhaps have the best place when it shall be said: “This one and that one was born in her” (Ps. 87: 5). “Wheresoever these glad tidings may be preached in the whole world, that also which this woman has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her,” says the Lord (Matt. 26: 13).

Not only do the various services, whatever they may be, form one whole because they have but one goal and one object, but it is worth noting that one individual's service calls for the service of the other, as it were. From one end of this account to the other each agent goes to work as stirred up by the preceding one. Often in moments of weariness and spiritual discouragement we complain how those who follow us in serving the Lord lack the eagerness to serve Him effectively, to risk something — be it comfort, gain, or reputation — to maintain our Master's rights over against the world. Such complaints are ineffectual, and are much like Elijah's cry: “I am left, I alone!” What we need to do is to redouble our zeal, an unfailing zeal to serve the Beloved. Like sound waves, light waves, and heat waves this activity will soon make itself felt beyond our restricted sphere.

David is warned and all his people pass over the Jordan: not one is missing.10 Thanks to this service, God's true people set a barrier between themselves and the enemy. Ahithophel, whose pride is wounded but who above all is apprehensive of David's final triumph, takes his own life, precipitating himself into eternal judgment in order to escape future vengeance (v. 23)!

David, pursued by Absalom, comes to Mahanaim. Here it was that Jacob returning from exile met the host of God sent to secure him against Esau's undertakings. Here too David, under discipline again taking a path of exile, is found beneath the same shield. How reassuring to our soul! Our circumstances may change: whether it be strength or weakness, the testing or the restoration of the soul — in one case as in the other the danger is the same, whether it comes from an Esau or an Absalom, and the resources of our God remain unchangeable.

Amasa replaces Joab at the head of David's rebellious son's army. He was a cousin to Joab cousin through his mother, but also through his mother's dishonor. Joab, as we shall see, never forgives anything: whether it be a blot against his family or the usurpation of his position, or the danger of competition for the place of supreme command.

At Manahaim we find service directed toward David's people as previously we have seen service directed toward David himself. It is touching to see the same zeal introducing three individuals to us, so different in position, nationality, and character. A common object of interest makes every barrier fall. Shobi the Ammonite, the son of Nahash, the brother of that same Hanun who had insulted David's messengers (2 Sam. 10), a man of royal line, is associated with Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, a simple servant of Saul and formerly poor Mephibosheth's guardian (2 Sam. 9: 4). Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim joins them; he had the authority of age and the prestige of great riches (2 Sam. 19: 32); but age does not impede his service and all his riches are used to maintain the king and his people. The people very especially attract the sympathy of these men: “The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty in the wilderness” (v. 29). They spare nothing when it comes to the companions of the fleeing king; they act in faith; their personal interest does not enter into consideration in their service. The authority of the one, the activity of the other, the riches and the attention of the third are all laid down at David's feet, as represented by his companions. Like Abigail all these men desire to wash the feet of the servants of their lord, and this abasement is not really abasement, for it exalts and glorifies a David who has today been abased but who will tomorrow be established in glory above all the kings of the earth.

2 SAMUEL 18 — ABSALOM'S DEATH AND DAVID'S BROKEN HEART

David marshals the people and arrays them under Joab, Abishai, and Ittai the Gittite, the only man deemed worthy by the king to have the same rank in leading the army as its already long accredited leaders. Yet Ittai had “come but yesterday,” a stranger who had no connections with God's people. What reason was there for exalting him to a post of such importance at this critical moment? His unreserved attachment to David. The Lord likewise entrusts us with service according to the measure of our love for Him.

David wants to go forth with his people into battle. They all reply: “Thou shalt not go forth.” Both these sentiments are according to God. Instead of going out with his people David had remained at Jerusalem in the past (2 Sam. 11: 1), and had had to bear the consequences; now he understands that his place is with the army; but the people are right also, for they appreciate David's worth; “Thou art worth ten thousand of us” (v. 3). The people in their love for David understand even better than does Ahithophel what this false prophet in his hatred against David was well aware of: “I will smite the king only...the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned” (2 Sam. 17: 2-3). On both sides there is the conviction that everything depends on David. Only, on the part of the people faith is active; for them David absent from the battle field is just as much as David present. “It is better that thou succor us out of the city,” they say. David yields to their request: “I will do what is good in your sight” (vv. 3-4). This is how the Lord Jesus acts toward us. As He once did with the centurion and the Syrophenician woman, He yields to faith, He allows Himself to be constrained, for He cannot do other than to respond to what His own grace has wrought in the heart.

The people pass before the king. In presence of one and all David commands the leaders to “Deal gently...with the young man Absalom” (v. 5). What tenderness toward this rebellious son! — mixed with weakness perhaps but which nonetheless makes us think of the Lord's boundless love for His enemies. Oh! if only they would return and repent at this eleventh hour! Does not His patience with them reach to the furthest limits? Only when His patience is completely exhausted will God pour out the cup of His wrath; then there will be no more mercy.

What follows needs no commentary. The ungodly son is hanged in a tree to his cursing and shame. The magnificent hair that was his glory becomes the means of his ruin. This man who in his youth before he had any sons (v. 18, cf. 2 Sam. 14: 27) had erected a monument “to keep [his] name in remembrance” is buried under an unknown heap of stones in the wood of Ephraim while his monument which remains to this day is a reminder of his humiliation and his terrible judgment. So it will be with the Antichrist and the Beast who will rise up against the Lord. Their fall will be all the more terrible because they will have exalted themselves to be as God (Isa. 14: 12-20).

We see God's hand in this disaster, but we also see Joab's murderous hand, a terrible thing. He is always committing evil. Here he shows what measure of respect he has for the king's will and person. His self-interest leads him to get rid of Absalom who had once humbled his pride (2 Sam. 14: 32-33) and who might one day thwart him by setting Amasa in his place. Joab will kill Amasa himself when he sees that Absalom's murder has not produced the desired results. A man from among the people has more respect for the king's will than does the very head of his army (vv. 12-13).

Israel is completely overthrown and flees before victorious Judah. Ahimaaz wants to be the first to bring the good news to David. He had risked his life to warn him of impending danger. Now he does not want to let another have the privilege of announcing his triumph to the king. Joab, always politically shrewd and knowing the king's feelings toward Absalom, tries to discourage him, but in vain. It matters little to Ahimaaz whether this may hurt him personally or hinder his career; he does not share Joab's politics. Whatever may come of it, he desires to be the first, bowed before the king, to acknowledge the dignity that again is his. This is the focus of all his energy, for he belongs to David wholeheartedly. Perhaps he also is thinking of breaking and softening the blow that Absalom's death will inflict on his beloved master's heart. One thing is certain: he has only David's glory in view. May we run like Ahimaaz! May we run to be the first at the feet of our victorious Lord, permitting no one to outstrip us!

When the Cushite announces the fatal news David's heart is broken with unconsolable sorrow: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died in thy stead, O Absalom, my son, my son! (v. 33).

“Would God I had died in thy stead!” David could not do this. This was reserved for One alone who would die for the ungodly, the only One who was counted among the transgressors and who bore the sin of many (Isa. 53: 12). But David could give free vent to his sorrow over the irrevocable loss of that one whose salvation he had so ardently desired.

No doubt human sentiments were mixed with all this mourning; this is why David needed to have a broken heart. While it is much, a broken spirit (Ps. 51: 17) is not enough. With a broken spirit, self-will cannot be active. Before he had a broken spirit David had followed his own will which had led him into adultery and to Uriah's murder. A broken spirit gives up its own will in order to depend on God (2 Sam. 15: 25-26; 2 Sam. 16: 10-12; 2 Sam. 18: 4). There was no need for Jesus' spirit to be broken. Did He not say, when He came into the world: “Lo, I come to do, O God, Thy will”?

But sooner or later our heart must be broken as well as our spirit. Sometimes God begins with the one, sometimes with the other. When Peter wept bitterly he truly had a broken, humbled heart, for brokenness of heart is always accompanied by humiliation (Ps. 51: 17). Peter's spirit was not broken until later: “When thou wast young,” Jesus says to him, “thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst where thou desiredst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and bring thee where thou dost not desire” (John 21: 18).

Often the heart is not broken all at one time; David's heart was broken on three occasions: at the court of Achish when he saw that he had dishonored the Lord and he himself was in the dust (Ps. 34: 18); after the loss of his child (Ps. 51: 17); and finally in our chapter. Here his humiliation was already complete, yet still his natural affections must be consumed and reduced to ashes so that divine affections alone might occupy his heart. God does not obtain this result except by this means. Only in a broken heart can the Lord occupy the full place.

Christ's heart was also broken, but in a way quite different from how our hearts are broken. His love was disregarded: this is what broke His heart. The more His love was demonstrated, the more hatred rose up against Him. “Reproach hath broken My heart” (Ps. 69: 20). He did not need, as do we, this breaking in order to be laid bare. He was love itself, but His human heart was broken by the impossibility of showing forth this love in face of the hatred of man, whose only response to so much grace was the shame and ignominy of the cross. And in spite of all this the Savior's broken heart bore the curse and all the weight of God's judgment, so as to save those who railed on Him and spit in His face.

Nor let us forget that we need continual brokenness. Each time God wants to manifest some new feature of Christ in us, He breaks our heart so that it may appear. Thus it was with the apostle Paul. Jesus' light and life shining through this broken vessel warmed and quickened the soul of his brethren.

From this time onward God has no further need to break David. At last the radiant sun is rising; his heart is full of grace emerging from his cruel trial, and he becomes the dispenser of this divine grace toward others.

2 SAMUEL 19: 1-40 — GRACE

Joab reproaches David for his weakness; Joab is exhorting David! But who other than he alone had brought on this evil and had so wrung the bowels of this father's affections? No doubt, it was according to the ways of God who was giving free course to the chastening that had been announced (2 Sam. 12: 10-11), and David must acknowledge His hand in all this. But woe to the unrighteous instrument by whom these ways were carried out. Only, the time of retribution had not yet come. God does not even permit that Joab be replaced by Amasa as David, offended, meant to do (v. 13). David complies with Joab's counsel. I do not doubt that this is because he knows the justice of God's ways toward himself. When he later delegates Joab's judgment to Solomon, it is not actually Absalom's death of which he accuses him, but above all of the murder of Abner and Amasa during a time of peace (1 Kings 2: 5). David then sits at the gate of the city where all the people present themselves before him.

The discipline is now ended. Discipline was exercised in 1 Samuel to keep David in the path of dependence. There was no bitterness then, but rather the happy consciousness of divine favor. In the Second Book discipline is bitter for it is accompanied by the consciousness of having dishonored a holy God. But what fruit it bears too! God fills the broken heart as He alone is able to do, and outwardly the life of Jesus is manifested. We enter upon a scene of grace, forgiveness, and peace, the expression of what now occupies the king's heart.

In verses 9-15 we see grace. The ten tribes had betrayed and abandoned David in order to follow unrighteous Absalom; they are the first to return and speak of bringing back the king. David knows of this and opens his arms to Judah, so slow, so slothful until now to acknowledge the throne of their king, and who ought to have born the penalty for this. “Ye are my bone and my flesh,” he tells them (v. 12). Amasa had been the head of the army that had pursued David, and he was all the more guilty in that he like Joab was the king's nephew. “Art thou not my bone, and my flesh?” David sends to say to Amasa (v. 13). His grace demands nothing; much rather it delights in doing good to his enemies.

In verses 16 to 23 we find forgiveness. The king forgives Shimei who in order to avoid the fate awaiting him comes to submit himself: “Let not my lord impute iniquity to me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely...for thy servant knows that I have sinned” (vv. 19-20). Abishai, still the same (cf. 2 Sam. 16: 9), would like to take revenge against Shimei. David stops him: “What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries to me? Should there any man be put to death this day in Israel?” No, this is the day of grace and forgiveness. Whether or not the feelings Shimei expresses are sincere David does not stop to consider; he is not judging them now; Shimei will have to give acount for them later when his conduct will reveal their reality (1 Kings 2: 36-46). “Thou shalt not die,” David tells this guilty man.

In verses 24 to 30 we have a scene of peace (vv. 24, 30). Mephibosheth comes down to meet his benefactor; he had been in mourning ever since David's departure. Ziba had deceived him and slandered him. Here we discover a new feature of Ziba's character. It was in wicked Shimei's company that Ziba had crossed the Jordan to meet the king (vv. 16-17). David's silence as to Ziba is characteristic. Why, it appears that he is reproaching Mephibosheth. Perhaps his infirmity was not as great an obstacle as he had thought for following a fleeing David. Perhaps like Jonathan his father he lacked a certain moral courage to associate himself with the dangers facing his benefactor. This is not revealed to us and we can only guess. But what is certain is that in the king's absence his life had been a life of affliction, mourning, prayers and ardent longing for his return (v. 24). How then can David treat him so rudely? “Why speakest thou any more of thy matters?” (v. 29). These words remind us a little of those, seemingly so hard, that Jesus spoke to the Syrophenician woman. The Lord spoke them to put this woman's faith to the test. When an engineer builds a bridge he has very heavy loads go across it in order to test it. David's words do the same. Mephibosheth's precious faith is put to the test and what comes forth is only the perfume of dependence and self-denial. This faith has three characteristics: Mephibosheth accepts David's will as being the will of God: “My lord the king is as an angel of God; do therefore what is good in thy sight” (v. 27). This will, whatever it may be, is good in Mephibosheth's eyes because it is good in David's eyes (cf. Rom. 12: 2). Secondly, he recognizes that he has no right to the king's favor based on his ancestry or personal worth: “For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; and thou didst set thy servant among them that eat at thine own table. What further right therefore have I? and for what should I cry any more to the king?” (v. 28). Finally when David replies, saying, “I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land,”11 Mephibosheth answers: “Let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in peace to his own house” (v. 30). He renounces all his temporal advantages; for Mephibosheth it is enough that his lord has recovered the place due him.

Oh! may our faith when put to the test ever produce fruit like this!

In contrast to Mephibosheth Barzillai (vv. 31-40) is tested by the offer of temporal blessings. He was very rich but very different from the young man whom “Jesus loved,” and he had placed his fortune at the king's disposition during his stay at Manahaim (v. 32). His great age had not hindered him from giving himself, body and goods, in service to David. David offers him a reward proportionate to his devotion: “Pass thou over with me, and I will maintain thee with me in Jerusalem” (v. 33). But Barzillai had not labored for a reward, and judging himself unworthy of it, he refuses. “How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old: can I discern between good and bad? can thy servant taste what I eat and what I drink?...why should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?” (vv. 34-35). Let his son Chimham profit from the fruit of his labor: far from opposing this, Barzillai rejoices in it (vv. 37-38). Later, like Mephibosheth at David's table, Barzillai's sons eat at Solomon's table (1 Kings 2: 7).

Three things suffice this man of God beyond the happiness of once more seeing the king's rights acknowledged beyond the Jordan and seeing him established in his kingdom again. The first is the lovely promise of verse 38: “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which seems good to thee: and whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee.” The second is that when leaving him David gives him a token of his love: “The king kissed Barzillai.” Through this kiss he, like Enoch, receives the testimony of having pleased God in the person of His anointed. The third is that the king “blessed him” (v. 39). Jesus also when leaving His beloved disciples lifted His hands to bless them and today maintains the same attitude with regard to us. His hands although invisible remain lifted up over us, leaving in our hearts the certainty of the full efficacy of His work. Barzillai returns to his place with the warmth of love, the joy of blessings, and with David's promise: “Whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee,” and that other glorious promise that his son, yes, even his sons should pass over with the king, never to leave him, and to be seated forever at the king of glory's table!

2 SAMUEL 19: 41- 2 SAMUEL 20

CONFLICT BETWEEN BROTHERS

Just as David so Israel's remnant will rediscover a path to again enter Canaan in reality, as the people once did in figure. The Jordan, the river of death, is this path. Death with Christ is necessary in order to enter into the inheritance and blessings of the promises. Then comes Gilgal (2 Sam. 19: 40), the place of circumcision where Egypt's shame was rolled away from the people. For the first time these end time believers will in fact know what is the true circumcision of Christ, “the putting off of the body of the flesh.” They will enter the kingdom of God as those who have been born anew.

This passage that applies to the remnant also applies to us, although in another way. No doubt we are now dead with Christ; we have been circumcised once for all with a circumcision not done by hand, which is the circumcision of Christ (Col 2: 11). We cannot be driven out of the heavenlies which are our inheritance; but the necessary consequence of our unfaithfulness is the Lord's discipline. Thus we can and must lose the joy of heavenly things after a fall, and if we are not driven out of Canaan as with David or the remnant, at least we become strangers to it, being thrown back into the world from which the grace of God had separated us.

In order for this to be it is enough that we forget for an instant by returning to those things from which the cross has separated us that Christ's death, like the Jordan and Gilgal, separates us from the world and from the flesh. Then in order to recover the power of that which our foolishness has despised we must in a practical way begin again the path already followed, renewing our familiarity with our Jordan and with our Gilgal and by repentance rediscovering the purpose of the cross and power of death with Christ, by which means we have been crucified to sin and the world. May God grant us to make these experiences through His Word and not by actual falls. David's history teaches us the immense loss that a fall brought to his soul despite the perfection of the grace that was glorified in his restoration.

From 2 Samuel 19: 41 to 2 Samuel 20: 2 we see discord between Israel and Judah. Indeed, neither side was fully right. Israel as a whole had betrayed David but was the first to return after Absalom's death (2 Sam. 19: 8-10); Judah had been slow and slothful at first, but had made up for this lack of alacrity by answering the call of grace while Israel was still deliberating (2 Sam. 19: 11-15).

Jealous of Judah's decision, the ten tribes complain to the king. Judah answers by asserting their close ties with the son of Jesse and by suggesting that when they brought back the king, they did not have — as did others — motives of self-interest (2 Sam. 19: 42). Israel replies: “I have ten parts in the king and I have also more right in David than thou: and why didst thou slight me? and was not my advice the first, to bring back my king?” (v. 43). All these exchanges are of the flesh. Ambition for playing a role in the things of God, jealousy as we view our brethren's activities, wounded self-love, and preoccupation with ourselves is certainly not the fruit of the Spirit and of divine affections. Despite their superior position Judah was no better than the ten tribes. “The words of the men of Judah were harsher than the words of the men of Israel” (v. 43). Those who are right act without love and division is the inevitable result. This division is realized in 2 Samuel 20: 1-2. At the instigation of Satan (who uses Sheba, the son of Bichri, for this work), Israel, who had just said: “I have ten parts in the king,” now cries: “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse” (v. 1). Thus all Israel separate themselves from him over a selfish question; this is exactly what the enemy desires. At the beginning it is often difficult to guess his intentions, but the time always comes when he unmasks himself and draws poor blind saints after himself. What folly to prefer a “man of Belial,” a Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, to David! Such is always the case in the internal conflicts of God's people. Satan's object is to turn souls aside from Christ. It matters little to him if after this Judah is still attached to the Lord's anointed. Hasn't this little group been discredited by their having spoken more harshly than Israel? It is humiliating for Judah to have failed in this struggle, but one thing remains to them: David's grace had anticipated them. “Ye are my bone and my flesh.” He it was who had inclined their hearts like one man by reawakening the sense of their intimate unity with himself (2 Sam. 19: 14). All merit must accrue to David. By grace “the men of Judah clave to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem” (v. 2). Thus Judah finds blessing despite their fault, for they remained there where David was.

Having retaken his place in the midst of the remnant of his people, David purifies his house of the corruption which had come into it. He does not drive out his defiled wives to rebuild it on a new footing, for he himself was responsible for all this ruin. Evil, vessels to dishonor, and defilement are there. David bears the pain and humiliation of this while personally purifying himself from these things in order to be a vessel to honor for the Lord. In no wise does he link himself with the evil which, however, he had provoked. To the contrary, his separation is public. He understands that from this time on he must be a “vessel to honor, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work.”

These things apply to us also, dear reader. We live in the time of ruin announced in the Second Epistle to Timothy. We can neither rebuild God's house nor break the vessels to dishonor, but we can separate ourselves from iniquity, thus bearing the seal of the “firm foundation of God” (2 Tim. 2: 19-21).

David, who has decided to dismiss Joab, attempts to fulfill the promise made to his nephew Amasa by making him head of the army (cf. 2 Sam. 19: 13); he charges him with gathering together the men of Judah to pursue the son of Bichri. Amasa delays in accomplishing his mission. Perhaps David was impatient, for Amasa was not a traitor and had already come to Gibeon, not far from Jerusalem, when the company led by Abishai and the mighy men went out of the capital (v. 8). The fact is that through fear of the evil that Sheba might do David once again falls into Joab's hands through Abishai's instrumentality. Could not David have inquired of the Lord at this renewing of his reign? God had once before inclined Israel's heart; could He not do so a second time?

Joab, who is ambitious and has no scruples, for whom every act advancing his personal interests is legitimate, becomes a murderer for the third time in order to regain his position.

There before the city of Abel a woman's wisdom brings an end to the shedding of blood. This fratricidal war comes to an end through the death of Sheba, the real culprit. Joab himself speaks a word of wisdom here. He accuses Sheba of having “lifted up his hand against the king, against David” (v. 21). This was in fact getting to the heart of the matter, for Sheba's attack was directed against the king. The woman of Abel realizes that the only way of restoring peace is by judging the guilty one: “Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall” (v. 21). It is not as is often said, a matter of everyone admitting his wrongs and humbling himself; this does not remove the evil; rather, the one who had lifted up his hand against David must be cut off.

Is not this what should always take place in conflicts between brethren about doctrine? Some judge a heretic, others accept him, and peace cannot be re-established except by cutting off the wicked person.

This chapter ends like 2 Samuel 8: 15-18 by listing the restored order of the administration of the kingdom. What follows is a sort of epilogue to the book.

2 SAMUEL 21-24

2 SAMUEL 21: 1-14 — RIZPAH

Now that the kingdom of Israel was again restored after terrible and well-merited trials had assailed it, we might think that a period of peaceful prosperity would begin; but instead, Israel is visited by a new plague. I do not doubt that this famine may have taken place at some other time during his reign, for it says: “There was a famine in the days of David” (v. 1), but whenever the Spirit of God inverts the order of an account He has a specific purpose for this, as we see at the end of Judges and in hundreds of incidents in the Gospels.

God's government cannot ignore evil, whatever it may be, and it judges it all the more severely when the congregation is in a relatively good condition. Many years had passed since Saul's bloody deed; this king's history does not mention it; the people had perhaps forgotten it, perhaps it was also unknown to David, but God had not forgotten it and this deed still remained before His eyes. The congregation of Israel had not been implicated in the crime; Saul who had committed it had died long ago; why then call it to mind again? Here it is a matter of a very important principle in God's ways, whether toward His ancient people or toward the Church. The people are jointly liable for Saul's act, for it took place on the territory of the congregation of Israel. The violation of pledges and of an oath made in the name of the Lord (Joshua 9: 18) rendered the people guilty of the sin which their leader had committed. Generation had followed generation since the time of that act; the people might appeal to their ignorance in the matter — but the crime remained, and God in His time calls it to remembrance.

Do not similiar events take place in our days and do they not speak to the consciences of saints? Little does it matter how much time has elapsed: the Assembly is jointly liable for the iniquity which it has let be committed, and it remains defiled by an act against which it has not protested.

The reader knows the history of the Gibeonites. We can read it in Joshua 9. The Amorites had used trickery in order to be received by the congregation of Israel and thus escape the judgment of their people. God considered that which the congregation had bound as bound; they could not revoke their oath. No doubt by placing the Gibeonites in a relationship of slavery to the people God's grace had freed Israel from the consequences of a false step taken lightly and in ignorance, but the consequences of a decision made according to the flesh remained permanently. Saul judged otherwise, for a man in the flesh always does exactly the opposite of what the Spirit would instruct one to do. And still Saul was full of “zeal for the children of Israel and Judah” (v. 2), but it was a zeal that, alas, was only too closely allied to hatred against the Lord's anointed. Saul of Tarsus too was full of a zeal which made him the persecutor of Christ in His Assembly. In our days we also may be zealous for our own nation or for our church without God having any part in the matter.

Once Saul would have sacrificed his own son, Israel's deliverer, for sake of the rash oath which he had made (1 Sam. 14: 24, 44). Now this same Saul despised the oath by which Joshua and the princes of Israel had bound themselves in the name of the Lord with regard to the Gibeonites.

The famine rages for three consecutive years: blow upon blow falls upon the congregation of God. By this trial David's conscience is brought to seek out the cause: “David inquired of Jehovah” (v. 1). This was his only resource and God answered him immediately: “It is for Saul, and for his house of blood, because he slew the Gibeonites” (v. 1). “His house of blood!” When the son of Gera, pursuing a humbled David, had cried out after him: “Away, away, thou man of blood and man of Belial! Jehovah has returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul...for thou art a man of blood,” God had recorded these insults of this man of the house of Saul; but now the time had come for Him to express His thought about this outrage: God characterizes Saul's house as “bloody” and justifies the house of David.

After having inquired of the Lord to learn the reason for this chastisement, David should no doubt have continued to inquire of Him regarding the manner of rendering justice to the Gibeonites. Instead of this he consults the Gibeonites, who demand seven men from Saul's family “and we will hang them up to Jehovah in Gibeah” (v. 6). David consents to this for, whatever his weakness might be, judgment was necessary. Mephibosheth is spared. David who had treated him earlier with apparent severity here shows that he always bore him on his heart. David was not a man to forget his oaths. Had he not sworn to Jonathan: “Jehovah be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever” (1 Sam 20: 42)?

Rizpah's two sons and the five sons of Michal (or Merab) the daughter of Saul (cf. 1 Sam. 18: 19) are delivered up to the Gibeonites. Their procedure — one can hardly be surprised at their indifference to the prescriptions of the law — is not in accord with the ordinance given in Deuteronomy: “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou have hanged him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day (for he that is hanged is a curse of God); and thou shalt not defile thy land, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance” (Deut. 21: 22-23).

The “barley harvest” might be an excuse for thus disobeying the injunctions of Scripture, but excuses do not justify disobedience. It is likely however, according to the acccount, that they were removed from the gallows and left exposed on the rock instead of receiving burial.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of these, (already mentioned earlier in the matter of the quarrel between Abner and Ish-bosheth (2 Sam. 3: 7), performs an act of piety that makes her name deserve to live on in the memory of believers. She makes herself guardian of the seven corpses. The motive for her devotedness is not that her two sons are among the condemned, for she watches over the five others as well as over the corpses of her own sons. She is concerned about the posterity of the one who had been “the chosen of Jehovah” (v. 6). She shows her piety toward her husband and master's house. Moreover Rizpah is a woman of faith. She guards their bodies from all profanation and watches over them, the sackcloth of mourning she spreads for herself being her only means of carrying out this painful task. Thus she combines her mourning with her watchful piety toward the dead. At least their burial must be honorable. She does not want to leave them as food for the birds of the heavens by day or for the beasts of the field by night as though they were criminals and reprobates. So it is that the nations will act toward God's people (Ps. 79: 2), but this is not how the Lord had commanded nor how one should act in Israel!

Rizpah's faith is rewarded: “It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done” (v. 11). This woman's deed is worthy of being registered in the king's heart. In the midst of her mourning, what joy! She has found a heart that understands her and that delights to reward her — grace answering to her desires. Saul's descendants' bones are united with those of their fathers in the sepulchre of Kish. This woman was on God's path and obtained the answer her faith craved.

Henceforth the Lord can be favorable to the land, for judgment has been executed, but grace also has run its course; for in His ways God never stops at judgment, but rather judgment prepares the way for the triumph of grace.

2 SAMUEL 21: 15-22 — THE SONS OF THE GIANT

The end of David's history has the same character as its beginning. Goliath seems to come to life again. So it was for the Lord also: after the temptation in the wilderness Satan left Him for a time and reappeared at Gethsemane, seeking to terrify Him so that He would abandon His work. His efforts were in vain and at Gethsemane as well as in the wilderness Jesus won the victory.

After Christ's victory, even though the “children of Raphah” (i.e., of the giant) attack His redeemed, thinking to overcome them more easily than their Master, their fate is the same; they come out of the strife defeated. This conflict is repeated four times with the Philistines. It is from these internal enemies that the sons of the giant proceed, these “ravening wolves” who seek to ravish the flock by frightening their leaders.

The first time David personally is involved (vv. 15-17). He had gone down with his servants, taking neither his age nor his strength into account: “David was exhausted” (v. 15). Ishbibenob who was of the children of the giant, formidable with his weapon  - ”the weight of his lance was three hundred shekels of bronze”  - invulnerable because of the “new armor” he was wearing, thinks to take advantage of the king's apparent weakness. But “Abishai the son of Zeruiah succored him, and smote the Philistine and killed him” (v. 17). Thus this servant of David is put to the test; he does not abandon his master in danger and has the honor of saving David. Is it not likewise with us? The Lord has fought for us and delivered us; do we not in a sense have the duty of helping Him? His name, His person, and His glory are threatened by the enemy's agents. This enemy attacks our David in order to destroy all remembrance of Him, and he knows that his time is short, for already the dawn of our Lord's glorious reign is about to break in the person of Solomon. Will the enemy succeed? We are responsible for his victory or his defeat. It is up to us now in the power of the Spirit of God to smite the giant's son, to conquer Christ's attackers, to keep His name and His word intact in face of the enemy who would destroy them.

And even if we are not “David's mighty men,” should we not swear to Him as all David's servants did: “Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel” (v. 17)? And so each one's faith is put to the test. They realize that they themselves must fight, each in his rank, so that the light of God's people might not go out but continue to shine in all its splendor. No doubt our David is never weary like the David of this history: “The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not nor tireth” (Isa. 40: 28). But in order to test and strengthen our faith, to encourage our hearts in conflict and cheer them with victory and reward, He loves to place Himself in a position in relation to His own where He, the victor over Satan, seems to need our help. What a privilege to fight for Him! The time is solemn; Christ is being attacked on every hand; the enemy's effort seems formidable and surpasses our feeble resources by far. Those who ought to be with Him and defend the integrity of His Word and His Person, more often than not, alas, make common cause with the sons of the giant. Let us not be disturbed about this.

It does not matter if our David is absent as in the two battles at Gob (vv. 18-19); the same Spirit that urged Him on is still with us. Perhaps we may be alone as Sibbechai the Hushathite was alone against Saph — for the stricken giant is always reappearing in another form. What does that matter? Perhaps — discouraging situation — Gob, the place where he was defeated, will become a battlefield for us a second time. What does it matter if we must retrace the same steps when we thought that we had finished with a treacherous struggle?

Look now! Goliath, that ancient enemy, reappears on this ground. “And there was again a battle at Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, smote Goliath the Gittite; now the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam” (v. 19). Was not Goliath defeated by David? Be not troubled, be not afraid, Elhanan, hero of “the grace of God”!12 This Goliath, this Gittite, is a false Goliath bearing a deceptive name, a lying name. He is only Lahmi, Goliath's brother (cf. 1 Chr. 20: 5). Yes, but he has the same spear, like a weaver's beam, doesn't he (cf. 1 Sam. 17: 7)? Ask him, Elhanan, where his sword is. His sword is in David's hands and it will remain there forever. Victory is assured you, Elhanan! To win this victory there is no need even of a slingstone which you surely could never wield as deftly as your king anyway. It is confidence, the humble dependence you saw in David, that will overcome him. Yes, at any rate the victory is yours; it is ours, because it is His!

The last enemy, a monstrous intimidating man, is not named but he also was born to the giant, “a man of great stature, that had on each hand six fingers, and on each foot six toes, four and twenty in number” (vv. 20-22). As once Goliath did, so he defies Israel (v. 21; 1 Sam. 17: 10). In Christ's absence we must fight for Him as well as for His people. To defy the one is to defy the other. We have brothers who are captives of the enemy, like Lot, sadly linked up with the world as he was, who must be saved “with fear, snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 23). Let us stand in the breach like Jonathan the son of Shimeah and let us demonstrate that like him by grace we bear the name “David's brothers” (cf. v. 21). Like him may we have the interests of His people at heart.

How painful it is to hear: Why are you meddling? We are all right where we are. You are making war against us — for they identify themselves with the enemy enslaving them and prefer their slavery to the liberty which is offered to them. But what of it? Let us fight for them, let us smite this terrible power that defies God's people. Another blow, this one will be the last. Just one more victory and the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our enemies, and we shall in peace be able to raise the words of our song to Him, as did David!

2 SAMUEL 22 — THE SONG OF DELIVERANCE

We have now reached David's final deliverance. All his enemies, of whom Saul was one (v. 1), have disappeared. This song which historically belongs at the beginning of 2 Samuel 7 is placed here because the last enemy of David and of his people has just been defeated (2 Sam. 21: 21) and from now on this hostile power will never again raise its head. Indeed, these words which we find again in Psalm 18 could not have been spoken on this occasion, for they mention a time when David was not under discipline but had by grace been preserved from falling amid his cruel enemy's pursuit. But even in these times of strength and holiness which had characterized the first period of his career David could never have applied all the verses of this psalm to himself, as we shall see. David was a prophet; his prophetic songs arise from his personal experiences, but they would not have been prophetic if they did not have Christ as their object. In his experiences David is a reflection of Christ, and this is an immense privilege; but this is only a feeble light, a small reproduction of the perfect Model.

This psalm here before us is divided into three parts.

The first part (vv. 1-19) celebrates deliverance from Saul's hand: “He delivered me from my strong enemy” (v. 17). This deliverance recalls that of Israel, saved from Pharaoh's pursuit, crossing the Red Sea: “The beds of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke of Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils. He reached forth from above, He took me, He drew me out of great waters” (vv. 15-16). However, this picture does not correspond exactly to David's deliverance or to Israel's deliverance out of Egypt. It treats of a time yet future and prophetic. It deals with the remnant's deliverance at the time of the end when God will intervene openly and visibly in their favor (vv. 8-15). They will be led to death's door, and then God will intervene in their favor and will scatter their enemies in an instant. Before this deliverance the remnant will learn that their Messiah, David's Son, passed through this anguish alone and bore it, thus associating Himself with the future distress of His people, in order that He might deliver them. David could only in feeble measure realize these words which make us think of the agony at Gethsemane: “The waves of death encompassed me, torrents of Belial made me afraid. The bands of Sheol surrounded me; the cords of death encountered me” (vv. 4-5).

The second part of the Psalm (vv. 19-30) is even more striking in this respect than the first. The reason for David's deliverance is that God takes pleasure in His anointed according to all the perfection of his character. Now, even before David's fall and how much less after that fall, David's character did not exactly correspond to these verses: “He brought me forth into a large place: He delivered me, because He delighted in me. Jehovah hath rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands hath He recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His ordinances were before me, and His statutes, I did not depart from them, and I was upright before Him, and kept myself from mine iniquity. And Jehovah hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His sight. With the gracious Thou dost show Thyself gracious; with the upright man Thou dost show Thyself upright; with the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure; and with the perverse Thou dost show Thyself contrary” (vv. 19-26). David is celebrating the perfection of Someone other than himself: “Jehovah hath recompensed Me according to My righteousness, according to My cleanness in His sight.” Christ alone could give His Father a reason for loving Him and for saving Him — but His salvation has become His people's salvation (v. 27).

In the third part of the Psalm (vv. 31-51) David celebrates what God had done for him. God had answered him by delivering him “from the strivings of my people” (which corresponds to 2 Samuel 20 in David's history), by making him “head of the nations” whom he had subjugated (v. 43). The children of Ammon, the Philistines, the Syrians, and Edom had had to bow beneath his yoke. But how all this speaks to us of One who is greater than David! He comes forth from the trial to be acknowledged as King of Israel and Head of the nations. “Strangers come cringing unto [Him]” (v. 45) God avenges Him and brings the peoples under Him (v. 47). He lifts Him up above them that rose up against Him (v. 48; cf. Ps. 2: 2,6).

Nevertheless David could celebrate these things with a heart filled with thanksgiving. Grace rested on him at that time on account of the integrity and perfection of his conduct. He was at the end of his path of difficulties, and this path was the path of a walk with God. With a peaceful rejoicing heart he celebrated the deliverance that grace accorded his faithfulness. On David's side all is joy, liberty, power, and thanksgiving; on God's side all is favor and grace.

What will we find in the following chapter where it is a question of the king's responsibility?

2 SAMUEL 23: 1-7 — DAVID'S LAST WORDS

Now we come to the concluding words of David's career. Just prior to his death he considers the result of his entire life as a king favored by God but yet responsible. This life embraces all his experiences, his fall, and the discipline that followed. Ready now to leave the world he looks backward, forward, and round about him, and his sight is clearer than it had ever been before. He reviews the past, considers the present, and contemplates the future, and we learn his thoughts enlightened by the teaching and inspiration of the Spirit of God.

The first verse is not part of David's last words. It solemnly presents to us as something of greatest importance that which characterized the man who spoke these words. The first point is that in order to speak them he was inspired by God. The twice repeated word “saith” indicates that David spoke in oracles. Thus he was inspired in all four respects in which he is presented in this verse: as “the son of Jesse” in the humble character of his human descent, as “the man who was raised up on high” in the character God gave him in raising him up as a man, as “the anointed of the God of Jacob” in his character as king of Israel, the people who had received the promises, and lastly, as “the sweet psalmist of Israel” in his character as prophet bringing grace to his people.

What now are the words of this man whom God has just described to us? First of all he testifies that it was the Spirit of God who spoke by him: “The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue” (v. 2). Next he declares that God had directly communicated His thoughts about His people Israel to him: “The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me” (v. 3). Here we have solemn divine authority at the same time as clearest affirmation of what inspiration is. Inspiration uses man, all of man, and to express itself inspiration uses all this human instrument's characteristics. If he says something, it is as an oracle; if he speaks, it is the Lord speaking by him. Man has mixed in nothing that is of himself: “His word was on my tongue.” God uses what He wants of man in order to present His thoughts in the absolute integrity of His Word. But if God speaks by David, He also speaks to David: “The Rock of Israel spoke to me.” What He told him is part of the treasure of his personal experiences.

What does this word, so marvelously preserved, convey to us? We have already mentioned it, and we shall see it: the past, the present, and the future: The past is me and my history; the present is grace; the future is Christ and glory.

However, the first object that God presents to David and by him is not David himself, that is, his past; but rather Christ, that is, his future and our future with Him. Doubtless David was here announcing the immediate future, Solomon's reign, but in reality Solomon did not answer to the glorious description given us here of the future king of glory. This was as always a prophecy of Christ. The future is the immediate thing in God's thoughts and so it ought to be in our thoughts as well, just as it was in David's thoughts. What a wonderful revelation of the true king's character! “The ruler among men shall be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun, a morning without clouds” (vv. 3-4). How fresh, new, young, and immaculate everything is in this glory, in this dawning of the sun of righteousness! This will be the beginning of an era of unmixed happiness. Who has not looked upon the rising sun in a sky of perfect purity on a spring morning? Who has not felt his heart expand, overwhelmed with this freshness and this inexpressible peace? The beauty of the scene ravishes us; nothing troubles this joy; there is not a dark spot on the horizon; the possibility of a storm seems to be past forever; we live, we enjoy this spectacle without distraction — a morning without clouds!

But the rising of the sun presents even more than the splendor of this star in a pure heaven: “When from the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth” (v. 4). The renewed earth seems resurrected by its shining. Of Solomon, a type of Christ we read: “He shall come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth” (Ps. 72: 6).13 Men, His people, are affected by his rays. Grass mowed down by judgment gives way to new grass: the remnant, a willing people. The shining of the sun of righteousness will cause it to sprout up with abundance of blessings after He descends like a refreshing rain on His humbled people. “From the womb of the morning shall come to thee the dew of thy youth” (Ps. 110: 3).

Thus the appearance of Christ's glory, their joy and their hope, will surpass every other thought in the hearts of those who know and love Him.

At the sight of this glory David now turns back to himself and his history. It is as though he were saying: This is what I should have been and what another will be; now here is what I am: “Although my house be not so before God” (v. 5). Alas, it takes only a few words to write and to read this story of humiliation and shame. But here we see that in the presence of death David has nothing more to learn. He has no confidence in himself nor in his house and he condemns them both. Is not this like the patriarch's expression: “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life”? So much for the past. David had not answered to what God expected of him nor had he shown what the “just ruler over mankind” ought to be.

But one thing remained, established for the present and for eternity: “Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in every way and sure” (v. 5). The present is grace: that which God had done for David despite what David had been. “At this time it shall be said...What hath God wrought!” (Num. 23: 23). God's covenant is eternal and secure. It is a new covenant, for the old covenant was indeed ordered but it was neither secure nor eternal because of man's responsibility. God sought a ground for the new covenant in Himself; man does not enter into this covenant as a contracting party. This is why it can endure and never end. David rests upon that which God has done: “For this is all my salvation, and every desire, although He make it not to grow” (v. 5). This covenant is not growing at present; it will spring up in relation to a new people (v. 4). For it to grow and for full blessing to be introduced, judgment must first be executed: “The sons of Belial are all of them as thorns thrust away...and they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place” (vv. 6-7). But David can firmly rely on this covenant and on God's promises.

We always find the three things we have just spoken of with a soul that is in the Lord's presence. Did they not shine in all their splendor even in the thief on the cross? This man judged himself by acknowledging the righteousness of God's judgment: “Dost thou too not fear God, thou that art under the same judgment? and we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done.” His standard was what Christ had been: “But this Man has done nothing amiss.” He counted on His grace: “Remember me,” and looking forward to His future glory he added: “Lord, when Thou comest in Thy kingdom” (Luke 23: 39-43).

2 SAMUEL 23: 8-39 — DAVID'S MIGHTY MEN

After David's last words God shows us that He preserves the memory of his mighty men, companions of His anointed until the final establishment of his reign. He had met still other devoted men such as Ittai and Shobi when he fled from Jerusalem, but those who are mentioned here were his associates from the very beginning. So too the twelve disciples were distinguished because they had companied with the Lord “all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out” among them (Luke 22: 28-29; Acts 1: 21). In like manner those who have followed Him during the time that the world has rejected and disowned Him will be singled out for honor.

In number there are thirty-seven men here (cf. 1 Chr. 11-12).

Joab who had held the top position as the head of the army until the end of David's reign is excluded from his mighty men. Perhaps he had performed more brilliant actions than all the others; much courage and even a certain outward devotedness to the king was found in him, but these qualities in themselves do not give one a place in God's register; otherwise the Word would list nearly all the great heroes of humanity. Psalm 87: 4 teaches us what God understands by “mighty men”: “I will make mention of Rahab (Egypt) and Babylon among them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia: this man was born there.” The glory of these heroes of the nations was past and did not extend beyond their short lifespans although they had filled the earth with the fame of their names. “And of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her” (v. 5). Such was the character of David's mighty men: through their origin they were considered to belong to the city of royal grace. But the Spirit adds: “Jehovah will count, when He inscribeth the peoples, This man was born there” (v. 6). Despite every “this one” of the past, when the register of the nations shall be opened before the Lord He will find but one, the Man of His right hand, who deserves to have His origin in Zion. The leaders of the nations have had their day, and their glory has vanished in smoke; this Man will rule over all peoples; the start and the center of His kingdom will be at Jerusalem, and “all [the] springs” of those who belong to Him will be found in Himself (v. 7). But His mighty men, “this one and that one,” will be associated with Him in His reign.

What characterized David's mighty men therefore was the association that grace had given them with the Lord's anointed. Joab had never had such a relationship; this book has fully demonstrated this. He sought his personal interest in serving David, and his actions never originated in fellowship with his head. His name is passed over in silence.

Among the mighty men the Word first of all cites three who were more honored than all the others. What was the reason for this honor? These men proven that they had persevering energy in procuring the deliverance of God's people, but in the conflict they did not count upon themselves: the Lord wrought deliverance through them. “Jehovah,” verses 10 and 12 repeat, “wrought a great deliverance.”

From where did their perseverance come? Had they been alone they certainly would have weakened, but all three were “with David” and under his eyes during the combat. He inspired them with courage and patience in their efforts. They had taken as their model David who could say: “By Thee I have run through a troop”; “He teacheth my hands to war; and mine arms bend a bow of brass”; and again: “I pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them, and I turned not again till they were consumed” (2 Sam. 22: 30, 35, 38).

Who was the enemy against whom these men of valor fought? The Philistines — the enemy within — as we have so often seen in the course of these meditations. No enemy is more dangerous than this one; the Egyptians and the Moabites were less to be feared than these who living within Israel's borders continually stood in the way of their peacefully possessing the land that God had given them as an inheritance.

These three men had not weakened in this struggle. The first, Joseb-Bassebeth, had brandished his spear against eight hundred men;14 he had killed them at one time and had not stopped until there were no opponents left. Hence his pre-eminence, for his name translated means: “He who sits in the first place.”

The second, Eleazar the son of Dodo, fought alone in presence of the men of Israel. He expected no help from them, for he did not count on man's strength. Being with David (v. 9) was enough for him to defy the Philistines. He smote them and did not stop until “his hand was weary” (v. 10). There may be limits in the fight of faith, for God uses imperfect instruments subject to reaching limits of their strength; but Eleazar's perseverance was such that “his hand clave to the sword” (v. 10), so that it was impossible to separate him from the weapon he was using. May Eleazar's victory be ours as well! Our weapons are not fleshly; we have the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Let us use it in such a way that we are, so to speak, one with it even after the battle. May the conflict ever result in our valuing the Word more and more so that it will be impossible to separate us from it.

The third of these men was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. Under Eleazar the people had gone up quite indolently, it seems, since they came after Eleazar “only to spoil” (v. 10). Here, the people “had fled before the Philistines” (v. 11). The object they were contesting was “a plot of ground full of lentils,” a very little part of the inheritance that God had given Israel, but one containing food for the people. The enemy was seeking to deprive them of the field and its crop. Shammah15 stood in the middle of the field and preserved it for God's people. This deed speaks to our consciences. Our inheritance and our “plot of ground” are heavenly, and we must defend them as well as our heavenly food, the Word which God has entrusted to us. God's people flee in a cowardly manner from the enemy, acknowledging to their shame the rights of unbelief to set the Word of God at nought. May we be like Shammah; may we fearlessly defend it for sake of the saints, for we are with David. Let us count on God who will work “a great deliverance.”

Verses 13 to 17 present a second series of three chiefs. There is reason for their not being named in the deed these verses recount, but they are named subsequently in connection with their acts of valor.16 Why this remarkable omission of their names in the account of their exploit? It is because here it is no longer a matter of energy and perseverance, but one of the devotion of faith. And this devotion flows naturally from the hearts of servants who know and appreciate their Master. By its very nature devotion is something obscure. What man has the right to boast of devotion? Does or does not our rejected David, unseen by the world, have the right to our devotion because of His character's all powerful perfection? To know Him is to love Him. These three visitors to the cave of Adullam were immediately attached to him. A simple desire on part of their king sufficed to prompt them to overcome all obstacles without taking their lives into account, just so that they might satisfy that desire. Their affection, much more so than their energy, was thus put to the test. Danger did not frighten them when it was a matter of going to draw a bit of water from the well at Bethlehem, because the one they loved was thirsty at harvest time here. Had they succumbed after this enterprise, such a price would not have been too high for having had the privilege of offering David something for his satisfaction, even if momentarily. God records this devotion in His book; the king appreciated it, but did not wish to take advantage of it: “Is it not the blood of the men that went at the risk of their lives?” (v. 17). If on the one hand he elicits the devotion of his men, on the other hand his character is to devote himself for them. The water offered to him only passes through his hands to be presented as a drink offering “to Jehovah” (v. 16), for all that is done for Christ is done for God and God accepts it, offered up by Christ, as an excellent sacrifice. A simple cup of water given to “one of these little ones” for Christ's sake passes from His heart to the heart of God Himself.

These three men's deeds of valor did not attain to those of the first three. First there is Abishai who like Joseb-Bassebeth brandished his spear against three hundred men whom he slew, but he did not have the same perseverance of faith (vv. 18-19).

Next we find Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. He fought the enemies from without, Moab and Egypt. He killed two Moabite heroes.17 Like David he fought a lion all by himself; he killed the Egyptian just as David had struck down Goliath, and just as David had taken the giant's sword to decapitate him, so Benaiah put the Egyptian to death with his own spear. Benaiah walks faithfully in his master's steps and his great affection for David leads him to reproduce his model's traits. Such a walk finds its reward: “David set him in his council” (v. 23), a place of confidence, intimacy, and communion. Benaiah shares his master's secrets, is informed of his projects, and sees the king's face at all times. What a blessed portion! If we love the Lord Jesus and follow Him obediently and serve Him, we will be rewarded with a nearness like that enjoyed by John, the beloved disciple whose place was in the bosom of Jesus.

No special mention is made of Asahel. He might have accomplished some act of valor, but his confidence in himself and in his agility deprived him of his career very early through his encounter with Abner (2 Sam. 2: 18-24).

Finally we find the “thirty,” less renowned than the six preceding men, although the Lord forgets none of His own. When David looked over the list of His servants, with what sorrow his eyes must have paused at the name of Uriah the Hittite which ends the list. He was among the mighty men and not the least of those hearts devoted to the king and his people. And David had had him put to death to satisfy his own lust! His name remained there in testimony against the one whom he had served. This single name of Uriah reminded David of all his past of shame and chastening; but condemning himself and exalting the grace that had restored him, he would never have dreamed of erasing his name from the book in which it was recorded.

2 SAMUEL 24 — MORIAH18

Second Samuel ends with the most wonderful revelation of the work of redemption given us under the dispensation of the law.

The Word tells us that “the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel” (v. 1). It does not reveal the occasion for this, but in 2 Samuel 21 we have seen that events that happened long ago remain present before God when it is a matter of chastening or disciplining His people. David becomes the instrument of this chastening: “[Jehovah] moved David against [Israel] saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.” In 1 Chronicles 21: 1 we find that as in the case of Job, Satan was the agent used against the people and to seduce David. “The accuser of the brethren” would have liked for God to curse the people and their prince; he could not know that God would use him as an involuntary servant for His designs for the ultimate blessing and triumph of those He had chosen.

We might ask in what way this numbering of the people was so contrary to the Lord's mind, for from the time of the departure from Egypt many numberings of the able-bodied men of Israel had been commanded and approved by God.

The object of the first numbering mentioned (Ex. 38: 25-27) was to gather the silver (amounting to a bekah per man) intended to form the bases of the pillars of the tabernacle; thus this numbering had taken place for the Lord and in view of worshipping Him. The second numbering (Num. 1: 2-3) at the time when Israel was about to engage in conflict with the enemy was intended to determine the number of men able to go to war. This was according to God; every Israelite from twenty years and upward needed to understand his personal responsibility in the battles of the Lord.19 The Word mentions a third numbering (Num. 26: 2, 52-65) of those who were capable of military service, this in view of dividing up the land. Here again the numbering was all important, for each family would see its inheritance in Canaan increase or decrease according to the number of its sons.

The numbering in our chapter has none of these characteristics. The tabernacle having been built, the Levites having been substituted for the firstborn, and the conquest of the inheritance having been in large part accomplished, there were still men able to go to war, but God “had delivered [David] out of the hand of all his enemies” (2 Sam. 22: 1). What need had he yet to take knowledge of the number of his warriors? His purpose, as he said to Joab, was to “know the number of the people” (v. 2). At the end of his life at Satan's instigation this godly king's heart underwent a temptation quite contrary to his character. David had always been a humble man before the Lord (2 Sam. 7: 18) and before men (1 Sam. 26: 20). It did not seem necessary for him to be on guard against pride. In the past the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh had enticed him, and he had been severely punished for this; now, tempted by the pride of life, he does not resist the desire to reckon up his forces in order to know to what extent he could rely upon them. Chastening befalls him to teach him that he could not and ought not count on anything but God alone.

Joab censures his master. This man who had never judged himself condemns the man of God. The king's word “was abominable to Joab” (1 Chr. 21: 6). What a shame for a David to be reproached by a Joab! We can discover but one reason for Joab's repugnance to obeying the king's orders. There was no profit to be gotten from this act and no advantage in defying God. Joab would never have done so except if it were profitable to him and if his interests were at stake. Why then should David commit this profane and useless act?

The king's desire prevails. For over nine months Joab and the captains of the army number the people and during these nine months David's conscience is silent, but once he has obtained the fruit of his desire he finds it has a bitter taste. How much effort put forth for such a miserable objective! And something was still lacking, for Levi and Benjamin had not been numbered. Faced with this incomplete result, David must have doubly felt the folly of his proceedings.

We make the same experiences as he. Satan entices us by lusts. Yet possessing the objects of these lusts can never satisfy a child of God's heart, because they cannot silence his conscience. The man of the world finds no more satisfaction in them than the Christian does, but he sets right out in pursuit of new objects by which he hopes to fill the void he feels. Not the Christian — he comes to his senses, dismayed, his hands empty, his heart empty, the very picture of moral wretchedness: having lost his fellowship with God and heaven's joy and having not gained that of earth. His conscience reproaches him and he comes to God filled with repentance. Oh, how David now might wish to erase those nine baneful months! He cannot do so. And so he lays hold of the only resource left to him and addresses the Lord: “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, I beseech Thee, Jehovah, put away the iniquity of Thy servant; for I have done very foolishly” (v. 10). On another occasion he had seen how much it cost to trespass against God's holiness. Was a new judgment going to fall on him? The consequences of his act cause him to fear, but too late; they ought to have frightened him before he followed this path. His repentance cannot lessen the guilt of the evil committed or make it less worthy of judgment; his repentance cannot atone for his sin or deliver him from its consequences. What is left for David? To submit to the judgment which he would like to have avoided.

But here his faith appears. By the mouth of Gad the Lord sets three alternatives before him; he chooses the last of these. The sword of the Lord, this two-edged sword, is more reassuring to him than the sword of man because he knows God. Had he not learned during his long career of sorrows, trials, and battles that “His mercies are great”? (v. 14). He commits himself into His hands of righteousness for he knows that His righteousness is inseparable from mercy. David is in a “great strait” (v. 14), like the remnant of Israel at the end, but he knows that he can count on God's grace (cf. 2 Sam. 12: 13).

The pestilence rages; the angel smites from north to south, from Dan to Beer-sheba (v. 15), throughout all the sphere where the numbering had taken place (cf. vv. 5-7); he comes to Jerusalem and stretches forth his sword over the beloved city (1 Chr. 21: 16). At that moment “Jehovah repented him” and arrests the hand of the angel. He does not stop it on account of David's repentance, but on account of His own repentance. His judgment yields to His grace without the one or the other being weakened or sacrificed.

But before this David intervenes as intercessor and arbiter between God and the people: “Behold, it is I that have sinned, and it is I that have committed iniquity; but these sheep, what have they done? let Thy hand, I pray Thee, be on me, and on my father's house!” (v. 17). He takes the judgment upon himself and sets himself in the breach so that the sheep may be spared; he charges himself with sin and iniquity — but alas! this sin was his sin and this judgment was judgment that he had merited. Another, a lone Arbiter, bore our sins without having any sins Himself, and making our sins His He laid down His life for His sheep, saying: “If therefore ye seek Me, let these go away” (John 18: 8).

Now a third great factor appears. The first was grace, the second was the intervention of an arbiter between God and men, and the third is sacrifice. It is mercy on the one hand and sacrifice on the other that check the final judgment, and the true arbiter can rise up and say: “I have found a ransom” (Job 33: 24). Jerusalem, the city of grace, is spared, but it cannot be spared except through the atoning sacrifice offered on Moriah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite (2 Chr. 3: 1).

Moriah was the historical site where Abraham had offered Isaac20 (Gen. 22: 2). On this mountain of Jehovah would be provided. How much more so when the sin of Israel and of their king had stirred up Jehovah's judgment against the people. Provision was now made by a sacrifice which cost the people nothing but for which David paid the full price. Provision has been made in a far more perfect manner on this same mountain where Jesus has been crucified for us.

God who had once provided the victim for the burnt offering accepts the sacrifice after having looked forward to its efficacy, and so sovereign grace reigning through righteousness and manifested as such on the cross becomes Israel's means of approach. The tabernacle of former days is forsaken as well as its altar; the ark alone remains on Mount Zion. A new order of things begins. The system of the law is set aside as outdated; free grace that provides the sacrifice is worth more than all that man could offer. This is where the Lord answers the needs of every poor sinner and this is also where the believer sacrifices and worships (cf. 1 Chr. 22: 1). It is no longer the tabernacle of Moses but the threshing-floor of a Jebusite, a stranger to the promises, that beomes the meeting place between God and His people!

1 Kings

1 Kings

Meditations on the First Book of Kings

H. L. Rossier.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Chapters 1-11 — Solomon

1 Kings 1 Adonijah's Rebellion

1 Kings 2: 1-12 David's Last Recommendations

1 Kings 2:13-46 Righteousness and Judgment are the Foundation of his Throne

1 Kings 3: 1-3 Pharaoh's Daughter

1 Kings 3: 4-15 Gibeon

1 Kings 3: 16-28 Righteous Judgment

1 Kings 4 The Glory of the Kingdom

1 Kings 5 Hiram. Preparations for the Temple

1 Kings 6 The Temple

1 Kings 7: 1-12 Solomon's Houses

1 Kings 7: 13-51 Hiram and the Court

1 Kings 8 The Dedication of the Temple

1 Kings 9: 1-9 The Lord Speaks

1 Kings 9: 10-23 Hiram

1 Kings 9: 24-28 Pharaoh's Daughter

1 Kings 10: 1-13 The Queen of Sheba

1 Kings 10: 14-29 The Throne

1 Kings 11: 1-13 The Cause of the Kingdom's Ruin

1 Kings 11: 14-43 The Enemies

Two Psalms

Part 2: Chapters 12-16 — Division of the Kingdom

1 Kings 12: 1-24 Rehoboam

1 Kings 12: 25-33 Jeroboam and his Policies

1 Kings 13 The Man of God and the Old Prophet of Bethel

1 Kings 14 Jeroboam and the Prophet Ahijah

1 Kings 15 Nadab and Baasha, Kings of Israel, Abijam and Asa, Kings of Judah

1 Kings 16 Complete Decadence

Part 3: Chapters 17-22 — Elijah

1 Kings 17: 1-7 Elijah and the Brook Cherith

1 Kings 17: 8-24 Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

1 Kings 18: 1-16 Elijah and Obadiah

1 Kings 18: 17-46 Elijah Before the Prophets of Baal

1 Kings 19: 1-9 Elijah Before Jezebel and Before Himself

1 Kings 19: 9-21 Elijah Before God

1 Kings 20 Ahab and Ben-Hadad

1 Kings 21 Ahab and Naboth

1 Kings 22 Ahab and Jehoshaphat

Introduction

The Second Book of Samuel presents the establishment of the kingdom of Israel* by David; the opening of First Kings shows us this kingdom definitely established by Solomon. It should be noted that the rule of Solomon forms one Continuous whole with that of David. The death of the aged king did not cause even a momentary interruption, Solomon having sat upon the throne of his father during David's lifetime. In type, this is a unique and continuous reign which, while presenting most contrasting characteristics according to one or the other of its periods, unites both of them in an indissoluble and absolute unity.

{*Meditations on the Second Book of Samuel, by H. L. Rossier.}

Considered in its entirety, this reign begins with the rejection of the true king of Israel (1 Sam.), is consolidated, after victory, in the midst of dissensions of the people and strife (2 Sam.), and is finally established in peace, righteousness, and glory at the beginning of the book which now occupies us. This account, as indeed the whole of the Word, directs our eyes to Christ and presents His reign in all its various phases. Rejected as Messiah, He appears again upon the scene in the last days, gradually gathers Judah and the tribes of Israel under His sceptre, extends His dominion over the nations by judgments, but also in grace, until the final establishment of His universal, millennial kingdom. Then, in peace and in righteousness He rejoices in His victory, associating His earthly people with Himself in this.

Thus we find in these books the exposition of the whole of the counsels of God in regard to the earthly inheritance of the Messiah, the Lord's Anointed — the true David and the true Solomon. Apart from the period of David's afflictions these counsels have not yet been fully realized, but they shall be during the Millennium when the Lord shall be established upon His throne as King of Israel and of the nations, as King of righteousness and of peace, the true Melchizedek, a priest forever.

These books moreover present another very important trait to consider, without which one would continually run the risk of falsely applying the types found here. We have already mentioned this trait in reference to the Second Book of Samuel: The king established by God is a responsible man. This responsibility, which will rest upon Christ with all its glorious and blessed consequences, leads necessarily to the ruin of weak, sinful men when placed in their hands. The two Books of Kings therefore present the ruin of royalty in the hands of man and its definitive judgment.

In maintaining the certainty of His counsel of grace God maintains just as firmly the certainty of His judgments should the king fail to answer to the demands of His holiness. These two currents, grace and responsibility, flow on in parallel without ever becoming confused. In 2 Samuel 7: 13-16, the words of the Lord to David bring out this truth in a remarkable manner. On the one hand there is the election of grace, and on the other hand there is the responsibility of the king and its consequences; then after these two principles there is the assurance that the counsels of God will nevertheless be fulfilled.

All this is the more striking because the two Books of Chronicles show us the royalty in another aspect. They narrate the history of the house of David from the point of view of grace, as we shall have ample occasion to consider if the Lord allows us to reach the study of these books. It is enough to mention here that according to this principle Chronicles presents not the history of the kings of Israel, but that of the kings of Judah who remained faithful longer than the former and to whom the testimony of God was entrusted. The spirit of God points out the work of grace in them and all that the Lord could approve, often passing over their shortcomings in silence in order to bring out His purpose, but not seeking in the lest to hide their weaknesses. In contrast, the two Books of Kings retrace the history of the kings of Israel, introducing those of Judah only as landmarks in the account, or to bring out the mutual relationships of the two dynasties.

Let us establish one more important fact in regard to the history which is before us. In these books the principles, according to which God governs His people remain the same as in all the Old Testament. Israel, as well as her kings, is placed under the system of the law. It is not a case here of the law in its initial character of absolute, unmixed righteousness, such as Moses received in the beginning. The tables on which this law was written were broken by the legislator at the base of the mountain and never reached the people who, before receiving them, had already made the golden calf. From its very promulgation on, this pristine law would have crushed the people under judgment. But it is a case here in the entire history we are about to consider, of the law as given by God to Moses the second time, and which we find in Exodus 34. It was a mitigated law, offered to man to fulfill, if his flesh had been capable, at least that which is relatively good. It proclaimed in the first place that which pure law could in no wise manifest: the mercy and the grace of the Lord. "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Secondly, it proclaimed righteousness: "And that will by no means clear the guilty." Lastly, it announced retribution according to the government of God on earth: "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation" (vv. 6-8). In the course of the history before us we shall have occasion to note the application of the principles of which we have just spoken, both in regard to the kings and in regard to the people.

Lastly, these books expose a final general truth. Since its ruin the priesthood had ceased to be the means of a public relationship between the people and God. The king, the Lord's anointed, had been substituted for the priest to fill this office. (See the beginning of 1 Samuel). All the blessing of Israel, its judgment also, depended henceforth on the conduct of the king. The king failing in responsibility affected, properly speaking, the relations of the people with God. But then a phenomenon occurred which persisted throughout the entire duration of the kingdom and even afterwards: the prophet came on the scene. His appearance proved that the grace and mercy of God could not be destroyed even when everything was ruined.

Without a doubt prophecy existed before the time of which we speak. The fall of man had given occasion to the first prophetic utterance. Abraham was a prophet (Gen. 20: 7); Jacob prophesied (Gen. 49); Moses was a prophet (Deut. 18: 15; Deut. 34: 10); but Samuel inaugurated the series of prophets whom we see laboring in the books before us (Acts 3: 24). In these dark days the prophet became, in place of the king, the link between the people and God. He was the messenger of the Word; to him were confided the thoughts of God. Immense grace! Without doubt, the prophet announced the terrible judgments which would fall upon the people and the nations, but at the same time he presented to faith grace as the means of escaping. He testified against iniquity and even delivered the people, as did Elijah by the exercise of power, in order that the people might begin again, if possible, to walk in God's ways. He taught, he gave the people, to use the words of another, "the key to the ways of God, incomprehensible without him." He consoled also, turning the attention to a future of blessing, the "times of restitution of all things," "a kingdom which cannot be moved," and where the responsibility of the house of David shall be borne by Christ, the Son of David, to the full satisfaction of God Himself. Fixing the eyes of faith upon the glorious person of the Anointed of the Lord, he announced the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories to follow. He felt at the same time the great gulf which separated the present time from this future "regeneration." He humbled himself on behalf of the people when the latter could not and would not do so. Without him in the dark days of the kingdom there would not have remained even one ray of light for this poor people, guilty and chastened. The prophet supported and encouraged.

But on account of the principles proclaimed under the dispensation of law the mercy of God immediately acknowledged the monarch when he acted by faith and when he was faithful.

However incomplete this faithfulness might be, God appreciated it, and even when the link was ostensibly broken, the blessing of the people was the consequence. Accordingly, in the period of the prophets bright days followed on dark days and respites were granted despite the judgment announced, because the king had looked to the Lord. This faithfulness in the king was chiefly found in Judah, where God maintained yet a while "a lamp for His Anointed," whereas Israel and her kings, having begun in idolatry, continued in this path and soon became the prey of the demons that they had not wished to remove from their path.

PART 1: Chapters 1-11

1 KINGS 1

Solomon: Adonijah's Rebellion

At the time our account begins, King David was about seventy years old. He was far from having reached extreme old age, but a life of sufferings, conflict, and grief wears at the strength of even the most robust of men, so that the king "was old and advanced in age." At thirty-three years of age, the Lord Himself appeared to be fifty years old (John 8: 57), but His strength was unbroken. He was not, like David, worn by grief, but, Man of Sorrows, His face was marred more than any man. Love impressed this character upon His features, for He in sympathy carried all the sorrows that sin had brought upon our miserable race.

The king's servants devise a means of recalling him to life (vv. 24), imitating in this the sovereigns of the surrounding nations. It seems that David lacked the willpower to oppose the plan of those around him. A Shunammite* is brought to him. She cares for him and serves him. This "very fair" virgin of Israel will later be considered by Solomon as one of the most precious jewels in his crown. She is to belong to him, and whoever may dare to look on her to covet her shall bear his judgment. But let us not anticipate. That which the Word teaches us is that she did not become the wife of David, the king of grace. It is thus at present with Christ. Though having His eyes upon Israel, all the while there is another bride at the present moment taken from among the Gentiles. He shall keep her as King of Glory, but as such He will also renew His relations with the remnant of Israel, the excellent of His people.

{*The Word does not authorize us to affirm, as some have pretended, that she is the Shulamite celebrated in the Song of Songs (Cant. 6: 13).}

Before Solomon comes upon the scene, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, seeks to seize the throne of David, his father (vv. 5-8). Born immediately after Absalom (v. 6; 2 Sam. 3: 3, 4), though of another mother, he thought no doubt to have the same claim as this latter to the kingdom. He "exalted himself, saying, I will be king." Pride, an unchecked will that had never been curbed, and a high opinion of himself, all motivated him. He was "a very comely man." His flaws had been nourished by his father's weakness, a weakness that had contributed so greatly to the disasters of David's own life. David had not been unaffected by the appearance of his children, as the history of Absalom points out; perhaps for this same reason he had spared the rod in Adonijah's case. "His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?" Families of believers often see their testimony ruined through the weakness of the parents. In sparing the rod with their children they bring the rod upon themselves, as well as dishonour upon Christ. God never acts thus. The proof of His love toward us is furnished by His discipline. The weakness of parents is not a proof of their love, but of their egoism which would spare themselves in sparing their children (Prov. 13: 24).

Adonijah follows the same path as did Absalom (2 Sam. 15: 1), perhaps with less cunning deceit, for he openly manifests his pretensions and prepares chariots, runners, and horsemen for himself just as would a sovereign. Joab and

Abiathar follow him. Joab, ever the same, seeks only his own self-interest. Sensing that David is near his end, he turns to Adonijah, just as previously at first opportunity he had turned to Absalom. How could he have taken the part of the king of righteousness? The misdeeds of his past life must have made him fear too intimate a contact with Solomon. And then there is nothing in the true king that is an attraction to the flesh. The natural man orients himself and will ever orient himself without hesitation toward the usurper and the false king. It is thus that we will see in a time to come that "All the world wondered after the beast."

Adonijah is a type of the man who seeks to exalt himself to the very throne of God (Dan. 11: 36); Joab and Abiathar are such who take advantage of this (Dan. 11: 39); the following of Adonijah are those who are subjugated by his ascendancy (Rev. 13: 4).

As far as Joab is concerned, sooner or later the flesh, however clever it may be, must discover itself and show its true character. For a long time Joab was able to keep company with David, the Lord's Anointed, and to conceal the motives which animated and dominated his heart, but an occasion always arises when the natural heart shows itself to be hostile and rebellious, manifesting that it is neither subject nor capable of being subject to the law of God.

Abiathar, the representative of religion, already condemned at the time of the judgment pronounced upon Eli,* is also on Adonijah's side. Surrounded by such a fair show, it is not surprising that this latter becomes the centre of gathering for the many. He is no such centre for faith. What can faith find in the company of the usurper? Zadok, Benaiah, Nathan, and the mighty men of David are not present with Adonijah. The true priest; the prophet, the messenger of God; Benaiah, the true servant who walks in the footsteps of his master** — what have they to do with him? The priest looks to God, the prophet to the Spirit of God, the servant to David, to Christ. Do they need anything else? Those mighty men who have found their strength in David, shall they go after Adonijah who is unable to communicate it to them?

{*Meditations on 1 Samuel, by H. L. Rossier}

{**Meditations on 2 Samuel, by H. L. Rossier}

Benaiah is of special interest to us. In David's time he already occupied a preeminent place in service (1 Chr. 27: 5). Is he not worthy, he who had followed in everything, step by step, the footprints of his master, later to be established chief captain over the entire army? Nevertheless this man has no ambition other than to remain faithful to his king and to imitate him. He is not like Joab who takes the stronghold of Zion to acquire the preeminence. No, he is humble, for his whole purpose is to reproduce David in his conduct.

Adonijah (vv. 9-10) gives the meeting at En-rogel the false appearance of a peace offering. He follows the footsteps of his brother Absalom who had said that he wished to pay a vow to the Lord. He invites his brothers, the sons of the king, and even the servants of the king. These later go to his feast. The rebel does not fear that they will fail him. We know what the title of servants of the king is worth if the heart is not truly attached to David, or of servant of God if Christ is not the object of the affections. How many of these "king's servants" do we not see in our day running to those who cloak their enmity against Christ under an appearance of piety? But Adonijah is too shrewd to invite those whose faith or whose testimony keeps them in David's intimacy. He invites all his brothers, with one exception: the only one having the right to the throne according to the will of God and of his father, Solomon, he who is to become the king of glory. It is evident that he must exclude from his feast him whose presence would judge it, would condemn it, would bring to nothing all his plans and all his ambitions. Christ is the last to be invited by the world; more than that, the world is loathe to invite Him. On the other hand, was there anything at this feast with which Solomon could associate himself? No, if he had put in an appearance there, it would have been only to bring well-deserved punishment upon these rebels.

In the day that this great danger threatened Israel, no measure had been taken to ward it off (vv. 11-31). The king, weakened by age, confined to his palace, "knew not" what was happening. Blessedly, God was keeping watch for him. God who has the glory of His Son and His kingdom in view, does not allow the designs of the usurper to succeed. To this end He sends the prophet to Bathsheba with a word of wisdom. Be assured that we shall always find in the Word of God the means by which Christ may be glorified and we ourselves preserved from the ambushes of the enemy. What a contrast between Nathan's mediation and that of Joab through the woman of Tekoah (2 Sam. 14)! There all was ruse and lying in order to affect the king's spirit and to flatter his hidden leanings, and in order eventually to substitute for David a deceitful and violent man as king over Israel. Here prudence suggests that which is to be done, but without wavering in the least from the truth. The king must be made aware of the imminent danger. He must be persuaded to act resolutely for God. The mind of the Lord concerning Solomon had already been revealed to David. He knew it very well. It was not without reason that the Lord had given to David's son the name Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord (2 Sam. 12: 25). David knew the mind of the Lord on this subject so well that he had sworn to Bathsheba "by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead" (vv. 17, 30). It was enough to remind this man of faith of his oath for him to see the path to take.

Doubtless Adonijah had counted upon the weakening of his father's faculties in order to seize the kingdom, but he had not reckoned on God, the prophet, or the truthfulness of the king's heart. Bathsheba speaks with respect and boldness. She shows David that he is unaware of the danger (v. 18), that the purpose he had resolved on was to have a king according to the heart of God (v. 17) as his successor; she also points out to him his responsibility towards herself, her son, and the people, for the eyes of all Israel were upon David, that he should tell them who should sit upon his throne after him. The truth is in the heart of this woman, as also in the heart of the prophet —  a lovely example of the spirit in which we should behave one towards another. Nathan appears in his turn, and in his own conversation with the king lays stress upon the fact that not only had none of the faithful servants of the Lord been invited, but above all, that Solomon had been deliberately set aside. What must one expect from a man who gives no place to the Lord, to the true King, in his purposes or in his life?

Nathan also points out that the true servants of the king did not know the king's plans (v. 27). Certainly such is not the case with us! God has "made known to us the mystery of his will" (Eph. 1: 9), which is to gather together in one all things in Christ. But the aged king must be exhorted to reveal his secret. His decision is made immediately: all his energy is renewed when it is a matter of the Beloved. "Even so," he says, "will I certainly do this day" (v. 30).

We have seen in this chapter that the counsel of Nathan was according to God and according to the respect due to the king. Here it is not a matter of human counsel, as when this same Nathan said to David: "Go, do all that is in thine heart" (2 Sam. 7: 3); but of divine wisdom which purposes to prevent the prophet-king from a fall, and to defend the honour of Solomon, the anointed of the Lord, after his father's passing. Above all, it is a matter of the establishment of the king of glory upon his throne. Of all this the world neither sees nor hears anything. Gibeon with its refreshing waters, seems to be ignored by Adonijah.

But what an awakening! What trouble overwhelms those at his feast! Suddenly, in the midst of the feast, the false king, Joab, and all the guests hear the sound of the trumpet and such cries of joy that the very earth is split by the noise of Solomon's train. "Wherefore," says Joab, "is this noise of the city being in an uproar?" Thus the public establishment of the reign of Christ will surprise the world and deeply trouble it. Then "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision . . . Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion" (Ps. 2: 4-6). Do we not hear the noise of this scene in our chapter?

Jonathan, Abiathar's son, appears suddenly in the midst of the guests (vv. 41-48). Once before (2 Sam. 17: 17) he had left En-rogel together with Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, to go at the risk of his life to warn David of that which was transpiring against him. Now he returns to En-rogel to warn Adonijah of the failure of his attempt, though he is in no wise associated with the rebels. He comes, full of what is good news to him, for we see by his language that his heart has remained faithful to David. "Thou . . . bringest good news," Adonijah says to him. "Indeed, " he replies, but these tidings were not good for his hearers. They were a disaster to Adonijah. In no way is this incompatible with Jonathan's feelings as a son for his father who by his own fault had embarked on this dead end road. These feelings cause Jonathan to report truthfully to this company all that had taken place, holding nothing back from them. Let them take heed! — As for himself, his joy, one senses, is with David's successor. His service has not changed its character since the days of his king's afflictions. He is ever ready to bring news, just as his companion Ahimaaz to run. His character is remarkable in its consistency. Whether he fulfills his service to David during the time of his rejection or to the world in the day of the triumph of the son of David, Jonathan remains the same faithful messenger. The time is short: it is imperative to submit immediately by "kissing the Son." So it will be in the last days when those whom the King will call His brethren will announce far and wide the necessity of recognizing the reign of the true Solomon.

Just as Jacob in former days, the aged king, seeing the desires of his heart fulfilled, "bowed himself upon the bed" (v. 47). We find in David the slowness of age to make a decision, but once the word of God is addressed to him by Nathan, everything changes. He does not hesitate; he sets everything in order, and acts in every detail according to the mind of God which the word recalls to him. At first he was ignorant of the plot — now he knows everything: he knows that the hour of his son's reign has come. He is neither bitter, displeased, nor jealous in confiding to other hands the reins of government. One thought alone fills him with happiness and adoration: "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it!"

David here is no longer a type of Christ, but a figure of the believer who forgets himself and overflows with thanksgiving, giving all the glory to the true king; a type of those saints who, adorned with their glorious crowns, remove them to ornament the steps of the throne of the "Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David." But this Lion of Judah is the Lamb who was slain. The grace of David and the glory of Solomon are concentrated in this unique Person. The joy of a Simeon, holding in his arms the grace and salvation of God represented by the child Jesus, will be mixed in heaven with the joy of David who sees the glory of God shining in the person of the King.

In verses 49 to 53, all Adonijah's guests, stricken with fear, flee hither and thither. They no more attempt to resist than will men before the proclamation of the reign of Christ, for they shall be broken immediately. Adonijah beseeches the mercy of the king and seeks to obtain from him his solemn promise to spare his life. Solomon consents to forget, to be gracious yet another time, but he places Adonijah under responsibility before the glory of his reign: "If he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth: but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die" (v. 52).

It will be the same in the future reign of the Messiah. He will spare many rebels who come to him feigning repentance, but once evil is found in them He will cut them off from the land (2 Sam. 22: 45; Ps. 101: 8). When righteousness reigns the wicked will no longer be tolerated. Solomon, figure of the millennial King, knows Adonijah and does not modify his judgment when he sees him bowed before him. He knows what is harbored in his proud heart which is merely feigning submission and repentance. "Go to thine house," he says to him. Brief, severe words. Adonijah should have taken warning from them. From henceforth his role was to be quiet as a man who has been found guilty and is being kept under surveillance. He benefits from this longsuffering as long as evil is not manifested in him.

1 KINGS 2: 1-12

David's Last Recommendation

As he dies, David leaves a commandment with his son Solomon, and insists upon his responsibility. It is, so to speak the testament of the aged king and the fruit of his long experience. Here we do not find "the last words of David" as 2 Samuel 23 gives them to us. The discourse contained in our passage historically precedes these "last words" which could be inserted between verses 9 and 10. It is not here a question of David judging his entire conduct in view of that of the true King, "the just ruler over men," and proclaiming the infallibility of the counsels of the grace of God (2 Sam. 23: 4-5). No, Solomon at the dawn of his reign must first of all be armed against that which could hinder or ruin it.

There are many analogies between the words of David to his son and those of the Lord to Joshua (Joshua 1). The king must first of all "be of good courage and be a man." Obedience to the Lord and dependence upon Him are the proofs of this strength which is to be used to "walk in his ways. " The walk itself is directed by the Word of God, as we see here and in Psalm 119. The Word has different characteristics and it is necessary to pay attention to all of them. Here it is said: "To keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies; (v. 3). Such is the whole of the Word. His statutes are the things He has established and to which His authority is attached; His commandments, the expression of His will to which we are obliged to submit ourselves; His ordinances (or judgments), the principles He conveys and according to which He acts; and finally, His testimonies are the thoughts He has communicated to us and which faith must receive. All this constituted "the law of Moses" for the Israelite and was to be the divine standard for the walk of the faithful. A life ordered in this manner must prosper in whatever aspect one might consider it: "That thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself." This was to have been the secret of the reign of Solomon and his successors. With these principles there would not ever have failed him "a man on the throne of Israel. "

It is the same for us. Our life finds its nourishment and its strength in the Word of God, and it is only by keeping it that we are enabled to travel through an inimical world without fear and see all we do prosper (Ps. 1: 2-3). It teaches us to walk in the way of God. Can there be a greater blessedness than to find a perfect path here on earth, the path of Christ upon which the eyes of God rest with complacency? See then the task of Solomon and of his successors. Had they walked in God's way and under His eye their dominion would have continued to be established forever (Ps. 132: 11-12).

David's second recommendation to his son had reference to the judgments which the latter was to execute. David, who represents grace, understood what was appropriate to a reign of righteousness. If there were no righteousness, grace itself would be nothing but guilty weakness. As a man, David had shown himself very little able to give each of these qualities its rightful place. Thus, many times we find him too weak to exercise righteousness, as in the case of Joab, or we find him extending grace at the expense of righteousness. He alone has found, in Christ, the way to reconcile these two things: His perfect hatred for sin and His perfect love for the sinner.

But this absence of judgment was nothing less than weakness in David. A time is coming when the actions of men will be appraised according to the standard of righteousness, a standard that has long been postponed, but which will not have its sway until then. When righteousness reigns, can it appear to ignore sin? Men do not violate the laws of a kingdom with impunity, and when this kingdom is established in power those who have trampled these laws underfoot during the reign of grace must suffer the bitter consequences of their revolt. There are no legal exceptions to the law of God as there are to the laws of men. The sinner's act of iniquity will find him out — perhaps when his hair is white with age, but without question it will be recalled to mind.

Joab is mentioned first (vv. 5-6). We have already sufficiently evaluated his career* that we will pass over it here. David's weakness (2 Sam. 3: 39) had prevented the king from immediately avenging the murder of Abner, and later that of Amasa, but he had not forgotten them. What Joab had done to these men, he had done to David. "Thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me."** Perhaps this bloody man thought he was serving his king all the while he was serving his own self-interests. Impossible! That which man does in his self-interest, he is doing against God. In time of peace Joab's "girdle and shoes," his service and his walk, had been spotted with the blood of war. This was a defilement. War must overtake him in turn; he must learn that there could be no peace for him, for this is reserved for those who make peace (James 3: 18). Neither Solomon's reign of peace nor his reign of righteousness could tolerate such elements. Joab must be immolated without delay and without mercy. "Do therefore according to thy wisdom," says David (v. 6). Yes, there is retribution according to the wisdom of Christ (Rev. 5: 12). Without it His glory would not be completely displayed.

{*Meditations on 2 Samuel, by H. L. Rossier}

{**We do not believe that the king was here referring to the murder of Absalom by Joab.}

But David's thoughts delight to linger, in contrast, on what Barzillai had done for him (2 Sam. 19: 31-40). He rewards that devoted old man far beyond his desires in the person of his sons. Originally Chimham alone was concerned; now, all the sons of Barzillai have a right at the king's table in return for the faithfulness of their father. They enjoyed the glory of the kingdom in a particular position of honour and intimacy. Let us be mindful of this in our families. The devotion of parents to Christ is recompensed in their children. "When I call to remembrance," says the apostle, "the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice" (2 Tim. 1: 5).

A third person here is Shimei, the Benjaminite who had cursed David, and then at his return had given tokens of repentance in confessing his sin. This same Shimei had not joined Adonijah's following;* he remained in the company of David's mighty men and had followed Solomon. Of him David says, "And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera." He was then apparently restored, but if David in grace had spared him, he did not hold him innocent. All was made to depend on his conduct under the king of righteousness. His conduct would show if his repentance was real. As with the case of Joab, Shimei's case is entrusted to the wisdom of Solomon (v. 9).

{*Despite opinions to the contrary on part of some, we see no reason why the Shimei of 1 Kings 1: 8 should be any other person than the son of Gera.}

David dies (vv. 10-12), and the Word notes here not the opening of Solomon's reign, but that which characterizes it both generally and in its entirety: "His kingdom was established greatly." This is the character of the kingdom of righteousness in contrast with that of the kingdom of grace, full of trouble and sedition.

1 KINGS 2: 13-46

Righteousness and Judgment are the Foundation of His Throne

Scarcely is the throne inaugurated before elements hostile and foreign to the kingdom manifest themselves; but it is the character of the kingdom of righteousness to reprove all that is not in harmony with itself. In Solomon's presence the flesh can no longer push itself forward nor freely follow its bent.

Adonijah addresses himself to Bathsheba, that she may present his request to the king, her son. "Comest thou peaceably?" asks this pious woman who stands in doubt of the son of Haggith. She knew in effect that if he would have succeeded in his projects, she and her "son Solomon should be counted offenders" (1 Kings 1: 21). This man though outwardly broken is nevertheless far from being so in his heart. "Thou knowest," he says, "that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign" (v. 15). How could such pretensions fail to raise the indignation of the true king? He — Adonijah — to have all the rights of succession to the crown and to the people of David! His words alone betoken an embittered heart, a bitterness long suppressed now manifesting itself because he had not judged himself in the least. To be sure, he also adds: "The kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's: for it was his from the Lord," but is this a true recognition of the will of God, a true submission to the throne of righteousness? Adonijah accepts this because he cannot do otherwise. Certainly he does not belong to the "willing people" in the day of the power of the son of David. To his mind Solomon is an intruder, and this being the case, what must be the Lord who had established Solomon therefore be to Adonijah?

"And now," he says, "I ask one petition of thee, deny me not . . . that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife" (vv. 16-17). Abishag! — that young maiden who had served David and had tenderly cared for him, who had lived in the intimacy of the king of grace, to be given to this rebellious man whom only the patience of Solomon had spared to this moment! How little he knew both David and Solomon!* To give Abishag to him would be to admit to him some right to his father's succession, some contact with the kingdom which he might be able to assert at some favorable occasion; it would be to accept his pretensions and the revolt led by Joab and Abiathar (v. 22) as legitimate. Should the woman who as a chaste virgin had served David be given to this profane man?

{*Nothing gives us any positive authority, as we have said in 1 Kings 1, to identify Abishag the Shunammite with the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, the beloved of Solomon; moreover it is prudent in the application of these types not to go beyond that which the Word clearly teaches us.}

It will be the same with regard to the Church. Will the King of Glory ever consent to yield to another the bride He has chosen for Himself as King of Grace? The Antichrist, the man of sin, may hope to rob Christ of His bride by seizing apostate Christendom, become Babylon the Great at the end; but his efforts to substitute himself for Christ, to take possession of His bride, and to seize the kingdom will end for both the harlot and for himself in the lake of fire and brimstone. Here judgment did not have to wait: the very same day Adonijah is put to death.

The leader of the conspiracy, the false king, having met his fate, Solomon's righteousness catches up with the priest (vv. 26-27) who had been supported for a long while by David, but whose sentence the Lord had already spoken to the ears of Eli (1 Sam. 2: 35). Here we find the principle that is expressed in the words "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau" (Mal. 1: 2-3) pronounced thirteen centuries after He had said, "The elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25: 23). It was the Lord's free choice, but the sentence is pronounced only after Esau had manifested himself to be the irreconcilable enemy of God and of His people. It is the same with regard to Abiathar. One hundred thirty-five years after the judgment is announced, he is cut off from the priesthood, after having first furnished a reason for his judgment by his alliance with the rebel.

Thus the reign of righteousness commences with the judgment of all those who when placed under the grace and longsuffering of God had not availed themselves of this to reconcile their hearts and their actions to this rule. Abiathar was all the more guilty in that he had borne the ark of the Lord before David, and that he had also shared in his afflictions from the beginning (1 Sam. 22: 20). Thus he had had part in the testimony of the Lord's anointed and had suffered. Solomon recognizes this, but in the only case where Abiathar's faithfulness is put to the test and where it is a matter of the glory of the son of David, he makes shipwreck and abandons his master. The word of the Lord, long suspended, is fulfilled: Abiathar is rejected.

Joab comes next. Of him it is expressly said that he had not turned after Absalom (v. 28), whatever may have been his feeling in this, as we have seen in the Second Book of Samuel. But it was a far more serious thing to turn away from the reign of righteousness at its beginning, for this denoted an absolute lack of fear in the presence of him who was destined to sit as glorious king upon his throne.

Joab flees to the tabernacle and takes hold of the horns of the altar. That cannot save him. The Word of God is against him: "If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from my altar, that he may die" (Ex. 21: 14). Solomon remembers this. When Joab's judgment is determined it is too late for the altar to shelter him. Vengeance must be executed upon him in order that "upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the Lord" (v. 33), for without vengeance, blood would have remained upon the house of David. Judgment was necessary for his glory.

Lastly comes Shimei (vv. 36-46). Solomon places him on the footing of responsibility and he accepts this. He thus reveals his pure ignorance of his state of sin and consequently of his incapacity to obey. Had not Israel spoken the very same words when the law was proposed? "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19: 8). And so Shimei: "The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do" (v. 38). He knows, wretched man, that to disobey means death for him and that his blood will be upon his own head —  and nevertheless he is unable to do aught but disobey. He is unable to surrender two runaway slaves. In order to regain possession of them for a day, he sacrifices his own life! What a picture of the world which knows the law of God and which will not and cannot submit to it once a passing interest comes between the will of God and itself. He is judged by his own word: "The word that I have heard is good" (v. 42). The man who is placed under responsibility and who accepts this and fails, cannot be tolerated under the reign of righteousness.

1 KINGS 3: 1-3

Pharaoh's Daughter

"And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about" (v. 1).

The mention of the establishment of the kingdom under Solomon's hand (1 Kings 2: 12) is followed in 1 Kings 2 by the account of judgment which purifies the kingdom from all that had risen up against David. The repetition of the mention of this establishment (1 Kings 2: 46) is followed in 1 Kings 3 by Solomon's alliance by marriage with the king of Egypt. He brings into his alliance the very nation which had formerly enslaved his own people — a most intimate union, for he takes his wife from Egypt.

This union recalls that of Joseph with an Egyptian bride, the daughter of the priest of On, but their typical meanings differ. Joseph, rejected by his brothers, before making himself known to them, finds a wife and sons in Egypt among the nations according to that which is said of Christ in Isaiah 49: 5-6: "Though Israel be not gathered . . . I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." Joseph's marriage typifies the relationship of a rejected Christ with the Church, and it brings before us the posterity which He acquires outside the promised land before taking up his relationship with His own people again.

Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter, contracted in different circumstances, does not have the same meaning. The kingdom is established in the king's hand; the period of the rejection of the Lord's anointed in the person of David is over; Solomon is established as king of righteousness (he proves this in executing judgment) over Israel, his people. Then, and only then, does he make affinity with Pharaoh and take his daughter to wife according as it is written in Isaiah 19: 21-25: "And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it . . . In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."

Solomon brings his Egyptian wife into the city of David. Thus at the beginning of the millennial reign the nations shall first be put under the safeguard of the alliance made with Israel and represented by the ark established on Mount Zion (2 Sam. 6: 12). Afterwards they shall have their distinct place of blessing, just as Solomon later builds a house for his Gentile wife outside the city of David, "For he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come" (2 Chr. 8: 11; 1 Kings 9: 24).

Up to this moment Pharaoh's daughter is established in the blessings — not in the relationship — of which the ark of the covenant is the type. Wherever this ark was found, whether in the house of Obed-edom (2 Sam. 6: 11, 18, 20), or in the city of Zion, it brought blessing with it. During the Millennium the nations will take account of this privilege: "Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord . . . In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. 8: 22-23).

1 KINGS 3: 4-15

Gibeon

In verses 2 and 3 we see clearly that the order of things was not the ultimate at the beginning of Solomon's reign. The ark of the Lord abode under curtains; it remained to David's son to build the house of the Lord. At that time the tabernacle and the altar were at the high place at Gibeon and the ark, which David had brought back, was at Jerusalem. How David had this ark of the covenant, the throne of the Lord, the sign of His personal presence in the midst of His people, in his affections (Ps. 132)! From the moment he brought it back to Zion we do not see in his history that he personally ever sought another place of worship, though he was not unmindful of Gibeon. When the ark was being carried to Jerusalem he took care to link worship before the ark with the sacrifices upon the altar at Gibeon (1 Chr. 16: 37-43), maintaining in this way the unity of worship. Each day service was performed before the ark and before the altar at Gibeon, so that at the same moment and "continually" these two parts of worship were carried on together, though separated geographically.

Later, according to the commandment of the Lord, David built an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and there he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. His God did not long deprive him of an altar in relation to the ark. In this way Gibeon lost its value and meaning.

Solomon does not appear to have thought of this unity at the beginning of his reign. Doubtless God bears him a lovely testimony: "And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father" (v. 3), but this testimony is qualified: "only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. " In so doing he accommodated himself to the religious practices of his people, of whom it is said in verse 2: "Only the people sacrificed in high places."

It was not a positive sin against the Lord, as was the case later on with certain pious kings of Judah, when the building of the temple had removed every plea for such practices. If they still continued then, it was to the Lord's great displeasure, for they must needs lead to idolatrous practices.* In these days of blessing and power under young King Solomon it was not at all so, but "he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places," and not only at Gibeon, "for that was the great high place" (vv. 34) where the brazen altar was still found, the tabernacle and all its furniture. At any rate, this practice served to disperse worship in Israel. And so the unity of worship was lost, for the altar was, among its other attributes, the expression of this unity, just as the Lord's Table is today for Christians. In former days under Joshua with regard to the altar Ed (Joshua 22), Israel had understood this and had risen up in zealous energy against sacrifices offered on an altar other than that of the tabernacle.

{*See 1 Kings 14: 23; 1 Kings 15: 14; 1 Kings 22: 44; 2 Kings 12: 3; 2 Chronicles 20: 33, where the people do not seem to have acted otherwise than they had at the opening of Solomon's reign. But we see idolatry allied to the high places under Hezekiah (2 Kings 18: 4; 2 Chr. 31: 1). Wicked Manasseh rebuilt them and raised altars to Baal (2 Kings 21: 3). When he repented, "the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only" (2 Chr. 33: 17). This proves what we are saying, that is, that these high places at certain periods in Israel's history are not necessarily connected with idol worship, though they led to this. From the moment that worship no longer has Christ as its centre, as the ark at Zion but finds place only for blessings received, even though they be the blessings of salvation, it has deviated from its purpose and become an instrument in Satan's hands to finally replace Christ with false gods. Josiah entirely abolished the high places together with all idolatry in Judah and in Israel (2 Kings 23: 8).}

God bore with this state of things as long as the full manifestation of His will concerning worship had not yet been given by the consecration of the temple. Nevertheless it was a weakness in this great king. How much more intelligent was David's worship, even before Moriah, than Solomon's! The ark was everything for David; for him it was the Lord, the mighty God of Jacob (Ps. 132: 5), whose worship was there where the ark was found. Solomon did not rise to the height of these blessings and did not enjoy the intimacy of this relationship with God. He did not go beyond the common level of religion of his people.

Do we not find in our own day the same weakness, the same lack of intelligence, even there where the desire to worship is present? Everyone chooses his own high place without troubling himself about the presence of the ark — of Christ. Everyone builds his own altar without even dreaming that since the cross, as in old times after Moriah, there could be but one symbol of unity for the people of God.

Solomon went to Gibeon, but he loved the Lord, and the Lord always takes account of our affection for Him. There it was that He appeared to him in a dream (v. 5). This fact, as others have remarked, has its importance. In a dream one is unable to disguise the true state of one's heart; one is not controlled by either his reason or his will to repress the manifestation of what is in his heart. In a dream the soul is laid bare before the Lord. What then were the thoughts harbored in this young king's heart when God said to him, "Ask what I shall give thee" (v. 5)? What the divine word finds in the first place in this heart is gratitude for the great mercy of the Lord towards David: "Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy," and at the same time the high esteem he held this latter in (v. 6) because of his walk of truth, of righteousness, and of uprightness which had proved that David feared the Lord (Prov. 14: 2). Next there is thankfulness for the mercy of God towards himself, David's son; "Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day" (v. 6). Lastly, there is the consciousness of his youth, of his ignorance, of his incapacity. "And I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in." Such a state of soul promises abundant blessing; it is summed up in this: Fear the Lord, have the consciousness of His grace, esteem others better than yourself, and count yourself as nothing.*

{*All this is reflected later on in the Proverbs, counsels of the wisdom of the king. See, for example, Proverbs 3: 7; Proverbs 4: 7; etc.}

Solomon was there before God with an undivided heart and he was seeking but one thing: to serve the Lord in the circumstances in which He had placed him as leader of the people. He asks the Lord for "an understanding heart,"* for hearing is the door to discernment and intelligence. In order to be wise one must begin by listening to wisdom: "Blessed is the man that heareth me" (Prov. 8: 34). All true service starts with hearing. Solomon did not know how to "go out or come in"; he could not learn this except by listening. He who does not begin by enrolling himself in the school of wisdom will never be a true servant. Such was the pathway of service of Christ Himself as man. "He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned" (Isa. 50: 4).

{*Literally, "a heart that hears."}

Let us remark that Solomon asks the Lord for "an understanding heart." One does not truly learn to know the mind of God except with the heart  -  not with the intelligence. True intelligence is produced by affection for Christ. The heart listens and when it has received the lessons it needs, it is made wise, capable of discerning between good and evil and of governing the people of God. That which makes the role of the heart so important in service is that no judgment can be according to God if it does not have love as its starting point. We experience this in cases of discipline, in guiding souls, and in caring for saints and assemblies.

Solomon's answer "pleased the Lord" (v. 10). What grace to have His approval on all that we ask of Him and to receive His testimony that we have been pleasing to Him! The Lord grants Solomon his request and is pleased to add that which Solomon had not requested. He grants him the first place in wisdom, "so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. " Moreover, He gives him "both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days" (vv. 12-13). Solomon's humble dependence put him in first place, according as it is written: "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." It was so with Christ: "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10: 43-45). In every respect there is none like Him! Wisdom, power, wealth, the crown of glory and honour — all things shall be His in "the day which the Lord shall make," and even the greatest, most magnificent things will only serve as His footstool!

In verse 14, as in all the books we are studying, the question of the king's responsibility is brought up. "If thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days." It is this if that Solomon could not come up to and which led to his ruin and to the division of his kingdom.

Having received these blessings, Solomon leaves Gibeon to come to Jerusalem, where he "stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord" — the act of a submissive heart which understands the mind of God, the first manifestation of the wisdom which he has just received. He leaves the forms to take hold of the reality; he leaves the external display of his religion to come to seek the presence of God represented by the ark — Christ in figure. The altar of Gibeon is no longer sufficient for him; this place is abandoned and no longer plays a role in Solomon's religious life. Later the Lord reveals Himself to him again (1 Kings 9: 2), but no more at Gibeon.

Before the ark Solomon offers up "burnt offerings" and "peace offerings" and makes "a feast to all his servants" (v. 15).

There is more joy before the ark than at Gibeon, though the king had probably offered up many more sacrifices at Gibeon (2 Chr. 1: 6) than here; but before the ark we find peace offerings, the true sacrifices of communion, and at the same time a feast for all the servants of the king.

1 KINGS 3: 16-28

Righteous Judgment

After the understanding to worship before the ark, the first manifestation of his wisdom, we find in Solomon "the wisdom of God . . . to do judgment" (v. 28). Though it concern harlots, nothing changes this judgment. Men ever allow themselves to be influenced in their judgments by the character of those who speak to them; it is not so with God. What is important for Him is the heart, not the outward character. Solomon's judgment is based on the affections manifested by the heart. Affirmations or denials were of equal value in this case, and judgment could not be based upon them (v. 22). That which could establish judgment was the manifestation of the heart. Neither was the question which of the two women was the more worthy — both were harlots; nor whether the actions objected to were probable or had taken place — there had been no witness to it; nor whether the true mother could recognize her child by certain outward signs — there were none. The only testimony was that one of these women said that she did not recognize her son in the dead child. It was a matter therefore of judging the state of her heart, and this could only be judged by the affections manifested. One of these women had an object she loved. Which of the two had this object? For there where true ties of love exist, we seek to safeguard at any cost that which is dear to us, even at the risk of losing it for ourselves. That is the character of love. Love is not selfish: it sacrifices itself for the object loved. The love of Christ has done that for us and we can do that for Him in return: "For thy sake we are killed all the day long" (Rom. 8: 36).

When the true mother saw the sword lifted over her child, "her bowels yearned upon her son." The object loved is more to us than our love for it. This is how one distinguishes reality, the true mother. In the Christian profession he who has not found an object for his heart and bowels betrays himself quickly. "Divide it," says the one who is not the mother, yielding to her resentment. One quickly sacrifices Christ when it is a matter of satisfying one's own passions. Only divine wisdom is able to discern the reality of profession by the state of the heart. How frequently there is profession without reality! Where are the affections for Christ? Where the devotion which sacrifices even its legitimate advantages and rights for Him? In this passage, it is not a question of natural goodness nor of nobleness of heart, for, we repeat, we are dealing with two harlots. It is a question of ties created by God, of an object given by Him which the soul appreciates. God will never take it away from us; to the contrary, in the trial we shall receive it afresh from His own hand. "Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof."

1 KINGS 4

The Glory of the Kingdom

This chapter tells us of the internal order and of the splendour of Solomon's kingdom, but also of its moral glory characterized by the wisdom of the king.

All Israel was gathered under his sceptre (v. 1), thus forming one peaceful unity. Such had been unknown during his father's reign, as the seven years at Hebron, the rebellion of Absalom, that of Sheba the son of Bichri, and that of Adonijah prove. Now everything is in order and worthy of this glorious reign, but we find only eleven princes (vv. 2-6). The perfect order in relation to government on earth, represented by the number twelve, had not yet come and would not come until the advent of One greater than Solomon.

Azariah the son of Zadok heads the princes. "He it is that executed the priest's office in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (1 Chr. 6: 10*). The very highest function falls to him. The temple is to become the centre of the whole order of Solomon's kingdom, just as it will be on the earth at the establishment of the millennial kingdom by Christ (Ezek. 40-48). Abiathar himself (v. 4), who had been driven from the priesthood, is counted among the princes alongside Zadok. He had carried the ark and shared all David's afflictions, and though he was removed from his office, his lord did not wish to deprive him of the dignity which he was bestowing upon all those who had suffered with the rejected king.

{*It is probable that this Azariah was the son of Ahimaaz and the grandson of Zadok. The term son for any descendant whatsoever is found continually in the Jewish genealogies. A somewhat obscure passage in 1 Chronicles 6: 9 would seem to attribute the priesthood to Azariah, the great-grandson of Ahimaaz.}

Among Solomon's twelve stewards (vv. 7-19) we find two who had married daughters of the king, a singular honour granted to the son of that same Abinadab who had received the ark and had guarded it for twenty years in his house on the hill. To be of the family which had religiously watched over the ark of the Lord was a title to nobility in the king's eyes.

An equal honour is granted to Ahimaaz, son of Zadok,* faithful to David at the risk of his life, and concerning whom the old king had given this testimony: "He is a good man, and cometh with good tidings." He was the first to announce to David the victory which restored his throne to him and assured him of inheriting it according to God.

{*The critics, without any apparent reason, make this Ahimaaz out to be another individual.}

Verses 20 to 28 describe the condition of the people under Solomon's reign and the character of this reign. "Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude" (v. 20). The promise made to Abraham after he had offered his son upon the altar was now realized (Gen. 22: 17), at least in part, for his seed was to be "as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." This promise will not be fully realized until Christ's millennial reign. Then as far as that which concerns Israel, the two parts of the kingdom, the heavenly and the earthly, shall be established forever in perfect harmony. Here the people is as numerous as the sand by the sea — restraining/he surrounding peoples and keeping them within their bounds. Solomon's subjects ate and drank and made merry (v. 20). They had material abundance; there were no more needs which were not satisfied. Joy filled their hearts; security reigned everywhere (v. 25). Everyone had his possession and was dwelling under his vine and under his fig tree. That which men vainly seek in this world of iniquity where Christ was cast out shall be fully realized when the Lord, acknowledged by all, shall reign over all the kingdoms of the earth (vv. 21, 24). Moreover, this powerful reign shall be a reign of universal peace: "He had peace on all sides round about him" (v. 24). All the prosperity, all the resources of the kingdom serve to exalt the king, unite to bring out his glory (vv. 22-23, 26-28).

But that which characterizes this universal dominion above all was its moral aspect, much more glorious than its material aspect (vv. 29-34). "God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the sea shore" (v. 29). God had given Solomon wisdom, the moral discernment that applies itself to all things, to the good, to the evil, to the various circumstances of man, and the knowledge of the manner of conducting oneself in relation to these things. This moral discernment is not to be found apart from the fear of God which, as we have seen, characterized Solomon at the beginning of his career. The Word of God is the means of communicating this wisdom to us; that is why Solomon asked God for "an understanding heart." This wisdom has found its expression in the Proverbs of Solomon, themselves become the Word of God.

"And understanding exceeding much." Solomon's understanding was as great as his wisdom, to which it was intimately bound. Understanding is the capacity to take in and to appropriate the thoughts of God in such a way that one is able to communicate them to others. Beyond that — "largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the sea shore," a heart capable of embracing all his people (cf. v. 20), identifying Israel with himself, providing all their needs according to his love, responding to all their interests and making them his own. Does not this speak to us of Christ, of that which He will fully manifest when He shall introduce us into the glorious rest of His presence, when His heart, divinely large, shall embrace us all; when "He will rest in His love" (Zeph. 3: 17)?

The extent of Solomon's wisdom is described for us in verses 33 and 34. During his reign there was much more than mere physical rule. His wisdom had sway over all things. "And he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes" (v. 33). Adam had rules physically "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1: 26). God had delivered into Noah's hands "every beast of the earth, and . . . every fowl of the air . . . all that moveth upon the earth, and . . . all the fishes of the sea" (Gen. 9: 2). Later the God of heaven gave "the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven" into the hands of the king of the Gentiles and made him ruler over them and over men. All this is not said of Solomon, but his wisdom held sway over all these things, from the cedar to the hyssop, from the beasts to the fishes. He understood their life, the reason for their being, their relationships among themselves and their interrelationships with the whole of creation, the examples God was furnishing by their means for the moral life of mankind; and he spoke of all these things. Modern science, with all its high pretensions, is nothing but darkness compared with these certainties. But Solomon did not possess universal dominion under these two aspects. This is reserved for a Greater than Solomon, for the Second Adam: Thou hast "crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea" (Ps. 8: 5-8). It is also said of Him: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" (Rev. 5: 12).

Solomon's dominion was but a weak type of Christ's, who will have "the uttermost parts of the earth" (Ps. 2: 8) for His possession. The king of Israel had dominion "over all the region on this side of the river" "unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt" (vv. 24, 21). In sum, these were the limits the Lord had assigned to Israel in Joshua 1: 4; but when it came to the wisdom of Solomon, these limits were exceeded by far: All people came to hear him; all the kings of the earth came to inquire of him (v. 34), and we see in type that which is said of Christ: "I will . . . give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."

"Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol" (vv. 30-31). We have no other mention of the two latter except in 1 Chronicles 2: 6, but we have an indication of the wisdom of Ethan and of Heman in the Word. Heman the Ezrahite is the inspired author of Psalm 88; Ethan the Ezrahite, that of Psalm 89. Now, what kind of wisdom is found in these two psalms? Psalm 88 has a very special character which is found to the same degree in no other psalm. It shows us Israel, convicted of having broken the law, and under the consequences of this disobedience. Nothing could be worse! Death, the grave, being cut off, and darkness are Israel's lot. Moreover, the wrath of God weighs upon her and she is afflicted with all His waves. She is abandoned by men and is shut up. She cries, she cries in vain (vv. 1, 9, 13). She is rejected; God hides His face from her. The intense heat of the Lord's wrath has passed over her; she is overwhelmed by His terror. God has removed from her all who might have sympathized with her. And the conclusion of all this? None! Not a ray of hope! A soul who cries out, and God who does not answer!*

{*We find these same feelings expressed in the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90: verses 1-6, concerning sin; verses 7-12, concerning the breaking of the law — but not without hope.}

Now, let us note, this Psalm is the only record given us of the wisdom of Heman. This is very great wisdom, indeed, to consider the responsibility of man relative to the demands of righteousness and divine holiness; wisdom which ascertains that there is no way out of this position, and that the law, the measure of this responsibility, must cast man into the darkness of death, forever far from the face of God.

Through wisdom Heman reached the conclusion which God desired to teach man by the law of Moses. Has not this man of God's spirit already been convinced of the experience to which the long centuries of man's history must lead and which should form the basis for the gospel? In reading this Psalm does one not seem to read the description of the law which kills the sinner which we find in the Epistle to the Romans?

In Psalm 89 the wisdom of Ethan instructs us. What does this other wise man speak of? Of grace! This Psalm is about the unchangeable promises of God and the sure mercies of David. The people's relationship to God on the footing of the law can only lead to the darkness of judgment and death; their relation on the basis of the covenant of grace made with David leads to this: "Mercy shall be built up forever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens" (v. 2) —  in the heavens, where nothing shall ever touch it. This magnificent Psalm is the hymn of grace and of all the glory of God which this grace has established and brought to light.

Righteousness, judgment, mercy, truth, faithfulness, and the power of God are celebrated as manifested in a Person, Himself the centre and the key to this Psalm: the True David, exalted as One chosen out of the people, the Lord's Anointed (vv. 19-20), He who is to be made the First-born, higher than the kings of the earth (v. 27), He from whom He will not withdraw His loving kindness, whom His faithfulness shall not fail (v. 33), He whose seed shall endure forever, whose throne shall be as the sun before the Lord (v. 36)!

Doubtless, in this marvelous picture of grace seen in the True David and in His glorious throne, the question of the responsibility of David's sons (vv. 30-32) cannot be absent, nor the consequences which result for the people who have failed (vv. 38-51), but this dark scene ends in blessing: "Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and amen" (v. 52).

Such are the instructions of wisdom by the mouth of these two men of God, one showing the system of the law which ends in the curse and the darkness of death, the other the system of grace based upon the Person of the True David and ending in eternal glory. The first proclaims the end of the old man, the second the endless reign of the new man.

What then must have been the wisdom of Solomon to surpass that of these two wise men?

1 KINGS 5

Hiram. Preparations for the Temple

After having described the internal order of Solomon's kingdom and all the wisdom that governed there, the Holy Spirit conducts us to that which, above all, was to characterize this reign: to the temple of the Lord. David was unable to build this house, for peace must be established (v. 3) for the Lord to be able to make His abiding dwelling in the midst of His people. As long as they had wandered in the desert the Lord had associated Himself with them in their condition of pilgrim and traveler by the tabernacle. Then followed the wars of Canaan under Joshua and the judges; these had not ceased until the reign of David. God cannot dwell in rest where there is war. The first condition of His abiding* dwelling with His people in Canaan is that peace be made. It is the same, spiritually, for the Church. When the "good news of peace" is announced, the house of God, the holy temple in the Lord, is built up, and this work continues until the full rest of glory.

{*We say "abiding" because the first condition for God to be able to dwell with His people is redemption, typified by the Passover and the Red Sea.}

Under Solomon this peace was outward, material, so to speak. The Lord had given him rest on every side (v. 4). The blessings that filled his reign had the same material character. All the desirable things of earth were brought to him, and he made them contribute to the glory of the Lord who had firmly established his throne.

The king of Tyre is the first one mentioned as coming to bring his services to the newly founded kingdom. In the Word Tyre is a type of the world with all its riches and desirable things. In Ezekiel 27 we see what Tyre, whose commerce spread over all the earth and to which the resources of the whole world flowed from every direction, was in antiquity. Precious woods which the Sidonians excelled in working, ivory and ebony, fine linen, white wool, embroidered work, blue and purple, silver, iron, tin, lead, brass, carbuncles, coral, rubies and every precious stone, gold in great abundance, spices, oil and wheat, flocks innumerable; to say nothing of warriors to defend her, sailors to guide her fleets, wise men to direct her and to make use of her resources — such was, in very few words, the wealth of Tyre. All that the human heart could desire upon earth could be procured there.

In Solomon's time Tyre had not yet taken on that character of pride denounced by Isaiah and especially by Ezekiel, and which went so far as to deify the intelligence of man. Hiram, the friend of David, still ruled over this people. Of his own free will he had come to offer his services to Solomon's father, and his carpenters had built him a house (2 Sam. 5: 11). The same willing spirit led him to send his servants to David's son because he had always loved his father (v. 1). How could he fail to be welcomed by the king of glory when he had always loved the king of grace?

Solomon tells Hiram of his plans, plans that in no way were the fruit of his own will. He had resolved to build the house of the Lord because God had so decreed, communicating His will beforehand to David (v. 5). Such is the true character of the decision of faith. Faith decides because God has determined. This point is important. Often we know the will of God beforehand and instead of saying, "I have determined" to do it, we seek excuses and good reasons to avoid it or at least to avoid putting our whole heart into it. At other times our resolutions have no motive behind them other than our own self-will, and lead us to bitter disappointments.

Solomon's rule is characterized, as we have said, by an earthly glory to which all the natural resources the whole world can furnish contribute. But this glory was to be to the glory of God and to give Him, in the midst of His people a temple which would exalt His holiness and His greatness. So it will be in the glorious reign of the Messiah.

We shall see later that Solomon, as responsible king, was not content with that which the Lord bestowed upon him, but later sought to augment this by and for himself and had to bear the consequences of this.

Hiram rejoiced greatly when he heard the words of Solomon. He considered himself honoured to be able by his service to contribute to the glory of the God of Israel. This Gentile king said, "Blessed be the Lord this day" (v. 7). He looks upon the Lord, the God of Solomon, as his God, and thanks Him for giving David a son to reign over His people. Affection for David, the rejected king, leads his soul to appreciate the king of glory, to appreciate God Himself, and to appreciate the people of God.

The fruit of a rejoicing heart is entire devotion to the service of Christ. "I will do all thy desire" (v. 8). And after all, what is Hiram's service in comparison to that which Solomon does for him? Sometimes that which we do for the Lord looks like something. The cedars of Lebanon and all the effort to transport them were no little thing, but Solomon uses many other materials also to construct the temple besides Hiram's cedars and cypresses: the great costly stones and the gold which overlaid everything were more important for the foundation and the glory of the building than the products of Lebanon. Nevertheless Solomon accomplishes the desire of Hiram because the latter accomplishes that of Solomon (vv. 9, 10), and the desire of Hiram is the feeding of his house. The Lord could do without us, but He does not want to do so; He well knows that to use us in His service gives joy to and blesses our hearts — but we cannot do without Him. It is He who gives life, nourishment, strength, and growth. The food of Hiram's country, the wheat in which his merchants trafficked, came from Palestine (Ezek. 27: 17). It is the Lord's land which furnishes those things needful for our existence. Thus Hiram depended upon Solomon for this: "giving food for my household" (v. 9). And what abundance reigns among the servants of the king of Tyre thereafter! four million eight hundred thousand litres of wheat annually! One might own cedar trees and cypresses and yet die of hunger. Certainly one doesn't die of hunger when one places them into the service of Solomon!

Peace characterizes this whole scene. Hiram and Solomon made a league of peace (v. 12).

"And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him" (v. 12). He had received wisdom (1 Kings 2: 6) in order to purify his kingdom by judgment; then (1 Kings 3: 12) in order to discern aright in view of governing his people; then (1 Kings 4: 29) in view of leading and instructing the nations, the peoples, and the kings of the earth; finally, he received wisdom in view of building the temple, the great work which was to characterize his glorious reign.

In verses 13-18 we witness the organization of the preparatory work on the temple. Each is employed according to his own ability. The wisdom of Solomon directs everything. His workers come to assist Hiram's for the wood with which to build, carrying burdens, cutting stones out of the mountain. The men of Gebal have their part in the work. Ezekiel 27: 9 mentions them as skilled to repair the breaches of Tyre, which is there represented by the form of a magnificent vessel sailing the seas.*

{*The Giblites are mentioned in Joshua in relation to Lebanon as those to be conquered by Israel (Joshua 13: 5). The Gebal mentioned in Ezekiel (Ezek. 27: 9), a seaport at the foot of the northern slopes of Lebanon, was probably their city. In this glorious reign of Solomon they were to be tributaries, as belonging to the conquered race of Canaan.}

The first act of Solomon is to transport "great stones, costly stones, and hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the house. " It was of prime importance to lay a costly foundation, one whose solidity would be proof against every test, as the base of the temple of God. This is what God has done for His spiritual house as well. The foundation is Christ, the Chief Cornerstone; the foundations are the truths touching Christ and His work as He has presented them by His apostles and prophets. These are the great stones, the costly stones. It is impossible to remove one without compromising or shaking the whole building. This is what Solomon's wisdom had well understood in preparing the hewn stones on which the house of God was to be built.

1 KINGS 6

The Temple

Four hundred eighty years have passed since the exodus from Egypt; the Lord's purpose in delivering His people has been attained. That which Israel had sung on the shore of the Red Sea is at last realized: "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established" (Ex. 15: 17). The two things mentioned in this passage are realized in type by David and by Solomon. To prepare is not the same as to build. It was David who had prepared everything for the construction of the temple (1 Chr. 22: 14). Much more, it was to him that the plans of the building and all its contents had been communicated in writing (1 Chr. 28: 11-19). David had imparted these plans to Solomon. Solomon built. The Savior "prepares"; the Lord "establishes by His hands." The materials prepared by God for His dwelling with men and for the accomplishment of all His counsels are the fruit of the sufferings and rejection of the true David; Christ, the Son of the living God, builds, and says: "Upon this rock I will build my church."

Before beginning the subject of the construction of the temple, we need to present briefly the significance of this building.

The temple, as also the tabernacle, was the dwelling of God in the midst of His people, the visible sign of His presence. His throne, the ark where He was seated between the cherubim, was found there. The ark contained the tables of the law, the testimony of the covenant between the Lord and His people. This covenant, on God's part, was kept with scrupulous and unchangeable faithfulness, but it was conditional. If Israel fulfilled its conditions, God would dwell in the midst of His people. If Israel disobeyed, the Lord was obliged to abandon her, to leave His throne and His house in Israel.

The temple was the centre of worship. One approached God in His temple by means of sacrifices and the priesthood. Nevertheless, God remained inaccessible, for in actual fact man in the flesh could not approach Him. The way into the holiest, though revealed in type, was not made manifest. Only the work of Christ was able to open this up.

The temple, the place of worship, was also the centre of the government of Israel. It was God who governed. The king was only the responsible representative of the people before God and the executor of the Lord's will in government.

From the moment that God acquired an earthly people, a tabernacle or a temple was indispensable and became the centre of all their political and religious life. When the people was declared to be "Lo-ammi" the glory of the Lord abandoned the temple which eventually disappeared after having been destroyed and rebuilt many times. But when the sure relationship of the Lord with His people shall be reestablished under the new covenant of grace, the temple will reappear, more glorious than it has ever yet been.

The temple (like the tabernacle) also has a typical meaning. The temple represents heaven, the Father's house, and we can apply its symbols to our Christian relationships. All that is found in the temple is but the figure of spiritual things which are the portion of the Christians, as we shall have ample opportunity of considering.*

*We shall be presented with many other details throughout the course of this chapter and the following one.

The temple being God's dwelling-place, it is necessarily also the dwelling-place of those who are His (John 14: 2; John 4: 21-24). This is why Solomon's temple shows us the priests' rooms as being one with the house. This brings us to note an important difference in the way the temple is presented in 1 Kings 6 and 2 Chronicles 3. In 1 Kings the priests' dwellings form a part of the house; 2 Chronicles 3: 9 mentions them only in passing and without indicating their connection with the temple. In 1 Kings the two most important parts of the Jewish system, the altar and the veil, are completely missing, whereas Chronicles mentions them. Without them one could not approach God. Finally, the height of the temple's great porch is passed over in silence in Kings and given in Chronicles.* From these facts we can conclude a priori that Kings presents the temple as dwelling-place and Chronicles as place of approach. We must keep this in mind as we consider these chapters.

{*This is why the following pages of necessity present a constant mixture of Jewish and Christian elements.}

The temple, viewed as a whole, is also the figure of the Christian Assembly, the Church, the spiritual house, the holy temple, the dwelling of God by the Spirit.

Finally, the temple is Christ. "Destroy this temple," He said, "and in three days I will raise it up." Here below He was the temple in which the Father dwelt (John 14: 10). But if in a general way the temple is Christ, all its parts present Him in diverse characters. The ark with the law in its heart, the mercy-seat on the ark, the veil, all the utensils of the holy place and of the court, all the way to the walls and foundations of the building — all, absolutely everything, just as in the tabernacle in the wilderness, speaks to us of Him. Everything presents His glories, the efficacy of His work, the light of His Spirit, the perfume of His Name, the value of His blood, the purity, the holiness, the glory of His Person. Wherever we turn, whatever object our eye contemplates in this marvelous building, we ever find the perfections of Him in whom the father has found His delight, in whom He has manifested Himself to us. If we enter into the Father's house, it is to find the perfect manifestation of all that He is, in the Person of His Son.

Having said this, let us examine the teaching of our chapter in detail.

"And the house which king Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits" (v. 2).

At first glance, the proportions of the temple seem astonishing, for they are very restrained, and this fact has struck even unbelievers. There is a great difference between the dimensions of Solomon's temple and those of the gigantic sanctuaries of Egypt. It is not size, but holiness, perfect order, righteousness, and glory, that is to say the balance and harmony of all the perfections of God that characterize His house.

The dimensions of the temple were exactly double those of the tabernacle in length, in width, and in height, but the proportions of the different parts remained the same. While crossing the wilderness, the tabernacle might have seemed a thing of relatively little importance in view of what the house of God was to be in glory. But all God's plan, all the order of His house, was found in this transitory building and was to be manifested there. It is the same with the Church. This is why it is said to Timothy: "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth": (1 Tim. 3: 15). In glory the order of the government of the house will be fully manifested, as we see in the description of the New Jerusalem in relation to the kingdom (Rev. 21).

Moreover, if one considers carefully the manner in which the temple was built, beyond the astonishing analogy between its dimensions and those of the tabernacle one observes that the temple was built upon no model other than that one. We insist upon this point because men who often without even a thought, disbelieve the revelation of God will go to great lengths to discover whether Tyrian, Assyrian, Egyptian, or Babylonian temples have more or less served as models for Solomon's, whereas it served as its own model. Is this not worthy of the True Architect of the temple, who revealed all its details to David just as previously those of the tabernacle to Moses? But now, what was impossible with any purely human undertaking — every one of these details had a divine meaning which would draw out our thoughts by faith to the Person and work of Christ.

The porch of the temple, its only entrance, differed in its proportions from those of the tabernacle. 2 Chronicles 3: 4 tells us that it was one hundred twenty cubits high.* It was four times as high as the house. In figure it corresponds to the passage in Psalm 24: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in the holy place? . . . Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." This true arch of triumph was worthy of the King of glory, the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty, of whom Solomon was but the feeble type.

{*Rationalistic critics contest this figure, seeing, as always, errors in that which they do not understand.}

All around the temple, except at its entrance, naturally, were the side chambers, dwellings of the priests. There was nothing comparable in the tabernacle in the wilderness, where God doubtless was able to condescend to dwell in the midst of a people according to the flesh on condition that He would hide Himself in thick darkness, but where He could not allow man to come to dwell with Him. This latter condition is here realized under Solomon's glorious reign, as it will for us be realized when the Lord brings us into the Father's house. All of us who are children of God belong to this family of priests which will have its home around its Head, though already the Father's house is open to our faith and we may dwell there, though still in this world.

The priests' dwellings were inseparable from the house, forming one whole with it without spoiling any one part. The walls of the temple had offsets where the beams could be fastened without hurting the walls. In this way the priestly rooms were perfectly adapted to the house without in any way compromising the integrity of the building. It is thus that we shall dwell in glory. The fact that we shall be there, far from weakening the perfection of God's house, will only enhance it. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Rev. 21: 3).

"And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building" (v. 7). No trace of human instruments was seen during the construction of the temple. It was built in silence; neither axe nor hammer was heard. It was the work of God; everything was prepared beforehand. The stones that made up the house had the same character as the foundation stones, also precious and prepared beforehand (1 Kings 7: 9-12). It is the same with the assembly (1 Peter 2: 4-5) insofar as its being built up is not entrusted to man's responsibility (1 Cor. 3: 10-15).

Yet it was this very responsibility that fell upon Solomon (vv. 11-13) in connection with the construction of the house. Just as so many others, he failed, thus bringing ruin upon his kingdom "If thou wilt walk in my statutes . . . I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel." The only condition God set for not forsaking His people was the king's faithfulness. All His blessing was dependent on this condition being met.

The oracle as well as the holy place ("the temple before it") was covered with cedar wood. In the Word cedar represents majesty and height, durability and firmness. No part of the walls within was not covered. Nowhere did the stone appear. But the cedar wood itself and even the planks of cypress of which the floor was made were entirely covered with gold. In the Word gold always represents divine righteousness and glory.

Thus the house was made up of precious prepared stones built upon the great and precious foundation stones. This was the temple's value in God's eyes. But within, everything was firm, durable, and consequently incorruptible, worthy of the greatness and majesty of the Lord. Finally, those who entered the temple to dwell with God saw nothing but divine righteousness round about them. Down to the very floor beneath their feet, all was covered. Man cannot dwell with God except according to divine righteousness. Moreover, all the furnishings of the temple were either made of gold or overlaid with gold, as for example the altar of incense, the cherubim, and the doors of the most holy place.

As in the tabernacle in the wilderness, the most holy place formed a perfect cube within. "And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in height thereof* (v. 20). So shall the New Jerusalem be: "The length is as large as the breadth" (Rev. 21: 16). The result of God's work is perfect without adding anything or taking anything away. Everything is ordered according to the mind of the Divine Architect. The New Jerusalem is, so to speak, a great most holy place where God can dwell, just as in the oracle of the temple, because everything answers to His holiness and His righteousness. There is no temple to be found in her, "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it," but she herself answers to a/l that is of the most holy character in the temple of God. God's sanctuary is the Church in glory!

{*The house itself was thirty cubits high (v. 2). It is a fact worthy to be noted that the millennial temple described by Ezekiel, despite the immense development of its outer and inner courts and the dimensions of the body of the building which reached one hundred cubits including its chambers. does not go beyond the dimensions of Solomon's temple for the holy and the most holy places. These measurements are unchangeable. That which was from the beginning in God's plan is to be realized without change or development in the age of Christ's glory. The overall dimensions can be adapted to the future greatness of this reign, but the sanctuary remains the same.}

As stated previously, the veil is not mentioned here. A double door of olive wood (v. 31) overlaid with gold replaces it — a free, large access, allowing one's view to penetrate into the most holy place, although, corresponding to the order of things under the law, golden chains were stretched out before the oracle (v. 21).

The cherubim played a great role in the temple. In the tabernacle they were beaten out of the mercy seat and overshadowed it. They looked toward that which was hidden in the ark, toward the covenant of the law which had been placed within it, written on tables of stone. The cherubim, two in number, were witnesses of the contents of the ark (Matt. 18: 16). At the same time they were attributes of the judicial power of God. These attributes made the covenant sure. On His side God kept it faithfully by all that which characterized Him in government.* The ark and the cherubim of the tabernacle had been brought over into the temple. On condition that the king, on his side, be faithful, God remained seated on His throne between the cherubim, faithfully keeping, for His part, the covenant contracted with His people.

{*We shall speak of these attributes again in respect to the ornamentation of the temple and of the cows.}

But the temple contained two other cherubim, each ten cubits high, with their wings spread so as to touch each other on the one side and to touch the walls of the sanctuary on the other. "Their faces were toward the house" (2 Chr. 3: 13, J.N.D. translation), that is, facing out of the sanctuary. They faced outward because under the reign of glory the judicial attributes of God, terrible to sinful man, can look upon him in blessing. In our chapter, where it is not a question of dwelling with God, the cherubim are not presented to us as facing outward.

Several other details of the ornamentation call for our attention.

The walls were decorated with cherubim, palms, and half-open flowers within and without. These ornaments were visible outside. Within, they were covered and hidden by a wall of cedar. We have already seen that the cherubim are attributes of the righteous government of God. The "beasts" of Revelation (1 Kings 4: 6, 7) are cherubim and represent: the lion, strength; the ox (or calf), firmness and patience; the man, intelligence; the eagle, the rapidity of the judgments and government of God. The bearers or representatives of these attributes may be either angels or saints, depending on the occasion (Rev. 4, 5). In these chapters before us the cherub has a unique place. It is neither an ox nor a lion. It is an intelligent being. It is "the cherub" in contrast with the others. The eagle is not mentioned in the ornamentation of the temple nor of the vessels of the court, for the eagle represents rapidity of judgment and does not apply to an established, peaceful government. 1 Kings 7: 29 proves what we are saying: "And on the borders . . . were lions, oxen, and cherubim." The cherubim therefore are the aspect of intelligence in the government of God here. This intelligence ornaments the house of God. Those who draw nigh may see it in all the details of the divine building. All the ways of God in His government, the external portion, that which may be read upon the wall, bears witness to this intelligence, to this infinitely varied wisdom. But beyond this we find another whole portion of the thoughts of God, unknown under the law, hidden and covered over in the interior of the temple where no human eye could see them. These are the counsels of God. Now divine intelligence goes into them and they are familiar to us, for God has revealed them to us by his Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 9-10).

Palm trees or palm branches also have their significance in the Word. When the Lord entered Jerusalem as the King of Peace, His disciples bore palm branches before Him. It is the sign of the peaceful triumph of a reign about to be inaugurated. Similarly, the immense multitude of Revelation 7 carry palm branches in their hands, celebrating the Lamb's victory. The palm trees of Elim are the symbol of peaceful protection in the wilderness; the palm branch (Isa. 9: 14), a protection and shelter. Palms were used at the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23: 40), symbolic of the millennial celebration where the people, dwelling beneath palms and the branches of other green trees, shall take part in the universal rest of the kingdom, but not without the reminder of the years of testing in the wilderness. Thus palm branches symbolize the peace, security, and triumph of that reign of righteousness.

The half-open flowers are the emblem of a new season, of the beginning of spring (Song 2: 12). In Psalm 92: 13, 14 we see that "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree . . . Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." Thus these emblems are not only those of the kingdom, but also emblems of those who belong there.* There will be perfect harmony between the glories of the kingdom and those who will have part in it, between the Father's house and those who dwell there. And everything will be in perfect accord with Christ, the true Solomon. Intelligence shall be His, for upon Him as Man rests the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11: 2). He is Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the true Son of David, and upon Himself shall His crown flourish (Ps. 132: 18).

{*It is likewise with the cherubim, as we have seen previously. The king of Tyre was a cherub in Eden.}

Divine wisdom, perfect peace, beauty, freshness, and joy thus characterize this entire scene, and we shall participate in it also, made like unto Christ, and with Him who shall bear all these glories.

On the doors of the oracle (v. 32) were found cherubim with palm trees and flowers. This was the only spot within the holy place where the cherubim could be seen. Similarly to the veil which they take the place of, the doors represent Christ who by giving Himself has opened up access for us to God. In the sanctuary the wisdom of God only is contemplated. Christ crucified is the wisdom of God. By His cross we enter the sanctuary in full peace, in full joy, and there we can in an intelligent way praise the Lamb who was slain.

The cedar walls do not bear the same decoration. They were ornamented only with half-open flowers and colocynths (or buds or knobs, for that is perhaps the meaning of this word in verse 18). There one saw the representation of a perpetual flowering, of a renewal full of freshness and beauty in harmony with the rest of God, of an eternal season of joy, all this covered and protected by divine glory there in the temple of God which for us is the Father's house!

1 KINGS 7: 1-12

Solomon's Houses

"But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house" (v. 1). It had taken Solomon seven years to build the house of the Lord. We see in this his promptness at this work. It took Herod forty-six years to build his temple (John 2: 20). At the beginning of his career the service of the Lord came before all else in the king's heart. His own house, certainly of less importance than the temple, cost him thirteen years of labor.

The passage before us speaks of three different houses.

The first is called Solomon's "own house," "his house where he dwelt," his own residence. Little is said about it except that in place of the "porch for the throne" which characterized the "house of the forest of Lebanon" (v. 7) the king's house had, within the entrance porch (cf. v. 6), "another court" which was of like work (v. 8). Solomon did not judge in this house. He dwelt there. It is presented to us in a rather mysterious way; it is a house of intimacy. But it is mentioned immediately after the temple and is its counterpart, so to speak. God dwelt in the temple and had "many abodes" there for His own. The temple was an image of the Father's house. The house we have before us here is the Son's house (1 Chr. 17: 13). If we seek its analogy in the New Testament, our thoughts turn immediately towards the Church of which He said: "Upon this rock I will build my church. "

As we know, the Church was not revealed in the Old Testament. It was a mystery which could only be known after the Lord's resurrection. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the Old Testament which contradicts this future revelation. Quite to the contrary, it seems at times that her place is depicted beforehand, waiting for the Church herself to be introduced at the appropriate moment. Certain types go beyond Jewish relationships and suggest more intimate ones. May we just call to mind the relationship of Adam and Eve, of Rebecca and Isaac, of Abigail and David. May we remember above all the assembly of Psalm 22, mentioned in Hebrews 2: 12. Finally, let us consider this house of Solomon's of which the New Testament presents the glorious foundation.

Christ's millennial reign will not only be characterized by His relationships with His people and with the nations, but by the glorious intimacy of the Church with Himself. She shall be the Bride, the Lamb's wife; but, we repeat, our passage in no wise goes on to this point — and it treats these things in a manner designedly obscure and mysterious

This is not so of "the house of the forest of Lebanon" (vv. 2-7). The name given it calls to mind its construction on the one hand and perhaps its architectural appearance as well. It was built of cedar wood; throughout, both inside and outside, it presented cedar columns which, set in long rows, may have given the house the appearance of an imposing forest. On the other hand, we can see in this name a beautiful image of this glorious reign. Lebanon faced Tyre and even belonged to it. Thus there was a relationship between this house and the nations in submission to the great king. It was there that Solomon sat as sovereign and judge of the nations as well as of his own people.

The house of the forest of Lebanon was one hundred cubits long (forty cubits longer than the temple), fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. It rested upon four rows of columns. On both sides were three rows of columns, set in groups of fifteen, and suites of chambers superimposed one on the other, according to all appearances, in three stories like those of the temple.* The windows were opposite one another; that is to say, we have reason to think that some faced outward and the others inward toward the building itself, facing the porch. Above these chambers a ceiling of cedar formed a roof and also covered the centre of the building, which supported this ceiling by four rows of columns. The centre itself was composed of two porches, first the porch of pillars, well named for its six lateral rows of pillars and the four rows of pillars rising in the middle of the porch. Next the porch of the throne or the porch of judgment, a continuation of the first and occupying the back of the building.** At the back of this porch a marvelous throne arose, to which we shall return later.

{*The expression "light was against light in three ranks,' (v. 5) can scarcely, so it seems to us, be taken otherwise. The chambers contained the golden shields which Solomon had made for his guard, for the house of the forest served as an arsenal as well (1 Kings 10: 16-17; 1 Kings 14: 26-28; Isa. 22: 8).}

{**The expression "porch of pillars" leads us to suppose that the lateral chambers did not extend beyond hair the length of the building and did not face the porch of the throne.}

In front of the porch of pillars there was an entry porch, whose dimensions are not given us. It too was garnished with a colonnade and had an entablature or flight of steps by which one reached the house. We can easily imagine the majesty of this construction. One's eye penetrated through the forest of cedar pillars of the central portion to the second porch at the farther end of which rose a throne of gold and ivory, marvellously executed, and upon this throne one could contemplate the glorious king, peaceable Solomon, the beloved Jedidiah of the Lord, whose wisdom was never surpassed — the righteous king executing righteousness.

This porch of the throne was the "porch of judgment." The seat of the government of the nations was there, the place where righteousness was upheld. The house of the forest of Lebanon linked the government of Israel itself with that of the nations.

This house where pillars were found everywhere was in contrast to the temple where there were none, except for Jachin and Boaz at the entrance of the house, as we shall see later on; at least there is no pillar mentioned, neither in the holy place nor in the oracle. The house of God supports itself, and has no need of other support in its perfect stability. The glory of God suffices for itself, only God the Father associates His children with it and gives them a dwelling place there. It will not be so with the reign of Christ over the nations. The saints will be called to share in His reign and to judge the world with Christ (1 Cor. 6: 2; Ps. 2: 9; Rev. 2: 26-27). The Lord will have companions in His government who will always dwell near the king, as formerly the companions of Solomon dwelt in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Similarly, the Lord had priests dwelling with Him in His temple.

The third house is that of the Gentile wife, the daughter of Pharaoh. There is little more said of it than of the house in which the king dwelt. We know only that it was built according to the plan for the porch* of the house of Lebanon. We have already said that the union of Solomon with Pharaoh's daughter did not prefigure the relationship of the Lord with the Church, but that of the nations, formerly oppressors of God's people, with the Messiah. This union, beyond doubt glorious, does not afford the same intimacy as that of the Messiah with Israel or so much the more, as that of Jesus with the Church.**

{*Probably the porch of pillars.}

{**This relationship is nevertheless much more intimate than that with the nations at the extremities of the kingdom. There were various categories of rations. Under Solomon's reign, the remainder of the Canaanites were employed at servile labour (2 Chr. 2: 17-18, 2 Chr. 8: 7-9). The nations, like Tyre, co-operated voluntarily in this work. Egypt and Assyria, formerly Israel's oppressors, will turn to the Lord during the millennial period and will serve Him together. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance (Isa. 19: 24-25).}

Verses 9-12 connect the glory of these houses to that of the temple and of its inner and outer courts. The same precious stones were used for all these buildings. Their foundations were the same. No element entered in which did not correspond to the character of the Lord and of Solomon.

These three houses and the temple give us an insight into the characteristics of the glorious reign of the Son of God, of the Son of Man, and of the Son of David. There is a heavenly sphere, the Father's house, where a people of priests shall dwell with Him — a glorious Assembly, the Son's house, His intimate dwelling place and His wife. There is an earthly sphere, a Gentile bride, sharing in the blessings of the covenant — a government of all nations, in submission to the sceptre of the great king — to say nothing of Israel, rejected so long on account of her unfaithfulness, now received in grace under the new covenant as the beloved Jewish wife, centre of Messiah's earthly government.

1 KINGS 7: 13-51

Hiram and the Court

Solomon called Hiram from Tyre in order that he might make the brazen objects destined for the court of the temple. "He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass."

In the wilderness the Lord had chosen Bezaleel of Judah and Aholiab of Dan for the work of the tabernacle (Ex. 35: 30-35). Then the work of the tabernacle had devolved upon the children of Israel alone. The people, entirely separated from the nations, could have no work in common with them. The scene changes under Solomon: the reconciled nations are engaged in God's service together with His own people. The Lord's Anointed has dominion over them both. Hiram belonged to both by birth: his parentage was formed by the alliance of Israel with the Gentiles — a remarkable fact perfectly suited to the scene before us.

Hiram "was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass" (v. 14). He is the representative of the Spirit of God (Isa. 11: 2) for this work.

Two metals, gold and brass, play the preponderant role in the construction of the temple. Gold is always the symbol of divine righteousness which brings us into the presence of God.

In virtue of divine righteousness we are able to stand before Him. We possess it in Christ in heaven. Brass is the symbol of the righteousness of God displaying upon earth what He is for sinful man. The furniture of the temple was made of gold, the furniture of the court was of brass and had been cast in the earth. Hiram worked in brass only.

We have already remarked that First Kings does not speak of the brazen altar, of which Hiram nevertheless was the artisan (cf. 2 Chr. 4: 1). This altar represents the righteousness of God coming to manifest itself in favor of sinful man, there where he is, in such a manner as to enable him to approach God in virtue of the sacrifice offered upon the altar. The Book of Kings does not develop this viewpoint. It speaks to us of dwelling with God in His temple, and when it mentions brass, it is not as a figure of divine righteousness by which we approach God, but as the manifestation to the eyes of the world of that righteousness which characterizes the kingdom and the government of Solomon or of Christ. In a word, it is the righteousness of God, but manifested without in government. The furniture of the court, mentioned in our chapter, shows us what is necessary in order that this manifestation be not hindered. The Spirit of God, represented by Hiram, is occupied with this. Thus we find in the chapters before us, God opening His house that we may dwell there with Him, Christ supplying us with the divine righteousness (the gold) necessary for this objective; the Son, as King of Righteousness, manifesting the glory of His kingdom; and the Spirit acting so that this righteousness can be manifested without hindrance before the eyes of all men upon earth.

Let us now consider the objects which Hiram cast for Solomon in the plain of Jordan. They all belonged, we repeat, to the court of the temple; that is to say, to the outward manifestation of the glorious government of Christ.

The Pillars (vv. 15-22)

The brazen pillars, situated in front of the porch of the temple, attracted attention immediately. They represented the outward manifestation of the principles of the kingdom. We have already said that no other pillar is mentioned in the temple. They were named Jachin (He shall establish) and Boaz (in Him is strength). These were the two great truths presented symbolically to whosoever took part in the blessed reign of Solomon. All came from Him; in Him and in Him personally there is strength. He maintains Himself and needs no external help whatsoever. His strength is used to establish rather than needing to be established.

Millennial blessing is based upon these two principles —  our present blessing as well.

Solomon's throne, his government, his people's relations with God, his worship, everything, in type, was based upon that which God had done: He had established his reign. But under Solomon himself the pillar Jachin — He shall establish, not, He has established — spoke of a future establishment of which Solomon's reign was but the feeble picture. As for the pillar Boaz — In Him is strength — this is something past, present, future, and eternal. Strength is in Him. Solomon, just as every godly king in Israel, had to know this. At the moment the link with God was broken, neither the king nor the kingdom would have any strength.

We make the same experience today. Philadelphia has "a little strength," but its strength is in Christ, for He has the key of David. And the Lord says to Philadelphia: I shall establish thee a pillar in the temple of my God. Thou shalt be a Jachin and a Boaz. In a time to come the poor remnant without strength shall be acknowledged publicly. Christ with His incommensurable power shall be admired in all those who have believed.

We need not wait for some future time to experience this, for He is our strength today, as He shall be forever. But the time is coming when Christ's witnesses shall be established and shall manifest in a glorious way all that shall be theirs throughout eternity. "I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name" (Rev. 3: 12).

The pillars were crowned with lily work, a picture, we believe, of the glory of this reign at its commencement (Matt. 6: 28-29). One characteristic detail: they had hundreds of pomegranates on their capitals. In the Word the pomegranate seems to be the image of fruit borne for God. The hem of the high priest's garment was trimmed with bells and pomegranates alternately (Ex. 28: 31-35). The bells represent the testimony, the pomegranates, the fruit. These latter were "of blue, purple, and scarlet," heavenly fruit, fruit corresponding to the dignity of the Lord, and to His royal dignity as Messiah. Our fruit should bear the character of Christ and be worthy of Him; it should also correspond to and be like our testimony, just as the pomegranates were the same in number as the golden bells. One often finds Christians with more bells than pomegranates, more words than fruit!

Fruit cannot be borne nor testimony be rendered except in virtue of the anointing oil, that is to say, of the Holy Spirit, which "ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments" (Ps. 133: 2). The hem of our High Priest's garment is ourselves, we who can make no pretence to the title of Christian if we do not render testimony to Christ and bear fruit for God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Brazen pomegranates ornamented the tops of the pillars. How can the divine character be declared before all without bearing fruit abounding in righteousness? The Lord desires to be crowned with fruit. If strength is in Him, it is there in order to produce fruit. He is the True Vine here below, and as such, He has no other function. All His care for His own, all His disciples, has for its purpose that they might bear fruit. He must show Himself before all eyes as He who produces it.

The Spirit of God has publicly erected a pillar. This pillar is Christ. He bears His own, who have no strength save in Him. "Without me ye can do nothing." That which God establishes, that which draws its strength from Christ, must necessarily bear fruit in abundance. Our passage applies properly to the fruit of righteousness manifested under the reign and government of the Lord.

In Solomon's case, the brazen pillars could not be kept because of the unfaithfulness of the king and his successors. They were broken up by the Chaldeans (Jer. 52: 17-23). His kingdom could not be established because he did not seek his strength in God. But even if the material pillars have disappeared, the moral pillars remain: the day shall come when the Lord in whom is strength will show to all that He has established in righteousness a kingdom which shall never be moved. Then shall it be said, "The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty, the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded Himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting" (Ps. 93: 1-2).

The Brazen Sea (vv. 23-26)

Behind the pillars the temple court held the brazen sea. We are specifically told (1 Chr. 18: 8) that Solomon "made the brazen sea and the pillars, and the vessels of brass" of the brass which David had taken from the cities of Hadarezer. We have seen that brass here represents the righteousness of God coming to meet man where he is to deliver him and to manifest itself outwards, as shall be seen in Christ's glorious reign. This righteousness was here displayed in the destruction of the power of the enemy whom David had conquered. We know that this has already taken place at the cross of Christ, but under His reign of righteousness the power of Satan, bound for one thousand years, shall be annulled, that it may no longer hinder the practical purification of the saints who serve the Lord.

The brazen sea differs from the brazen altar. The latter represents divine righteousness coming to meet sinful man to expiate his sin by the blood of a victim and to purify him by death so that he can approach God. From Christ's pierced side issued the atoning blood and the purifying water. Under the law the washing of the priests at their consecration corresponds to purification by death. They were completely washed, and that once for all (Ex. 29: 4; Lev. 8: 6). This ceremony was not conducted at the brazen laver nor at the brazen sea. It was never repeated. It was a figure of the "washing of regeneration" (Titus 3: 5), the death of the old man, and the purification which places the believer in an entirely new position, that of Christ before God (cf. John 13: 10).

The brazen sea served for the daily purification of the priests. There they washed their hands and their feet. Thus they were qualified to accomplish their service and to dwell (for in this book it is always a matter of dwelling, not of approach) there where the Lord dwelt. Likewise, the disciples could have no part with Christ in the Father's house unless He would wash their feet (John 13: 8). This washing is effected by the Word of God in virtue of Christ's intercession as Advocate. Under the law this washing applied to hands and feet, that is to say, to works and walk. Under grace it applies only to walk, for we have been purified from dead works to serve the Living God, and this has taken place once for all —  something the law was unable to do.

The brazen layer of the tabernacle differs somewhat from the brazen sea of the temple. We have just seen that this latter was the manifestation of divine righteousness breaking the power of the enemy in order to make possible the daily purification of the priests. This victory was not gained in the wilderness. The laver was not cast of brass taken from the enemy, but from "the mirrors of the crowds of women who crowded before the entrance of the tent of meeting" (Ex. 38: 8). This passage alludes to that which followed the sin of the golden calf. Moses had set up a tent outside the camp and had called it the "tent of meeting." All the people, as a sign of humiliation, were to strip themselves of their ornaments, and those who sought the Lord went forth to the tent of meeting outside the camp (Ex. 33: 4-7). The mirrors of the repentant women of Israel served to make the brazen laver. They acknowledged their sin and humbled themselves; they stripped themselves of that which until then had served their vanity. How could they still delight to consider their natural faces? They did not wish, nor could they any longer behold themselves. They truly judged themselves, their selfishness, their lightness, all that had contributed to make them forsake God for an idol. That which presented them in their state of sin must be destroyed. Thus the brazen laver is the righteousness of God pronouncing judgment upon the old man, but in order that the believer might obtain practical, daily purification by the Word. In order to deliver us, this righteousness has been brought upon Christ. It is in Him that we now realize that "Know thyself" so impossible to sinful man.

The obstacle which the flesh and Satan presented to our daily cleansing being removed, the water of the brazen sea teaches us that without this purification we cannot have communion with God in our service and walk, and that every manifestation of the flesh must be suppressed in practice.

In Revelation 4: 6 we find the sea again, as in Solomon's court, but "a sea of glass like unto crystal." It is the final result of the righteousness which has gained the victory over Satan and has destroyed him. Those who stand there before God are found in a permanent condition of holiness and of purity, having reached their unchangeable, and so to speak, crystallized character forever. One can no longer wash himself in the crystal sea: one is that which it represents before God eternally.

In Revelation 15: 2 we again find a heavenly scene. It is a sea of glass, mingled with fire, on which stand those who have overcome the Beast and his image. They are the faithful from among the nations who, after having gone through the tribulation and having stood fast to the point of martyrdom, have part in the first resurrection. They do not possess absolute and final purity until after they have undergone baptism by fire.

Let us come back to the brazen sea. It rested upon twelve oxen, three facing each of the four quarters of the horizon. The ox is one of the four animals which form the attributes of the throne (Rev. 4), and represent the active qualities of God, the principles of His government. The ox, as we have already seen, is the firmness and patience of God in His ways. The twelve brazen oxen are the complete manifestation in every sense of God's patience in His ways by which He has succeeded in bringing Israel under the sceptre of the Messiah, in making her capable of standing in holiness before Himself. This does not signify that in the millennial reign of which Solomon's reign is the type, the purification of a priestly people will no longer be necessary. Sin shall not yet have been taken away from the world. Doubtless it will be restrained and its manifestations hindered, for Satan shall be bound, but the flesh will not be changed (it cannot be), much less abolished (that it shall be), and the Word in the hands of Christ the High Priest shall ever have its cleansing virtue.

It is interesting to note that the sea is not mentioned in the temple of Ezekiel — not that it is not there, but its importance is relegated to the background as it were. In contrast, the altar dominates there, and though the sin offering is offered there, the principal role is given to the burnt offering and the peace offering.

Just as the pillars, the sea was broken up by the Chaldeans (Jer. 52: 20).

The Lavers and Their Bases (vv. 27-40)

The brazen sea served to cleanse the priests; the ten lavers, five on the right of the court and five on the left, served to "wash . . . such things as they offered for the burnt-offering" (2 Chr. 4: 6). In Leviticus 1: 9 we see that the priest washed the inwards and the legs of the victim with water. This type must correspond to future reality — to the offering of Christ to God in perfect purity. He who offered Himself as an odor of a sweet smell was holiness itself and had no need to be washed, but the type must be washed in order to show the perfection of the offering of Christ.

The burnt offering represents the sacrifice of Christ offering Himself to God, glorifying Him in all that He is, and this in regard to sin. God is able to receive us according to the perfection of this sacrifice. As the victim must needs be presented to God without any defilement, it was needful to show that it was perfect and that this purity went further than conduct alone, but included the "inwards" of the offering. This truth was presented by the water of the lavers. The "molten sea" washed the priests. They all had access to this single way of being cleansed from the defilement of their walk. Christ, made sin, is the source of cleansing for His own; His Word is the means. Ten lavers were needed to wash the victims; these were, we do not doubt, symbolic of the absolute purity of Christ.

The lavers did not belong to the tabernacle in the wilderness, though doubtless this latter had vessels for washing the burnt offering (Ex. 27: 19; Ex. 38: 30). They manifested in the kingdom the perfection of the burnt offering, the basis of the people's acceptance before God. This purity, this holiness of the sacrifice, satisfied all the demands of God's government. We also see that the bases and the chapiters of the bases proclaimed by their ornaments all the attributes of this government.*

{*Except for the eagles. We have previously stated that promptness of judgment has no relationship to a reign of righteousness and peace.}

"Lions, oxen, and cherubim"* were sculpted on the bases themselves: strength, patience, and divine intelligence. The burnt offering is presented pure according to these attributes. It is manifested that they have been used to establish an offering by which the people might be made acceptable to God, having been identified with the victim. One might read on the "bases" what was the manner of the God who had supplied His people with a means for dwelling with Himself.

*These latter simply bear the human figure here, as on the walls of the temple. In Ezekiel 41: 19 they have two faces, that of a lion and of a man, the power and intelligence which characterize the reign of Christ definitely established. In Ezekiel 1 the four creatures each had four faces, for it was a question of charactering the throne of God in judgment.

These lavers, continually pushed about on their wheels, were placed at the threshold of the platform of the altar, in order that the victims might continually be presented as pure.

The chapiter, that is, the crown of the base, bore nothing more than cherubim (men) and lions with palm trees, as on the walls of Ezekiel's temple* (Ezek. 41: 18-19). Strength and intelligence crown the foundation of God's ways in government. If Solomon would be faithful, there would be no more need of patience: it would have accomplished its goal. Strength and divine intelligence could now, as in the millennial temple to come, look towards the palm trees, symbols of triumph and of peaceful protection. Peace upon earth! The reign of peace was established in righteousness: the lavers for the burnt offering proclaimed this, as did the walls of the temple.

{*In our book here the walls also bore partially opened flowers, perhaps because this was not yet the full bloom of the kingdom. These partially opened flowers are missing in 2 Chronicles 3: 5-7.}

God had been glorified by the burnt offering. All that He was had been manifested by the holy offering, and this had been declared openly. Under the glorious reign of Solomon the people had these things before their eyes everywhere — but, could this reign, entrusted to man's responsibility, maintain itself?

It should be noted that the lavers, which are merely mentioned in 2 Chronicles 4: 6, are here described in greater detail, for it is a matter of the external manifestation of what God is both in His government and in His kingdom. This manifestation of God will be shown in Christ who will reign in full view of the world.

The work of Hiram ends here. It was, in type, the development in this world by the power of the Holy Spirit of what Christ is and of what God Himself is in His government.

The Golden Objects (vv. 48-51)

The objects of gold are presented, just as also in 2 Chronicles 4, as being the work, not of Hiram, but of Solomon. Solomon is occupied with all the objects by which divine righteousness is displayed in its glorious essence. Christ alone can display this. Intercession (the golden altar), the showing forth of Christ (the table of shewbread), the light of the Spirit (the candlestick), even the least of the vessels of the sanctuary correspond to this righteousness established by Himself. Even the doors of the sanctuary swung upon golden hinges. How would it be possible to enter into the most holy place and dwell there apart from divine righteousness?

In this chapter we have seen the outward manifestation of the kingdom, and as belonging to it, a glorious temple which corresponds in type to the heavenly part of this same kingdom, and in which the priests dwell with God.

All that had been prepared during the reign of grace is brought to adorn the house of the Lord under the reign of

glory. The entire plan came from David, and not from Solomon  -  even less from Hiram, as rationalists would suppose (1 Chr. 28: 11-13). The first reign prepared the glory of the second. A suffering, rejected Christ precedes a glorious Christ. That which David had done was less in appearance than the work of Solomon, the materials less than the glorious workmanship; but in reality David's work served as that indispensable basis of that which represents the whole of the millennial blessing.

1 KINGS 8

The Dedication of the Temple

The temple having been built and all its vessels having been put into place, He for whom Solomon had established all these things must come Himself to dwell in His house; and His throne must be placed there. The temple was built upon Mount Moriah at the place where David had set up his altar upon the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Until now the ark had dwelt under tents in Zion, the city of David. Solomon, together with all the men of Israel, all the elders, all the heads of the tribes, and the priests busies himself with bringing it up from there to the temple. It is no more "the chosen men of Israel" (2 Sam. 6: 1) as in the time of David; all the people assist at this complete and final celebration. Final indeed, for the dedication of the temple takes place during the great days of the Feast of Tabernacles which closes the series of Jewish feasts (Lev. 23). It is indeed "the feast" above all feasts, "the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month." Properly this feast comprised seven days, followed by an eighth which was "the great day of the feast" (John 7: 37). It was held after the harvest and the vintage, figures of judgment. It was the symbol anticipating the marvelous reign of Christ when the people will dwell in joy and security in their tents, remembering the testings, past forever, in the wilderness. It speaks of millennial joy after the forty years of chastening which the rebellion of the people brought upon themselves.

The eighth day, the great day, the new day, the day of resurrection and of the new creation, is added to the feast because those who will be resurrected will have a special part in this joy. It is the heavenly day added to the earthly days. When David brought the ark up to the city of David, this was rather a "feast of trumpets" (2 Sam. 6: 15) preparatory for Solomon's solemn day. Here that very day has arisen in all its glory.

The priests have indeed finished with the miserable state of things at Gibeon. All the vessels of the holy place, the altar, and even the tent (vv. 4, 64) are now reunited there where the ark is found. This is the end of the tabernacle — there is no further mention of it. In this great feast the memento of God with which the tent was associated during Israel's pilgrimage abides alone. At last God has found a final resting place in the midst of His people.*

{*We would only remark that in all this we leave the teaching proper to First Kings and enter into the teaching of Second Chronicles. As a matter of fact, our chapter omits the words, "Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength"; it omits the millennial song: "Praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever" (cf. 2 Chr. 6: 41; 2 Chr. 7: 3, 6). It does not mention the eighth day except to tell us that on that day Solomon dismissed the people (1 Kings 8: 66), whereas Second Chronicles emphasizes the solemn feast of the eighth day after the first week of the dedication of the altar and the second week of the feast (2 Chr. 7: 8-10). All this clearly shows us God's different objects in these two accounts. The feast of First Kings is necessarily incomplete, because the responsible king occupies the foreground; that of Second Chronicles is complete, because this book presents the king according to the counsels of God — in consequence, a much more complete type of Christ. The rest of First Kings is rather the end of a period of the history of the king in responsibility. The period of grace having been completed under David, God shows that He can finally rest under Solomon, on the one condition that the king be faithful.}

On this day countless sacrifices, burnt offerings, meal offerings, and peace offerings are presented (v. 64). Joy and fellowship prevail throughout: Solomon offers as peace offering alone 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, and the brazen altar being too small for all these offerings, he hallows the middle of the court for the sacrifices.

The ark of the covenant with its cherubim beaten out of the mercy seat, who are witnesses of this covenant, is introduced into its place, along with the standing cherubim, their wings touching, who are its guardians. On the Lord's side nothing was missing; all was assured; God was faithfully watching over the carrying out of His will. But of what benefit was that under the old covenant if the people for their part were unfaithful to the covenant? It will not be so when the Lord makes a new covenant with Israel, all of grace, unconditional, and one in which the responsibility of the people will not count at all.

The cherubim covered not only the ark, but its staves as well. On God's part the rest which the covenant gave was as sure as the covenant itself. The staves of the ark, witnesses of its pilgrimage through the wilderness, are henceforth useless and serve no more; they remain as witnesses of the past in the very place of rest. We have already explained why the veil is not found in 1 Kings as it is in 2 Chronicles, but in both cases "the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without" (v. 8). Manifestly it was the rest of God, and it had all the more value in that it was accompanied by the permanent reminder of what had preceded it. Only, to be assured of this rest and to enjoy it, it was necessary to enter the Holy Place. Those outside could not take account of it. The final rest of God is the portion of those who dwell with Him, of the priests who dwell in His house.

Yet other things characterize the wilderness journey, too, in relation to the ark — blessings were preciously stored up within it. The golden pot containing the manna and Aaron's rod that budded were no longer found in the ark at that moment when Solomon brought it into the temple of God (v. 9; cf. Heb. 9: 4). In the wilderness, God had revealed Himself as a God of mercy despite the severity of the law; hiding the condemning law under the mercy seat, establishing grace under the shadow of the cherubim  -  attributes of divine righteousness; guarding under their gaze together with terrible law the glory of a Christ come down to earth as the true bread of heaven to nourish His people, but resurrected, having clothed His humanity (the manna) with a glorious body (the pot of gold), now hidden in the most secret place of the tabernacle; keeping also the rod of the priesthood, alone capable (at Korah's opposition) of leading the people safely through the desert. These two objects, the manna and the rod, will no longer be necessary in the millennial reign, as we see here in type. The covenant shall be kept, God being the sole contracting party; the priesthood will have Melchizedek, no longer Aaron, as its model, and its function will be to bless. The glory of Christ the Man instead of being hidden in the sanctuary will be manifested to all eyes in the person of the true Solomon.

"And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord" (vv. 10-11). Striking picture of that which could not be obtained even under the most glorious dispensation of the law. God's presence excluded that of the priests. In the heavenly sanctuary the priests are able to stand in the presence of His glory, to dwell there, and to have their part there; but indeed that which we have in spirit already now cannot be equalled in the millennial temple.

This is what Solomon begins to establish in verse 12: "The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness." The way of approach was not yet manifest. The dispensation of the temple at Jerusalem was the same as that of the tabernacle. The veil, even if it is not mentioned here, subsists nonetheless (2 Chr. 3: 14). Meanwhile Solomon knew that this was not the last word in the counsels of God, and he had built Him a house, a fixed place, in order that He might dwell there forever (v. 13).

After having turned his face towards God the king turns towards the congregation of Israel. He fills the role of Melchizedek, whereas the Aaronic priesthood is unable to stand in the sanctuary. He blesses all the congregation of Israel; then (v. 15) he blesses the Lord. He recalls that the sure mercies of David are the beginning of the glory of his kingdom, even though this glory is dependent upon a legal covenant. God had done to the king of glory all that He had promised to the rejected, suffering king. We find here in Solomon, as in Christ, the accomplishment of all the promises, because David, the rejected king, object of God's special favor, had walked here, having but one object and but one thought: to find a place of rest for the glorious throne of the Lord. Christ throughout all his affliction had at heart only to glorify God there where sin had dishonoured Him. For this reason the Father loved Him and demonstrated it in raising Him to the glory.

This magnificent house had been built to harbor the ark of the covenant (v. 21). The responsibility of the people was to be put to the test under a new regime, hitherto unknown, that of glory, but in which the tables of the law remained as standard of this responsibility. So it shall be in the Millennium, only Satan shall be bound for the duration of this reign; men shall no longer be seduced by his tricks, and the reign of righteousness will compel men to bow to its demands.

Verses 22-30: Here Solomon really fills the role of priest. He stands before the altar, facing all the congregation of Israel. There he stretches out his hands toward heaven, taking the character of intercessor. He is truly, as we have said, the type of Melchizedek, king of righteousness and king of peace. Like Melchizedek he knows and proclaims the Lord, the God of Israel, as the Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth. He acknowledges that God keeps His covenant —  Israel had not kept it — and His mercy (v. 23). Without the latter, to keep His covenant would be the sure condemnation of His people. Nevertheless this mercy itself was according to the covenant of the law: God kept it with those that "walk before him with all their heart."

And now he supplicates God to keep with David that which He had promised him (v. 25). All the faithfulness of God towards His own depends on what He has promised Christ. Here we would be entering upon the ground of pure grace if only there were not an if. "There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me." How this "so that" or "if only" condemns us all! It absolutely condemned wise Solomon, and how much more ourselves, a worthless lot. Under a system of responsibility in order to obtain anything from the Lord, we are condemned from the outset. It goes without saying that grace also brings with it responsibility for those under its rule, but this responsibility is completely different. It can be put into these words: "Let us be that which we are," whereas legal responsibility says: "Let us become that which we should be."

"But," adds Solomon (v. 27): "will God indeed dwell on the earth?" Even in the Millennium this will not be. God as such will dwell above the earth in His Assembly, the New Jerusalem. His dwelling upon earth with men awaits the eternal heaven and earth of Revelation 21: 3. Solomon, knowing these things, asks God that His name might be there, this name that to faith represents His very person. He asks that from His dwelling place in heaven God might hear the king, His servant, and His people Israel when they turn toward His house. At the same time he expresses his feeling that both the one and the other will need forgiveness: "And when thou hearest, forgive."

Next Solomon begins to enumerate various situations where these prayers and this intercession may be addressed to the Lord.

1. The first situation (vv. 31-32) is individual. It is the request for God to condemn the wicked when an oath is imposed upon him before the altar "in this house" — and to justify the righteous. The presence of God in His house makes iniquity impossible. It is the simple and general truth of individual retribution, as it was known under the law when God consented to come to dwell in the midst of a people in the flesh.

2. He admits the case (vv. 33-34) where the people having sinned against the Lord, He would raise up enemies against them to smite them. If the people would repent and seek the Lord in His house, God would pardon them and cause them to return to their land.

3. He supposes that plagues, drought, famine, locusts, enemy attacks, or the like might smite the land because of its inhabitants' unfaithfulness. Should they repent in heart, the supplication of only one man would be sufficient when they would stretch forth their hands towards this house; might God then hear in heaven and forgive, yet rendering to each according to his ways, in order that He might be feared. It is ever law, but with that mixture of mercy that it might allow if God would find truth in the heart (vv. 35-40).

4. There are also resources for the stranger (vv. 41-43); he would come from afar, hearing tell of the great name and of the power of the Lord, and would address his request to Him, facing toward this house. God would hear him in heaven and answer him, for the king wishes that all the peoples of the earth, as well as his people Israel, might know the name of the Lord and fear Him. Here there is no judgment, no conditional blessing at all. The stranger, outside the circle of the law, approaches God by faith and receives a full blessing. It is in short a beautiful picture of the millennial blessing of the nations, whose privileges flow from the fact that God has His house at Jerusalem in the midst of His people.

5. Here (vv. 44-45) we find, not the shortcomings of the people, but Israel acting according to the will of God and guided by this will to wage war against her enemies. This is a remarkable fact. After the nations have acknowledged the God of Israel, the people of Israel themselves will be a people willing to fight the enemies of the Lord. The house henceforth will be the centre of blessing and strength for the people.

6. Verses 46-53 mention the end of their history as a responsible people. They are led into captivity on account of their sin. Solomon is a prophet here. He anticipates what must necessarily come upon this people under the law, for there is no man who does not sin. Yet a resource still exists. The house is there, and God cannot deny His promises. Solomon does not refer to the law, but to grace. By pure grace the God of the promises had saved His people from Egypt — could He deny this grace, even under the system of law? They are His people; shall God abandon them? No, if in repentance they turn toward the land, the city, and the house, God will hearken to them. Daniel is an example (Dan. 6: 10). He remained upright amid disaster, the only righteous man who prayed for the people and humbled himself on their behalf, and did not God hear him? But a greater than Daniel, Solomon the king of glory himself, was there. He said to God: "That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel." And this Solomon himself is but a weak picture of the true King, the true Servant of the Lord. Christ's intercession causes God to receive this people anew. He will restore them for the glory of Him who made the promises and for the glory of His Beloved. Thus the future restoration of the people depends upon the presence of the righteous Servant of God before Him, and on the fact that God cannot deny His character of grace, manifested long before the law.

Another characteristic trait: in his supplication Solomon goes back further than David, all the way back to Moses. The more the people of God go away from Him, the more faith returns to that which was set up in the beginning. The ways of God towards His people may vary according to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness, so that a certain way of acting on God's part may be appropriate for one period of history and inappropriate for another, but the counsels of God never change: His purposes are eternal. This is what makes the apostle say at the end of his course, when the ruin of the Church was already evident: "Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1: 1-2). This is also what causes Solomon to say: "Thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God" (v. 53). It is always so. In darkest times faith finds its refuge in "that which was from the beginning" (1 John 1: 1; 1 John 2: 7, 13, 14, 24; 2 John 5, 6). "As for you, let that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you.

(vv. 54-66). Solomon knelt before the Lord to intercede on behalf of the people; now he rises to bless all the congregation of Israel. He praises God first of all because He has given rest to His people, rest which depends upon that into which the Lord has just entered, Himself and the ark of His strength. The king acknowledges the absolute accomplishment of all the Word of God: "There hath not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised by the hand of Moses his servant" (v. 56). He presents his own words of intercession as a motive for God to bless His people, and the result of this blessing should be "that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else" (v.60). This shall be realized in Christ's millennial reign toward which all this history, as we have so often remarked, is directing us. Only, in order that this blessing may take place, the heart of Israel must be "perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments." Again the legal condition, impossible for this fallible king and people to fulfill — that which shall find its accomplishment in Christ alone!

1 KINGS 9: 1-9

The Lord Speaks

This passage completes the second part of the history of Solomon.

The first part, 1 Kings 1 and 1 Kings 2, tells us of the proclamation of the throne and the principle upon which it is established: judgment executed upon those who had dishonoured God under the reign of David.

1 Kings 3 through 9: 9 present the internal history of this glorious reign.

In 1 Kings 3 and 1 Kings 4 we find the beginning of this history, Gibeon; the principles and the order of the kingdom; the character of the moral perfection of the king.

In 1 Kings 5 through 8 the king's wisdom is used to give the Lord a place of rest worthy of Himself in the midst of the people that is subjected to him. The construction of the temple is the main event of Solomon's reign; then comes the construction of the king's palace, in which the nations are associated with the people of God. Lastly, as we have seen in 1 Kings 8, the dedication of the temple with the Feast of Tabernacles prefigures the rest of the people around the Lord during the reign of Messiah, and Solomon himself appears in his character of Melchizedek and intercessor.

This internal history ends with a new appearance of the Lord. He appears to Solomon in a dream, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. He grants his request: "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication which thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually" (v. 3). It is an unconditional response to that which Solomon, as a type of Christ, had done for the Lord. He receives that which Solomon had built as being established forever before His eyes.

But immediately, as in all this Book, the question of responsibility follows, which is exactly the opposite of the foregoing. When it is a matter of Solomon the type, all is assured; when it is a matter of Solomon in responsibility, all comes into question. His throne cannot be established forever unless he be upright and faithful; his posterity cannot be established except on this condition. Let Israel prove unfaithful as well as her king, let them bow down before other gods, and nothing will remain of all that the Lord has established by Solomon. The people will be cut off, the house itself rejected and destroyed (vv. 6-9).

Thus in the space of two verses God declares unconditionally that His eyes and His heart shall forever be upon this house, and that He shall cast it out of his sight! Does God contradict Himself? Certainly not, and just as the conditional warning has been fulfilled to the letter, so shall the unconditional promise be fulfilled to the letter, when the true king after God's heart shall have built Him a house, a temple upon earth much more glorious than that of Solomon, and a habitation in heaven where the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be, there when God shall rest in Zion and at the same time in His glorious Assembly.

Thus ends this part of Solomon's history. The remainder of 1 Kings 9 and 1 Kings 10 deals with his relations with the nations. It is the external history of his reign. Not that this was not mentioned in the preceding period, but these relationships are not mentioned there except in their connection with the internal kingdom, as for example the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh and Hiram's connections with the king for the construction of the temple.

1 KINGS 9: 10-23

Hiram

Verses 10 to 14 speak of the outward relationship of Solomon with Hiram. In return for his voluntary collaboration on the temple and on the king's house, at the end of the twenty years of their being built, Solomon gave Hiram a territory consisting of twenty cities in the land of Galilee, the nucleus of what was later called "Galilee of the nations" (Isa. 9: 1; Matt. 4: 15). This territory originally consisted of a part of the borders of Naphtali and later spread to include the area of Zebulun, all of "Upper Galilee," reaching to the Sea of Tiberias by way of Capernaum. The first of this territory thus was ceded to Hiram. Was Solomon acting according to God in thus subtracting a part, be it the very least part, of Israel's inheritance for the profit of one of the chiefs of the nations? We do not hesitate to answer in the negative, for the land could not be given away. The Lord had said: "The land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me" (Lev. 25: 23). So the land belonged to the Lord. It is a remarkable fact that the book of Chronicles, which for reasons already given never indicates wrongdoing in the kings unless it has to be mentioned to make the history understandable, does not speak of this gift. On the contrary, it substitutes for this account that of the "cities which Huram had given to Solomon," and which the latter, after having built and fortified them, gave to the children of Israel to dwell in (2 Chr. 8: 1-7). Thus in 1 Kings Solomon diminishes God's inheritance; in 2 Chronicles he enlarges it. This fact seems very significant to us. What is even more significant is that this territory is given up to a nation overrun more and more by idolatry until the whole land came to be called "Galilee of the nations." Still, it was there that God's grace began to be revealed through the ministry of the Lord. Thus, a thousand years after Solomon, grace remedied his fault.

This mistake has an immediate consequence: it brings discredit and shame upon the Lord's land. Hiram was unable to appreciate that which had great value in the eyes of Solomon and of any Israelite. He said, "What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul [amounting to nothing] unto this day" (v. 13). He gave them this name because "they did not please him." So it always is. When the world, even with best intentions like Hiram, simply — that is, without faith — has the use of those good things of Christianity that are our joy, it finds no relish for them. These things weary the world; they count for nothing in its life. The world will doubtless keep them so that it can boast, on occasion, of having them, but it cannot keep them in their pristine character. Without at all appreciating them, it will use them as a means of showing off, and Satan will use these things that appear religious to spread his dominion over a greater number of souls. He will use them to slight their worth; he will convince the king of Tyre that what is offered by Solomon cannot be compared to the splendors of a kingdom granted by the bounty of the prince of darkness. The Christian who in the pursuit of broadmindedness abandons the least part of his inheritance to the world, will gain nothing but to see his own character debased, his religion despised, and in the end, shame cast upon God Himself.

When it is a matter of giving to Solomon (v. 14), Hiram shows that he is very generous. This is well-suited to the pride of the head of the greatest maritime and commercial power of that day, the England of the ancient world. Hiram gives one hundred twenty talents of gold (18,000,000 francs at the time of the writing of this book). Is this a benefit, a profit to Solomon? As long as Hiram was tributary to him for the construction of the temple, everything had divine approval. Now Hiram is calling Solomon "my brother" and giving him presents!

Solomon's activity and wisdom are seen (vv. 15-23) in the establishment of store-cities, cities for chariots, and cities for horsemen. It is the external organization of the kingdom, be it for commerce and trade or be it for war. He receives Gezer from Pharaoh who had exterminated the Canaanites who dwelt in that city, and who had given it to his daughter, the king's wife. Thus the order to destroy the Canaanites is realized without trouble for this reign of peace. Their city rightfully belonged to Israel. All the Canaanites, spared of old through the weakness of the people, are subjected, just as formerly the Gibeonites. Solomon does not repeat Saul's error toward these latter (2 Sam. 21), but he reduces to servitude those Canaanites who still remain among the people.

Like Solomon, Christians need not consider as valid the claims of the world which the unfaithful Church has allowed a foothold in her midst; on the other hand, they are not to drive them out. They themselves should walk in the liberty of the children of God and leave them to their yoke of bondage, the only religion proper to the flesh and that which the flesh recognizes. Never before Solomon had so complete a separation ever existed in Israel, but so it can and should be realized even in the worst days of Israel's history or of that of the Church. "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity." "From such turn away." Under the glorious reign of Christ, separation will be absolute; we read of this even to the point that "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO JEHOVAH" (Zech. 14: 20).

1 KINGS 9: 24-28

Pharaoh's Daughter

In verse 24 Pharaoh's daughter comes up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her (cf. 1 Kings 7: 8). In keeping with this house, the king built Millo, the citadel which henceforth made up a part of Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5: 9; 1 Kings 11: 27; 2 Kings 12: 20; 1 Chr. 11: 8; 2 Chr. 32: 5).

The Second Book of Chronicles (2 Chr. 8: 11) informs us of the reason for this change of residence. Solomon said, "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come." The ark had first been placed in the city of David (2 Sam. 6: 12) and, as the passage in 2 Chronicles tells us, in the very house of the king. Solomon had carried it from the city of David, or Zion, into the temple. But the Gentile wife could not dwell in the place sanctified by the presence of the covenant God, Jehovah. Doubtless she could have her own large part in the benefits of the covenant, even to being associated with him who was its representative on earth; nonetheless, a distance must be maintained. The covenant made with Israel did not directly concern her. In the Millennium there will be a difference between Israel and the nations. These latter shall not receive their blessing except through the medium of the people of God. The covenant will not be contracted with them.

Three times a year Solomon sacrificed upon the brazen altar (v. 25) constructed for the temple by the ministry of Hiram (2 Chr. 4: 1) — the only mention thereof in 1 Kings, and an incidental mention at that. Furthermore, he burned incense on the golden altar. As we have seen in 1 Kings 8, on certain occasions he filled the office of priest, of Melchizedek, and of intercessor. Does this not speak to us of Christ? Every dignity is concentrated in His Person, and He has acquired them all by virtue of His death, without which He would not be able to assume even one of these offices. The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings.

In verse 26-28 we again find the relationship of Solomon with Hiram in view of the glory and external affairs of the kingdom. Gold flows into Jerusalem. Hiram is the Gentile friend, ever ready to serve the greatness of the king who is seated on Jehovah's throne, and his good will for the house of the Lord likewise extends to the wealth and prosperity of the kingdom.

1 KINGS 10: 1-13

The Queen of Sheba

The preceding chapter has shown us Solomon's relationships with the representatives of the nations in submission to his rule. Tyre; Lebanon; The Pharaoh of Egypt; his daughter, Solomon's wife; and again the land of Edom where he organized his fleet, the desert where he built Tadmor, the kings of Arabia (1 Kings 10: 15); the remnant of the Canaanites whom he brings into bondage — all these diverse elements gravitate around him as their centre and contribute to the fame of his kingdom.

Finally we see the queen of Sheba, this "queen of the south" who "came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon" (Matt. 12: 42). What distinguishes her from all the others is that she was attracted by the fame of the king's wisdom. She had heard tell of it (v. 1), and this had produced in her an intense desire to see this extraordinary monarch, a desire which had caused her to conquer the enormous distance separating her country from Jerusalem and the numerous obstacles to such a journey. This act was an act of faith. She believed the word which had been spoken to her; she believed in the excellence of Solomon, having only that which had been told her to judge by. It is always so with faith. It is attracted by the Person and the perfections of Christ. Rebecca, convinced of the love of Isaac which Eliezer had spoken to her of, sets forth to go to meet him. The wilderness does not frighten her, for she desires to reach her bridegroom. Abigail, when judgment is at the door, sets forth to meet the one from whom she should have fled. Why? Because she knew by hearsay the moral glory of David. Later she becomes the companion of His royal glory. Rebecca is drawn by love, Abigail by the perfection of grace, the queen of Sheba by wisdom. This is what happens to souls who become acquainted with Christ. It is impossible for a finite being to embrace infinite perfection; we are attracted at most by a limited knowledge of one side of this divine character, whatever it may be; they all bring us to know His Person, and it is on Him that faith feeds.

"She came to hear the wisdom of Solomon." The queen may have been, in fact was a person of remarkable intelligence, whom nothing escaped and who loved to give an exact account of all things; but from the moment she heard tell of Solomon she had but one thought: to prove his wisdom. Wisdom for herself consisted in having none and in seeking it from another. It was hard questions that she brought to him. Certainly these were not lacking with her: the world is full of enigmas to which man has never yet found a solution. From the mysteries of creation, for the simplest of which Job had no answer, to the mysteries of bodily life; from the mystery of the soul to that of good and evil in the world; from the veiled hereafter to eternal life; all is mystery, a dark enigma. Man is unable to decipher the unknown writing of this book. God must reveal its secrets, and if there is no divine revelation, positive and direct, man's poor, limited spirit finds that from the very first question on he is brought to a standstill before an insurmountable wall. He may boast and exalt himself, but all his knowledge can never cause him to penetrate beyond the verification of facts whose first cause completely escapes him.

The queen of Sheba brought her enigmas to Solomon to prove his wisdom by them. But what was the reason for her confidence? She had heard tell of Solomon's fame in connection with the name of Jehovah. If this fame was grounded upon the Lord's presence at Jerusalem, was not the queen assured beforehand that it was not in vain for her to undertake this long journey? If Solomon should answer her enigmas, it is because his wisdom is none other than that of the Lord who had revealed Himself to him. Thus the queen comes to Solomon — and what will she carry away from this interview? The knowledge of God through him.

She comes with a great train, with all the most precious things her kingdom can produce, and with an abundance of spices such as never would come to Jerusalem, for she esteems this august monarch worthy of all homage. Let us here note that it is becoming not only for a queen, but for the lowest of sinners to approach Him with her perfume, for it is not an exchange that the soul is soliciting in coming to Him; she cannot do otherwise than to present him the homage that is his due. It is the knee that bows before Him, the sign of the obedience of faith, the adoration of a heart that finds in Him all the resources it desires and of which it has need.,

But the queen brings something better yet than her gifts; she comes to speak "to him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon explained to her all she spoke of: there was not a thing hidden from the king that he did not explain to her" (vv. 2-3). She opens her heart to Solomon; the secrets of her heart are made manifest (1 Cor. 14: 25); but they find a perfect response on part of him from whom nothing is hidden. In meeting Solomon, she has found God Himself. God is indeed there, in condescending mercy occupied with bringing full light into this soul, so as to leave no place for a doubt or for a question without an answer. The king has the secret of all things; he does not keep it to himself; he shows that His secret is with them that fear Him (Ps. 25: 14).

Next the queen sees all Solomon's wisdom in the prosperity and in the perfect order of his house (vv. 4-5). Such shall be the marvellous order of Christ's millennial kingdom to the eyes of the nation.

The queen of Sheba acknowledges (v. 6) the truth of what she had heard tell about Solomon. She has passed from his person to the words of his mouth, and from these to all that has come from his hands, to all that surrounds him — and she has found nothing but perfections. It is thus that every soul comes to know Christ. One hears tell of Him: this excites the interest of a heart in need; one goes to find Him, for He is readily accessible; one enters into relationship with Him; He answers the needs of the heart. One admires Him and adores Him in hymns of praise. One says with the queen: "Mine eyes have seen. Thou surpasses" all I had heard about Thee." One esteems happy His men and His servants who stand continually before Him and hear His wisdom. And pursuing this path, one's soul boasts in God who has taken pleasure in His King, who has found His delight in Christ and set Him upon the throne. And this is also the proof of the love of God for His people, that He has given them such a King to execute righteousness and justice (vv. 6-9).

This song is really a song of the kingdom. The Church shall also raise her own song about the Lamb that was slain, and her heart and mouth shall be filled with His love even more than with His wisdom and with His righteousness.

The queen of Sheba gives the king all the riches she has brought. The spices for making the incense were most highly esteemed by all at Solomon's court. Never had they been seen in such abundance at Jerusalem (v. 10). The happy queen's heart thus overflows in her gifts.

But how greatly did Solomon's gifts surpass those of the queen! He is not consent to give to her in return for her gifts —  he grants her "all her desire, whatever she asked" (v. 13). Ah! Surely we have to do with Him who does not ask, but whose glory it is to be and to remain the sovereign Giver of all good. Ask and you shall receive. Ask — you will never exhaust them, all the riches of His kingdom, those "unfathomable riches of Christ." His kingdom is not now of this world, so you will not carry out of His presence the temporal goods that were heaped upon the queen. These lesser treasures are reserved for the millennial reign of the Messiah. Our goods, our treasures, are spiritual; the world despises them; the Christian worthy of this name calls them the true riches (Luke 16: 11).

The queen returns to her country with treasure in her heart, a thousand times better than that her caravans had brought. Her eyes have seen! Now she knows the king of glory!

1 KINGS 10: 14-29

The Throne

Verses 14 through 22 describe the riches and the splendor of the kingdom. Gold, the emblem of divine righteousness, stands out everywhere under Solomon's reign, from the temple to the throne. The throne was marvelous: "There was not the like made in any kingdom." It was the throne of righteousness and of power, and it bore the emblems of these.

When he had been raised to the royal dignity, Solomon, according to the order of David himself (1 Kings 1: 35), had sat upon his father's throne. Now we see him on his own throne in this marvelous "house of the forest" adorned with six hundred shields of gold, where he judges in righteousness.

So it shall be with Christ. At present He is seated on His Father's throne, at His right hand, according to this word: "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Ps. 110: 1). By these words, "Sit thou at my right hand," God the Father expressed His complete satisfaction with the work accomplished by the Son of Man. It is as though He were saying to Him: Take this supreme and glorious place, my Son, until I shall have prepared a throne for Thee. It must surpass every other throne. Never shall the like be made in any kingdom. None that rise up against Thee shall be spared; they shall be crushed. Thy victory over them shall be the first step by which Thou wilt ascend the throne. The throne of the victorious Son of Man shall be like none other, after that voluntary humiliation that brought Him down to descend lower than the vilest of sinners. Then every knee shall bow, every mouth boldly proclaim the Lord on His throne of glory. Meanwhile this man who has drunk of the brook by the way is seated upon the throne of the sovereign God, at the right hand of the Majesty; but it is the throne of His Father; He takes His place there as Son, a testimony to the perfect satisfaction of His Father's heart in Him!

The queen of Sheba was not the only one to come to him: "All the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom" (vv. 23-29). What a blessed time it will be when all will be able to come and draw from this divine spring, sure of finding God's thoughts in their completeness there! These verses also contain the enumeration of the king's riches. Here unbelievers shake their heads. For them all that man says seems believable, and all that God says, nothing but lies. In fact, such is their way of reasoning. In one year Solomon received six hundred sixty-six talents of gold — one hundred million francs (at the time of the writing of this book); the queen of Sheba had given him one hundred twenty talents of gold — about eighteen million francs — this was also the sum the king of Tyre had rendered to him. Is there then something unbelievable about this in comparison to the present revenues of the kingdoms of the world? Need we remind ourselves that under this reign all the kings of the earth paid tribute to him?

In verses 26 through 29 we find the king's power, marked by his chariots and his horsemen. All thus was joined together for the glory of Solomon's reign.

1 KINGS 11: 1-13

The Cause of the Kingdom's Ruin

In this chapter we come to the history of the responsible king, a subject the Second Book of Chronicles passes over in absolute silence.

Up to this point, though it is a question of a man and therefore of an imperfect being, we have been able to see in the life of Solomon a beautiful unity joined to the wisdom that highly exalted the king's name among the nations, in association with the name of the Lord. The greatness, the majesty, the power, the wealth of his reign were but a feeble image of what will be seen during the Millennium under the reign of the true King of Glory.

Now God points out the blemish in this reign to us. It was not the marriage with Pharaoh's daughter, for this was indispensable if Solomon were to be a type of Christ in His government. Joseph in his time had contracted a similar union; the sons who issued therefrom had given their names to two of the tribes of Israel after having received the blessing of the patriarch, the father of this people. What is more, Solomon had acted according to the thoughts of God toward this Gentile wife, and Chronicles is careful, as we have seen before, to show us that the king did not give her a place of immediate nearness to the ark of the covenant and the city of the son of David. Thus it was not on account of this union that blame fell upon Solomon; as a millennial type, he, "the light of the nations," of necessity went beyond the ordinary relationships of a king of Israel. Also the Word sets Pharaoh's daughter in a place that is distinct from the other strange wives (v. 1).

"But king Solomon loved many foreign women, besides the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, Hittites; of the nations of which Jehovah had said to the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into to them, neither shall they come in to you; they would certainly turn away your heart after their gods . . . and his wives turned away his heart" (vv. 1-3). Solomon's sin lay in having "loved many foreign women." These latter had played a relatively restrained role in David's life, and yet, as we have seen in 2 Samuel, he had borne some sad and often dreadful consequences in his children. By the very discipline which had resulted from these prohibited marriages God had of old kept His anointed from the snares that might have been spread for his piety. But if his lusts had swept him away in his affair with Bathsheba, a daughter of Israel, Solomon's lusts attracted him to foreign women. And yet God had said: "And thou shalt make no marriages with them: Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor take his daughter for thy son; for he will turn away thy son from following me, and they will serve other gods, and the anger of Jehovah will be kindled against you, and he will destroy thee quickly" (Deut. 7: 3-4). And again: "And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods" (Ex. 34: 16).

At the head of this humiliating list we find the Moabites who had led Israel astray into the idolatry of Baal-Peor, having gained control of them through the lust of the flesh (Num. 25: 1-5). All the nations  -  the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Zidonians — at the borders of Canaan hated God and His people. The Hittites, mentioned in last place, should have been exterminated, and never had been. Solomon was openly disobeying god who had said to His people: "Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in to you." There was a double prohibition. We are in danger of going to the world or of letting it come in to us. Perhaps the latter possibility is even more dangerous than the first. On account of conscience towards God the Christian might perhaps abstain from an act of self-will or of disobedience that might incline him to go to the world, whereas the world might more easily seduce him by coming to him. Little by little it insinuates itself into our homes and into our lives, and often when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late. "They would certainly turn away your heart after their gods," the Lord had said. Marriage with the world will necessarily lead us to the religion of the world. This is an earnest word and well worth being weighed by every godly soul today. In the measure that we avoid or cultivate such union, our religion will take on a heavenly or an earthly character. "To these Solomon was attached in love." And it was this same king whose lips, by divine inspiration, had dropped wisdom for others and had shown them the path to follow with respect to the strange woman lest they fall into "all evil in the midst of the congregation and the assembly" (Prov. 5: 1-14)! It was he, too, who in the Book of Proverbs (Prov. 7) had insisted upon the terrible consequences of evil conduct. What blindness! What a sad spectacle! He had taught others and had not taught himself. He, the responsible head of the people, did things from which the people were to abstain, but in which the king failing, he would draw down judgment not only on himself, but also on those whom he should have been feeding, leading, and protecting!

"His wives turned away his heart" — the word is repeated in verse 4. It is a terrible thing when that which is in the world lodges in the heart and takes control of it, thus turning one's affections aside from their only object to turn them towards vile, shameful, guilty objects. We would remark that these things did not arise suddenly in the life of this man of faith, or at least their consequences did not develop all at once. For "it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods." Time was needed for this fleshly sowing to bear its fruit. Who would have believed that the Solomon of the temple, at one time on his knees, spreading out his hands toward God in the sight of the people, would become an idolater? Perhaps today some might say that he had a large heart, respecting the freedom of conscience of others; some would adorn this idolatry with some lovely humanitarian or social label. But of what value is human opinion? The question is what God thinks of it. God was dishonoured. "Solomon did evil in the sight of Jehovah." It was not indifference, hateful enough in itself, to build these high places for his wives: it was associating himself with their worship and becoming one with them. It also says, "Solomon went after Ashtoreth (Venus Astarte) the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites." He himself is regarded as an idol-worshipper. He "followed not fully Jehovah, as David his father," that is, he did not follow him to the end. And yet the Lord "had appeared to him twice," the first time at Gibeon, the second time after the consecration of the temple. God had warned him about idol worship (1 Kings 9: 6-9), showing him its terrible consequences for the people — and he had not kept His commandment! David had committed serious, humiliating errors, but at least he always kept the Lord in view. Even after his fall, his first words were "I have sinned against the Lord." All the affliction of this man of faith had only the glory of God as its goal, and the close of his life had magnified grace joined to complete selfjudgment. Such was not the case with Solomon. We do not even hear the cry of a convicted conscience from him when the terrible words, "Forasmuch as this is done by thee," resound in his ears just as once the words "Because thou hast despised me," had rung in his father's ears. We are about to learn what very different feelings God's discipline elicited from his heart. But God would have him know all that is to happen to him. The kingdom, that kingdom of glory spread by divine power to the borders of the nations, was to be violently torn away from him; his son would keep but one tribe, Judah, for Benjamin scarcely counted. In a moment power, majesty, wealth, unprecedented glory, the submission of nations — all was to melt away, and in the midst of the storm only a poor remnant preserved by God would remain, like a fragile boat which had lost everything: oars, sails, masts, and ropes — except only its compass and rudder.

As far as man is concerned, this is the end of the kingdom. But what a perspective for the future! After the judgment of the kingdom of Satan, the Beast, and the False Prophet, the kingdom of the Divine Solomon will reappear like the sun that shines in its strength, never again to depend on the fallible obedience of man, but upon the infallible responsibility of the King whom God shall anoint upon Zion, the mountain of His holiness.

1 KINGS 11: 14-43

The Enemies

God does not limit Himself to revealing to Solomon the judgment which out of regard for David his father would fall upon Rehoboam his son instead of upon himself; but the king's unfaithfulness would also bring down on himself the Lord's discipline during the last years of his reign. Peace, that fruit characteristic of this reign, is destroyed; Solomon goes through a period abounding in troubles, seditions, and plots against his throne; nations such as Egypt who had in former times deemed being allied with him an honour, now nourish, raise to honour, and support his worst enemies. All kinds of ties are weakened. The yoke of the king weighs heavily upon the people in order to avoid internal sedition. This results only in poorly repressed discontentment which breaks out from time to time (1 Kings 12: 4).

God stirs up enemies against Solomon from among those nations toward whom his lusts had drawn him. Edom was filled with deadly hatred against Israel because David, by the hand of Joab, had cut off all the males of that land (2 Sam. 8: 13, 14; 1 Chr. 18: 12; Ps. 60, heading). Hadad had escaped with a few servants. But had his hatred lessened because Solomon had taken Edomite women as wives? Hadad had fled to Egypt, had been welcomed at Pharaoh's court, had become his brother-in-law, and his son had been brought up among the heirs to the throne. Where do the sympathies and favors of the world go? Not to David, but to David's enemy. One emotion in the heart of Hadad speaks more loudly than all the honours and delights of Egypt's court: hatred, hatred against Solomon. He gives up all his advantages to satisfy this hatred. Doubtless the conduct of David's companions had provided the motive for it, but Joab and David were dead: the hatred continued. Underneath it all, the world always hates the Lord's anointed, and conduct of believers, whether more or less blameable, only serves as a pretext for this hatred.

Rezon, the servant of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, whom David had smitten (2 Sam. 8: 3-8; 2 Sam. 10: 6), is a second adversary. Rezon becomes king in Damascus and reigns over Syria. "He abhorred Israel" (vv. 23-25).

The world is like Hadad and Rezon. As long as we maintain the place relative to it that the cross of Christ authorizes us to take — the cross by which the world is crucified to us and we to the world (Gal. 6: 14) — as long as we consider the world as a defeated enemy (John 16: 33), it does not make a move. But let us make alliance with it, then it cannot forget its defeat, and though it may perhaps maintain an appearance of indifference, it will not hate us any less.

The last, the most dangerous enemy of Solomon's, is the enemy from within, Jeroboam (vv. 26-40). He was "Solomon's servant," an Ephrathite or Ephraimite. Solomon had set him over Ephraim for the work of the fortification of Millo, which was the defense of Jerusalem against enemies from the north. It was a most dangerous kind of move, but what was Solomon able to foresee? God alone knew. Through his duties Jeroboam knew all the secrets of the stronghold, and he gained the sympathies of his own tribe as well. In the same way, when difficulties arise among God's people, the greatest danger comes from those who by their activity have appropriated the principles of their brethren and have succeeded in substituting themselves for Christ in winning the sympathies of the many. Such are the weapons they use to make a breach among the people of God. Their motives seem to be unselfish; like Jeroboam, they would deliver the people from a yoke that is difficult to bear; in reality they are Satan's instruments to destroy the testimony of God, as we shall soon see. And yet they are servants of Christ, as Jeroboam was of Solomon!

Now a prophet appears. Just as Samuel at the time of the ruin of the priesthood, so the fall of the kingship now raises up a prophet. He becomes, as we shall see so strikingly in the course of these books, the bond between the people and God when kingship in responsibility has failed. Ahijah the prophet meets Jeroboam outside Jerusalem. He rends the new garment with which he is clothed (indeed, the kingdom was still quite new), and gives ten parts to Jeroboam. At that very moment the kingdom is torn out of the hands of Solomon, although this fact is only realized later. One tribe is left to the house of David on account of the free choice of grace with regard to David and Jerusalem. "They have forsaken me," says the Lord, "and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my sight, and my statutes and mine ordinances, as David his father" (v. 33). "They" was Solomon, the king! No doubt, all the people later followed that same path, but at this moment one man had sinned — the king. Set before God in a position of responsibility for all the people, his unfaithfulness brought judgment upon Israel. What a severe punishment Solomon had incurred.

In verse 34 God, ever coming back to the grace he had shown to David, adds: "And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen for myself to put my name there" (v. 36). Grace is more in God's eyes than all glory, or rather, grace is the most precious part of glory, for it is, so to speak, at the head of all divine perfections.

"And it shall be," says Ahijah to Jeroboam, "if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my sight, in keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with thee, and build thee a lasting house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee" (v. 38). A new responsibility now devolves upon Jeroboam. God was giving him a privileged position. His house was to be as sure as that of David, if he would hearken to the commandments of the Lord. But God makes one reservation: "And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever" (v. 39). In due time that grace upon which David's kingdom was founded would again assert its rights, for it was not upon grace, but upon responsibility that Jeroboam's kingdom and that of Solomon itself were established. The promises of God are without repentance; He delights in grace. Thus the future kingdom of the true King of Glory will be based upon a new covenant, a covenant of grace where God alone is under obligation, upon a new creation — that which was not the case with Solomon's kingdom.

"But not forever": one finds in the ways of God, periods where judgment, so to say, eclipses grace. It is not that grace no longer exists — it remains absolutely the same, but it ceases to shine out so that other perfections of divine glory, such as righteousness and judgment, can be manifested. So too the sun which is more than one hundred times the diameter of the earth is eclipsed by the shadow of the latter. When the eclipse is over, the enormous star appears again in all its brightness, for the shadow that covered it has taken away none of its splendor, except to the eyes of men.

Solomon seeks to kill Jeroboam (v. 40). Such are the feelings produced in his heart by this discipline! Instead of bringing him into God's presence bowed, humbly submitting to the chastening, the obstacle God had raised up to him only irritates him and provokes him to seek to free himself of it. How sad the heart that has lost its communion with God and that does not judge itself. What has Solomon, the king of righteousness, come to? His heart is no longer upright before God. How far he is from his beginnings!

Jeroboam flees to Egypt, remaining there until Solomon's death.

All the events related in 1 Kings 11 are missing in 2 Chronicles, but two expressions in chapter 9 give us to know that they are omitted by design. "And the rest of the acts of Solomon first and last, are they not written in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?" (2 Chr. 9: 29). An omission in the Word of God always has its reason, and we have so often called attention to this one that there is no need to repeat it.

Two Psalms

In ending this history, we would like to set two Psalms before our readers, one of them having Solomon as its subject, and the other composed by him. We would run out of space were we to attempt to set forth the wisdom of Solomon in the various writings of which he is the inspired author. We shall therefore limit ourselves to this short appendix.

Psalm 72 is a psalm "concerning Solomon": human reason at first glance may even doubt that this psalm is prophetic and applies to the reign of Christ, since so many of the details apply so exactly to that of Solomon. "And he shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. The dwellers in the desert shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall render presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer tribute: Yea, all kings shall bow down before him; all nations shall serve him" (vv. 8-11). "And he shall live; and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba; and prayer shall be made for him continually: all the day shall he be blessed" (v. 15). As to his character: "He will judge thy people with righteousness, and thine afflicted with judgment" (v. 2). As to the blessings of his reign: "In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace till the moon be no more" (v. 7). "There shall be abundance of corn in the earth, upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon; and they of the city shall bloom like the herb of the earth" (v. 16). "All nations shall call him blessed" (v. 17).

Truly, there is scarcely one characteristic feature of that reign with which we have been occupied missing here. Nevertheless we find one thing that is not mentioned in Solomon's reign: grace. That is why, too, this reign speaks less to our heart and conscience than that of David does. Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of the lilies of the field. His glory speaks less to the soul than the tender care of a father for his children and the grace with which his love overwhelms them. We find this stream of grace, which characterized David much more than it did Solomon, throughout our psalm.

We must therefore look to Him who will unite in His Person the characters attributed to these two men of God in order to understand the millennial reign of the Messiah. His reign of righteousness will not only surpass Solomon's reign, so miserably interrupted, by its splendor and its length, for they shall fear Him "as long as sun and moon endure, from generation to generation" (v. 5), and there shall be "abundance of peace till the moon be no more" (v. 7); but it shall begin as that of Solomon never began: "He shall come down like rain on the mown grass" (v. 6), bringing heavenly blessing there where judgment has done its work and has left nothing to harvest. Under His gentle influence a new harvest shall spring up. David had predicted this of One greater than his son: "From the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth" (2 Sam. 23: 4). Observe this character of grace in our psalm bringing compassion, deliverance, and salvation, in order to bring out the afflicted from under the yoke of the oppressor: "He will judge . . . thine afflicted with rectitude" (v. 2, margin). "He will do justice to the afflicted of the people; he will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor" (v. 4). "For he will deliver the needy who crieth, and the afflicted, who hath no helper" (v. 12). "He will have compassion on the poor and needy, and will save the souls of the needy" (v. 13). "He will redeem their souls from oppression and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight" (v. 14). It is this that will give its incomparable stamp to Christ's glorious reign, as it is said again: "I will satisfy her needy ones with bread" (Ps. 132: 15). Thus thought the rejected Messiah here on earth when He fed the multitudes, and if the people would have had Him, He would have manifested Himself as the Messiah entering into His reign. But when He shall take His power to Himself and shall shine upon the earth as the Sun of Righteousness, He will rejoice in the work of His grace and will bring healing in His wings.

Psalm 127 is the only psalm of which Solomon actually is the author. He speaks of the house, the great object of his reign; but he announces a future time when men shall turn to building it and to laboring in vain, to watching in vain to keep the city from the enemy. Such a thing never took place under his sceptre. That which Solomon established of course was not final; that which men shall set up will be even less so. But the time will come when Jehovah Himself will build the house and keep the city. Then His Beloved shall at last find "sleep," that rest of which it is said: "He will rest in his love" (Zeph. 3: 17). Then shall He have children as "an inheritance from Jehovah," a new people; "from the womb of the morning shall come to thee the dew of thy youth" (Ps. 110: 3). Then shall He be called happy.

Solomon, just like David, looks on to Christ. Each of them knows that he cannot be that righteous ruler over men. Both of them rejoice to see their dignity conferred upon Him who will never use it except for the glory of God.

PART 2: Chapters 12-16

1 KINGS 12: 1-24

Division of the Kingdom: Rehoboam

The Word of God is fulfilled by means of feelings in the depths of the heart of man that drive him to his own ruin.

All Israel comes to Shechem to proclaim Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king. Jeroboam is there, called by the people to be their spokesman before the king. These men complain to the king of the yoke his father had imposed upon them: "Thy father made our yoke grievous"  -  an expression showing that this had not always been the case. Christ's yoke will never be grievous upon His people; to His own He will ever remain the same as they have known Him in the day of suffering and of grace: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Beyond all doubt, the nations must submit to Him, and He will smite them with a rod of iron, but all the prophets bear witness to the grace wherewith He will feed His people. "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (Isa. 40: 11).

Rehoboam consults with the old men who had stood before Solomon to drink at the fountain-head of wisdom. Their counsel is that of Jesus to His disciples: "Let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves" (Luke 22: 26). "If this day," say the old men, "thou wilt be a servant to this people, and wilt serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever" (v. 7). Rehoboam forsakes the counsel of wisdom in order to follow that of the young men who had grown up with him, and who stood before him (v. 8). They could not thus be anything other than the mirror and reflection of their master's thoughts. Had he himself stood before his father hearing the wise proverbs that fell from his lips, he could have communicated somewhat of this wisdom to others. He would have known what was becoming to a king; he would have known that "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger" (Prov. 15: 1); that "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16: 18), and many other precepts. But no, those who flatter his pride are the ones who win his approval. The counsel of the young men in the final analysis is but that of his own heart. Pride goes hand in hand with despising one's neighbor; this base people counts for nothing in the eyes of a king who exalts himself. Great Solomon, his father, even seems little to him in comparison to his own greatness. This saying that his courtiers suggest to him: "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins" (v. 10), does not meet with his disapproval. In any case, he esteems himself stronger and more energetic than his father and despises the people of God. He does not listen to them; this thing was of the Lord, that He might fulfill His prophetic word (v. 15). What God has purposed, must come to pass.

Israel rebels. "What portion have we in David? And we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse: To your tents, O Israel! Now see to thine own house, David! (v. 16). This was the rallying cry to rebellion, the common cry of those who were malcontented in the days of David (2 Sam. 20: 1). Rehoboam flees; nothing but Judah and Benjamin remain to him. To recover what he had so foolishly lost, he gathers together an army of 180,000 men against Israel. But Shemaiah the prophet exhorts them on God's behalf: "Go not up, nor fight with your brethren, the children of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing is from me" (v. 24). The king and the two tribes fear the Lord and return according to His word. Had they only continued in this path, which is the beginning of wisdom!

It should be noted that the role of the prophet becomes increasingly emphasized with the ruin of the kingship. In all this part of the history we are taken up with prophets. Ahijah was the first to appear, when Solomon fell under God's judgment. There was also at that time a Nathan, and an Iddo who had a vision concerning Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (2 Chr. 9: 29). Now here is Shemaiah who turns Rehoboam from his plans of war. The role of the prophet was a great grace, allowing relations between God and His people to continue despite the ruin. Above all the prophet was the mouthpiece for the Word of God. This Word was addressed to him and he could say, "Thus saith the Lord." Whoever followed this Word could be sure of being well directed and of finding blessing. It is the same for us who live in these sad end times. Our prophet is the Word of God. God no longer grants us new revelations, as He did in times past, for He has revealed everything to us; but when His Word speaks to us, let us respect it and not turn aside. In the world there are many false prophets who pretend to know more than the true Word of God. They despise it, accusing it of being false, telling us that it is not God who has spoken. Let us turn a deaf ear to their words. God has spoken to us; our prophet has communicated His thoughts to us. Have we not proven a hundred times over that His Word is our souls' life and safety? Let us prove it afresh; and when this prophet tells us, "Thus saith the Lord," let us do like Rehoboam and Judah who had no need to repent of it. Let us "hearken to the word of the Lord" and act "according to the word of the Lord" (v. 24).

1 KINGS 12.25-33

Jeroboam and His Policies

The division of the kingdom being an accomplished fact, we enter upon the history of the kings of Israel. That of the kings of Judah does not enter into our account except to explain certain events or to give the context, except that at the end of the Second Book of Kings the independent history of the kings of Judah is traced to its end. In contrast, the Second Book of Chronicles gives us the history of the kings of Judah from the special point of view that characterizes this book.

What is now to become of this new kingdom? Jeroboam had received a conditional pledge from the Lord: "And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my sight, in keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, that I will be with thee, and build thee a lasting house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee" (1 Kings 11: 38). He had only to let God act in his favor, to obey Him, and he was assured of reigning over all that his soul desired (1 Kings 11: 37).

Events unfold without his having to interfere, but he is mistrusting and says in his heart: "Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David." Not having confidence in God, he weighs over the probabilities and stops there. Faith never stops at probabilities — I would even go so far as to say that it feeds upon impossibilities and is the better for it. Having once admitted the probability that the kingdom would return to the house of David, Jeroboam carries his reasoning even further. It is necessary, he thinks, to prevent the people from going up to Jerusalem and offering their sacrifices there, lest they have contact with the royal house of Judah. The king concludes that this is a matter of life and death: "The heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me." His decision is made: Israel must have a new religion. Out of his unbelief in God's promise, out of his indifference to the worship of Jehovah, comes the establishment by Jeroboam of a national religion, distinct from that worship which God had instituted at Jerusalem. From that moment on that this worship was not a worship of the Lord, what could it be? Idol worship.

To forsake the worship of the true God is to fall into idolatry, whatever form this may take. In religion there is no middle ground. No doubt Jeroboam thought he had found such a middle ground: he did not adopt the false gods of the nations round about; he wanted only to establish a common religion for Israel. Having no heart-knowledge of the God who had spoken to him, he took counsel with himself and made two golden calves. "Behold thy gods, Israel," he says, "which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." He restores to honour that Jewish idolatry which had been practiced by the people at the foot of Sinai and which had brought down upon them the judgment of God. Only he goes further than Israel had in the wilderness: his forsaking of God is more complete. "Behold thy gods," he says, whereas the people had said, "This is thy god" (Ex. 32: 4, 5, J. N. Darby translation). He does not add as Aaron had done, "Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah!" The Lord is completely set aside.

Jeroboam is a cunning politician. He sets up one calf at Bethel, on the boundary with Judah, and the other at Dan, the northern frontier of his territory. He patterns his worship after the form of the worship prescribed by the law of Moses. "A house of high places" replaces the temple; the Levitical priesthood is replaced by "priests from all classes of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi." As Israel had its Feast of Tabernacles, Jeroboam also established a feast, but a month later than this. He sets up an altar at Bethel corresponding to the brazen altar, setting it up before the idol, and burns incense upon it instead of burnt offerings (vv. 31-33). All this "he had devised of his own heart"!

Thus, despite its misleading external forms, this religion was a complete forsaking of the worship of the Lord, an instrument of polity in the hands of the government. Lulled by false appearances, souls were kept far from the true God, and the king of the line of David became a stranger to them.

Can we not find similar principles in the religions of our day? Are they based upon faith in the word of God or upon practices that only vaguely resemble the worship of God — an arbitrary religion, a voluntary worship, a forsaking of the house of God, the Assembly of the Living God, a denial of worship in the Spirit, priestly functions accorded to such who are not true worshippers, the efficacy of the sacrifice replaced by perfume, so that one worships and pretends to approach God without having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! Doubtless it is not idolatry, properly speaking, as in Jeroboam's false worship, but we know from the Word that before long it will all be part of the lifeless religion characterizing professing Christendom today, and that this latter, left to itself, without ties to Christ, making religion a matter of the intelligence, not of the conscience and of faith, will end up by returning to idols and by bowing down before the works of its own hands.

1 KINGS 13

The Man of God and the Old Prophet of Bethel

A man of God, a new prophet, comes out of Judah, where the Lord was yet maintaining a light for David. He comes to Bethel to prophesy against Israel at the very moment that the ten-tribe kingdom has been formed.

"Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense" (v. 1). It goes without saying that he who had made his own priesthood and had consecrated anyone who wished to be (v. 33) could not have this priesthood in very high esteem. Subordinated to the royal authority, the priesthood had become a political instrument in his hands; and there was nothing surprising in the king arrogating to himself the right to carry out its rites according to his own pleasure.

The man of God cries against the altar (v. 2), not against the idol. For man to imagine that he can replace God's altar is more hateful in God's eyes than anything else he can do. God's altar is unique; this He has proclaimed before all. Believers have but one altar, Christ, the Lamb of God (Heb. 13: 10). God will judge wicked men who want to set up another altar alongside His own. A worship instituted by man cannot subsist forever; divine judgment shall fall upon it, as upon the harlot of the Revelation. But God will not destroy it without at the same time putting the priests of this profane religion to death upon their own altar. The man of God announces a king of the seed of David, Josiah, who would overturn the high places of Israel, calling him by name three hundred fifty years prior to his day (v. 2); he gives a present sign of that which would happen in years to come: the altar is rent and the ashes upon it are poured out.

The hand of the man who had established this odious system, the very hand which is stretched out against the man of God in order to seize him, is dried up at the very moment the king thought to suppress the witness of the Lord and of His Word. The hand which he is unable to bring back to himself again remains outstretched in his menacing gesture against the man of God and against God Himself as a monument to his powerlessness. But upon the king's request the man of God intercedes that the judgment might temporarily be set aside, and that Jeroboam might be granted more time to repent (v. 6.)

God shows here that He is God indeed; He preserves his loved ones, his witnesses, and defends them. He is for us as He was for His prophet, and who can be against us? What security for the testimony! We have nothing to fear when God sends us. No one, not even the highest authority on earth, can seize us, and should this power be granted to one, it is only in the measure in which the purposes of God may be realized through his instrumentality. Such was the case with Elijah, with the apostles Peter, John, Paul, and with all the Lord's servants.

The value of the man by whom God renders testimony is so insignificant that the prophet is not even called by name in this account. He is simply a man of God — but what a title! A man of God is a servant who represents God before men and upon whom God has impressed his own character. Such a man speaks for God, speaks as the oracles of God: an august and solemn function, but one which reduces man to nothing and removes all confidence in the flesh from him. Moses and David are each called a man of God; this name is also applied to the prophets in a time of ruin. Timothy was a man of God. 2 Timothy 3: 17 shows us that he was prepared for his commission by the Word; 1 Timothy 6: 11 shows us that he could not carry it out except by bringing his life and conduct into accord with what he was proclaiming.

The king's violence had returned against himself; but Satan does not regard himself defeated; he comes onto the scene and seeks to use Jeroboam as his instrument. "Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a present" (v. 7). Let us beware of the favors of the world even more than of its threats! If the man of God had accepted the king's testimony of gratitude, it would have been a act of disobedience that would have dishonoured the Lord. Jeroboam no doubt was ignorant of what God had prohibited His servant, but Satan was well aware of it. The profane king did realize that if the man of God would accept his hospitality and reward, he would in some measure connect himself with the king who had dishonoured the lord, and would thus tacitly declare that things were not as serious as he had first thought. Thereby his testimony would be annulled, as Satan well knew. But the prophet remains faithful; he follows the example of Abraham with the king of Sodom and accepts nothing; he obeys the word of the Lord and is not tempted by the greatest of temporal advantages. "If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee; neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest" (vv. 8-9).

Whether he understands the charge given him by the Lord or not, the prophet's path is simple: God has spoken to him; he must obey. He must not return by the same path; that would be to deny that the ways of God are without repentance. And the prophet obeys.

At Bethel there was an old prophet who was not living there by command of the Lord, for the Lord was not using him in His service, but he was living there with his family. Perhaps, we might even say probably, he had nothing to do with Jeroboam's false religion, but his presence alone at Bethel sanctioned what was going on there, a thing which the prophet from Judah understood. Whether he wanted to be or not, the old prophet was associated with the evil, and the result of this association was that he, a prophet, was not in the secret of the thoughts of God. He learns them from others  - from his sons who repeat the words of the Lord to him. God manifests neither Himself nor His thoughts to a servant found in an association that dishonours Him. No revelation was made to him; another was employed while he remained barren for the work of the Lord. How could he prophesy against Bethel when he was used to living there?

There is something more serious yet. This old prophet becomes an instrument of ruin for the ruin of the Lord's witness (vv. 11-19). What was his interest in acting thus against him? It was this: If the man of God would listen to him, it would be like a divine sanction of his position at Bethel.

The same thing happens in our day also. More than one servant who should be separated from evil enters into association with another servant who is not, there in the very place where God is being dishonoured. The old prophet does not think of the consequences for his brother of the course of unfaithfulness in which he is engaging him. A false position makes us selfish and lacking in uprightness.

The old prophet catches up with the man of God on the road that goes out from Bethel. To his request, "Come home with me, and eat bread," he answers just as categorically as he had answered Jeroboam (vv. 16-17). "I am a prophet also as thou art," replies the old prophet, "and an angel spoke to me by the word of Jehovah saying, Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat bread and drink water" (v. 18)  - and the Word adds: "He lied unto him." But how could the man of God lend an ear for even an instant to this lie? How could he imagine that there could be contradictions in the word that God had addressed to him?

And yet, this is what unfaithful Christians tell us in order to justify their bad walk in their own eyes. Everyone, they tell us, understands the Word differently. "I am a prophet also!" But no, thank God, His will can only be understood in one way, and who can understand it but the one who is separated from evil in obedience to the Word?

By appealing to brotherly love the old prophet succeeds where the king's offer had failed. "Then he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water" (v. 19). The old prophet was a pious and respectable man. Why should not the man of God believe what he said? But however pious he might be, should a man's word have more weight than the word of God? The prophet from Judah is ensnared by the age and authority of his brother prophet and by his sympathy for him. Let us ask ourselves seriously what role these ties play in our religious life when the question of obedience to the Word is placed before us.

The old prophet is severely chastised for his lie (vv. 20-22), for he becomes God's instrument to pronounce, against his will, the condemnation of his brother who had trusted in his word. He is obliged to judge in another the evil which he himself had committed. "Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread, and drunk water in the place, of which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers" (vv. 21-22). If the lie of the old prophet was punished, how much more the disobedience of the man of God who had been put in an even more intimate relationship to Him by His office and the Lord's revelation.

Who does not recognize himself in the features of the man of God? "Thou hast disobeyed," says the Lord. Who does not recognize himself in the features of the old prophet? Art thou a prophet also? Very well, the moment is coming when you must pronounce a curse upon your own work and punishment upon those whom you have led astray! And what will be left to you? Will it be a crown?

(Vv. 23-26). The serpent, disguised as an angel of light, had seduced the man of God. Now he finds a lion on his path. The extraordinary circumstances of his death force one and all to recognize the divine intervention. The lion is not permitted to do more than to fulfill the word of the Lord. The old prophet, instrument for the fall of his brother, is the witness of the consequences of this fall. How this ought to have reached his conscience and filled his soul with sorrow and mourning (v. 29)! His work is reduced to nothing and judged, but God uses this to bring him back; he himself is not lost. "When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass" (vv. 31-32). His soul is restored before he dies, and he seals the testimony of his brother against the altar of Bethel by his own, extending this testimony to all the high places in the cities of Samaria. Be our unfaithfulness what it may, God will not leave Himself without a witness. The weakest, the most guilty among us may become its bearer, if he repent. In his death the old prophet testifies to his association with the man of God (v. 31).

But no testimony stops the idolatrous career of Jeroboam (vv. 33-34). He sets his heart on the religion he has invented more than on the word of the Lord; and yet this infallible Word had declared all to him beforehand by the mouth of Ahijah. He had been able to verify it by what had happened, had received its blessings without any positive result for his soul — he was about to make acquaintance with its judgment.

1 KINGS 14

Jeroboam and the Prophet Ahijah

"At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam was sick" (v. 1); this was a blow keenly felt and a reason for great anxiety on the part of the king. If this cherished son, his successor, should die, what would become of the monarchy he had thought to secure to himself by so much cunning? For Jeroboam was what men call a great politician. He had other sons, no doubt, but this one, the heir, enjoyed God's favor and that of the people. It is thus that the folly of human strategy devised apart from God becomes manifest. The Lord had assured Jeroboam of the kingdom, but he had preferred to secure it for himself by forsaking the Lord. He must learn whether his way was the way of wisdom. He had not reckoned with death; his plans had not taken into consideration the one thing men can never escape, and they were at the point of being reduced to nothing.

What to do? He remembers the prophet "who told [him] that [he] should be king over this people" (v. 2). He knew these things. "He will tell thee what shall become of the lad. " Jeroboam acknowledges the man of God's ability and thinks that he can help him. One thing, however, is lacking, that which an unconverted soul always lacks — the consciousness of having to do with God; it just does not enter his mind that he is about to come before Him. If it were otherwise, could he be telling his wife to disguise herself? No, even this profane king could hardly suppose he could hide from God by being disguised. But God was not in his thoughts, so he does not take account of the connection between the prophet and Jehovah. That which the man of God had said had come to pass; therefore it was worthwhile to consult him. Jeroboam would as easily consult a fortuneteller. "Disguise thyself," he tells his wife, "that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam." And indeed he had good reason for this. What would his people say if he, their head, who had fabricated a new religion, should turn back to the representatives of the old faith, to the prophets of Jehovah, to seek help and light from them? And then, had he not learned at his own expense that these prophets were not favorably disposed towards him? Perhaps Ahijah who at one time had spoken well of him would be more favorable . . . In any event, disguise yourself, he says, and bring him some presents — not such as would go with the dignity of a queen, which would give us away, but after all, a present is always in order when one goes to consult a prophet!

Ahijah was dwelling in his own city in the territory of Ephraim. He is called Ahijah the Shilonite (1 Kings 11: 29; 1 Kings 12: 15). It was fitting that God have His prophet in Israel and on the other hand, how well suited was this place for the prophet of the Lord! It was at Shiloh that the ark had remained during the long period of the judges and of the priesthood of Eli. One could call it to mind in Israel now that one could no longer go up to the temple at Jerusalem. To the faithful, obliged to dwell among the ten tribes, at least there remained the remembrance of the worship of former days, the initial blessings connected with the presence of the tabernacle at Shiloh. "For go now," said the Lord, "unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first" (Jer. 7: 12). A man of faith must not forget that the name of the Lord had been placed there, and he could consequently reside there as well. In the troublesome circumstances in which Israel now was, perhaps Ahijah had no more to do at Shiloh than did the old prophet at Bethel, but he was separated from idolatry there and fit to receive communications from God who had placed His name there. How good it is in a day of ruin to remember that which was from the beginning! One can always find God there, for if His ways change in the different dispensations, He Himself never changes. He can still reveal Himself to the faithful soul there in the place where He has placed His name in the beginning.

Ahijah lived in hope at Shiloh. Apparently all was against him; how could he still be useful in service? "And Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age." But the prophet's dull eyes did not hinder his spiritual vision, as had been the case with Eli. He remained in direct connection with the Lord. God speaks to him, reveals to him who it is who is about to come to him, for what purpose, and that she will come disguised (v. 5). Ahijah's natural sight could never discern all this, but by grace, the Lord had given him his real sight. He had seen everything; He sees in the present and in the future. Ahijah knew and saw because the Lord knew and saw. Blessing of this kind is found only in communion of heart with God. May it ever be ours! It is not our weaknesses that hinder divine communications from being granted us; it is our worldliness and our disobedience. God finds satisfaction in weak vessels if their hearts are faithful to Him, and the weakest — Paul was a testimony to this publicly —  receive most precious revelations right here in this world.

"I am sent to thee," says Ahijah to Jeroboam's wife, "with a hard message" (v. 6). As he could not go to her, God brought her to him, and to Himself who had ordered all things from the child's illness right down to the thoughts and decisions of Jeroboam, in order to bring this latter face to face with the Word that the Lord had sent against him by the prophet. "Thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do only that which is right in my sight" (v. 8). Could David have spoken thus of himself? No — neither he nor any other man. But God had chastened him as a son whom one acknowledges, and the discipline had borne fruit. In virtue of his sacrifice God had been able to pass over the sin of His servant, never to remember it any more, and to consider only the fruit produced in his heart, His own work in which He could find pleasure. But to Jeroboam He says, "But thou hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back" (v. 9). Jeroboam had dispensed with God, had despised Him as a useless object. And is it any different today? Man dispenses with God as with a "negligible quantity"; he banishes Him from his life, casting Him behind his back so as to see Him no more. That which man has before him is the pursuit of his own plans, his ambition, and his well-being; he does not think about what he has cast behind him. But the moment will arrive when like Jeroboam, he must turn around to meet the God whom he has counted as nothing face to face. Then he will hear this terrible word: "I . . . will take away the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone" (v. 10). God will cast him to the dogs and to the fowl of the heavens. So much for the future. But for the present, death is at the door: "When thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die" (v. 12).

He shall die! What a judgment upon Jeroboam! What grace for the child! He was one of the Lord's elect. "In him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam" (v. 13). The eyes and heart of God rested upon this weak offshoot of family given up to destruction. There too God had a remnant according to the election of grace. Of such a young child was the kingdom of heaven. He could not remain in Israel. God would take him out of the scene of judgment to have him with Himself. He was righteous. "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from before the evil. He entereth into peace" (Isa. 57: 1, 2). Just so before the flood the righteous, Noah's contemporaries, were gathered up; just so the saints will be gathered up at the approaching day of the coming of the Lord: "I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev. 3: 10). But what?  - already now! Yes, judgment is at the door; there will be no more delay. Oh, if only men's consciences might be reached before it is too late! Already now! How this reminds us of the words in the Revelation: "The time is near. Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still; and let the filthy make himself filthy still . . . " (Rev. 22: 10, 11).

But the people must be judged, too (vv. 15, 16), not just because the king had seduced them, but because they had themselves sinned, for "they have made their Asherahs, provoking Jehovah to anger." They must be judged according to the principle set forth in Romans 5: 12: "As by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

From this moment Jeroboam's history comes to a close. The chronicles of the kings of Israel have recorded it, but God passes over it in silence. If He makes mention of it somewhat in the Second Book of Chronicles, it is in reference to Abijah, Rehoboam's successor.* Nadab, Jeroboam's son, succeeds his father.

{*We intentionally are not relating the account in 2 Chronicles to what we have here. It is preferable to let events speak in the context where God has recorded them. When we do otherwise we run into danger of confusing principles which should be kept distinct and of losing a part of the blessing God has attached to each book of His Word. Thus, except for details we have already come to, we shall refrain from commenting here on those things God has not given us in the Books of the Kings.}

In a few words (vv. 21-31) we have the history of Rehoboam, king of Judah. It does not appear to be he himself who introduced idolatry into his land. It was rather the act of the people (v. 22), but Rehoboam in allowing the evil to become established in his kingdom is just as guilty as Judah, because he was responsible for Judah's conduct (cf. 2 Chr. 12: 1, 2, 14). His mother, it is twice repeated (vv. 21, 31), was Naamah, an Ammonitess. How this would have influenced the sin of Judah, for Solomon had built high places for Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon, for the sake of this woman and her fellowcountrywomen, if there were such among the kings' wives. Idolatry goes hand in hand with most horrible corruption (v. 24; Rom. 1) — and such things took place among the people of God! God had destroyed the cities of the plain and had cast out before His people the nations whose iniquity had become full. What would He do to Judah?

Shishak, the king of Egypt, comes up against Jerusalem (vv. 25-28). All Solomon's prosperity, the treasures of the temple, the riches of the king's house, the golden shields of his guard, all is gone, and so quickly! In less than seventeen years the kingdom of David's son collapses — all its glory is cast down and trodden underfoot! The gold is gone, and only brass is left in its place (v. 27).

1 KINGS 15

Nadab and Baasha, Kings of Israel; Abijam and Asa, Kings of Judah

Abijam or Abijah (2 Chr. 13), the son of Rehoboam, began to reign over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel. His mother was Maachah, the daughter of Absalom. Absalom's mother was named Maachah (2 Sam. 3: 3); it was natural that this name should be perpetuated in the family. This Maachah the mother of Abijam must herself have been the granddaughter of Absalom according to the evidence of 2 Chronicles 13: 2. Here in verse 10 Maachah is called the mother of Asa, Abijam's son, according to the Jewish custom, although she was his grandmother. This woman was a worthy counterpart of Naamah, the mother of Rehoboam, an Ammonitess. Throughout the course of these books we shall see how the character of their mothers and where they came from had its influence upon their children. A pious mother sees her sons prospering round about her. The apostle Paul reminds Timothy of his blessed ancestry: "The unfeigned faith . . . which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also" (2 Tim. 1: 5). The children of the "elect lady" walked in the truth (2 John 4). We shall notice other similar things as we go through Kings and Chronicles.

Here we find the other side of what we have just been saying. A profane or worldly mother is all the more dangerous for the moral development of her children, as according to divine order, both in nature and in relationship, the responsibility of guiding their youthful years is naturally entrusted to her. Thus it was that during the three years of his reign Abijam walked in all the sins of his father. "Nevertheless," it is said, "for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem" (v. 4). God remembers David and his obedience, even though he had turned aside from uprightness in the matter of Urijah; but after the bitter discipline this had necessitated, his restored soul had again found fellowship with his God. The Lord did not forget these things; thus we see Abijam's success and son, Asa, for David's sake raised up as a true witness for God in Judah. Only the grace of God could do this, not the merits of man, and so much the more so as Asa was placed under the same female influence as had been his father. His grandmother Maachah sought to promote the practice of idolatry under his reign, but Asa's faith fought this influence, reproved it, and destroyed it in order that the rights of the Lord might be known again in Judah. Maachah occupied the position of queen, perhaps of regent mother, at Asa's court. He stripped her of her dignity and prestige, she who in face of her grandson's zeal to abolish idolatry had ventured and had wished to reestablish it in its most corrupt forms.

Asa's reign was a long one and singularly blessed; it lasted for forty-one years, thus being longer than the reigns of David and of Solomon. Chronicles gives us the detailed account of all the faithfulness which he demonstrated. Here the Word considers him more from the standpoint of responsibility. The close of his reign is marked by a very sad lack of faith. Baasha, the king of Israel, comes up against Judah and begins to build Ramah with the goal of shutting up Asa in his kingdom so that he might not be able to go out (v. 17). In order to oppose this project Asa relies upon Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, sends him presents, courts his alliance, and uses him to make Baasha depart. This plan was successful to all appearance: the king of Israel abandoned Ramah, the building materials for which were then dispersed. But what unfaithfulness in this pious king who had vanquished Zerah the Ethiopian with his army of a million men (2 Chr. 14: 9) to fail to commit his interests to the Lord. A league with the world at first may bring us advantages, but afterwards we taste its bitter fruits. Asa's conduct is not severely condemned here as it is in Chronicles, because the kings of Judah are not the special object with which the Spirit of God is occupied. But how sad to hear these words in the mouth of a godly king: "There is a league between me and thee, as between my father and thy father!" (v. 19). Abijam had walked "in all the sins of his father," and lo, Asa identifies himself with him. His father had allied himself with the enemies of God's people; Asa acknowledges and seeks after this alliance!

"Asa slept with his fathers" (v. 24) — the same words that are said of Jeroboam, of Rehoboam, and of so many others. It may be a special favor, for the opposite is said of certain wicked kings and of their posterity (cf. 1 Kings 14: 11), but this favor is far from indicating that the Lord took pleasure in them or that they had found beyond the tomb the happiness their hearts had sought in vain in the world. It is still so everywhere here below. The sons are buried beside their fathers; they die, if one may so say, a natural death, without letting us draw a comforting conclusion as to their eternal future.

"In the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet" (v. 23), and there again Asa manifests his lack of confidence in God: "Yet in his disease he did not seek Jehovah, but the physicians" (2 Chr. 16: 12). One unjudged act of independence (cf. 2 Chr. 16: 9, 10) necessarily leads to another; at the same time the judgment of God falls upon those who instead of bearing his testimony, have preferred to seek the alliance, support, and help of the world.

In order not to interrupt the account of the events of Asa's reign, Baasha's attack, though much later, had been mentioned in verse 17. The Word turns back in verse 25 and tells us of Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, who began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa. His reign lasted two years; this short period of time was sufficient to prove his iniquity. The Lord's word against Jeroboam is fulfilled with regard to his son and all his family (cf. 1 Kings 14: 14). Baasha conspires against him, smites him, and slays him at Gibbethon and reigns in his stead in the third year of Asa, king of Judah. "And it came to pass when he was king, he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left to Jeroboam none that breathed; until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Jehovah which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to sin; by his provocation with which he provoked Jehovah the God of Israel to anger" (vv. 29-30). Baasha reigned twenty-four years and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

This whole account, filled with wars and cruelty, follows Solomon's reign of peace which ended so quickly on account of the unfaithfulness of the king and of his people. "And there had been war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life" (v. 6). "And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days" (v. 16), and verse 32 repeats the very same thing. This is one of the principal symptoms of decline. War is declared, implacable war between people of the same race. Rehoboam had been at the point of attempting war, but, warned by the Lord, he had desisted. Next the kings of Israel are authors of warfare, for they feel their position jeopardized by the maintenance of God's testimony in Judah. A nation which has turned idolatrous after having known the true God cannot endure God's testimony so near by. It hates this and wages desperate warfare against it.

1 KINGS 16

Complete Decadence

Prophets of the Lord are multiplied under these ill-omened reigns. We have first seen Ahijah the Shilonite prophesying to Jeroboam that he would be king over the ten tribes (1 Kings 11: 29), then pronouncing the death of his son and the annihilation of his whole line to the same king (1 Kings 14). After him Shemaiah, the prophet to Rehoboam, persuading the king and his people not to fight against their brethren, the children of Israel (1 Kings 12: 22; 2 Chr. 11: 2), the only thing appropriate for those who yet maintained the lamp of David. They, the Lord's witnesses, ought to accept the division as the result of their sin and ought to commit themselves to God who would know how to remedy the situation once His judgment, having run its course, would bear its fruit. And that is why Ahijah had said to Jeroboam: "And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever" (1 Kings 11: 39). Before these prophets, under the reign of Solomon Iddo the seer had prophesied concerning Jeroboam,* to say nothing as to Nathan, who had played such a marked role in the days of David and at the opening of the reign of his son. Lastly, Azariah the son of Oded encouraged Asa, the king of Judah, to restore the worship of the true God after his victory over Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Chr. 15: 1, 8).

{*See also as to Iddo: 2 Chronicles 12: 15; 2 Chronicles 13: 22.}

All these prophets were, properly speaking, prophets of Judah, for even Ahijah the Shilonite first prophesied to Jeroboam near Jerusalem, and would not have been found in the territory of the ten tribes were it not through the circumstances of the division of the kingdom. It is so too with regard to "the man of God from Judah" who prophesied against Jeroboam in 1 Kings 13. We will not speak of the "old prophet" in that same 1 Kings 13, remaining behind at Bethel through his unfaithfulness.

Hanani, a prophet of Judah (2 Chr. 16: 7), prophesies against Asa who had called upon Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, for help against Baasha, the king of Israel. Despite the apparent success of this league, Hanani tells the king that henceforth he would have wars and not the rest he had hoped for in his alliance with the world. Pious Asa, incensed at the divine reproof, sets himself against the Lord by casting His prophet into prison!

After Hanani there appears Jehu, his son. He is a prophet in Israel as well as in Judah. He prophesies against Baasha, the king of Israel, Asa's enemy, but also against Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, the friend of Ahab (2 Chr. 19: 2; 2 Chr. 20: 34), for these two things — the world's hatred for the children of God and the friendship of God's children for the world — are equally sinful in the eyes of the Lord.

Jehu prophesies against Baasha who had smitten the house of Jeroboam, pronouncing the same judgment upon the former that had already come upon the latter: "Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth of his in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat" (v. 4; cf. 1 Kings 14: 11). Nevertheless Baasha, just like Jeroboam, "slept with his fathers," and "The rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?" (vv. 5, 6). Reference is made quite frequently in these books to the chronicles of the kings of Israel or to those of the kings of Judah. These chronicles were drawn up during the course of the reign of all the sovereigns of those times, whether Jewish or Gentile. They have nothing to do with the Word of God. That which it has not pleased the Lord to record or to explain is found recorded there. These chronicles have been lost; perhaps someone will one day find some fragments of them. The believer has no need for any of them; he has God's Word. There in God's account he finds all that is necessary for him as well as the divine evaluation of people, events, and things. Certain deeds may be recorded in non-inspired writings, and even with great exactness, but these deeds are never accompanied by anything more than human evaluation. And what is more, men of God, prophets, seers could be used to draw up these chronicles, to make these genealogical registers, to write these commentaries (2 Chr. 12: 15; 2 Chr. 13: 22); these writings are still not the inspired Word of God. In spite of their human interest they are of no importance whatsoever for setting forth the truth of God. And so they have disappeared, whereas the Word of God remains.

When they were still in existence they testified to the divinity of this Word and to the reality of the facts recorded in it; now that they have disappeared, they have no other witness than the mention of them in the sacred writings. Amid the ruin and disappearance of these things the Word of God remains, the only monument, the only document that cannot be shaken!

The history of the kings of Israel becomes increasingly dark and tragic. The curse of God rests upon this apostate line. Elah, the son of Baasha, reigns two years (v. 8); Zimri, who had a high rank in the army, kills him at Tirzah while he was drinking himself drunk. Thus the word of Jehu the prophet begins to be fulfilled, for "As soon as he sat on his throne, he slew all the house of Baasha: he left him not a male, neither of his kinsmen nor of his friends" (v. 11). This action of extermination was accomplished in a few days, for Zimri reigned seven days at Tirzah (v. 15). And these seven days were sufficient for him to do "evil in the sight of Jehovah, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin" (v. 19). When a man's heart is estranged from God, each of his deeds bears the impress of this, and so it is that a mass of iniquities may accumulate in so short a period of time.

The people, encamped before Gibbethon on the day of Zimri's usurpation, choose Omri, the captain of the army, for their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When the people is without God, His will is counted as nothing. That which He established in the beginning is done away with; he who has might reigns, and as might lies in the army, the empire is at the mercy of the military power. Conspiracy on the one hand, soldierly revolution on the other.

Another feature characterizes the decline of the kingdom. Israel is divided against itself: how shall it stand? Half the people choose Tibni for king, while the other half follows Omri. This latter prevails: Tibni dies, Omri reigns. He reigns twelve years altogether, six years at Tirzah. He builds Samaria and does worse than all those who had been before him. He sleeps with his fathers and is buried in Samaria.

Ahab, the son of Omri, begins to reign during Asa's lifetime yet, for all the catastrophes mentioned in 1 Kings 15 and 1 Kings 16 take place during this latter's reign. Just as the reigns of Ahab's predecessors (Nadab, a year; Elah, two years; Zimri, seven days) except for Omri had been short, just so the reign of Ahab is prolonged (twenty-two years). Ahab has time before him for doing only evil. He follows the idolatrous worship of Jeroboam, but does worse yet: he marries Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and bows down before Baal to whom he builds an altar and a temple at Samaria. He sets up an image of the Phoenician Astarte and provokes the Lord God of Israel to anger (vv. 29-33).

And it is in such days that God, provoked to anger, goes forth to manifest His power in testimony against the evil, but also to deliver this miserable people who were willfully serving demons. What a God is ours! He chooses the moment when man has completely rejected Him to show that He is God, He alone, as we shall see in that which follows., But as for us Christians, have we not contemplated what God is at the cross of Christ?

Before beginning with the history of Elijah, one detail is added: "In his [Ahab's] days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundation in Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates in Segub his youngest, according to the word of Jehovah which he spoke through Joshua the son of Nun" (v. 34). Five hundred thirty-two years had passed, and the Lord had not forgotten His word (Joshua 6: 26), a detail all the more remarkable that it is intended to prove before the eyes of men the infallible authority of all the words God has spoken. Israel was idolatrous, the name of the Lord was being dishonoured, evil of most frightful description was vaunting itself in broad daylight in this time of apostasy. Why did God not intervene? Why did He not crush this ungodly one? It is because He is a God of infinite patience and He proves this. He fulfills His word when after five centuries man might have thought and no doubt did think that He was no longer paying any attention. One act of disobedience brings on the judgment foretold, down to the very letter. This event takes place before the eyes of all; did it speak to the conscience of the people and of their king?

And it is a man of Bethel who builds Jericho! There is no more fear of God before the eyes of Israel. God's threats are just as despised as His promises. This event is given us here as being morally the final stage of the condition of the individual in a time of apostasy, for historically speaking, it took place during the twenty-two years of Ahab's reign.

PART 3: Chapters 17-22

1 KINGS 17: 1-7

Elijah and the Brook Cherith

God's Word here introduces the first great prophet of Israel. As we have said previously, all the other prophets had come from Judah or had begun their ministry before the separation of the ten tribes. Elijah was "of the inhabitants of Gilead." He comes on the scene in the most evil days of Israel's history when the falling away is universal and the worship of Baal, patronized by Ahab and Jezebel, had become the national religion. Under this government the servants of the Lord are obliged to hide in order to save their lives, and those still seen are silent. Thus to all appearance Elijah is all alone before this formidable apostasy. His name is characteristic: Elijah means "Whose God is Jehovah," and each of us can read this name in this man's words and in all his conduct. His God is the one whom Israel had abandoned. His testimony is just as characteristic: he is completely separated from the general apostasy. He is the witness of the truth in the midst of evil, and the truth always separates us for God. "Sanctify them by the truth," the Lord said. This truth here consists above all in the judgments of God. In a broad general way Elijah is the prophet of judgment just as, on the other hand Elisha is the prophet of grace. Nonetheless, as we shall see in the very course of this chapter and of the next, Elijah's mission is not accomplished without the accompaniment of grace and deliverance, and this at the very time God's judgments are being prepared and running their course.

Elijah's moral character is just as remarkable as his character as a witness. Above all, he stands before God. "Jehovah, the God of Israel," says he, "before whom I stand" (v. 1; 1 Kings 18: 15). He enjoys a relationship with God and dwells in communion with Him. Like Elijah, Abraham "stood yet before the Lord" (Gen. 18: 22). Elisha likewise (2 Kings 3: 14), and so many other prophets and men of God. When one stands before God, one receives the communication of His thoughts. "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?" says the Lord. It is the same for Elijah: standing before the Lord, he knows His thoughts and can declare them: "There shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word" (v. 1). When one stands before the Lord, then like Jeremiah, one hungers for His word; one eats it (Jer. 15: 16). Then one can communicate it to others: "Thou shalt be as my mouth" (Jer. 15: 19). In Revelation 10: 10 John cannot prophesy until he has taken the little book and has eaten it. Ezekiel speaks forth God's words when he has eaten the roll (Ezek. 3: 3-4). It is the same here with Elijah; when he says, "Except by my word," it is because his word is that of the Lord which had been revealed to him (vv. 2, 8; 18-1).

But in order for the Word to unfold its power outwardly by means of us, something more is necessary than feeding upon it. Dependence is needful. Elijah announces the mind of God, proclaims the word of God, but he prays (and that is dependence) in order that this mind may be realized. This same dependence in prayer is the source of the prophet's power. The sphere of this power is very elevated: it is heaven. Heaven opens and closes according to Elijah's word; he makes fire come down from heaven to consume the burnt-offering in the presence of Baal's priests. In every one of these situations we find the prophet praying. "Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain; and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months; and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth" (James 5: 17, 18). Our chapter does not tell us that Elijah prayed the first time, but much later in the Epistle of James the Word reveals this to us, for God remembers these prayers, records them, and can reveal them at the appropriate time. None of the prayers of His beloved fall to the ground. When fire came down from heaven it was not only at Elijah's word, but also at his prayer. When the power of the prophet was displayed in raising the dead, the source of this power again was in prayer (1 Kings 17: 20-22).

We would remark right away that dependence (of which prayer so frequently is the expression) with one exception (1 Kings 19: 3) characterizes the entire life of this man of God. It is shown at the brook Cherith, whether it is a matter of going there or of leaving there. It is shown at Zarephath in all the circumstances of the poor widow. It is shown before Ahab, before Baal, upon Carmel, in the matter of Naboth, and throughout the history of the prophet until that moment when he is caught up to heaven upon the chariots of Israel.

Such was thus the threefold cause of Elijah's extraordinary power: he stood before God, received His word, and lived in dependence upon Him. On that one occasion when his faith failed, he neglected these three things! Instead of standing before God, he fled to the wilderness; he forgot to consult the Lord; and he went according to the dictates of his own heart, which is independence.

Scarcely had he rendered the solemn, public testimony of verse 1 than Elijah is set aside by the Lord, until that day when he would reappear to deliver the people by judging the agents of the enemy which had enslaved them. To be set aside is a situation infinitely painful to the flesh, which is thus deprived of all that nourishes it, but easy for faith, for faith finds its happiness in obedience. The great prophet must hide himself; this energetic man must fold his hands, in solitude awaiting the Lord's time; he who had the power to shut up the heavens must depend in a unique way upon the Creator who sends out birds to feed His servant and makes the water of the brook last just as long as He wishes to keep his prophet at Cherith. A painful situation for the flesh, we have said, but a blessed school for dependence! Elijah enjoys its fruits. While all Israel was perishing of thirst and hunger, he could say, "I lack nothing."

The apostle Paul passed through the same experiences morally as did Elijah. At Damascus he had preached that Jesus was the Son of God; then had been sent into the solitude of Arabia in order to return to Damascus, and then finally to go up to Jerusalem. We know nothing of his experiences during his isolation, nor do we know anything more of Elijah's experiences in isolation. What we do know is that both came forth with power acquired in communion with the Lord.

So it was with John the Baptist. Already in his mother's womb he renders his first testimony to the presence of Him who was to come; then he is kept in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Was it not so with the Lord Himself? Only He who could say, "I am lowly in heart," had no need of being kept in humility; but the Word is silent about His mature years preceding His public ministry. There He was, living before God, finding His delight in dependence, waiting upon the will of God to act, then coming forth when the time was come in the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat Satan and to deliver those enslaved by him. Much more than Elijah, Jesus was a man of prayer. Prayer was always the source of power with Him and preceded its manifestation. We see this at His baptism by John (Luke 3: 21, 22; cf. Luke 4: 1, 14); upon the mountain (Luke 6: 12; cf. v. 19); at His transfiguration (Luke 9: 28; cf. v. 29); and on so many other occasions during His career.

But let us again go back for a moment to God's ways with His prophet. They follow a definite order gradually leading on to the high point of his mission. God speaks to him; he believes, obeys the divine word, then comes to realize entire dependence at Cherith and at Zarephath. The more he depends upon the Lord, the more he learns to know His faithfulness and the riches of His love and grace. All this is governed, as we saw to begin with, by a complete separation from evil. The secret of power is in all these things. Their absence is the reason for the lack of real power among Christians in our day. It is not that pretensions to power are lacking — but where is its reality? One no longer believes in the Word of God, one lives in independence and disobedience to this Word, one is in fellowship with the world which has crucified Christ, and one is crying loudly that one has found the secret of power! There indeed exists a secret of power in the world, but of a satanic power based on the giving up of all these things. Let us beware of becoming bewitched by this kind of power. Elijah's power had a character distinguishing it from every other kind of power: it was the power of the Spirit of God, and every true servant of God had to recognize this (1 Kings 18: 12; 2 Kings 2: 16).

1 KINGS 17: 8-24

Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

When the brook had dried up, Elijah was sent to Zarephath to be sustained there by a widow woman (v. 9). In Luke 4: 25, 26 he is sent to the widow to sustain her. Both these things are true and our account proves this. God had a double purpose: to sustain His servant and to bring a message of grace to the widow by him. The Lord, speaking in the synagogue, compares this message to the gospel spread among the nations beyond the borders of Israel. The evangelist finds his own sustenance in bringing the good news of grace to others. But we find a third thing in Luke's account. If the message is carried to the nations, personified by a Zidonian widow, the widows of Israel are set aside. Judgment upon Israel's state opens the door to the Gentiles to receive grace, and this, remarkably, in the very territory from whence Jezebel, that great corrupter of God's people, came (1 Kings 16: 31). In Matthew 15: 21 the Lord withdraws to this same territory, but though He was still being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He could not be hidden to faith; and faith finds in Him much more than crumbs fallen from the children's table.

Here then Elijah is sent in grace to a widow of Zarephath who is dying of hunger, and just as much as Israel under the weight and consequences of the judgment God had pronounced. This woman was going to die, and she knew it. Elijah's words stirred up the faith that lay in her heart. "And she went and did according to the word of Elijah" (v. 15). Instead of doubting something that would happen in a way incomprehensible to human reason she accepted this impossibility and found salvation therein for herself and for her son. The king of Israel, too, felt this imminent death weighing down upon himself and his people, but instead of being sure about his lot, he sought means to escape it. This is the opposite of faith: it is unbelief. Ahab thought he could have or find human resources against famine and death; this woman had none; "That we may eat it, and die" (v. 12).

This widow's faith is of the same kind and quality as that of the prophet; consequently she follows the same path he does. It is always so: "And he went and did according to the word of Jehovah" (v. 5). "And she went and did according to the word of Elijah" (v. 15), but the word of Elijah was "the word of Jehovah which he had spoken through Elijah" (v. 16). It is the same word, whether it comes directly to the prophet or whether it is addressed to men through him. So it is today with the gospel.

This poor widow came to know the divine resources for a dying soul. She is called to make experiences even more profound and blessed. Her son dies; she now has to deal with the reality of death. At the same time she acknowledges that which is right, that death is the wages of iniquity. "Art thou come to me to call mine iniquity to remembrance, and to slay my son?" (v. 18). To know that death awaits us and will overtake us is not everything; it is necessary besides to realize the actual power of death upon us, sinners. The widow needed this experience to learn to full extent of the power of grace. How, if her son had not died, would she have been able to know the power of resurrection that delivers from death? The same was so for Martha at the tomb of Lazarus.

This whole scene speaks to us of Christ. Elijah is a picture of Him. In sympathy he entered into all the consequences of man's sin. Just as Christ wept at the tomb of Lazarus, Elijah "cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?" (v. 20). Then he brought the dead child to life again, taking his place. "And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again!" (v. 21).

The meal and the oil were a great blessing for the poor widow. They kept her from dying. A soul, still ignorant of all the riches of Christ, may be conversant with the Word and find nourishment for its life therein. At first the widow was a bit like the man left for dead by the thieves, to whose help the Samaritan came, pouring oil and wine onto his wounds. The oil and the wine answered to his needs, just as the oil and the barrel of meal answered to the woman of Zarephath's needs. But resurrection answers to death. "Being dead in your offences and sins . . . God . . . has quickened us with the Christ . . . and has raised us up together." Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times; Christ spent three days in death. But Elijah did not depend upon himself to raise the dead any more than did Christ. "Father," said the Lord at the tomb of Lazarus, "I thank thee that thou hast heard me," and as for His own resurrection, "For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption." In the same way, as we have already remarked, here Elijah expresses his dependence by praying.

The prophet delivers the child to his mother. "And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth" (v. 24). She had learned two things by the resurrection of her son: First, that God had come to manifest Himself here below in a man — "Thou are a man of God." And so Christ was "marked out" — much more than a man of God — "Son of God in power . . . by resurrection of the dead." Previously God had revealed Himself to her as providing for her needs, now, as giving new life, resurrection life, there where death had entered in by the "iniquity" of man. The second thing is that through resurrection she gained the assurance that the word of the Lord in Elijah's mouth was the truth. The truth of the word of grace is proven by resurrection. Christ has not only died for our offences; He has been raised for our justification.

1 Kings 17  has occupied us with a time when Elijah was hidden from the eyes of his people and from the world. We have seen him exercise a ministry of grace during this period. In the following chapter he is going to manifest himself publicly at the time for executing judgment. Do we need to point out how much the prophet in this respect is a remarkable type of Christ? We are in the day when the Lord is hidden, but when the grace that brings salvation is appearing to all men, when the power of resurrection is being announced to the nations. The days are coming when our rejected Lord will again appear, when every eye shall see Him, and they which have pierced him, and all the tribes of the land shall wail because of him. Yea, Amen!

1 KINGS 18: 1-16

Elijah and Obadiah

A third time the word of the Lord comes to Elijah (v. 1; 1 Kings 17: 2, 8); a third time Elijah obeys. The career of this man of God is marked by obedience. May it characterize us also! Only one time does Elijah go where his own heart directs him (1 Kings 19: 3), and the thread of his career is interrupted. Doubtless he then arises and sets out at the angel's word (1 Kings 19: 8), but it is that he may come into God's presence and there learn to judge himself. Later we shall see that despite this, God does not set His servant aside entirely, for the experience of learning to know himself bears fruit; we find him again in 1 Kings 21 before Ahab and in 2 Kings 1 boldly presenting himself before Ahaziah's messengers to pronounce the judgment of the king of Israel.

"Go, show thyself to Ahab" (v. 1). Previously it had been, "Hide thyself by the torrent Cherith" (1 Kings 17: 3). Elijah obeys without arguing. His obedience stems from implicit confidence in God, His authority, His power, and His goodness. Every disobedient act of a Christian demonstrates a lack of appreciation of what God is.

"I will send rain upon the face of the earth." This does not hinder Elijah from praying that it may rain (v. 42). He is in full fellowship with the Lord, having received the revelation of His thoughts and of His purpose, but in order to be an instrument for the fulfillment of His ways in grace, he must depend upon Him. God could well give rain without Elijah or by someone other than the prophet, but He never sets His seal upon disobedience or independence; and it is this which so often strikes the work of God's children with barrenness.

While Elijah was enjoying divine abundance at Cherith and at Zarephath at a time of want, Ahab was using all his faculties to seek to bring about a remedy for the judgment of God by strategies of human wisdom. He associates Obadiah, the steward of his house, one who occupies a public place at the king's court, with himself. "Obadiah feared the Lord greatly" (v. 3). This might seem to be enough for a faithful walk, for "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; (Prov. 9: 10). But we are also told: "Fear the Lord, and depart from evil" (Prov. 3: 7). And again: "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Prov. 8: 13). One may fear the Lord greatly, yet nevertheless dishonour Him by being in association with the world that rejects Him. This position, so lacking in openness, is found on every hand in professing Christendom. Yet nevertheless Obadiah's piety had prompted him to hide those who were being persecuted for the Lord's name's sake. "And it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water" (v. 4). In one sense, his work had not been insignificant. It was no small thing, especially on part of a man in the public eye at Ahab's court, to hide one hundred prophets whose lives were being hunted and to feed them.

Only — for there is an "only" — Obadiah was dependent upon Ahab, and that was evil. If Ahab was his lord, how could he excuse himself from following his master's orders, and how could he testify by his walk to just the opposite of what his faith taught him? Moreover, alliance with the world of necessity makes one little by little lose one's appreciation of its true character. The world is willfully ignorant of God's judgment. Beyond doubt, it suffers it, as did Ahab and his people, but it does not have recourse to God to be delivered from it. All its doings proclaim: I hope to get myself out of this without You.

Even if he "greatly fears the Lord," a believer associated with the world or dependent upon it of necessity acts according to its principles. The Word calls this "the elements of the world." Such a believer first of all will be in ignorance of the fact that God's judgment upon man is absolute and final, and that the wrath of God is already revealed from heaven upon him. Secondly, he will be seeking to improve the condition of man placed under this judgment. All the associations, all the organizations in Christendom today — and they are innumerable, so that we forbear enumerating them —  have no other character. Those dear children of God who like Obadiah "divide the land" with Ahab to seek water and grass, show forth the principles of the wicked king in their walk and inevitably draw the responsibility for it upon themselves.

Elijah meets Obadiah (vv. 7-16). This godly man recognizes the Lord's servant and falls on his face before him. Others perhaps would have passed by on the other side of the road, embarrassed by this so dangerous meeting. "Go, say to thy Lord, Behold Elijah!" such is the word of the prophet. Elijah, as we have seen, being accustomed to this word, often heard a "Go," and he would go. "Go," he himself had said to the poor Zidonian widow, who had then gone and done "according to the word of Elijah." With the one as well as with the other this stemmed from faith, which always obeys. But where is Obadiah's faith? A believer may "greatly fear the Lord," and have an unbelieving heart. Obadiah is struck with consternation and terrified: "And now thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah!" (vv. 11, 14). When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah did not object; but when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word presented by the prophet. "And it shall come to pass when I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of Jehovah shall carry thee whither I know not; and when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he will kill me" (v. 12). He who can adapt himself to Ahab's plans for finding sustenance and avoiding death cannot rely upon the Lord and entrust his life to Him. How many souls are in this situation! When the word of God calls for simple obedience on their part, they quickly find fault with it. From this, we may be sure, come the great majority of the arguments of children of God who, walking in a pathway of disobedience, seek to avoid the positive obligation of obeying by persuading themselves that the Word contradicts itself or is not clear: "Thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah! And it shall come to pass . . . that the Spirit of Jehovah shall carry thee whither I know not." This is also the source of the lack of deliverance of souls bound up in this state of things. They are afraid, afraid of the world's opinion, afraid of difficulties, afraid of death: "He will kill me."

"And now thou sayest . . . Behold Elijah!" Elijah's coming, as we shall see in the rest of the chapter, meant the deliverance of the little remnant of Israel through the judgment of Baal's priests. It was also the sign of the end of God's judgment upon His people and it ushered in the blessings that would follow: "Go, show thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the face of the earth" (v. 1). Could the news of Elijah's coming bring anything but joy to one who was faithful? How the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee before Baal must have rejoiced at this news: "Behold Elijah!" For them it meant the end of long sufferings, the sure hope of better times. But it could not be so for Obadiah. He was too entangled with the world to rejoice at seeing its yoke broken. Is it not the same today when one speaks to Christians of the appearing of the One who is greater than Elijah? We are not speaking of His coming to take away His saints, but of His appearing to distribute rewards and to execute judgment upon the world. Will these souls be able to say that they "love His appearing" (2 Tim. 4: 8)? Will they, like the elders in the Revelation, in the face of this display of judgment have only adoration and the homage of their crowns cast before the throne to render? Obadiah did not know this assurance. He saw nothing but this lot awaiting him with the king: "He will kill me," a fate which due to his lack of faith he considered to be more sure than deliverance.

We find many different characters in Israel in these sad days for faith and the testimony. It is no longer the time of spiritual power, when the beloved of the Lord, gathered around Himself, resolutely enter into the conflict. These are days of weakness when the faithful are persecuted and hide themselves, no longer able as a collective testimony to resist the evil. In short, Elijah alone is a witness. And Obadiah? Beyond doubt he shows his piety in secretly providing for the needs of the saints, and this devotion is recognized by God; but to be the messenger of Elijah (of Christ) before the world goes beyond his courage. Nevertheless God had said to him, Go! One would be glad to unload the responsibility that the word of the Lord imposes on us onto anyone else, for how can one carry it out? Would it not be openly censuring Ahab's apostasy to go and say to him, "Behold Elijah"? And how can one speak thus when one has never done so before?

And then, look again! In this state of bondage to the world one feels it necessary to justify oneself by giving testimony to oneself: "Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah, how I hid a hundred men of Jehovah's prophets by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water?" (v. 13). How many Christians themselves report of their work, of their activity and of its results, thus giving a wrong impression to themselves and to others as to their moral condition! Obadiah adds: "I thy servant fear Jehovah from my youth" (v. 12), and this was true enough, but it was not for Obadiah to state this. God had deigned to use him, even in the wrong position he held, and he could be sure that the Lord would not forget even a cup of water given to one of these little ones — but how much more pleasing it would have been to God to have seen Obadiah, full of trust and obedience, setting forth at His command to carry out the mission to the king with which he had been entrusted!

We have dwelt upon Obadiah's character at length on account of its very present day application. May God grant us each to give heed to that which his example teaches us! Elijah reassures this poor fearful, trembling heart (vv. 15, 16). As surely as he stands before the Lord, he will show himself to Ahab that very day, for he has nothing to fear. God is with His servant; what is the power of the king in comparison to that of God?

1 KINGS 18: 17-46

Elijah Before the Prophets of Baal

Ahab goes to meet Elijah (vv. 16-20); he accuses God's servant of being "the troubler of Israel." This is how the world regards the activity of the Lord's witnesses. To announce the judgment that is inevitable, to declare that there is no resource against it except in God Himself, to stand fast for the Lord in the presence of evil, in effect is to stir up the world which is sleeping in a false security and does not want to be disturbed from its sleep. "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house," says the prophet. "Ye have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah" — that is the true cause of the troubles, for "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."

"Send," says Elijah to Ahab, "gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel." "So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel" (vv. 19-20). God wants it so; whether Ahab wants it or not, this must be done. But doubtless the thought would never occur in the mind of this impious king that his religion with its eight hundred fifty prophets would be absolutely nothing before one single prophet of Jehovah!

"Then Elijah drew near to all the people, and said, How long do ye halt between two opinions? if Jehovah be God, follow him; and if Baal, follow him. And the people answered him not a word" (v. 21). Israel under the yoke of an idolatrous religion was following Baal without positively abjuring Jehovah. She was halting between two opinions. This is one of the characteristics of the world's religion. Doubtless the number of those walking in open unbelief is growing daily. But there are others who deny neither the faith nor impiety. They find good reasons both for, excusing the evil, objecting to the good. They are the indifferent ones who abstain from choosing between the two sides and who do not answer a word when Elijah speaks to them.

The prophet begins by taking his stand for the Lord by himself (v. 22) in the face of Baal's four hundred fifty prophets. He proposes to the people a sign that the Lord alone would be able to produce and which had a deep significance. "The god that answers by fire, let him be God" (vv. 23, 24). Here it is not a question of fire from heaven falling upon men in judgment, as would happen later at the summons of the prophet (2 Kings 1: 10), but of fire falling upon the burnt offering.

Baal does not answer (vv. 25-29). With what irony does the prophet treat this inert object by means of which Satan was exercising his abominable influence upon the hearts of men! The blood of the false prophets flows (v. 28), but neither their blood nor that of any man can atone for Israel's sin or open heaven to this poor people!

Two religions meet face to face: Elijah's and Baal's, for the third, Israel's, is party to both. Publicly these two religions appear to have the same sacrifice. How are they to be distinguished? One of the bullocks must be consumed by fire from heaven, but not the other. By this means one will be able to recognize the true God; by this means the people too will be able to learn to know themselves so that they may be turned to repentance.

Elijah says, "Draw near to me" (v. 30). At that time he was God's representative upon earth, that which Christ was in perfection. If they would remain afar off, Israel would not be able to be witness to what God was about to do. Elijah repairs the altar that was broken down (vv. 31, 32). The twelve stones represented the twelve tribes, the people in their entirety before God. The prophet, at a time of ruin, bears testimony to the unity of the people, just as today's witnesses bear testimony to the oneness of the body of Christ. Elijah does not act as a sectarian man would, but by faith in the deep reality of this unity which God had established at the beginning. Outwardly the altar was broken down; that is to say, Israel as a whole no longer existed. But it was enough that one man should bear witness with his altar of twelve stones that that which God had established in the beginning would remain forever. It is the same today. We do not tire of rendering testimony to the fact that for us there is but one body and one Spirit, just as there was one altar of twelve stones for Elijah. Those who proclaim this truth will ever be few in number. Perhaps they will remain alone like Elijah, but what does their number matter if this testimony has been entrusted to us, as it was to Elijah, in the midst of universal apostasy?

The burnt offering was the victim presented to God for the people. Fire from heaven — divine judgment — falls and consumes everything: the sacrifice, the wood, and the very altar itself, leaving nothing standing (v. 38). In this way the Lord indicated that there was but one offering by which one could know the true God, the offering upon which His judgment had fallen. Each Israelite present at this sight could at the same time learn what was due to him, and that the people, represented by the twelve stones of the altar, could not stand before the judgment of God. But oh, the wonder of grace! If the people were present at their own judgment and saw themselves being consumed together with the sacrifice, they were not struck down themselves. The sacrifice was consumed; the people are consumed with the sacrifice; but judgment without mercy upon that which represents them before God sets them free to rejoice in His deliverance. So also we can say, "Our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin" (Rom. 6: 6).

Drought and famine had been warning judgments to straying Israel, God thus making Himself known in part by His ways, but the people did not really know God in the fullness of His being until the fire from heaven had consumed the burnt offering and the altar.

Elijah had two desires: that God might be glorified, and that the people might learn to know Him. "Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things by thy word. Answer me, Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that thou Jehovah art God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again" (vv. 36-37). There is a twofold result: the people, delivered by divine power, acknowledge the Lord, turn their heart to Him, and render homage to Him! "And all the people saw it, and they fell on their faces and said, Jehovah, he is God! Jehovah, he is God!" (v. 39).

"And Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain" (v. 41). There is a sound of rain, but only Elijah's ear — or rather his faith — perceives it. "And Ahab went up to eat and to drink." He is helpless against God, a tool the Lord uses as it may please Him. Thoroughly wicked though he may be, he is obliged to obey. He who had said, "Thou troubles" Israel," can do nothing against the dreadful humiliation that is inflicted upon him in seeing all the priests of his false god slaughtered before him. But after all, of what importance was this profane king? It was not a question here of his own salvation, about which he did not care in the least, but of the salvation of the whole people of God.

Elijah goes up to the top of Carmel. His patience emerges victor from the trial; his faith has its perfect work. The showers of blessing come after God's judgment has fallen upon the burnt offering and only after Israel, in presence of this event, has acknowledged the Lord and turned their hearts back to Him. In our days abundance of rain is sought without the conscience being reached. This desire can be crowned with but one result. The rain was not given to Israel until after the work of God had been done for them and in them.

The hand of the Lord is upon Elijah who with his loins girded, runs before Ahab.

Let us again summarize briefly the beautiful character of this man of God. We do so all the more gladly since we are going to be present at a scene that no longer testifies to the power of the Holy Spirit in the prophet.

Completely separated from the evil that surrounds him, Elijah is not in the least taken up with himself nor desirous of personal recognition. He stands before the Lord, hears His word, obeys Him, lives in dependence upon Him in every detail. He depends upon God for sustenance, to bring grace to the nations, to resist the enemy, to bear witness, to exercise divine power in holding back or in giving rain, but above all else, to cause fire to fall from heaven upon the burnt offering and to judge the world. He waits upon the Lord, walks with Him, and, like Enoch, will be caught up into glory. The word of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, the Lord Himself all speak to Elijah; as for himself, he speaks to God and God listens to him. Elijah is a friend of God (1 Kings 17: 22, 1 Kings 8: 38, 44). Elijah is an epistle of Christ. But, where the Lord never failed, this man of God did fail, and that is what we are about to consider.

1 KINGS 19: 1-9

Elijah Before Jezebel and Before Himself

It is worthwhile to remark as we begin this chapter, that if men of God or their actions serve as types for us in the Word, this does not mean that these men understood the hidden meaning of their lives or their acts. Without even going beyond Elijah's history, we have already remarked that in Luke's Gospel the Lord gives an import to his mission to the widow at Zarephath quite other than that in the account here in our book. The fire falling from heaven upon the burnt offering is another proof of this. Elijah could not have seen in this either the cross or crucifixion with Christ, things that have become so clear for us in the light of the gospel. In fact, Elijah as a man of God was above all a prophet of judgment, and as far as his personal experiences go, it is only in our chapter that he lifts his eyes under divine instruction beyond the scene of judgment to that lofty, serene region in which God finds His delights, makes Himself known, and reveals Himself in the fullness of His character. This remark will help us understand the scene that is about to unfold before us.

After the total destruction of the prophets of Baal and the account Ahab gives Jezebel of this, she swears by her false gods to take her revenge upon Elijah within twenty-four hours, and she lets him know this. "And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life" (vv. 1-3). He flees before a woman, he who had met with Ahab and had resisted the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal! This attitude, so contrary to his attitude before, came from Elijah's at this moment forgetting the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. And the thing was so true that he was going to have to walk for forty days and forty nights in order to stand before God again. From the moment a believer lets any object whatsoever come between his soul and God, the distance immediately takes on incalculable proportions. The result of this estrangement necessarily is that the prophet loses all his strength, for one does not find this anywhere but before God. "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled." Elijah, a quite remarkable instrument of the Lord's power, had not realized in the same measure that in himself there was neither goodness, nor light, nor strength. It was needful for him to make this experience, and God would bring him to this in leaving him to his own resources before the enemy's power. He who had sent the message, "Behold Elijah," to Ahab flees for his life at a mere threat from Jezebel. From Jizreel he passes into the territory of Judah where the queen could no longer reach him, continues his flight to Beer-sheba, the farthest border of Judah toward the wilderness, leaves his servant there, and not satisfied with his flight, goes into the wilderness itself a day's journey. There he "sat down under a certain broom-bush, and requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough: now, Jehovah, take my life; for I am not better than my fathers" (v. 4). He is so completely discouraged that he wishes for an end to his life. Why this? "For I am not better than my fathers!" The prophet thus had thought, even if only for a moment, that he was better than his fathers and that God had supported him in the conflict because of this excellence! Poor prophet! — powerless before Jezebel, absolutely discouraged in his own sight, he who had believed that he could build something upon this foundation of sand.

But in order that this man of God might be entirely delivered from self, the Lord was going to have him undertake a long journey, at the end of which he would meet the God of the law at Horeb.

How many lessons this scene contains for us! We can have been used in God's service and yet know Him very imperfectly. Then too, a time of special blessing often precedes a period of great spiritual weakness, because Satan, ever on the lookout, causes us to find in the blessings themselves an occasion to be puffed up and to exalt the flesh. Such is in part the reason for Elijah's discipline; such was the reason for the apostle's discipline after he was caught up to the third heaven, though this was only preventative. Notice again that Satan attacks us on that side which we guard the least because it seems the least vulnerable to us. Would it be likely that a man whose courage had resisted the entire people would be seen fleeing at a mere threat?

"He himself went . . . into the wilderness." What a blessing when the Lord leads us there so that we may there experience those infinite resources which are in Him; how humiliating but how beneficial too, when our own will has brought us there, that we be there to learn what is in our hearts! Such was Elijah's situation. — "And he lay down and slept under the broom-bush." He was giving up his mission, so to speak, just as its reality had been proven by brilliant exploits. But it was necessary for him to learn that his inner life was not being sustained by faith as his outward testimony had been.

"And behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, Arise, eat!" (v. 5). In 1 Kings 17 it had been he, Elijah, who had dispensed food to others after having been fed himself; here where his lack of faith had driven him, he had no food at all. But God does not abandon him: He thinks of him. The only strength available to him comes from food which God has prepared for him; at his head he finds a cake baked on hot stones and a cruse of water. He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again. A second time he finds the same food and the angel says to him, "Arise, eat; for the journey is too great for thee" (v. 7). God fed him in order that he might walk. An important lesson for us! The Lord had fed him at Cherith and at Zarephath so that he might render a powerful testimony, but if divine food does not impart strength to us for ourselves, will God's purpose be attained?

This food which Elijah finds at his head has miraculous power. Is it not so with the Word of God? It brings us to "the mount of God." So deemed the apostle as he spoke to the Ephesian elders: "I commit you . . . to the word of his grace, which is able to . . . give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified" (Acts 20: 32).

Elijah "went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God" (v. 8). With it one walks and does not faint. Moses had spent forty days and forty nights upon Horeb, conversing with God. His word and His presence were enough to sustain His servant's strength. The Lord Himself spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness without any food, in the presence of wild beasts and exposed to Satan's attacks. He hungered and found nothing at His head to cause Him to resist the enemy's temptations. But He was the Man who did not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeded from the mouth of God. Simple dependence upon this word fed Him, was His strength, and gave Him the victory in extraordinary circumstances that He alone could overcome.

1 KINGS 19: 9-21

Elijah Before God

Elijah comes to Horeb, the mountain of God, and goes into the cave, the same place, no doubt, where the Lord had hidden Moses (Ex. 33). The prophet did not know where God would bring him; he did not intend to betake himself to Horeb when he fled a day's journey into the wilderness. But though he reaches the cave, it is not with the feelings of the heart of a Moses toward the guilty people — a heart which despite all their iniquity, beat for the people of God. "Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book that thou hast written" (Ex. 32: 32), ready to suffer being made a curse in order to save Israel. "Consider that this nation is thy people!" (Ex. 33: 13), he said again, interceding for them. This same Moses who proclaimed the God of the law appealed to the mercies of the God of grace towards those who had offended Him.

But Elijah had not yet learned the lesson which God wanted to teach him. "The word of Jehovah came to him, and he said to him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I am left, I alone, and they seek my life, to take it away" (vv. 9-10). Then God teaches him what Moses had desired to know when he said, "Let me see thy glory." First He makes various manifestations of His power and His judgments pass before the prophet. Elijah knew them well: he had been present when the stormy wind had preceded the rain (1 Kings 18: 45); at his word fire had fallen from heaven in presence of all the people (1 Kings 18: 38); and these same phenomena had occurred of old upon this very mountain when God had given the law; the mountain had also quaked and there had been thunder and lightening and fire. But — what a lesson for Elijah — the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire. The whole life of this most powerful of the prophets might well have slipped away without him ever really knowing God!

Elijah hears "a soft gentle voice" (vv. 12-13); then he understands that this is something new surpassing the scope of his experiences, and, his face wrapped in his prophet's mantle, he stands at the entrance of the cave. This soft gentle voice was that of grace. It is in grace that God has revealed Himself in the fullness of His being to poor sinners like ourselves. The God who thus reveals Himself repeats His question to the prophet to probe him to the very depth: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Elijah makes the same reply (v. 14; cf. v. 10). He had had time for reflection; he lays bare what is in his heart. Whom does he credit with good? Himself: "I have been very jealous for Jehovah . . . I am left, I alone . . . they seek my life." Whom does he accuse? The people of God: " The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets . . . they seek my life." In a word it is an orderly accusation, a pleading against Israel, and a panegyric for Elijah.

"Know ye not," says the apostle, "what the scripture says in the history of Elias, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have dug down thine altars; and I have been left alone, and they seek my life. But what says the divine answer to him? I have left to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed knee to Baal. Thus, then, in the present time also there has been a remnant according to election of grace." "God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew" (Rom. 11: 2-5; 2a).

Elijah had come to intercede against Israel! In accusing the people and in justifying himself he was showing his ignorance of grace and of himself. How was this then? He was appearing before the God of grace to play the role of accuser and to plead for judgment! But what was the divine answer to him? First of all, that vengeance would be executed. To Elijah would fall the sad mission of preparing the instruments: Hazael and Jehu. Secondly, the prophetic administration is taken away from Elijah and he must anoint Elisha as prophet in his stead. He who was saying, "I am left, I alone," must learn that God chooses, forms, or discharges His instruments as it suits Himself. How Elijah thus is judged to the very depths! No longer will he say, "Take my life; for I am not better than my fathers." He will have to live on, all the while being witness to another ministry which he will have to acknowledge, being himself used of God in forming it.

Thirdly, and this is the great point of "the divine answer": "Yet I have left myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him" (v. 18). There was therefore a remnant according to the election of grace, known by God, but unknown to Elijah. The soft gentle voice was still being heard in these days of apostasy, and it was in this feeble remnant that God found His pleasure.

Elijah accepts this humiliating lesson: he submits when for the fourth time God says to him: "Go!" (cf. 1 Kings 17: 3, 9; 1 Kings 18: 1). He returns by the way by which he had come (v. 15). He finds Elisha the son of Shaphat and casts his mantle on him — the mark of identification as a prophet. Had he stuck to the mere letter of God's word, he would have had to begin by anointing Hazael and Jehu (vv. 15, 16), but he makes haste to carry out the act which would reduce himself to nothing —  himself, the great prophet — by handing over his authority to another. Thus he who had said, "I am left, I alone," shows that from now on he is nothing in his own eyes. As for Hazael and Jehu, it would not be Elijah, but Elisha who would anoint them. He surrenders all claims to that which could have made him stand out and leaves that work to be carried out by someone other than himself.

Elisha leaves his oxen and runs after Elijah. "Go back again," the prophet answers him, using the same words he had heard from the mouth of the Lord (v. 15). He was nothing in his own eyes from now on, and this was not the moment to induce Elisha to follow him. "What have I done to thee?" Elijah had not cast his mantle on him to draw him after himself, but that he might be prophet in his stead. What a beautiful example of humility, of selfjudgment, of unselfishness, of obedience, of trust in the Word this man of God gives us here! How quickly chastening had produced its fruits in him! Can we not say that Elijah's humiliation will glorify God more than all the prophet's power? His career is apparently broken off, but a new career, beginning in chastening, is about to open before him; and if the first has not ended in glory, the second will end in nothing but glory! Let us all follow Elijah's example in the breaking of self in order to glorify the Lord!

1 KINGS 20

Ahab and Ben-Hadad

Ever since Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, had lent a firm hand to Asa, king of Judah, against Baasha, king of Israel, he had remained the enemy of the latter, had taken cities from him, and had even acquired by conquest certain rights over Samaria, the capital of the kingdom (v. 34). His son, also named Ben-Hadad,* goes up against Ahab and besieges Samaria. Laying claim to his father's rights, he sends an insolent summons to the king: "Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, the goodliest, are mine" (v. 3).

{*The name Ben-Hadad is probably the religious title of the kings of Syria: "Son of Hadad" or "hadad's worshipper." Hazael's son is also called Ben-Hadad (2 Kings 13: 3, 25).}

What does Ahab do? He, before whose eyes the scenes of 1 Kings 18 had been unfolded, who had heard his whole people cry in his ears, "Jehovah, he is God!" has not even a thought for the God who had just restored His worship by His power, that worship for which Ahab had substituted the worship of Baal (1 Kings 16: 31, 32)! Ahab does not consult the Lord nor commit his cause to Him. For that matter, had he ever humbled himself before Him? Had he tried to stop the arm of Jezebel as she sought to put Elijah to death? No, this weak, wicked-hearted man "did sell himself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, Jezebel his wife urging him on" (1 Kings 21: 25).

Demonstrating that God was a stranger to him, acting as though He did not even exist, he accepts the humiliation inflicted upon him by the heathen monarch: "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have" (v. 4). What, indeed, could he do against Ben-Hadad at the head of all his forces and accompanied by thirty-two kings? So those who do not know God reason things out. But what is accomplished by his humiliation before Israel's enemy? This latter uses the occasion to add outrage to his harshness: "Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children; but tomorrow about this time I will send my servants to thee, and they shall search thy house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thy sight, they shall put in their hand and take away" (vv. 5-6). There again, Ahab does not return to God; to him it is more important to call together and consult with the elders of the land. They favor resistance; he, accepting the first conditions and rejecting the second. At this answer Ben-Hadad's anger knows no more limits. Ahab replies spiritedly: "Let not him that girdeth on boast himself as he that putteth off" (v. 11), but God is still not taken into consideration.

A great multitude is arrayed against the city. God intervenes by a prophet whose name is not revealed to us: "Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into thy hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah" (v. 13). What was the Lord's ground in speaking thus? The condition of Ahab's heart? We have just seen its callousness. But Israel in presence of Elijah's miracle had acknowledged the true God. Would He not show His grace at the least sign of His people's returning to Himself? As for Ahab, God tells him: "Thou shalt know that I am Jehovah." If he had not learned this before under the weight of the judgments of God, this miraculous deliverance might perhaps touch his heart so that he would be restored. What touching patience on part of God, even toward the most profane, the most indifferent, the most hardened. The God whom man rejects, instead of tiring, reappears to him as the God of grace and of deliverance!

At this critical moment Ahab seems inclined to let God work; in any case, he has no other resource. The prophet answers his questions categorically. The "servants of the princes of the provinces" by whom the enemy army would be delivered into the hands of Ahab are only a handful against this multitude. Instead of awaiting the assault of the enemy, it is Ahab who is to begin the battle, and his army only numbers seven thousand men! Ahab follows the prophet's word, and that day the Syrians suffer a great defeat.

No spirit of thankfulness is produced in the king's heart. God warns him by the prophet that at the return of the year Ben-Hadad will attack him again. This time it is a matter of proving to the Syrians that Israel had not gotten the victory by their "gods of the mountains." In vain does Ben-Hadad change the organization of his army and the place of battle: the Israelites, in number like two little flocks of goats, in one day smite one hundred thousand of the enemy's men; the wall of Aphek falls upon those who were left. Thus the Syrians had to learn who the Lord was and thus Israel could know Him.

Ben-Hadad flees into the city and escapes from chamber to chamber. His servants offer to beg clemency of the victor, for they have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are gentle and merciful kings. Humiliated and conquered, they come supplicating on behalf of their king: "I pray thee, let me live." Ahab replies: "He is my brother," when God had given him into his hands for destruction. The idolator who had likened Jehovah to "the gods of the mountains" is brother to the king of Israel! What an outrage to the glory and the holiness of God there is in this word, "He is my brother"! Ahab has Ben-Hadad come up into his chariot, makes a covenant with him, and sends him away. The king of Syria restores to him the cities that his father had taken away. The world loves and owns this kind of clemency and affability. How often those who ought to be God's witnesses before the world call the latter, "My brother, my brethren"! How sad is this word which deceives the world and denies Christian character. No, Christians are of another family than the world; they are children of God; the world has the prince of this world for its father.

But, you say, are not all men brothers since they are all sinners? No indeed, for Christians can and ought to say: " While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5: 8). Thus they are that no longer and cannot call those who are still sinners their brothers. It is true that there is "one God and Father of all" in the sense of God's relationship with His creatures, but even in this respect, only those of His creatures who belong to Him by faith are able to add: "Who is . . . in us all," which absolutely excludes the world from any intimacy with Him in this relationship (Eph. 4: 6).

To call Ben-Hadad his brother! Poor Ahab lays bare the state of his heart, still a follower of Baal, one whom even this twofold deliverance wrought for him had not led to repentance.

A second prophet comes (vv. 35-43). The one of verse 13 announced the deliverance, this one the judgment of Ahab. What patience on part of God! Even in the next chapter He still delays with pronouncing the final word of judgment! But first we are to learn to know God's chastening towards His own. "And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to another by the word of Jehovah, Smite me, I pray thee. But the man refused to smite him." If this man was not a prophet himself, he was at any rate the prophet's companion. God's chastening of his own is so much the more severe, as they are in a more privileged position. Here we have a different case from that of the prophet from Judah in 1 Kings 13. The latter, having a positive word from the Lord to act upon, gives it up to follow another word that is asserted to be the word of God, and he finds a lion on his path. Here a companion of a prophet refuses to do according to the word of Jehovah. He does not want to smite and wound his companion when God orders him to do so. His intentions were good, you say; he loved his companion too much to hurt him. Doubtless, but there was an imperative word! God had given the command. You still object that the man did not understand the benefit of what was being ordered; but when it comes to the word of the Lord, it is not a question of understanding, but of obeying. And indeed, it was impossible for him to understand; he could not and need not give account for what God wanted to do. The thing was that there was an express command, and that "by the word of Jehovah." Could this man ignore it? No, he was the prophet's companion and ought to know the word of God. The man of God from Judah ought to have known that the word of the old prophet could not have been the word of God; this man ought to have known that the word of his companion was the word of Jehovah. The more our position places us in direct relationship with God, the less excuse we have when we treat the word of God as though it were not so.

Positive disobedience to the Word is an infinitely serious thing. How many lives of Christians are made up of similar acts of disobedience! Christians are often asking why they meet a lion in the way without being able to answer this question. Should they not first of all ask themselves whether or not they have been willing to submit to the word of God when it has shown them His will in a positive way? Usually one looks everywhere else to find the reason for God's chastening of His children or His servants. Judgment overtakes this man "because [he had] not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah" (v. 36).

"Another man," who does not seem to have been in as intimate a relationship with the prophet as the first man, hears and obeys. He smites him hard and wounds him. He does not try to understand, but does what God tells him to do.

Now the prophet can appear before Ahab with the sure proofs of what would happen to him. God had said: Smite! He had refused to do so. Now another would smite Ahab and wound him. His fate was determined.

Ahab, like David when Nathan came to him, is compelled to pronounce his own judgment (v. 40). He was blind; the bandage he saw over the prophet's eyes was the bandage he had over his own eyes, and he did not even know it! Suddenly the word of God, like a violent wind of judgment, echoes in his ears: "Because thou hast let go out of thy hand the man that I had devoted to destruction, thy life shall be for his life, and thy people for his people" (v. 42).

Will repentance and contrition of spirit finally penetrate into this hardened heart? "And the king of Israel went to his house sullen and vexed, and came to Samaria" (v. 43).

"Sullen and vexed"  -  these two words describe him. "Sullen": oh, how this characterized the world! It does its own will and is sullen, sad. Joy is never found in the pathway of disobedience and of rebellion against God. Only the Christian can really know joy, "full joy." The Word and the Lord Himself show us where it is to be found: In obedience to His commandments, obedience which itself is His love realized (John 15: 9-14); in dependence, fruit of the new nature which we have from Him (John 16: 24); in assurance which the knowledge of our union with Him gives us (John 17: 11-13); and finally, in communion with the Father and with the Son (1 John 1: 3, 4).

How this poor man who had thought he could follow his own thoughts in spite of the word of God was wanting in all these things. However ungodly Ahab might be, God was judging him according to the favored position in which he had been placed. In Christendom people are accustomed to reasoning about the fate reserved by divine justice for the poor heathen. It is certain that they will be judged according to the witness they have received and by which they could have known God (Acts 14: 15-17); but we do not hear the Christian world reasoning about the fate awaiting it. Ahab's lot is more dreadful than that of Ben-Hadad.

The Word also says that Ahab was "vexed." The king's grief was not the kind that leads to repentance, but to vexation. Against whom? Against God. Would the king then meet with God on his pathway all the time? Come, says the world, tell us of the love of God when He takes away our health, our loved ones, or our wealth! Really! Wouldn't it be better to do evil like everyone else instead of trying to behave ourselves well, since God treats us so unjustly? This is one of the thousand varieties of this vexation that fills men's hearts against God. But when there is a certain knowledge of the Word, as in Ahab's case, one can no longer be diverted by doing evil. This had been easy in times past before the sudden appearance of Elijah who came to "trouble Israel." Now the Word is there; one cannot shake it off; it gnaws at the heart, allowing one no rest. This word of the prophet has unveiled the future. Nothing, perhaps, will come of it . . . but who can know? One thing is certain in the life of this monarch: this Word is constantly being fulfilled, and so often in undeserved blessings to which he has not paid attention. Will the threats be fulfilled too? The prophet had said, "Thy life shall be for his life." He did not say when. What if it were today? Or tomorrow? Couldn't he just leave me alone? There is well reason for being "sullen and vexed." The gnawing worm is there; it has begun its work, that worm that never, never dies.

1 KINGS 21

Ahab and Naboth

Fresh circumstances show us the king's moral condition. Covetousness overruns his heart, eager greed for something God had not given him. Now this is idolatry just as well as is the worship of Baal (Col. 3: 5). Ahab, dominated by the enemy, has simply passed from one form of idolatry to another.

Ahab's proposal to Naboth is much greater in import than would appear at first glance. It would result in permanently giving away the inheritance of this godly Israelite. To make an exchange or even to give the value of the land in money would mean that Ahab would take full and final possession of his neighbor's vineyard. Now an Israelite who feared God could not accept such conditions. When he would sell his land, he would only sell its harvests, and, as his possession would be restored to him in the year of jubilee, its price would be set according to the number of years the buyer would harvest its produce (Lev. 25: 15). The seller even had the right to redeem his land at any time by refunding the buyer the amount over the value of the crops for the years that had passed since the time of the sale. The Israelite who feared God would keep the inheritance of his fathers because they had received it from the Lord; but there was a reason even more peremptory than that. In reality the land, the ground itself, did not belong to the people, but to the Lord: "The land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land" (Lev. 25: 23-24).

This makes Naboth's very categoric answer understandable: "Jehovah forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee" (v. 3).

Verse 4 shows us the effect produced by unrealizable covetousness on the heart of a man without God: "And Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed." Here we find again the same words as at the end of 1 Kings 20. Oh, the poor heart of man, overwhelmed with sorrow, swollen up with vexation! And that is all that it can hold unless Satan, in order to keep his sway over him, comes to him to whisper of new deceptive lusts. Ahab is sullen at seeing the object of his desire placed out of his reach; vexed with a will that presents an obstacle to him that he cannot make give way because, in short, it is the will of God.

Thus on every hand Ahab had met God on his path. Behind drought and thirst, he had found God; he had found Him in opposition to his religion, in opposition to his league with Ben-Hadad, and in opposition to his lusts. God, always God, that God whom he had thought to replace by his idols! Since the slaughter of his priests the house was, it is true, swept and garnished, but already worse demons had entered it.

Who stirs up the evil spirits that feed these lusts? It is Jezebel, a true type of the satanic spirit (vv. 5-14). Jezebel does evil, knowingly and willingly. She rouses all the evil instincts of her husband's heart. She appeals to his pride: "Dost thou now exercise sovereignty over Israel?" (v. 7). She adds, "I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jizreelite." When a man has sold his soul to Satan, as Ahab had, Satan does not fail to make him all sorts of promises. He is the tempter. What God does not want to give you, I'll give you. Leave it to me; I shall give you the vineyard. Ahab leaves it to her, because he sees that thus his eager desire will be realized. And now, Ahab, "arise, eat bread, and let thy heart be glad." That indeed is the constant goal of the flesh: health, a gay time, doing what one pleases, and getting what one wants. But how to attain this goal? Naboth had said, "I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers." Jezebel comes and says, "I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth." She takes Ahab by the hand and leads him down her own path, a path of lying and murder, under the guise of being his benefactress. She "will give him," but meanwhile she possesses herself of his authority, of his royal prerogative: "She wrote a letter in Ahab's name, and sealed it with his seal" (v. 8). Ahab has turned into her slave. She does not shrink back from either perjury or from the murder of a righteous man in order to bring gain to her protege. This worshipper of Baal has the false witnesses say: "Naboth blasphemed God and the king" (vv. 10, 13). She uses God's name, acknowledged by the people but not by herself, to destroy a servant of the true God. Has not Jezebel always acted thus? We see her appearing again in Revelation 2, no longer in Judaism but in the Church, taking on the character of a prophetess and accusing God's true witnesses of "knowing the depths of Satan," while she herself is teaching her children to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Ahab lets evil be done and iniquity be consummated in order to profit thereby; the men of Jizreel, the elders and nobles, do it knowing the reason for it, for the letters sent them told them to choose two wicked men, sons of Belial, who should perjure themselves in order to get rid of Naboth. They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.

Naboth is stoned; at last the time has come for Ahab to enjoy the fruit of his covetousness. "Arise," says Jezebel, "take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jizreelite, which he refused to give thee for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead" (v. 15).

Ahab goes down. Is he going to be happy now? This is the moment for him, his goal having been attained, to have that gay time that Jezebel had promised him. Scarcely has he begun to take possession when Elijah, informed by God, meets him there where he had come to survey his new estate. His enjoyment, his happiness disappear. Satan always entices us and leaves us facing God after having betrayed us and plunged us into the mire.

Ahab says to Elijah: "Hast thou found me, mine enemy?" (v. 20). Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; he finds God to be his enemy. In the very place of promised satisfaction he finds nothing of that he had hoped for, but God stands up before him, represented by His prophet, and says to him: "Hast thou killed and also taken possession?" (v. 19). Others had done the killing; God holds Ahab accountable. The joy so longed for is replaced by that horrible curse which is repeated all through this sad history of Israel. This was the judgment of Jeroboam, the judgment of Baasha, in the very same words: "Him that dieth of Ahab in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat" (v. 24; cf. 1 Kings 14: 11; 1 Kings 16: 4). And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jizreel" (v. 23). The execution of the judgment foretold is postponed for her (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.

This time Ahab must say to himself: God's judgment has reached me. He is aroused to the fact that God's word against his predecessors had been without repentance. For himself, who had done worse than all the rest, judgment is at the door.

What does Ahab do? He humbles himself; he goes about afflicted, mourning, and fasting (vv. 27-29); he lies down in the sackcloth he has put upon his flesh; he "went softly," as one does in a funeral home. Where is his pride and his merry heart, and even his sadness of the wrong kind and his vexation? Nothing remains but unbounded mourning in face of his inevitable fate. Is this conversion? The next chapter will give us the answer, but in the meanwhile, what a merciful God is our God! If He discovers the evil, He also ascertains the slightest return of a soul to that which is good; He takes note of the least sign of repentance. He says to Elijah: "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house" (v. 29). Not one jot of His Word will fall to the ground, but the judgment is to be deferred until the times of his heir.

1 KINGS 22

Ahab and Jehoshaphat

"And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel" (v. 1). Aside from the question of God's judgment, this then was what had resulted from Ahab's covenant with Ben-Hadad: a short respite of three years without war! After that Ben-Hadad, just scarcely set free, had not kept his promises (cf. 1 Kings 20: 34): he had not restored Ramoth-Gilead. "Do ye know," says the king of Israel to his servants, "that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we keep quiet without taking it out of the hand of the king of Syria?" It would be shameful to pass over this in silence; thus war is unleashed again. God is not taken into account in these claims between peoples. History is ever the same, and the Christian nations of our day are no better in this respect than the heathen nations. The desire to expand, on the one hand, and the desire to resist such encroachments on the other, form the basis of politics. God does not engage in politics; He is a stranger to these strifes, though He has the upper hand in all things and makes use of all to accomplish His purposes.

Jehoshaphat, the son of pious Asa, and faithful like him to maintain the worship of the Lord in Judah without admixture, goes down to the King of Israel. From whence did this relationship arise? From the fact that Jehoshaphat had "allied himself with Ahab by marriage," not personally, but Jehoram his son had taken a daughter of Ahab as wife (2 Chr. 18: 1; 2 Chr. 21: 6). This alliance was a great evil, and the king of Judah had to prove its serious consequences. "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate Jehovah?" Jehu the son of Hanani, seeing this, later said to him. This alliance disastrously led the faithful king to espouse the interests of a king unequalled for his iniquity in the land of Israel (21: 25-26).

"Wilt thou go with me to battle?" Ahab asks Jehoshaphat. The latter replies: "I am as thou, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses" (v. 4). This alliance thus leads Jehoshaphat to declare that he, the godly king of Judah, is just like wicked Ahab, and to throw down the barrier separating the man of God from the world. Is there any great difference between this word and that of Ahab to Ben-Hadad: "Thou art my brother"? Alliance with the world, we cannot repeat too often, makes us liable for its iniquity. In the historical books again and again we find the solemn truth that to associate or cooperate with a system where evil is tolerated or recognized is to become jointly liable for that system. One might ask whether Ahab's momentary repentance may not have influenced Jehoshaphat's frame of mind. We are not told this, but it would not have excused the king in any way. A believer does not remain in any system whatsoever because he can find some good there, but because it is approved by God. But Israel and its king had no more to expect than God's final judgment, and there were no more righteous men in the city who could save them from this.

Still (vv. 5-12), in this unfortunate alliance Jehoshaphat is too pious to act without consulting the Lord and His Word. Ahab immediately assembles four hundred prophets. There were many of them. Where did they come from when hardly a few isolated prophets could be found in all the territory of Israel? They were few, for only one prophet of the Lord was sufficient to make known His mind. These four hundred prophets of Ahab's, who were they? Could they perhaps have been in disguise the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, the female divinity, who had not been destroyed at the Kishon? This is quite likely! Whatever it may have been, if they were the same, they had changed their dress with the circumstances. They were now pretending to speak by the Spirit of God, whereas a lying spirit who served their own interests had taken hold of them. One can wear the livery of a prophet of the Lord and be lying. How often this has been so at all times, and how much more so today. "Go up," they all cry, "and the Lord will give it into the king's hand" (v. 6).

Nevertheless Jehoshaphat is ill at ease. There is a spiritual sense that warns a true heart, though perhaps not being able to account for it, that certain spiritual manifestations do not have the Spirit of God as their agent. This is not the gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12: 10), which is not given to all, but a sense which, however weak it may be in a child of God, ought never to be wanting with him. He feels ill at ease in an environment opposed to God, ill at ease in presence of certain discourse which claims to come from religious tongues but lacks the divine character, ill at ease confronted with such vaunting as that which takes place here before the king of Israel. So it was with Jehoshaphat, too, for after having been present at the scene brought on by his request to Ahab, "Inquire, I pray thee, this day of the word of Jehovah" (v. 5), he finds himself obliged to add: "Is there not here a prophet of Jehovah besides, that we might inquire of him?" (v. 7). It would be enough for him that there be one, truly separated to God, to counterbalance the other four hundred. Ahab replies: "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil: it is Micah the son of Imlah" (v. 8). He hated him, and he likewise hated all those who pronounced the Lord's judgment upon him. He wanted the prophet to "prophesy good concerning him." Such will ever be the character of the religious world. Those composing it choose for themselves teachers according to their own lusts, teachers who call them brothers just as Ahab himself said "My brother" to Ben-Hadad, teachers who praise them, extolling the world in which they live, and foretelling success and prosperity for them. Honest Jehoshaphat cannot suffer these words. He is accustomed to respect every word that comes from the Lord. One does not see him contesting Jehu's word condemning him later on (2 Chr. 19: 1). "Let not the king say so!" he says (v. 8).

Ahab has but one thought: to show proof of Micah's malice toward himself (cf. v. 18). Promptly he has him sent for. The man of God naturally kept himself apart from the four hundred prophets — a good example for the king of Judah who had joined himself to the profane king. The very sad but necessary result of this alliance is that he follows Ahab instead of following Micah. Such is the effect of "evil communications" upon the believer. Never does one see the opposite effect produced, that is to say, that the world follows the example of God's children. One has well said: "There is no equality in an alliance between truth and error, for by the very alliance itself, truth ceases to be truth and error does not become truth."

To make that which he is going to proclaim even more solemn, Micah at first speaks just like the four hundred prophets: "Go up, and prosper; for Jehovah will give it into the hand of the king" (v. 15). "How many times," replies Ahab, "shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but truth in the name of Jehovah?" (v. 16). We see here what conscience is, even a hardened one. It speaks within the heart, telling Ahab: What Micah is saying cannot be the expression of his opinion! And even though Ahab is seeking after a lie, his conscience forces him to want the truth. He will not follow it nor obey it, but the uneasiness produced by his conscience allows him no rest until he hears, knows, and sees it, like a murderer who despite himself is drawn back to the scene of his crime. Then these harrowing words reverberate in his ears: "I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace" (v. 17).

The prophet does not stop there. He points out the satanic lying spirit that has gotten hold of all the prophets in order to cause Ahab to go up to Ramoth. Jehovah had said: "Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?" (v. 20). This was the judgment of God, prepared beforehand against Ahab, an indirect judgment by which the demonic spirits he had worshipped became the instruments for their victim's doom.

Zedekiah, who had played the leading role in this scene, making himself horns of iron and saying to the king: "With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have exterminated them" (v. 11) — this Zedekiah smites Micah on the cheek and says: "Where now went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak to thee?" (v. 24). He claims the Holy Spirit's direction and makes use of violence to prove this, but he thus proves what spirit is urging him on. He too would come under judgment when he would "go from chamber to chamber to hide" himself (v. 25).

Micah, like so many prophets and faithful servants of the Lord, is thrown into prison, cruelly persecuted for the truth which he had proclaimed (vv. 27, 28). But his testimony spreads, in that way becoming public, just as later that of Paul. He has the honour of speaking the mind of God as to the future to all: "Hearken, O peoples, all of you!" (v. 28).

Poor Jehoshaphat beholds this scene in silence. Being on his ally's territory, he has no authority to thwart his orders. Did his feeble remarks change Ahab's plans and decisions? Does he find the courage to break this unfortunate alliance? Nothing of the kind. And of what use is this alliance to him except to lead him to be unfaithful to God? He goes up with the king of Israel to Ramoth-Gilead.

But here is that troublesome conscience coming again to besiege Ahab. What if Micah has spoken the truth? Has he really foretold Ahab's death on this expedition? He wishes and believes he has found a sure means of escaping that judgment which is directed towards him and pursuing him. He disguises himself, and under the sway of selfish fear is not even noble enough in heart to avoid imperiling his ally against whom, on account of his royal garments, the attacks in the battle are going to be directed. The captains of the chariots turn aside after Jehoshaphat, thinking that they have to do with Ahab. Just then "Jehoshaphat cried out." We see in 2 Chronicles 18: 31 that in this extremity Jehoshaphat had recourse to the Lord: "Jehoshaphat cried out, and Jehovah helped him." He does not forsake His own in distress.

Ahab is struck by an arrow shot "at a venture," something he had not anticipated. He dies a hero, as the world would say, stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians even though dying. He dies at even and his blood fills the bottom of the chariot. "And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked his blood, where the harlots bathed: according to the word of Jehovah, which he had spoken" (v. 38). Thus the judgment against him is carried out, but it is not fully accomplished until later by the hand of Jehu.

How differently men would have written up this history than God has done! The reign of Ahab was long and relatively glorious. For a man not having divine revelation his victories over the Syrians were deeds of high value and intrepid courage; his alliance with Ben-Hadad one of noble clemency and good politics; that with Jehoshaphat still wiser yet; the war at Ramoth was forced upon him for the honour of his kingdom. The annals of his reign, probably lost forever, enumerate all the cities he built and fortified, tell of his ivory palace — probably an imitation of Solomon's palace — and of still other things (v. 39). But of all this nothing remains except the horrible example of a man responsible to serve God who, knowing Him, preferred his idols and his lusts to Him and hated the faithful witnesses of the God of Israel.

A few words close this book (vv. 41-50) and refresh our heart a little in the midst of so much ruin. Jehoshaphat was faithful, though not free from reproach, for he was not zealous enough to destroy the high places, remains of the idolatry which had been implanted in Judah. He exterminates those infamous creatures who had established themselves in the land along with the Canaanitish idolatry. But one sees with regret that he does not immediately learn the lesson that Jehu had taught him upon his return from Ramoth. He joins himself with Ahab's son Ahaziah who does wickedly (2 Chr. 20: 35-37), and associates himself with him in building ships and in going together to Ophir for gold. Wanting the riches that would be acquired by the alliance with Ahaziah is a motive that is taken up less than his wanting the influence that would be acquired by the alliance with Ahab. But the Lord does reprove him: "And Eliezer the son of Dodavah, of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, Jehovah has broken thy works. And the ships were broken, and could not go to Tarshish" (2 Chr. 20: 37).

Thank God, after the prophet's word and the destruction of his fleet Jehoshaphat understood what had been the great weakness of his life  -  that an alliance with the world, whatever its purpose may be, is a thing of which God disapproves and which will bring judgment upon His children. "Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not" (v. 49).

This scene, cheering after all, is followed by a few words (vv. 51-53) summarizing the reign of Ahaziah the son of Ahab, a short reign, but one filled with all that could provoke the Lord to anger. Under his reign the worship of Baal revives again in Israel, and the king himself bows down before this abomination of the Zidonians.

About the author ...

Dr. Henri L. Rossier was born on January 25, 1835 at Vevey in French Switzerland to a family that was among the first there to gather to the Lord Jesus alone. After studying medicine at Zurich and Wurzburg he settled in his native Vevey, where he lived a long life of devoted self-sacrificing service. At age 27 he married Madeleine de Graffenried from Berne, and the Lord in time granted them six children. Along with practicing medicine for well over fifty years, as time went on he increasingly devoted himself to ministering the Word in assemblies and taking part in Bible conferences in Switzerland, Germany, and France.

However, it is for his written work that Rossier is best known today. Acquainted from his youth with J. N. Darby, he began early in life to translate this brother's writings into French. He was helpful also with the editing of Darby's translation of the Bible into French and with preparation of the volumes of Etudes sur la Parole, later to become better known as the Synopsis after it had been translated into English. For 58 years he served as editor of Messager Evangelique, a monthly magazine for the edification of believers widely circulated throughout the French-speaking world. He wrote many articles for this magazine himself, often while being driven in a horse-drawn coach to the homes of his patients.

Besides this, Rossier wrote commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, especially on the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament and on the epistles of Paul and Peter and the Revelation in the New Testament. He was a prolific hymnwriter as well. Some 28 of his hymns are included in Hymnes et Cantiques, the hymn book used among many French-speaking assemblies and which he played a major role in compiling and revising. Some of his hymns have been translated into English, as have his commentaries on Joshua and Judges.

After a long and useful life of service, he was called home to be with the Lord on March 20, 1928 at the advanced age of 93.

2 Kings

2 Kings

Meditations on the Second Book of Kings

H. L. Rossier.

ISBN 0-88172-182-4

BELIEVERS BOOKSHELF INC.

P O Box 261, Sunbury, Pennsylvania 17801

Contents

Introduction

2 Kings 1 — Elijah and Ahaziah

2 Kings 2 — Elijah and Elisha

2 Kings 2: 1-12  The Ascension of Elijah

Elijah, a Type of Christ

Elisha, the Servant

2 Kings 2: 13-25  Elisha, or Christ in the Spirit

2 Kings 3 - 8: 15 — Elisha

2 Kings 3  Jehoram and the War Against Moab

2 Kings 4: 1-7  The Prophet's Widow

2 Kings 4: 8-37  The Shunammite

2 Kings 4: 3841  Death in the Pot

2 Kings 4: 42-44  The Man of Baal-shalishah

2 Kings 5  Naaman

2 Kings 6: 1-7  The Sons of the Prophets and the Jordan

2 Kings 6: 8-23  Dothan

2 Kings 6: 24 - 7: 20  The Siege of Samaria

2 Kings 8: 1-6  The Shunammite Again

2 Kings 8: 7-15  Ben-Hadad and Hazael

2 Kings 8: 16 - 17: 41 — Kings of Israel and of Judah

2 Kings 8: 16-29 Jehoram, King of Judah, and His Son, Ahaziah

2 Kings 9  Jehu, King of Israel

2 Kings 10  Jehu (continued)

2 Kings 11  Athaliah

2 Kings 12  Joash, King of Judah

2 Kings 13: 1-9  Jehoahaz, Son of Jehu, King of Israel

2 Kings 13: 10-25 Joash, King of Israel, and Elisha

2 Kings 14: 1-22 Joash, King of Israel — Amaziah, King of Judah

2 Kings 14: 23-29 Jeroboam II, King of Israel

2 Kings 15: 1-7  Azariah or Uzziah, King of Judah

2 Kings 15: 8-12 Zechariah, King of Israel

2 Kings 15: 13-22  Shallum and Menahem, Kings of Israel

2 Kings 15: 23-31  Pekahiah and Pekah, Kings of Israel

2 Kings 15: 32-38  Jotham, King of Judah

2 Kings 16  Ahaz, King of Judah

2 Kings 17: 1-6  Hoshea, King of Israel

2 Kings 17: 7-41  The Divine Recapitulation of the History of Israel

2 Kings 18 - 25 — The Last Kings of Judah

2 Kings 18 - 20  Hezekiah, King of Judah. The Revivals of the End

2 Kings 18: 1-18  Hezekiah and the First Revival

2 Kings 18: 19-37  Rab-Shakeh's Discourse

2 Kings 19  Sennacherib and the Lord

2 Kings 20: 1-11  Hezekiah's Illness

2 Kings 20: 12-19  The Embassy from Babylon

2 Kings 21: 1-18  Manasseh

2 Kings 21: 19-26  Amon

2 Kings 22: 1 - 23: 30 — Josiah

2 Kings 22  Josiah and the Second Revival

2 Kings 23: 1-20  The Book of the Covenant and the Sanctification of the people

2 Kings 23: 21-23  The Passover

2 Kings 23: 28-30  Pharaoh-Nechoh

2 Kings 23: 31 - 25: 30 — The Final Downfall

2 Kings 23: 31-35  Jehoahaz

2 Kings 23: 36-24: 7  Jehoiakim

2 Kings 24: 7-17  Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah, or Coniah)

2 Kings 24: 18-25: 21  Zedekiah

2 Kings 25: 22-26  Gedaliah

2 Kings 25: 27-30  The End

Introduction

The Second Book of Kings follows the First without any interruption. In order to spare the reader an erroneous conclusion it may be useful to remark that this division into two books does not form part of the inspired text, which originally formed but one book in the Hebrew canon. As we are mentioning this subject in passing, we would add for our readers that one of the great divisions of the Old Testament, "the Prophets," included besides the books of the prophets proper with exception of Daniel and Lamentations, all the books from Joshua through the books of Kings except for the book of Ruth.*

{*The Old Testament was composed of three major divisions: the Law, that is, the five books of Moses; the Prophets, of which we are speaking; and finally the Hagiographa or "Sacred Writings," known also by the title "the Psalms" (Luke 24: 44), and containing Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles.}

The mere title, "the Prophets," enlightens us about the authors of the historical books with which we are occupied. We owe these books to the prophets; they bear their imprint. So-called modern theological criticism should in no way influence the Christian's convictions on this point. The Word of God alone is enough to explain itself and to furnish us assurance as to its contents.

Thus the acts of David are written in the words of Samuel the seer, in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in those of Gad the seer (cf. 1 Chr. 29: 29 with 1 & 2 Samuel); the acts of Solomon, in the words of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah, and in the vision of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat. (cf. 2 Chr. 9: 29 with 1 Kings); the acts of Rehoboam, in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer in the genealogical registers (2 Chr. 12: 15); the acts of Abijah, in the treatise of the prophet Iddo (2 Chr. 13: 22); those of Jehoshaphat, in the words of Jehu the son of Hanani which are inserted in the book of the Kings of Israel (2 Chr. 20: 34). The acts of Uzziah were written by Isaiah the son of Amoz (2 Chr. 26: 22); those of Hezekiah, in the vision of Isaiah the prophet (cf. 2 Chr. 32: 32 with 2 Kings 18-20 and Isa. 36-39). Finally, 2 Kings 24: 18-25 corresponds to Jeremiah 52.

Isn't it remarkable that it should be precisely the books of Chronicles, so contested and so attacked by the rationalists, that confirm the prophetic authority of our historical books? Now if it is true that the books of Kings are the work of the prophets, and that is enough for us since the Word of God does not tell us any more concerning the manner in which they were composed, we can expect to find in them not only the simple account of historical facts, and a perfectly exact statement of these facts since it is of divine origin, but also the features which form the substance of all prophetic writing: examples of the past sufferings and of the future glories of Christ.

This is what the books of Samuel and the first book of Kings have shown us superabundantly in the persons of David and Solomon. But this also explains for us why the prophets themselves play a preponderant role in these books. This fact, as we have already mentioned elsewhere, strikes us as soon as we enter into these books. Nothing but the activity of Elijah and of Elisha is dwelt upon in nineteen of the forty-seven chapters contained in Kings.

By way of preface, it is well yet to add here some remarks which did not get a place in the introduction to the First Book of Kings. They bear upon the character of the prophets of Israel in contrast to those of Judah. In studying 1 Kings we have been able to ascertain the character of Elijah's ministry, which above all was a ministry of miracles. We shall have occasion to notice this even more fully in the life of Elisha, the second great prophet of Israel. The activity of these men of God consisted much more of deeds than of words. On the contrary, that of the prophets of Judah is altogether different. They speak, and only rarely perform a miracle, such as that of the sun dial of Ahaz (Isa. 38: 8). This contrast springs from the fact that the public profession of the worship of Jehovah was still acknowledged in Judah, and subsisted in spite of idolatrous intermixture; thus it did not need miracles to be accredited.

This leads us to respond to the question that is often asked, why one no longer sees miracles in Christendom today. The reason is the same. As long as it has not been spued out of the Lord's mouth, the miracles intended to strengthen the hearts of the faithful grappling with apostasy shall not take place, nor those intended to vindicate the character of the true God before men who have renounced Him.

It was otherwise at the beginning of the Church's history. Numerous miracles took place, whether among the Jews who had rejected their Messiah, in order to prove the divinity of the Savior to them, or whether among the idolatrous Gentiles, in order to accredit the preaching of the God who was unknown to them. God bore witness with His servants "both by signs and wonders, and various acts of power, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his will" (Heb. 2: 4).

Catholicism pretends to miracles, just as in a measure also the Protestantism of our days pretends to miraculous gifts. In fact, that which the first presents to us are false miracles intended to blind the simple, whereas the second seeks to accredit itself by an appearance of divine power when apostasy has already made itself known in its bosom on every hand.

After the rapture of the saints, the miracles of the age to come shall be made manifest, whether among the Jews or before the nations, by means of the remnant, as we see in Revelation 11. The story of Elisha will furnish us occasion to consider this subject in type. But at the same time the land of Israel — of the apostate people under the Antichrist — and the entire world will be the theater of lying wonders performed by the- false prophet, Satan's last instrument to seduce the men who dwell upon the earth. (Rev. 13: 13-15).

We shall limit ourselves to these few preliminary remarks, which will find ample confirmation in that portion of the Scriptures which we want to study under the Lord's eye and with the help of His Holy Spirit.

2 Kings 1

Elijah and Ahaziah

The rebellion of Moab against Israel is the first consequence of Ahaziah's unfaithfulness (see 1 Kings 22: 52-54). It is a judgment upon the king who by his idolatry had provoked God to anger. The change of reign furnishes Moab a favorable occasion to throw off this hated yoke. Had not Moab from olden times hated and sought to curse the people of God (Num. 22)? Back in those times nations that had been reduced to servitude were accustomed to these revolts and were ever awaiting the death of their tyrants to shake off their yoke and free themselves from the heavy taxes with which he weighed them down. The history of the kings of Assyria, otherwise mightier than those of Israel, is full of similar revolts. Moab, chastised by Saul (1 Sam. 14: 47), then subjugated by David (2 Sam. 8: 2, 12; 1 Chr. 18: 2), had been subject under the glorious reign of Solomon, like all the other kingdoms which brought their tribute to the king sitting upon his throne in Jerusalem (1 Kings 4: 21; 1 Kings 10: 25). Since the division of the twelve tribes, Moab, by reason of its geographic position, had become tributary to Israel rather than to Judah (2 Kings 3: 5). Its tribute (100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams with their wool), enormous for such a limited country, must have weighed heavily upon it, to say nothing of the humiliation impatiently suffered by this proud and haughty nation. Thus it is not surprising that Moab should seize upon the first occasion to free itself. But above the external fact which strikes man's attention, the believer sees something invisible, the only important thing for him — the hand of God stretched forth to judge the people and their ungodly leader.

A second judgement falls upon the king himself. "Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and was sick." But repentance was foreign to the heart of the king of Israel, and Jehovah had no place either in his thoughts or in his life. He was indifferent to the judgment of God; he saw but an ordinary accident in the blow that had struck him. "He sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this disease." His own Baal, before whom he bowed (1 Kings 22: 54), was not enough for him; he sends to the Baal of the Philistines to learn his fate. Baal-zebub, the lord of flies, was much more valuable in his eyes than Jehovah. This god was doubtless invoked by this idolatrous nation to secure themselves from this plague of the lands of the East, flies. He was a powerful god to his votaries, for bowing down before him in their blindness they were worshipping or supplicating Satan himself, the Beelzebub so often mentioned in the New Testament.

That which happened to Ahaziah still happens today to every follower of a false religion. His religion can no more satisfy his heart, calm his soul's fears, or make known the future than the Baal of Jezebel and Ahab, who Ahaziah worshipped, could satisfy him. Therefore every new superstition is welcome, provided it gives us hope of escaping the fate by which we feel threatened.

At the command of the angel of the Lord, Elijah the Tishbite appears anew upon the scene, and we find him with all the boldness and energy of faith which he had shown from the brook Cherith to the destruction of the prophets of Baal. The juniper tree in the wilderness and the lesson at Horeb had borne their fruit for the prophet. They had formed a sort of parenthesis of experiences about himself, after which his career of faith had begun anew when he had boldly presented himself in Naboth's vineyard before Ahab to pronounce God's terrible judgment upon him and upon Jezebel (1 Kings 21: 17-26). Our chapter is but the continuation of this courageous testimony. Elijah goes up to meet these messengers of the king and says to them: "Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith Jehovah: Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die."

Had it not in effect been proven before Ahab and Jezebel that there was a God in Israel? There where the man of God was found, one found God — a very important testimony for the perilous day through which we pass. Why did one find God? Because the Word of God had been committed to Elijah and one could come to him to inquire of it.

Moreover, the prophet's character corresponded to his mission and accredited him before the world, so that this latter could recognize in him an authority given by God. Ahaziah, against whom the Word was directed, could not mistake him. "It is Elijah the Tishbite, " he cried when his servants told him: "He was a man in a hairy garment, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins." His clothing and his girdle sufficed to make him known. His garment, like the covering of the ark, depicted the holiness that repels corruption, at the same time the simplicity that delights in that which is humble; his girdle on the one hand kept his garments from contact with defilement, but it was also the emblem of his absolute devotion to the service of the Lord, of the concentration of his thoughts upon one object alone. By these signs the wicked king was forced to recognize the man of God; he said, "It is Elijah!"*

{*And, in fact, he is the only one who recognizes him. No one about him knew the great prophet of Israel; but how greatly that increases the king's guilt! At a time when the Word of God is ignored by a people that should have known it, the only one who does not ignore it is the one who is striving against it!}

Should it not be the same for us today? The word of God is entrusted to the believer in the midst of a Christendom that has given it up. But he can have no power to accredit the testimony of God before the world except by showing forth in his conduct true separation from the world, humility in his walk, and genuine consecration of his entire life to the Lord. Thus it is that we shall have the right to speak on God's behalf. If this is so, the world will have to hear us, whether it wants to or not; if not, it will turn away and take occasion by our conduct to despise the Word of God.

The prophet pronounces a third judgment on Ahaziah. The first, Moab's rebellion, had struck at the glory of his kingdom; the second, his fall, at his health, this third, at his life "Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die."

But that is not all. The king prepares a fourth judgment for himself. He does not fear to send a captain of fifty with his men against the prophet. Elijah "sat on the top of the mount," in an inaccessible spot. The captain addresses him: "Man of God, the king says, Come down!" What temerity on part of the king! To his lack of faith in his own idols and to his gross superstition he adds the pride that rises up against God and intends to bring Him down to his own level. Like the first Adam, he regards being equal with God a thing to be grasped at!

Elijah, the man of God, is here a representative of Christ. Should he have less power, now that He is seated in the heavenlies, than when He walked upon earth, despised and hated of all? Today man's sin has just been made all the more heinous by his hatred for Christ seated on high at God's right hand. If the world is judged for having rejected Jesus in humiliation, what will become of it when it makes war against Him who is seated upon His throne? "He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh," it says in the second Psalm. While Elijah was yet walking in the midst of Israel, fire from heaven, the judgment of God, was at his disposal, not to destroy sinners but to consume the burnt offering A sacrifice had then answered for the people, and God's judgment had fallen upon the victim in order to bring about the deliverance of Israel. From now on this hour of grace was past. Elijah, seated on high, would cause fire to fall from heaven upon his enemies — upon this king who, forgetting all fear, had the audacity to give orders to God!

The difference between these two positions of Christ — upon earth in grace, or seated glorious in heaven, waiting until His foes be made the footstool of His feet — comes out in the Lord's words to His disciples. They would have liked, like Elijah, to have brought down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans because they did not receive their Master. "Ye know not of what spirit ye are,' He told them, severely censuring them (Luke 9: 51-56). In effect, at this moment He was the rejected Christ steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem to be offered up as a burnt offering Was this the moment to judge, when in grace He was Himself to be slain and for our salvation to endure the fire of God's judgment?

But in this passage Elijah is not only a figure of Christ; he is also a type of the faithful, suffering remnant in the end times. Elijah "must come" in the person of those witnesses in the Revelation, of whom it is said: "If any one wills to injure them, fire goes out of their mouth, and devours their enemies. And if any one wills to injure them, thus must he be killed" (Rev. 11: 5). They shall come in the power of Elijah and of Moses, for then God's judgments will be doing their terrible work upon earth. Death and judgment must glorify God then when all the resources of grace have been exhausted and the apostasy is complete.

"If I be a man of God, let fire come down," says the prophet. His whole mission to Israel is concentrated in this single expression "A man of God." "Is it because there is not a God in Israel?" he had said to Ahaziah. God was vindicating His character in the presence of apostasy and had chosen His prophet to be the powerful witness to this.

Blinded by his anger and pride, Ahaziah renews his summons, making it worse yet: "Come down quickly!" He persists in ordering God around. Judgment falls upon the servants of this king who is going to die. Alas! what yet awaits him after death is the final judgment of the living God whom he had so offended!

The third captain (vv. 13-14) fears God and takes the attitude becoming to a sinful man before Him. He approached beseeching, on his knees, acknowledging God in Elijah in saying "Man of God" to him in an entirely different spirit from that of the first two captains. He knows that God can exercise grace: "I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight." He has not yet received the assurance that what God is able to do, He is willing to do, but he is convinced that the God of judgment is able to be a God of grace to whosoever submits to him, that He does not desire the death of the sinner, and that his life may be precious to Him. These thoughts are expressed in the words of this man: "Behold, there came down fire from the heavens, and consumed the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties, but now, let my life be precious in thy sight" Such faith is pleasing to the Lord. This third captain "believed that God is,' as the Epistle to the Hebrews expresses it; he acknowledged His full character of majesty, holiness, righteousness, and goodness, a conviction that is necessary if one is to approach Him; but he also believed that God is a "rewarder of them who seek him out" (Heb. 11: 6). So he finds the reward of his faith.

"Go down with him: be not afraid of him" Elijah can have confidence in such a man, and God counts upon him too in entrusting His servant to him, for He can always rest upon the faith which He Himself has given. The prophet had nothing to fear; for that matter, he was no more in danger at the call of the first captain than at that of the third captain; he was just as safe before the bloodthirsty king as on the mountain top; but God takes care to reassure him, for He knows our feeble hearts. Elijah accepts this encouragement. Had he not previously, under the juniper tree, proven how much his weakness had need of it? He boldly presents himself before Ahaziah with the strength that God supplies, as so often in the past before Ahab. This boldness is one of Elijah's outstanding qualities.

Come before the king, the prophet repeats to him, word for word, those things he had told his messengers. In the ways of God with men there is a time when fresh explanations are useless, because they have hardened their hearts. Thus it was with the apostles before the Sanhedrim (compare Acts 4: 19 with 5: 29). Yet the prophet insists upon one thing: "Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?" Thus men facing uneasy questions about their future ought only to have recourse to the Word of God, and despising this will bring terrible consequences upon themselves. One day this same Word will judge them. "He died according to the word of Jehovah that Elijah had spoken.''

2 Kings 2

Elijah and Elisha

2 Kings 2: 1-12

The Ascension of Elijah

Elijah's history as a prophet of judgment ends in 2 Kings 1. 2 Kings 2 presents the end of his career and the mysterious happenings that accompanied this great event.

In the Word we meet many mysteries, secrets hidden from all eternity in the heart of God, things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and that have not entered into the heart of man. These mysteries remained unknown under the old covenant, but there is not a single one which is not revealed to us by the Spirit of God in the New Testament. Yet nevertheless, despite this revelation the Word is full of mysterious things which spiritual intelligence alone discovers. The Lord could make them clear to us in a few words, but for our greatest profit and for the greatest joy of our souls He allows us to discover them. It is only by study done with prayer in dependence upon the Holy Spirit and by seriously applying ourselves to the things of God that we find the key to these enigmas. Thus we learn to recognize a hidden sense in a fact that appears to be simple, just like a diamond that an ignorant person takes as an ordinary stone, but which dazzles with its brilliance the one who applies himself to cut it. The second part of John 1 and John 21 are full of these hidden treasures. The same is true of our chapter; scarcely another can surpass it in interest, in intimate experiences, in prophetic revelations, in majestic grandeur. In presenting Elijah and Elisha to us it speaks of Christ and of His Spirit; it is above all else a typical chapter.

More than once, as for example in the story of the widow of Sarepta (cf. Luke 4: 26), God honors the prophet Elijah by making use of him to portray certain specific qualities of His Well-beloved, but the last day of his prophetic career is used to illustrate the life, the death, and the ascension of the Messiah, and the blessings which were bound to flow from thence upon His people. This privilege of Elijah's is in a measure that of every believer, for each of us is called upon to reproduce the qualities of Christ in the world. If it is true that we are "in Him" before God, it is also true that He is "in us" before the world, and that we are called to manifest Him before the eyes of all. If a Christian is faithful, he will be a copy that will at very first glance make its original known. Whoever does not see in this chapter the truth of which we are speaking has in fact seen nothing Only, we have said, all is presented to us in a mysterious light. That which adds to the mystery is that Elijah is not alone. Elisha, his fellow prophet and his servant, does not leave him for even an instant and sees him going up to heaven; then he returns to "the sons of the prophets," whose circumstances take up the rest of our history.

Elijah, a Type of Christ

"And it came to pass when Jehovah would take up Elijah into the heavens by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal." The prophets had four stages to cover before being taken up to heaven: Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan. At the beginning of his career he had been sent to turn back the heart of the people to the Lord. His mission, faithfully accomplished, had in the end completely failed. Israel, after a momentary turnabout at the destruction of the priests of Baal, had not truly repented, and the kings had persisted in their idolatry. Jesus failed in the same way on His mission in the service of the people returned from their captivity. Now the prophet is sent of God, as is Christ in the gospels, to retrace in the power of the Holy Spirit the path that Israel should have followed, but which it had strewn with unfaithfulness and ruin in failing in its responsibility. "Jehovah has sent me" such are the words of Elijah to his faithful companion at each stage (vv. 2, 4, 6). Such also are the words of the Lord in the Gospels, and especially in the Gospel of John where He constantly presents Himself as the One sent of the Father.

But let us first consider what Israel's path had been.

Jehovah, after having made His people to cross the Jordan, had rolled away the shame of Egypt from off them by circumcision at Gilgal, for none of the sons of those who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised in the wilderness (Joshua 5: 5-9). Then He had made Jericho, the stronghold of the enemy, to fall before Israel, bringing this city under interdict and curse in order at last to introduce His people into the joy of the blessings previously promised to Jacob at Bethel (Gen. 35: 9). Had Israel kept themselves in these blessings? In no wise! "All their wickedness," the prophet Hosea later says to them, "is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more" (Hosea 9: 15). And again, "Come to Bethel, and transgress! at Gilgal, multiply trangression!" (Amos 4: 4). Jericho, the place of the curse, had been rebuilt by Hiel the Bethelite contrary to the express command of Jehovah (1 Kings 16: 34). Bethel itself under Jeroboam had become the prime center of idolatry (1 Kings 12: 29), where the sins of Israel had been heaped up.

Elijah is called to retrace this path, strewn with so much defilement; only his faith, while at every step undeniably establishing the ruin of the people, again sees and finds the first blessings instituted by God, blessings which He had not given up bringing to fruition. Elijah recognizes Gilgal and Bethel according to the thoughts of God, in the same spirit which had caused him to build his altar of twelve stones in the presence of the prophets of Baal. He goes there as one who is sent, in the power of the Holy Spirit, without being in any way contaminated by their defilements. He faithfully follows the path that Israel ought to have followed and in which they had miserably failed, for if they had answered to the purpose of God by a true judgment of the flesh at Gilgal, they would have dwelt with Jehovah at Bethel in the enjoyment of all His promises. Elijah, led by the will of God, walks alone in this path, where he is but the type of One greater than he.

In effect, that which the prophet could only accomplish in figure was realized at the coming of the Lord. When He entered upon the scene, opportunity was again offered the Jewish people to recover under Emmanuel the blessings that had been lost. The baptism of repentance administered by John the Baptist, this Elijah which was to come, then became Israel's Gilgal. It was necessary to come there in repentance, confessing one's sins, in order again to find blessings under the reign of Messiah. Jesus, making the Jordan to resemble Gilgal in His baptism, came to associate Himself with some of the excellent of the earth, who by repentance had become children of the Kingdom and heirs of the promise to which they had lost access. In this way the shame of Egypt was rolled away from then anew; the flesh must undergo death, for it had proven that it could not enter into possession of the promises. The history of the people in the flesh was ended, but a new Israel, the true Israel, began in Christ. Personally He had no need of this path. He was the Holy One and had ever been that, but He manifested publicly at the Jordan at the beginning of His ministry — also at His birth and when He was "called out of Egypt"-that separation from evil, holiness, and righteousness were His character; only He associated Himself with the very first movement of the Spirit in those who came to John the Baptist confessing their sins.

But the nation as a whole had rejected Him.

Elijah went up from Gilgal to Bethel. This was also Christ's path. Having as its starting point a full consecration to God, it of necessity culminated in the promises that the God of Jacob had made to Israel (Gen. 28: 13-15). He alone, Christ, by virtue of His perfection, was worthy to obtain all the promises of God. Throughout His entire life He had chosen Bethel, the house of God; He had made Jehovah Himself, who hid His face from His rebellious people, His refuge and His dwelling place (Ps. 91). Israel should never have left this place of refuge. Christ alone abode there. A s we have seen, Bethel had become for Israel a house of idols. What must Elijah have felt, but above all, what must the Lord have felt, on seeing this holy dwelling place with the blessings which it promised all defiled by the sin of his people!

Therefore to Christ alone, the obedient Man, henceforth belonged the promises. But was He about to enjoy them? No. Let us ask Elijah; he is not called to remain at Bethel; Jehovah is sending him further. He must abandon the place of the promises in order to go down to Jericho. That is where the Lord is sending him. Israel had long ago encountered this obstacle in going up from Gilgal. There they had met with divine power overthrowing the walls erected by the enemy. God had then pronounced a curse upon this city; it was never to be rebuilt (Joshua 6: 26). But what had Israel done with Jericho? A man from Bethel had rebuilt the accursed city!

Elijah goes down there at God's order. He must follow the path of unfaithful Israel and verify it. Was not the people like the man in the parable who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of thieves — the nations — who plundered him? Christ went down there also, but not, as Elijah, simply to take account of things there. It was that He might feel in His soul the curse pronounced upon the people, to take and to bear in their place the wrath of God's government against this unfaithful nation.

From Jericho Elijah is sent to the Jordan; he leaves Israel and Canaan in crossing this river, such a precious type of death. Elijah crosses through this death dryshod by virtue of his prophet's mantle and in the power of the Spirit he possessed. So it was with Christ; but He did that which Elijah could not do, tasting the terrible reality of death before conquering it and coming forth on the other side in resurrection. Elijah passed through it only in figure and without being himself affected by it; the Lord alone passed through its reality as the termination of His course; He humbled Himself unto death, but it could not hold Him. It was divided before the power of the eternal life which had gone down into it. Having vanquished death, he was marked out Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 1: 4).

Elijah leaves Canaan, the land of promise and of Israel's inheritance, with nothing more than his prophet's mantle. Though he had visited Bethel, he did not stop there; he took away nothing of that which might have belonged to him as a man of God. So it was with Christ, too, for it was said of Him: "(He) shall have nothing" (Dan. 9: 26). But it is there that a new era began for Him. God had sent Him into death. Could He disobey? On the contrary, He resolutely set His face to go there. He left Canaan, His inheritance and His rights, but He knew beforehand that it was in order to go up into heaven, once He had passed through death. Elijah knows this too, but he goes there alive, having passed through only the shadow of the tomb.

Jehovah who was sending His servant on step by step had in mind to introduce him into another world. Thus Elijah received his reward for a life of devotion — doubtless mixed with a measure of human weakness — to the One who had sent him. But Christ receives the reward of unbroken devotion extending even to the sacrifice of Himself. It was also, as we shall see in speaking of Elisha, the starting point of a double spiritual power for the prophet's companion.

Let us be quick to remark that it is not a matter of finding, in all this history, a type of the Savior and of His work of redemption accomplished at the cross. The typical account does not have this work in view; that will become clearer when we add the story of Elisha to that of Elijah. Our subject here is Christ the Man of God (although He was much more than that), the prophet sent by God, come to Israel to bear testimony to its ruin and to the judgement that is the consequence (a testimony which had begun with John the Baptist, this Elijah which was to come), but at the same time to the unchangeable promises of God, which could not be attained except by Christ, a Man without sin, who could share them with His restored people Israel.

The result of all this, as throughout the rest of the Old Testament, is that we must not look for the blessing, properly speaking, of the Church here. The history of Elijah and of Elisha bears uniquely upon Israel. Yet nevertheless, the rapture of Elijah, as that of Enoch, speaks to us in type of the rapture of the saints, of which the Church forms a part. One might say that the rapture is mysteriously concealed in Elijah's ascension,* whereas it is portrayed in that of Enoch. In the first case, Christ is in view; in the second, those "that are Christ's."

{*Revelation 12: 5 presents an analogous example.}

Let us remark in respect to this, that two men, Enoch and Elijah, have gone up to heaven without passing through death, whereas only one, Christ, has been raised from among the dead in order to ascend up into heaven;* this is why He is called "the Firstborn from among the dead," for He precedes the saints of whom He is the Firstfruit in resurrection. Others who had died were raised before Christ, but for earth, never for heaven. They were subject to dying again, whereas Christ, having been raised from among the dead, will die no more; death has no more dominion over Him.

{*Enoch has more than one trait in common with Elijah. Both were prophets of judgment. Enoch walked with God — Elijah stood before Jehovah. Both were taken up before the ultimate judgment to which they had borne witness.}

Elisha, the Servant

We have seen previously that the person of Elijah can be considered from more than one aspect: as prophet, as a type of the forerunner of Christ, as a type of Christ. It is likewise with Elisha. He is first of all a picture of the perfect servant.

From the day when, meeting Elisha, Elijah had cast his prophet's mantle upon him, the newcomer had faithfully followed and served his master; moreover, he was only known as the one who "poured water on the hands of Elijah" (1 Kings 19: 21; 2 Kings 3: 11). As is becoming for a true servant, until he enters upon his public ministry he keeps himself in the background and one hears no more said of him. While possessing the prophetic mantle which had been conferred upon him by Elijah so that he could exercise judgment over the land of Israel in his stead, he did not use it until his master had been taken up, when he would receive along with a double measure of Elijah's spirit a second prophetic mantle fallen from heaven, which would render him capable of exercising a ministry of grace.

Elisha is a beautiful example of the Christian, the servant of Christ. There where his master is, he will be (John 12: 26). At Bethel and at Jericho the sons of the prophets say to him, "Dost thou know that Jehovah will take away thy master from over thy head today?" He responds, "I also know it: be silent." His knowledge cannot be communicated to him by the sons of the prophets, for he is a prophet himself by virtue of a special divine order. But that which distinguishes him above all is that he has left all to follow his master, his sole object, the sole source of blessing for his soul. Without Elijah, Elisha is nothing and desires to be nothing; Elijah above all is the one upon whom his affections are centered: "As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee!" Elijah had said to him: 'Abide here, I pray thee; for Jehovah has sent me to Bethel," then "to Jericho," then "to the Jordan." "Jehovah has sent me"; this shows Elijah's obedience; but if Elijah obeys, ought not Elisha follow him?

It is the same for us; we can be sure we are following God's way in following that of Christ. Elisha had not received any special direction for his guidance, but he is attached to Elijah who had received direction, and who to him was the man of God, God's representative.

Elisha's faith is tested all along the way. "Abide here, I pray thee," the prophet says to him. Abide at Gilgal, at the place of self-judgement, of judgement of the flesh, at the place where the reproach of Egypt had been rolled away from the people. Begin the history of Israel once again. No, that would be to begin again a test that could not be passed. The one sent of God alone could follow this path — As Jehovah liveth, I will cling to him. Elisha passes through Gilgal with Elijah, as we do with Christ. "I will not leave thee." Begin it again for ourself? Never! Our Gilgal is the cross, the circumcision of the Christ. Just as we too can do, Elisha had found in Elijah all that Gilgal could offer him, and in fact, when he later recrosses the Jordan, Gilgal no longer is a part of his route.

At Bethel, the place of the sure promises made to the fathers...Abide here, says Elijah. You will not fail to obtain them from a God who cannot lie, since you have passed through Gilgal with me. — No, I will not leave thee. If you do not receive them now, how shall I obtain them without you? When you shall have obtained them, then will be the time for me to dwell at Bethel.

And see, now the sons of the prophets are trying his faith. Will you go further, seeing that your master is going to be taken up from you? "I also know it: be silent." You cannot understand the motive behind what I am doing It is he, himself. It is his person that draws me and that is everything to me. To be separated from him for an instant would be to lose a blessing that I know but feebly yet, that I sense with my heart more than with my understanding, but which I shall certainly have if I do not leave him, for I know that he will attain it.

Abide at Jericho, Elisha, says Elijah; as for me, I am sent further. No, could I ever feel the curse hovering over this city more than thou? Since thou, my lord and master, cost not remedy this today, could I remedy it myself? For that I should have to have a personal power, and that I have only in thee. As long as I do not have it, why should I be stopping here? Be silent, prophets!

"Jehovah has sent me to the Jordan." Here there is no more summons to abide. Elijah takes Elisha with him, leads him through the river of death in the power of the Spirit which death cannot resist, in the triumphant power of a life that it cannot swallow up. A mantle belonging to Elijah is able to do these things. Oh, what a blessed association for Elisha! "They two went on." "They two stood by the Jordan." "They two went over on dry ground." Elijah does not go over for himself alone, but in order to let Elisha pass over with him. Elisha, this alter ego of Elijah's, will come forth out of death with him and will then return in deliverance for Israel!

The sons of the prophets who had foretold Elijah's being taken up do not play a useless role here. In them prophecy is the witness at a distance of the victory over death, as also a little later of the return in grace for Israel of a double measure of the spirit of Elijah that Elisha is going to receive. They say: "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha" (v. 15).

Now when they two had passed over the Jordan Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee." Elisha answered, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." And he said, "Thou hast asked a hard thing: if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so." (vv. 9-10).

For Elisha to obtain this double portion it was not enough that his faith and his affection for his master should be put to the test. Watchfulness was also necessary in order that he might not lose the prophet from sight at the moment of his departure. "They went on and talked" (v. 11), apparently occupied with various subjects, but Elisha's eye kept but one object in its field of vision. He could be interested in all the things the rich heart of his master was communicating to him, but his eye was simple. He just did not want to miss that solemn moment. We are not called, as was Elisha, or as the first disciples, to see Jesus ascending to heaven in the cloud, but should we not have the same attitude with regard to his coming as they did to his departure? Should we not, if we truly love Him, wait for Him without distraction while walking and talking as we fulfill our daily responsibilities? For it is a matter of seeing Him "in the twinkling of an eye." Oh, that our expectation might be a continual and watchful one like that of Elijah's servant!

"And it came to pass as they went on, and talked, that behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire; and they parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into the heavens. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof! And he saw him no more."

This chariot and these horses of fire were angels (2 Kings 6: 17), corresponding in their appearance to Elijah's character who, as a prophet of the law, had acted by the fire of judgement in the midst of Israel. It was not at all this way at the ascension of the Savior. An angelic train sent to serve Him or to carry Him into heaven was in no way necessary. He went up by His own power, having been declared Son of God in power by resurrection. A cloud, the dwelling place of the divine glory, received Him at once and carried Him up from before the eyes of His disciples (Acts 1: 9). Our ascension will be like unto His (1 Thess. 4: 17). But when He as Son of Man will return to judge the world, He shall be revealed from Heaven "with the angels of his power, in flaming fire" (2 Thess. 1: 7, 8), and we ourselves and all the saints, the hosts of heaven, shall be accompanied by myriads of angels (Rev. 19: 14; Heb. 12: 22; Jude 14; Deut. 33: 2; Zech. 14: 5). And when He shall come as Messiah, Jehovah will give charge to His angels who will bear Him up in their hands, lest He dash His foot against a stone (Ps. 91: 11, 12).

Elisha cries out, "My father!" thus showing that he according to the word of Elijah had seen his patron going up to heaven, but he also acknowledges in him the true Israel: "the chariot of Israel!" This exclamation again proves how much all this scene in type presents to us Christ as the great prophet of Israel and not as the Savior in relation to the Church. It is as Prophet, as the true Sent One, the true Messiah, the true Israel, that He is sent into the heavens here; it is as Son of Man and Son of God, as Lord and Savior, that He has been translated there and that He will come again for us.

Elijah's mantle fell down upon him, because his servant had seen him going up to heaven. Now this mantle belonged to Elisha. Likewise we shall always have the power of the spirit with us if we are attached to Christ and if our eyes follow Him on high.

Elisha tears his own garments in two. They will henceforth serve him no longer, for he possesses Elijah's mantle, the double portion of his spirit. It is in this power that he will walk in the midst of Israel. May it be likewise with us! May we tear up our old garment after having put on Christ, that we may present Him in testimony to the world!

2 Kings 2: 13-25

Elisha, or Christ In The Spirit

Here we see the figure of the prophet Elisha very clearly portrayed as a type, for as we have already mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, his character is essentially typical. If Elijah on the last day of his earthly course represents Christ as the prophetic witness in Israel, what then does this Elisha who is so intimately associated with him represent — this Elisha who backs up his testimony, who crosses the river of death with him, who at his ascension receives a double measure of his spirit? In order to be well understood, let us begin with a little prophetic survey.

During the Messiah's course here below a few disciples, constituting a feeble, faithful Jewish remnant morally separated from the nation, persevered to the end in following Jesus, Jehovah's Anointed and the Sent One of God, the great Prophet of Israel. He, rejected by the nation, associates them with Himself in the results of His death and of His resurrection. We are not speaking of the place they hold in the Church. This latter does not come onto the scene in the Old Testament narratives and might at most, as we have said above, be considered here as mysteriously hidden in the person of Elijah-Christ gone up to heaven. We are speaking here of Jewish disciples, at the head of whom were the twelve, who then constituted the true remnant of Israel. As such they received from Christ a double measure of His Spirit in the form of miracles and acts of power, and were able to perform "greater works" than He in the midst of the people. At Pentecost we see the accomplishment, from the Jewish point of view, of the things announced by the prophet Joel: "Upon my bondmen and upon my bondwomen in those days will I pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy . . . your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." No doubt, even at that moment this power from on high, according to Joel, was not limited to the children of Israel, for God said: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2: 17-19). In the future when Joel's prophecy will be fulfilled, the nations will have part in this gift. Only, this prophecy, indicating the participation of the nations in the gift of the Holy Spirit, afforded room on the day of Pentecost for opening the door to Christ's Church —  to the Church, a marvelous parenthesis in the history of the ways of God, an interval during which a heavenly Assembly is being formed here below, a body composed of Jews and Gentiles and united to its risen Head in glory. It was no less true that a Jewish remnant, powerfully endowed with the Spirit of prophecy, was revealed to the eyes of all at Pentecost. To be a part of this remnant, it was necessary to have followed the Messiah throughout all His course upon earth and to have seen Him go up to heaven (Acts 1: 21, 22). "If thou see me" said Elijah, "when I am taken from thee." This remnant, according to the prophecy of Joel cited in Acts 2, had not yet at that moment reached its final destiny and full development. It was, in the strictest sense of the word, represented by the twelve apostles. The Jews rejected their testimony, thus depriving themselves of the times of refreshing predicted by the prophet, and God used the nation's unbelief and its rebellion against the Holy Spirit to form the Church, the bride of the Second Man, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.

But the Church parenthesis will close, and the prophetic times will commence again. The remnant of Israel, of which the Prophets and the Psalms keep telling us, will come upon the scene again with double the prophetic spirit of Elijah, uniting itself, so to speak, to the Jewish disciples who once accompanied the Lord in His course here. Notice carefully that for them, as for Elisha, it will only be that the spirit of Elijah, whether it be in miraculous power or in prophetic understanding, will be upon them, and not in them as with the Christian.

In this short explanation we would in no wise pretend to present the prophet Elisha as a type of the remnant. That would be to understand the importance of his role quite imperfectly. No doubt the Spirit can avail Himself of vessels appropriate to His use, as He made use of Elisha after Elijah's ascension, but whatever the vessel may be, the important thing is that which it contains. Elisha is the spirit of Elijah come again in twofold power and in grace to bless the faithful of the remnant and to regather them. It is Christ in the Spirit, the prophetic Spirit of Christ availing Himself of instruments, no doubt, but returning in the end times first of all to the sons of the prophets, that is to say, to the remnant, properly speaking, then to such in Israel who have faith when apostasy reaches its height. It is on behalf of this remnant that Elisha performs miracles, but in the midst of the people blinded by the final revolt. Thus the children of the kingdom that Christ will establish on earth shall be separated by Him. As far as the human instruments which the prophetic Spirit will use to this effect are concerned, we are not in a position to point them out specifically. Let it suffice to say that if John the Baptist had been received, he would have been the Elijah that was to come; that in the future Elijah will come again and will restore all things; that there will be two witnesses (symbolic of two bodies of witnesses) at Jerusalem, acting in the prophetic spirit and in the power of Elijah and of Moses.

The testimony entrusted to Elisha has, as we have already suggested, a double character corresponding to the double gift of Elijah's mantle (1 Kings 19: 19; 2 Kings 2: 13) — a character of judgment similar to that which his master, a prophet of the law, had exercised here below, judgment which Christ Himself will not execute until the end of the time of the gospel's grace; and a character of grace toward everyone who would be faithful in Israel, to bring back to these witnesses those whom their testimony will reach, and grace for the conversion of the Gentiles.

Elisha had passed through the Jordan dry-shod the first time in the company of his master, when the latter, smiting the waters with his mantle, had compelled the river of death to yield before his power. Left alone, Elisha now does the same. "He . . . stood by the bank of the Jordan; and he took the mantle of Elijah which had fallen from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah? He also smote the waters, and they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over" (vv. 13-14). It is always to Christ that the Spirit bears witness. Elisha experiences the power of Elijah's name over death, not of his own name. He begins again the history of Israel at the place where

Elijah had passed over, not at the beginning (Gilgal) but at the end of his course. Israel of old had crossed the Jordan in the flesh to meet up with sure destruction. Elijah had crossed it to go up to heaven and then to send Elisha back into the land of promise with his prophet's mantle and a double portion of his spirit. Elisha crosses over the river by virtue of Elijah's having crossed — in the name of Elijah, and with Elijah's mantle. "He also," his representative by the Spirit, "smote the waters." Death is powerless before the power of the Spirit of life in Elisha. By the Spirit, as conqueror over death, he recommences the history of the new Israel. It is no longer a people in the flesh who are entering Canaan in order to be rejected at last; it is a new man returning to the people in the power of the Spirit of Christ, the conqueror over death, a new man about to bring to the sons of the prophets, then to the nation, and still later to Gentiles (Naaman) the fruits of this victory and deliverance. The sons of the prophets recognize this power.

So it will be at the time of the end. The prophetic spirit will return to Israel with a completely new power. He will execute, doubtless in the power of Elijah, vengeance against the enemies of the people, just as do the two witnesses in Revelation. But here it is a matter of grace rather than of judgment; the testimony will be one of grace for the blessing of the faithful and the regathering of the entire remnant. The sons of the prophets, gradually enlightened, will recognize this power and will gather themselves around it. The history of the true Israel, having its starting point in Christ, can then begin again to the glory of God.

The sons of the prophets see Elisha (v. 15) They were at Jericho, the place of the curse. They did not yet know of Elijah's ascension, just as the prophetic remnant of the end times will not at first know of the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Thomas in the Gospel of John in figure represents this remnant. He has to be convinced by sight of the resurrection of the Lord. And so the sons of the prophets, at first unbelieving like Thomas, go to look for Elijah. They would like to find upon earth the one who had been taken up to heaven. This was perhaps a good desire; in any case, this searching at once demonstrates both their attachment to Elijah and their ignorance. Christ will return for His people; but it is the devil who says, "Behold, here is the Christ, or there," when He is still in heaven. Thus Elisha, the prophetic spirit sent by Christ, says, "Ye shall not send," But he condescends greatly to their ignorance, for the second time Elisha says, "Send" (vv. 16-17). They must be convinced that their hopes, insofar as they were linked to the old order of things in Israel, were in vain. The fifty men searched for three days and found nothing The Messiah is no longer to be found here below. He is living after having, in contrast to Elijah, passed through death in reality to become the Firstborn from among the dead, that which Elijah could not be. These men returned to Elisha. It was not granted the prophets of old, nor will it be for the prophetic remnant of the end, but it was the portion of the first disciples to see Christ going up to heaven. There would be a testimony connected with them as having received the double portion of His Spirit. The sons of the prophets, despite the good intentions of their hearts, were not acting according to the Spirit.

During this time of searching when the spirits of the sons of the prophets were being convicted, Elisha was dwelling at Jericho in the place of the curse (v. 18), but he is a blessing to the men of the city, for he does not solely have the sons of the prophets in view. While a work is taking place in the heart of these latter, there is room for blessing on a vaster scale. The people appeal to Elisha. Jericho, rebuilt upon the place of judgment and contrary to the thoughts of God, was good in terms of its situation. It was not the selection of Jericho that was bad, for when the people had entered into Canaan this enemy city had become the place of divine power and victory. That which was bad was that which men had made of it, a city contrary to the thoughts of God, a real offense against His will. Besides, the result of Hiel's disobedience was that the spring supplying the town was corrupted and that one had to die there. Moreover, the ground was barren; no fruit could be gotten there.

In order that a fountain of life could spring up there, salt in a new cruse was needed — true separation for God, contained in a new nature. This alone could undo the consequences of the corruption brought about by sin and by the disobedience of the people, for the Word does not speak of these corrupted waters until after Hiel's disobedience (1 Kings 16: 34). Only the prophetic remnant (the salt in the new cruse) will be able to carry out this ministry, for, like the twelve who gathered around the Lord, they will bear the true character of children of the kingdom in the end times (Matt. 5-13).

Such then are the two first fruits of the return of a double portion of the prophetic Spirit: those of the people who were prophets become witnesses of the fact that the Messiah is not in the world but that He has been taken up to heaven. The people appeal to Christ's representative here below and recover the blessing through a true spirit of holiness characterizing the new man (see the character of the remnant at the end, in the Psalms), and poured out there where there was previously a fountain of death and of barrenness.

The Word will have its role in this work, for the blessing is spread through the prophetic word: "The saying of Elisha which he spoke" (v. 22). Elisha says — what grace for these men burdened under the consequences of the divine curse: "I have healed these waters: there shall not be from thence any more death or barrenness" (v. 21). Such is the ultimate result of the witness of the Holy Spirit in Israel in the end times. Spiritual blessing replaces all the misery that has weighed down a part of this poor people, given over to apostasy. This is the main great fact represented in type by Elisha's dwelling at Jericho.

But another fact should not be passed over in silence (vv. 23-24). Elisha goes up to Bethel. Little boys, representing unintelligent, mocking, unbelieving people, come forth from Bethel just at the moment when the prophet is going to meet God in His house, in the place of His unchangeable promises. What an anomaly! Children, created to give praise, mock the man of God! those of an age characterized according to God's thoughts by trust and respect for such who are above them insult the prophet! Instead of recognizing the God of the promise, they mock His servant and despise him. "Go up, bald head!" they cry out to him, because in his person he is showing signs of decrepitude, of old age (just as the remnant in the Psalms, Ps. 71: 9, 18), and of reproach. Yet nonetheless the law declares such a man to be clean and not defiled (Lev. 13: 40-41). Those of whom God should have expected simplicity of faith reject the representative and witness of the Messiah, identified with the feeble, bowed down remnant, and make fun of his appearance. It would seem too that they are mocking His master, Elijah. "Go up, bald head!" they say. They do not believe in Elijah's having been taken up. Folly like this is not even proper for children! Where is the promise of His coming? Is not the world the same today? These insults are so much the more odious in that they are directed at the Spirit of Christ, come back in grace and not in judgment as Elijah. Elisha turns back, for he has the promises before him and not judgment, "and cursed them in the name of Jehovah." They become the prey of a pitiless, cruel power that seizes and tears them.

"And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria" (v. 25). The apostate people did not want Bethel, but the prophetic remnant after having recovered the promises made to Christ withdraws to Carmel. He comes to "a fertile field" to enjoy peace and fellowship with his God there. There it was that Elijah had gone up after the judgment of the priests of Baal; there Elisha ascends after cursing the mockers. Carmel was a place of intercession for Elijah; from there a gracious rain of blessing had fallen upon Israel. "The Spirit,' says Isaiah, shall "be poured upon us from on high.. and the wilderness become a fruitful field (a Carmel).. and righteousness dwell in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (Isa. 32: 15-19). Thus we have here come in type to the close of a cycle, to millennial blessing.

Elisha's return to Samaria brings the prophet back, in a measure, to the midst of our historical events.

In bringing this important chapter to a close, let us briefly summarize the career of Elijah, now completed, and that of Elisha in this passage.

Elijah, the great prophet of the law, brings this broken law to God at Horeb. He judges the prophets of Baal; he judges Ahab and Jezebel; he judges Ahaziah and his satellites by fire from heaven; he designates Hazel and Jehu as executors of judgment. In this he is not a type of Christ, except insomuch as Christ will execute judgment, but after this time of grace. He is, on the other hand, the type of Christ's forerunner John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets of the old covenant (Mal. 4: 5; Matt. 11: 14; Luke 1: 17; Matt. 10-12).

Elijah, the rejected prophet, turns to the nations (the widow of Sarepta), raises their dead, and sends showers of blessing down upon Israel. In this capacity he represents the ministry of grace brought in by the Lord.

Elijah retraces Israel's path as being himself the true Israel, obtains the promises, in grace takes the place that the people had brought upon themselves by their unfaithfulness (Jericho), victoriously crosses the river of death, and is taken up to heaven. This is the path of Christ as servant and prophet in Israel.

Elisha, first a type of the remnant, the servant of Christ the prophet as He had walked upon earth, follows Him to the end in all His walk of holiness and sees Him go up to heaven.

Elisha, the prophetic Spirit of Christ with the remnant, receives the double portion of the Spirit of Christ who has gone up to heaven, retraces the path of Christ except for Gilgal, the circumcision of Christ having taken place at the Jordan, in death. His path above all is a path of grace and of restoration for the inhabitants of the accursed city except for the judgment at the end on the mockers who form a part of the apostate people. The sons of the prophets are the prophetic remnant, the sound but ignorant element of the people before Elisha returns to them with the double portion of Elijah's spirit. Lastly, Elisha dwells in peace in the fertile field of millennial blessings.

2 Kings 3 - 2 Kings 8: 15

Jehoram and the War Against Moab

2 Kings 3

Elisha

"And Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat King of Judah; and he reigned twelve years" (v. 1).

Our purpose is not to explain all the chronological difficulties raised by the reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. (Compare 2 Kings 1: 17; 2 Kings 3: 1; 2 Kings 8: 16; 1 Kings 22: 51; 2 Chr. 20: 31). We shall come back to the most important of these in 2 Kings 8. Unbelief, quick to find fault with God's Word, has not failed to criticize some apparent errors here. To admit a copyist's mistake (always a possibility) in 2 Kings 1: 17 would only remove half the difficulty. The believer waits upon God, without needing to account for everything, and at the right time and place receives light as a recompense for his confidence.

In this chapter we find the prophet grappling with the circumstances of the world round about him. What troubles is the man who comes down from Mount Carmel to visit Samaria going to meet! Moab had rebelled against Israel; this was the consequence of Ahab's unfaithfulness (2 Kings 1: 1), but it lay heavy, as a judgment from God, upon Ahaziah, his unworthy successor. It was customary for subjugated kings to throw off the yoke of their oppressors just as soon as there was a change of reign (vv. 4, 5). The politically-minded man sees nothing more than this in this rebellion of Moab, while the believer recognizes God's hand in chastening or in judgment therein.

Jehoram, the son of Ahab, in one sense had shown himself less irreligious than his father. He had removed the idol of Baal set up by his father, yet without destroying his prophets, as one can infer from Elisha's reply in verse 13. Outwardly he gave up this abominable worship, but it troubled him very little to let its spirit remain. What he did not at all give up was the national religion instituted by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which masked a gross form of idolatry under the guise of the religion of the true God.

Elisha is witness to the alliance between Jehoram of Israel and Jehoshaphat against Moab. Jehoram here follows the tradition of the reign of his father who had allied himself with this same Jehoshaphat against the Syrians, but he goes even further than his father in evil. Needing to pass through the territory of Edom to reach Moab (v. 8), he includes this idolatrous nation, well-known for its implacable enmity against the Lord's people, in his alliance. What a picture of the world whose politics do not take God into account at all!

According to man everything is calculated for certain success; the little warlike country of Moab despite its valor would not be able to resist this powerful confederation. But God is there — the only One whom Jehoram should have taken into account and whom he had outrageously left aside.

And what are we to think about honest Jehoshaphat, already instructed in the thoughts of God by a previous experience (1 Kings 22), and a few years later falling back into the follies that had brought him to the brink of ruin? "I will go up," he says, "I am as thou, my people as thy people, my horses, as thy horses" — exactly the same words he had previously said to Ahab. Kindness and amiability in the world's opinion, the desire to please it, alliance with it in order to promote common interests, are all dreadful obstacles to a faithful walk; and when the Christian does not call these feelings by their right name — sin — they ruin his testimony and contribute toward preserving the world in a false sense of security, since it deludes itself into thinking it is walking in the Christian way because children of God are walking with it, while in fact it is the Christian who is walking in the way of the world. In short, this walk, if it does not bring immediate judgment upon the believer, is at least barren for him, as the history of Jehoshaphat makes manifest; and if it is profitable to anyone, it is to the apostate King Jehoram whose power and prosperity are increased by this alliance. Jehoshaphat was what one would call a broadminded, tolerant person. The divisor of Israel to him was an accomplished fact, something he no longer felt, if he had ever felt it. He would neither strike out against the opinions nor the religion of Jehoram. He willingly associated himself with him under cloak of being useful to him, but he forgot one very important thing: that he was joining himself together with a man who was dishonoring God, outraging His holiness, and taking no account of His Word. Naturally the world highly approves of such an alliance and promotes such believers as examples for those who separate themselves from evil to be true witnesses of Christ. "I am as thou, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses." And why not? says the world. Because I would give up my testimony, I reply, if not God Himself, from the moment that I accept an alliance with a world that is hostile to God.

This walk has yet other, even more serious disadvantages. Like Jehoshaphat one can ally himself with a Jehoram, representing the world which still keeps up the outward appearance of a heavenly religion. In Jehoshaphat's eyes that, no doubt, seemed to be worth more than his alliance with Ahab. He perhaps cherished the illusion that since Jehoram had taken away the column of Baal, an alliance with him would be permissible. In fact, this was worse than the first, for it led to an alliance with Edom, something that poor Jehoshaphat would hardly have suspected, or for which he perhaps did not consider himself liable.

Ahab before going to war had gathered together the prophets to inquire whether he should do so (1 Kings 22: 6). Jehoram doesn't even seem to think of this; Jehoshaphat, alas, no more than he. He had been more faithful with regard to Ahab (1 Kings 22: 5). When a believer lapses back into evil again instead of abstaining from it, his conscience becomes deadened and he winds up no longer feeling the need for the direction from the Word which he had previously felt necessary.

These three kings, so sadly associated together, go then and instead of meeting the enemy have to deal with circumstances that give proof to them that one cannot forget God without danger. They lack water. The king of Israel says: "Alas! that Jehovah has called these three kings together, to give them into the hand of Moab!" Until now he had only followed his own will; when he does remember the Lord, he accuses Him of having led him, along with his two companions, to ruin. The man rebels against his fate, that is to say against God who governs it, instead of acknowledging that he has brought it down upon himself. Godly Jehoshaphat, though lacking the discernment to judge the evil and himself properly, nevertheless has the right though belated thought that it is impossible to get out of the difficulty without inquiring of the Lord. Jehoram on his part knows nothing of the existence of Elisha, the prophet in Israel, and feels no more need in presence of disaster to inquire of one who brings the Word of God than when setting out on his campaign. Happily, one of his servants knew Elisha. The little ones of this earth are aware of divine resources when the great ones are not even inquiring about them. They are also more able to esteem the character of the prophet who in self-forgetfulness had been such a perfect servant to Elijah that his name, as we have seen, was not mentioned from the time of his first call until that day when he was called to replace his master in his mission. A hateful reminder, no doubt, to Jehoram, for it would recall to mind Elijah and his judgement upon his father, his mother, and his brother.

Jehoshaphat, hearing Elisha's name, regains a proper appreciation of the Word of God: "The word of Jehovah is with him" (v. 12). The three kings go down to the prophet, who pays no attention at all to the king of Edom, refers the King of Israel to the prophet of Baal, and takes account only of weak Jehoshaphat, the only representative,

although in such bad company, of God's testimony in Israel. However poor and inconsistent they may be, the Lord does not forget His own. He takes into account the weakest indication of faithfulness to Himself. As to the ten tribes, they are definitively rejected in the person of their responsible king. As always, the inexhaustible patience of God still suspends the blow that is going to strike him and takes into full account the slightest return to Himself, but this dreadful word rings out: "What have I to do with thee?" Is not this that "Verily I say unto you, I do not know you" of Matthew 25: 12, worse even than the sentence pronounced upon Ahaziah: "Thou shalt certainly die?"

Yet Elisha is a prophet of grace. He is not ignorant of the evil; but instead of pronouncing judgment, he points out a marvellous resource for these three kings in their calamity. In order to speak of deliverance he needs to abstract himself from that which is before his eyes and which might rouse him to pronounce a sentence of judgment without mercy. "Now fetch me a minstrel," he says. How could he better abstract himself than by lifting up his soul to God, for it was upon stringed instruments that the heart of the believer would breathe up to Jehovah his praise, his desires, his needs, or his complaints. The remedy worked: "The hand of Jehovah was upon him." Then he was able to reveal by what miraculous intervention (vv. 16-19) Jehovah would bring about deliverance. They must prepare ditches to receive water, and the Lord would fill them. He does not work any miracle of grace which does not at the same time have the goal of putting faith into action. We shall see more than one example of this in the history of the prophet Elisha. Here Jehovah does not intervene, as He does on other occasions, through natural means — wind or rain. He cuts short all the unbelieving reasoning of the confederated kings.

The deliverance takes place in the morning, at the same hour that the sacrifice was being offered upon the altar. Jeroboam's national idolatrous worship had nothing to do with this hour, and God in no way recognizes it; His intervention is in relationship to the altar of the temple at Jerusalem. It is this latter which, so to speak, opens those marvellous floodgates by which a whole army is going to be given to drink. Thus it is with the cross of Christ. However far away it may appear to be, it is at the hour of that offering that God gives heed to save all those who trust in His Word. The water of life originates in the death of a victim. But that which is life for some is death for others. Moab, deceived by appearances, rushes headlong to its doom at the very moment when Jehovah is delivering those who had received His message. For not having discerned and acknowledged the deliverance sent by God Moab is destroyed, and the victory is on the side of those who have drunk of the waters prepared by grace. Is this not like a partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Balaam: "Water shall flow out of his buckets...and his king shall be higher than Agag" (Num. 24: 7)?

Israel alone is mentioned as smiting the enemy and effecting their destruction, according to Elisha's prediction. The King of Moab with seven hundred men tries to break through to the King of Edom, no doubt to take refuge with him, but he does not succeed. Then he offers up his firstborn son for a burnt offering upon the wall. Does not this call to mind that which Jehovah says much later with respect to this same Moab: "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul" (Micah 6: 7)?

This horrible sacrifice calls forth the indignation of Israel's allies, whose vengeance has driven Moab to this extremity;* they withdraw from the victor to return home. What a useless victory! Moab may believe itself delivered by this appalling offering to its god and remain unvanquished amid its ruins, ready for worse reprisals. Such will ever be the result of human victories, when it is not God who leads his people to victory. Edom, allied for a day, on whom Israel had counted, abandons her and is indignant with her from the moment that she goes into battle with the name of Jehovah as her banner. Jehoshaphat also leaves her and returns into his own country with the same feelings, though they arise from other causes. Jehoram must learn that a religion that only has the appearance of being true will find no lasting support, whether among avowed unbelievers or among those who keep the testimony of God.

{*This at least is the meaning that I believe must be attributed to this word.}

2 Kings 4: 1-7

The Prophet's Widow

As these chapters unfold before our eyes, we are able to notice in them the contrast between the days of Elijah and those of Elisha. Elijah still acknowledges Israel and its king, though it be to pronounce judgment upon them. For Elisha the king no longer exists: "I would not look toward thee nor see thee" (2 Kings 3: 14); the people is rejected; and Judah alone still counts for something in the eyes of the prophet. But while in the days of Elijah the faithful remnant was hidden and Jehovah alone could distinguish the seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, in the days of Elisha this remnant comes into the full light. It is to this remnant that the prophet addresses himself; the sons of the prophets are the special object of his ministry. This ministry no doubt reaches beyond them, as we shall see, but their role is quite the preponderant one, and this gives its own particular stamp to the typical character of this man of God.

What an environment this is in which he carries on his activities! The sons of prophets are without resources in Israel; they are hungry, they are thirsty, their destitution is absolute. The first seven verses of our chapter bring this condition into relief in a singular way. The prophet's wife is without any outward support whatever; the head of the family has been taken away through death; a heartless creditor wants to seize her two sons to make them his slaves. The widow has nothing with which to ransom them from his hand, nothing except a little oil in the house, and the oil, the symbol of spiritual power, is very nearly gone. Can this feeble resource suffice? It will be the same in the last days before the deliverance of the remnant. An apostate people surrounds them; the Antichrist makes them feel his cruel yoke and intends to enslave them, but Jehovah has divine resources for them; they learn to cry out to him: "Thou knowest that thy servant feared Jehovah." Does one not hear here the language of uprightness so often expressed in the Psalms? Christ is absent. Jehovah no longer dwells in the midst of His people, but His Spirit is present in a double measure with the prophet.

Elisha says to the widow, "What shall I do for thee?" This poor woman whose cry has reached the right place becomes the object of tender solicitude. But first of all she needs to confess to the prophet what resources she has at her disposal: "Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil." The word means: just the quantity of oil necessary to anoint oneself. Nothing to pay off her debts, nothing to clear herself, nothing but a very little measure of spiritual power. "Go," says the prophet, "borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbors, empty vessels; let it not be few; and go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and set aside what is full." There is fullness of spiritual resources in Elisha; but empty vessels are needed; the poor widow cannot gather too many. She is to borrow them from all her neighbors, bring them into the house from outside, and then, having collected them together, shut the door upon herself. It is an intimate scene in which the apostate nation is in no wise called upon to take part. Three times in this chapter (vv. 4, 21, 33) the door is shut, clearly indicating that these scenes have nothing to do with a public testimony such as that of Elisha's great predecessor.

Empty vessels are needed; to be filled with anointing oil it is necessary to be emptied of self. The people of Jericho needed a new cruse and salt; they needed a new nature, sanctified for God, that the curse might be turned away from their city; the daughter of the prophets and her children, already in possession of a little oil, did not have to procure new vessels in order to obtain a full measure. God avails Himself of the spiritual resources that He finds among His own, however little they may be. It was the same with the disciples when the loaves were multiplied. They told the Lord: "We have not here save five loaves and two fishes." Jesus told them: "Bring them here to me"; then, having blessed and broken the loaves, He gave them to the disciples who distributed them to the crowds, thus availing Himself of that which they had in order to bless five thousand men by their means.

Here the blessing does not stop until there are no more vessels to fill. A fixed number of vessels receive it, just as later, at the time of the end, 144,000 will be sealed in Israel, but for each one the measure is full. Just as the first disciples at Pentecost "were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2: 4), so it will be for the remnant at the time of the latter rain according to Joel's prophecy.

The vessels filled, the oil must be sold — the blessing imparted spreads. Such will be the testimony of the remnant in the last days. Many will share in the spiritual benefits and will themselves become possessors of these blessings. The wise among the people, the bearers of the Word, these sons of the prophets, shall teach righteousness to the many (Dan. 11: 33; Dan. 12: 3). So the prophetic family lives and is sustained with the spiritual anointing which is multiplied for them and which fills their hearts with joy, and the supply is abundant for others.

This miracle reminds us of that of the widow of Zarephath; only in the latter case, it is the blessing brought to the nations by the Messiah; here it is the blessing brought to the remnant of Israel by the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ.

Let us not miss repeating here that all these miracles of Elisha call upon faith. The prophet's widow must gather together the vessels, being persuaded of things she did not yet see, just as in the previous chapter it was necessary to prepare the ditches before refreshing water could come to fill them.

2 Kings 4: 8-37

The Shunammite

Besides the sons of the prophets, there was a testimony of individual faith in the midst of this people who were already judged and, in fact rejected. The Shunammite woman is an example of this. This woman was rich,* in contrast to the widow of the man of the sons of the prophets who was absolutely destitute; but she was a woman of faith, and all her story proves this.

{*It is worth mentioning that the Word generally chooses the rich as examples of those who do not attain salvation. Except for the second thief on the cross, I cannot remember another poor person given us as an example of this. Judas carried the bag; he was the only disciple who had something The gospel was announced to the poor; whereas the rich, like the rich man in the story of Lazarus (Luke 16), have their part in this life. The barns of the rich man whose soul was required of him (Luke 12) overflowed with grain. In the Epistle of James the rich, who had heaped up treasure in the last days and had condemned the just, come under a curse. In the parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14) it was the rich who said, "I pray thee, hold me for excused," and were rejected. The young man who was so rich and likeable (Luke 18) deprived himself of salvation when it was a matter of giving up all to follow Jesus. The prodigal son was rich when he left his father, but had been stripped of everything when he returned to him.

But there are exceptions to this curse that riches carry with them, for if it is impossible with man for a rich man to be saved, yet all things are possible with God. Here the Shunammite woman offers us a precious example. Zaccheus who received Jesus into his house, and Joseph of Arimathea who took care of the Lord when He died (Matt. 27: 57) also were both rich men.}

She exercises hospitality towards the stranger who passed by Shunem, and at the conclusion of several visits she takes account of the character of her guest. Perhaps his conversation, and doubtless the entire behavior of the prophet causes her to acknowledge his character. She does not judge by her first impression, but waits for outward evidences to enlighten her. She has the sober good sense of faith. "Behold now," she says to her husband, " I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us continually." She had begun by constraining him to stay, and the prophet had found there an atmosphere answering to his own character. Every time he passed by, he turned in there. Their natures were drawn one to the other. "This is a holy man of God," she says; to her heart he has not only the official character of one bearing the Word, but she acknowledges him as "holy," as really separated to God in his practical life. For having a gift from God is not everything; to properly accredit such a gift, there must also be the moral character corresponding to it. The old prophet of Bethel (1 Kings 13) had a gift without this character. How important it is for every one of the Lord's laborers to take heed to this. One's gift, however outstanding it may be, remains fruitless if it is not accompanied by moral authority; it is the moral authority that reaches the consciences of the hearers more than the words that accompany it. And moreover, the bearer of the gift himself loses his persuasive energy when his conscience is not right before God. "And I hope also," says the apostle, "that we have been manifested in your consciences" (2 Cor. 5: 11). So it was with Elisha. "I perceive that this is a holy man of God," the Shunammite said of him.

And see how she realizes what is suitable for a man of God. Her riches might have given rise to her preparing a retreat for him furnished with every possible comfort. No, she removes herself from any thoughts of her own position, only to think of what might be suitable for a man to whom riches have no value, or who might even despise them as a snare of the enemy. What is important to her is to receive Elisha not merely in passing, but to prepare him a dwelling in her house. The more we get acquainted with Christ, along with His Word which reveals Him (and which Elisha was the bearer of), the more we will desire that He be a part of our life, and that these words be inscribed on the door of our house: "Here dwells the Word of God." The Word is no longer a passing enjoyment for us then, or the reading of it a duty attended to on occasion, but it will be a part of our life, of our family, of our self. In the Christian most favored with this world's goods, true faith will always manifest itself by this outward simplicity. "Let us make, I pray thee, a small upper chamber with walls, and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a seat, and a lampstand; and it shall be when he cometh to us, he shall turn in thither." Only a lack of intelligence and an absence of communion with the Lord will act in an opposite way. Those who are part of the family of God and who possess this world's goods often do not think enough of the danger of offering their brethren engaged in the work of the lord more than what they need, more than what they are accustomed to. If a brother is spiritual, even relative luxury will make him ill at ease and will be an obstacle to his freely opening his heart, ready to bring his hosts something from God. If his Christian life is weak, such prosperity will be a snare for him; and allowing himself to be won over by it, he will return to the place where it is offered, no more simply for the Lord alone, but to satisfy his own desires for a well-being which is but a catering to the wants of the flesh.

The devotion and intelligence of this woman win the prophet's heart, as they also attract the heart of Christ; so they receive their reward, too. Elisha calls the Shunammite; he has something to give her. " She stood before him," as he himself stood before the Lord. There is beautiful harmony in the reciprocal positions of this man of God and this woman of faith. He wishes to reward her care for him, but first he tests her to see whether their two hearts are beating together. "Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host?" Does she have a desire to increase her resources in the world? She refuses. We shall see later that these things were added to her at a time of need when they were no longer a snare to her. Here, she now answers, "I dwell among mine own people." Beautiful answer, worthy of a pious woman! She recognized this nation over which judgment is already suspended as her people, and she does not disassociate herself from it. She sees in it that which God alone can distinguish, that which faith alone can realize in it. As long as God still recognizes something in it for Himself, this people is His people, and she has no other desire than to be part of it. In the midst of the ruin she cleaves to the people of God, just as Elijah with his altar of twelve stones when the twelve tribes no longer existed as an entity. She does not need anything else; she is satisfied with the rest, the fellowship, and the peace which this dwelling affords her amidst the existing disorder.

In our day today true faith does not differ from that of the Shunammite; she is not seeking the amelioration of a state of things far from the thoughts of God, but she sees what God has established in His counsels. While being conscious of the ruin of the Church as God's house and people here below, she lives in peace, holding to that which the Lord has established from the beginning, to this church, built upon the resurrected Christ; she views the Church with the Lord's thoughts and affections, even as He will present her one day in glory. Faith does not seek to rebuild ruins and say, "I dwell among mine own people," as though all were in order, because to faith God's thoughts concerning his people are reality.

Nevertheless, the Shunammite's heart nurtures a secret desire, a great desire. So lofty, so unattainable a desire, she had never revealed to anyone; but the prophet's servant was able to discern that she lacked something with which her happiness would forever remain incomplete. "She has no son, and her husband is old." We continually find this barrenness, modified according to the individual circumstances, among the pious women of Israel, and we have spoken of this more than once in the course of these meditations. For their faithful hearts this was the greatest trial possible. Their holy ambition was, not merely to have posterity, but to be introduced by childbearing, whether in a direct or indirect way, to the person or lineage of the Messiah. To these women a son was the supreme good. The Shunammite did not express this need herself, accepting the circumstances in which God's providence had placed her; only the emptiness was there, deeply felt in her heart.

It is the same for us Christians. Every spiritual blessing cannot suffice us if we have not found an object in the personal possession of Christ. To have Him, to know Him, to love Him, to hold Him in our arms like Simeon, to rest upon His bosom like the beloved disciple, to sit at His feet like Mary, to contemplate His glory like the disciples on the holy mountain, to have interest in the smallest detail of His circumstances because He has ravished our hearts, to behold His divine beauty like Moses' parents did in their son — all this and much more constitutes the inestimable happiness of those who belong to Him. The Lord through Elisha grants a son to this woman just as the Holy Spirit through the Word brings us Jesus and makes Him to abide in us —  Christ, the hope of glory.

Elisha calls the Shunammite a second time. The prophet's first question had been a test of her faith, and the test had shown that this woman was not pursuing the advantages this world could offer her any more than was her guest. She had learned in the school of the holy men of God what the true interests of a witness in the midst of the ruin of Israel were. He speaks the same words to her that the angel of the Lord had in former days announced as to Sarah: "At this appointed time, thy term is come, thou shalt embrace a son." (cf. Gen. 18: 10) Ah! This child is also a promised son, of the same lineage as Isaac, who himself was a type of the true seed, of Christ! How her heart thrilled at this word! "No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to thy handmaid." It is true then! Her joy is complete. She has found in this gift the satisfaction of all her desires.

Alas, a few hours are enough to occasion the loss of this joy; at harvest time all the Shunammite's hopes vanish. The child dies at noon. So it was with the disciples hopes in the time of Jesus. "But we had hoped," said the two Emmaus disciples, "that he was the one who is about to redeem Israel."

The man of God is this woman's only resource. She lays the child there where the bearer of the Word had lain. She had received the child from him; dead, she confided the child to him. It is an act of faith. Had the disciples of whom we have just spoken trusted in the Scriptures, they would not have needed the Lord to open these to themselves in order to know that they announced the very events that had just taken place before their eyes.

The Shunammite calls her husband, asking him for an ass and a servant. What anguish filled her poor heart! But she shows forth the same faith which had characterized her in receiving the prophet and then in laying hold of the hope set before her. Death had come in, had seemed to overthrow everything, but the Shunammite's faith and hope remain the same in the midst of that which seemed to destroy them. "It is well," she says, when death was before her soul. What a word! Her son is dead, but it is well! Why? Because she, this worthy daughter of Abraham, is sustained by that same hope as he whose faith reckoned that God was able to raise up Isaac from among the dead. God who had given her this child and who had taken him back through death, could restore him in resurrection. She expects no less of the man of God, but how she hastens! "Drive and go forward; slack not the riding for me," she bids her servant. Having lost the object of her heart, she can know no rest until she had recovered it. Mary of Magdala affords us a similar example. Ignorant and doubtless but little enlightened, she desires to have Jesus, cost what it may: "Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away": and at this very moment, she finds Him risen.

Any stopping is critical; a moment lost may compromise everything; this woman can find no rest until she has "caught" the man of God "by the feet." The Lord had not revealed the child's sickness to the prophet, and this for more than one reason. If he would have known the danger, he would have run there, and the child would not have died. Thus his dependence upon God would have been put to the test. The Lord Himself knew of the death of Lazarus, for God knows all things, but for the same reason, as a dependent Man, He did not hasten to Bethany, for He has no word from His Father to do so. And then, if Elisha had known the danger, the Shunammite would not "have seen the glory of God" who raises the dead. A third reason for hiding this event from the prophet was that the Shunammite's faith might thoroughly be put to the test. There would not have been opportunity for her to be manifested completely even if the man sent by God had presented himself at her home at the very moment her son had expired; in this way her faith had its perfect work. She said, "Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, do not deceive me?" She counts upon Him whose promises are without repentance and dependent solely upon the grace of Him who gives them when they are not sought for, so that absolutely nothing in them might come from her. She believes that even if men are deceivers, God does not deceive. Had Elisha been a man like other men, he might have been mistaken, making a promise without fulfilling it; but he represented God, and a man of God could not act thus. She has but one resource then — the faithfulness of her lord — and she does naught else, knows no other way than to address herself to him. She is truly a woman who does but "one thing." No doubt her soul is grieved within her, but she has confidence in the only resource open to her, and also finds full sympathy in the heart of the one to whom she addresses herself.

Here her faith is tested anew. Elisha says to Gehazi, "Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again; and lay my staff upon the face of the lad." Will the Shunammite accept as remedy for her distress that which is the emblem of the prophet's walk borne by one other than himself? No, her faith accepts no intermediate agent, for it is not Gehazi who will save or who can save. She has learned in the prophet's school that the way to obtain blessing is to abide in constant relationship with the One who is its source. "As Jehovah liveth,'' she says, "and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee!" These were the very words of Elisha to Elijah. How could the man of God resist this faith which took himself for its model? How could he not go along? No, "he rose up and followed her." Gehazi goes before them, but the staff of the prophet is not enough to bring the child back to life. To have power in one's hands is not everything: the disciples who were with the Lord had received from Him "power and authority over all demons, and to heal diseases"(Luke 9: 1), but when a demon-possessed boy needed to be healed, they could not heal him. The power to do that depended upon their personal communion. Had they had faith like a grain of mustard seed, they would have moved mountains; but these spirits "can go out by nothing but by prayer and fasting." A state of personal dependence and of separation from evil was needful in order to use the power given them. Gehazi lacked this condition of heart, as we shall see later.

Meanwhile, the child was lying upon the prophet's bed, the door closed upon him. Elisha enters and closes the door upon the two of them. He desires to identify himself completely with the child in death. And what grief, what anguish, what labor of soul! He has no rest until he has finished his work, taking the place of the dead child in order to communicate life to him. The child opens his eyes to the light.

Besides the many precious instructions that this scene affords us, I do not doubt that we find in type here the death and resurrection of Israel. At the time of the need, the godly and faithful among the people, who like the Shunammite, regard their people as the child of the sure promises of God, will not lose hope even when Israel is dead, morally speaking; their faith is active with regard to Israel. Their faith will realize that only the Spirit of God can raise up Israel again, and will identify its condition with the cross and the grave where the Messiah, the Savior of the people, had suffered death and been laid in burial for it. Their faith seeks the Lord upon Mount Carmel, where He is found rejoicing in the heavenly sphere of His kingdom before He introduces its earthly part. Through the Spirit they then learn and realize that the labor of Christ's soul had in view the resurrection of His people, and they receive at His hand, as in Ezekiel 37, a new people, the fruit of this labor, born of the Holy Spirit. They will have realized death at the time of the labors of harvest; these labors will not be interrupted, and Israel will revive before the wheat is gathered in the granary. The remnant at last will obtain all that their heart has desired. So it is that through these scenes filled with practical instruction for our souls, the whole cycle of God's thoughts concerning His ancient people will be unrolled.

"And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. And he called her; and she came to him. And he said, Take up thy son. And she came and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out" (vv. 36-37).

"Call her" — How the Shunammite must have been moved at this new call! The first time (v. 12) the prophet had called her to prove the precious faith that she possessed; the second time (v. 15) to give her the child of promise, an object for her heart. The shirt time — what would he give her when mourning was filling her soul? Ah! She does not doubt; he would give her her son, clothed in an entirely new character: her resurrected son. Oh, joy that cannot be expressed in words! Her heart is too full to express itself; she bows herself silently; she worships!

Dear Christian readers, have you made these experiences? Have you first of all learned to know Christ as having passed through death for you, as having borne all its anguish? surely the joy that you have known in this deliverance has been great, but have you remained there? Have you found yourself before a risen Christ? If this has not been so, you still have but the half of Christianity, a half-joy, half an object for your faith. If on the other hand you have come to know Him in this character, you may, like the Shunammite, bow down, take your son, and go out. Your portion is complete, there is nothing remaining for you but to enter into the possession of your inheritance with Him, and this what we will later find prefigured in the last scene of this woman's history.

2 Kings 4: 38-41

Death in the Pot

A new scene is called to our attention. Instead of retiring to Carmel, Elisha goes to Gilgal. There the Spirit of Christ represented by the prophet joins the sons of the prophets again. For them it is a matter of collective blessing The remnant cannot be blessed except in gathering at the place of circumcision, of repentance, and of self-judgment.

"There was a famine in the land." While the land of Israel lay under the weight of this calamity, type of the future tribulation, the feeble remnant finds what is necessary for its subsistence at this place, in standing before Elisha. Out of this place, far from this person, they would be without resource, even as others. Repentance and having Christ with them in the Spirit will then suffice the faithful, whatever may be their own penury and the ruin that surrounds them. They find sufficient nourishment in the "great pot" of the prophet who will not measure out their means of existence stingily. But one of them, in order to increase the group's resources, gathers a lapful of fruit which he believes will be useful to all. This fruit, gathered by the man in his ignorance, brings "death in the pot." All their food is poisoned, and thus they find themselves reduced to the same extremity as the people. This poor remnant must feel the power of the death that threatens them and which is a result of their working and lack of discernment. What could they add to Elisha's food? If the fields of Israel were not producing wheat, they were by contrast producing poison in abundance. This is all the fruit that the reign of the apostate king, the Man of Sin of the last days, will be able to procure for them, and all the fruit, on the other hand, that their flesh will be able to gather.

Elisha said: "Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot." Meal, the perfect humanity of Christ, is that which renders the pottage healthful. All the works of the flesh can but make of it a deadly food. Hardly had they turned to the prophet than the remedy is found. One man alone can save them and bring the remedy for the condition. They sense this, and their first thought when they are under the power of death is of the man of God. They cry unto him "out of the depths." "If thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand?" They wait upon him; "With Jehovah there is loving-kindness." Gathered in His presence, the perfection of His humanity is their only safeguard and even becomes their food. In His holy person He annuls all the harmful results of man mixing himself into the work of God. Elisha, Christ in the Spirit with them, opens to them a source of deliverance by the knowledge of what He, as Man upon earth, is for those who take hold of Him by faith. "There was no harm in the pot." "Pour out for the people, that they may eat."

2 Kings 4: 42-44

The Man of Baal-shalishah

"And there came a man from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of corn in his sack."

A new means of sustenance, more complete than the preceding, is brought to the sons of the prophets who are gathered around Elisha at Gilgal. First of all there are twenty loaves of barley, a poor food, representing as in the dream of the Midianite (Judges 7), Christ in His humiliation; then ears of grain, firstfruits gathered in the land of Canaan, a type of Christ in resurrection, the grain that Israel long before had tasted in the same place after having crossed the Jordan. Thus the prophetic remnant will gradually come to know, with self-judgment, all the resources they possess in Christ. These resources will be dispensed to them by the Lord, standing with them in spirit. He will feed His poor with bread, as He did during His sojourn on earth. He will make the feeble understanding that they have become fruitful. "Give the people that they may eat." These are the same words that Elisha had pronounced before in connection with the pot that had been rendered healthful. The thought no longer occurs to them to add their own labor to this food, for it is complete. They "left thereof, according to the word of Jehovah," just like the five thousand men in Jesus' time What would they lack henceforth?

This entire chapter shows us the way by which the believers of the remnant will be led, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. They will be led on from the knowledge of the travail of Christ's soul to revive them (through self-judgment and their making experience of their own incapacity for good by which all their activity is marked), to the satisfying of all their needs. They will be led all the way through to the knowledge of Christ the Man, bringing holy life into the midst of death, and by their appreciation of a Christ in humiliation, then in resurrection, He becomes their abundant provision. They "left thereof, according to the word of Jehovah." Others, too, might feed on it; this meal in offered in grace to all.

We have thus been present, in this chapter, at the miracles of the age to come, and this not without finding in them a source of blessing for ourselves. In 2 Kings 2 we have found, in the person of Elijah, the Spirit of Christ sent in grace to the remnant; in 2 Kings 3 the Spirit of Christ rejecting Israel in order to take account only of Judah, and nevertheless acting in grace toward all; finally in 2 Kings 4, the resources of the Spirit of Christ spread out for those who are faithful among the people, then for the sons of the prophets who pass through all the phases of a tribulation in which their faith is profoundly exercised.

What an age that was! What an age we are in! What an age will that of the end times be! But in all ages the Lord has a remnant He loves, sustains, rejoices over, and nourishes — in His eyes the true salt of the earth.

2 Kings 5

Naaman

The scene changes. During the apostasy of the nation, Elisha is occupied with the Gentiles and becomes the means of their salvation and purification. If 2 Kings 2 is like the typical summary of all the future history of Israel, let us never lose sight of the fact that the following episodes, so full of present interest for our hearts and our consciences, are at the same time "prophetic writings" whose typical application is not to be neglected. At the proper time, when the Spirit of prophecy shall have regathered the faithful remnant of Israel around the name of the Messiah, the Gentiles, represented here by Naaman, will be forced to seek out the people of God whom they have oppressed. They will have no other resource than the God of Israel, in order to be healed of their leprosy and their uncleanness. The believers of the end-times, these captives of the nations, like the little maid of Israel of whom our chapter speaks, will show them the way of healing, directing them to the prophet, to the oracles of God given to the people, causing them to know the Lord, the God of Israel, as their only means of salvation. This great prophetic event is presented to us in this type of one man — Naaman — just as previously, at the conquest of Jericho, one woman — Rahab — was the type of the Gentiles being taken up among the people of God. The reason for this is that this subject is still being unveiled but incidentally and mysteriously, so to speak, in the history of the people of Israel and its kings. Later the prophets will fully develop this subject. At the moment it is being interwoven into its place in the account of Elisha's career. The future role of the Gentiles being but mentioned here, we will not further dwell upon it.*

{*We would also mention that in Luke 4: 27 Naaman is an example of grace which goes beyond the narrow limit of Israel, no longer recognizing the right of the ancient people of God, and acting towards the Gentiles on the basis of election. The history of Naaman thus also corresponds to our present blessings.}

Now let us take up again in detail this history which is so often commented upon, so precious for presenting the gospel to our souls, but in which we shall apply ourselves to bringing out the truths which have struck us personally.

"And Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man before his master, and honorable, for by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria; and he was a mighty man of valor, but a leper." Naaman was a hero by the world's standards; his outstanding qualities had gained him a name among men. Men erect statues in honor of those who excel. He was highly esteemed by his king and enjoyed the respect of his people. His valor and strength were known by all; even more, he had been a providential instrument in the hands of the Lord as liberator of his nation. What did he lack? Nothing, the world would say; everything, replies the believer. Man's most remarkable gifts, the highest position he can obtain, the greatest advantages to which he can aspire, are ruined, made void, by one single thing — sin. This man was a leper; his person bore evident uncleanness. What did the insignia of his dignity, all the outward glory of his power, serve to do, save to bring into relief the abject depth to which his illness had plunged him. Magnificent garments upon a cadaver only bring into relief the corruption they cover. Could he have a moment of satisfaction with the leprosy which was consuming his flesh and condemning him, in the end, to a sure death. Happy those who, like Naaman, are conscious of their state before God. Too often men are content to hide themselves from themselves and from others by covering their impurity with filthy rags, and thus they go on, closing their eyes to their condition as they press on to their inexorable fate.

What a contrast between the little maid of Israel (v. 2) and this man! A poor, insignificant being in the eyes of the world, separated from those who by nature would support her, and from all the blessing belonging to God's people, captive and a slave of Naaman's wife, standing in this humble position before her mistress, whereas he could lift up his head with pride before his king! What did this child have then? The world says, Nothing; the believer answers, Everything She knew the prophet and the power of the Word of God which was in His mouth. "Oh, would,' she says, "that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria!" Does she complain about her lot? She does not even think about it. She possesses a treasure which it is her happiness to communicate. Her faith knows no uncertainty. This is always the character of faith. If Naaman could be put into contact with the prophet, she knows "he would cure him of his leprosy." The child is a true evangelist. The evangelist cannot save a sinner, but he can show him the way of salvation; he interests himself in the sinner's lot, and love is his motive in acting He does not think of himself, however despised his own circumstances may be, but possessing a well-being he esteems above all else, he understands the misery of others and with thorough conviction offers them that which can make them blessed. "I would to God," said the apostle Paul to King Agrippa, "that...thou...should become such as I also am, except these bonds."

Much more even than this little maid whom He was using, God Himself was interested in Naaman. Had He not used him even without his knowledge to accomplish His purposes? Only until now Naaman did not know God; therefore he will have everything to learn. But the child's words found an echo in his heart, answering to his secret misery, awakening a desire of which he was perhaps barely aware, though not unaware of his condition. His first thought now is to address himself to his lord, who might know how to open the path of deliverance to him.

"Well! go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel," said the king of Syria. This monarch, a complete stranger to the divine resources, wants to treat the salvation of his servant as a matter between one king and another, a striking example of the world's lack of intelligence. It does not ever occur to him that God can do something; as he is without God in the world, his only resource is men. The letter he writes to the king of Israel shows this: "Behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest cure him of his leprosy" (v. 6).

Naaman himself is completely ignorant of the means by which he may be healed: "He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of raiment." There is nothing astonishing in all this, coming form an idolatrous Gentile, but what shall we say of the king of Israel, as foreign as those of the nations to the resources within his reach in his kingdom? Jehoram, as we have seen, had a sort of national religion which, while it was not the religion of Baal, was worth little more than that was. The religion of the true God had no more hold upon his conscience than it had upon his colleague in Syria. Elisha paid no attention to him, and had let him know this at an earlier occasion (2 Kings 3: 14). Jehoram reads the letter, rends his garments, and cries out: "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to cure a man of his leprosy?" God had His hand in this, and put into the mouth of this impious king the testimony that He who kills and who makes alive, God alone, can accomplish such a work. And really, what can man do against the power of death, or what can he do to give life? The proof that the Lord possessed both these powers had already been given in the midst of Israel: the Shunammite had come to know Him in these two characters by means of the great prophet Elisha. It is the same today. This world has been the theater of the power which has abolished death, the consequence of sin, and which has communicated life in resurrection by the Man sent from heaven for this purpose.

No more than the king of Syria, does this poor king of Israel know how to direct Naaman to the prophet who had done such great things in his own land. A little slave girl knows much more than he. She took an interest in Naaman, which Jehoram could not do; sympathizing with his miserable condition, to which the king was indifferent, she knew the resource, ignored by the king who nevertheless had it within his reach.

Elisha learns that the king had rent his clothes as a sign of his despair. It is then, and not before, that God intervenes, for in order to manifest His glory, He wants man's helplessness to be undeniably established. "Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel" a word suited to reach the king's conscience and condemn him. Did he know to whom he should direct Naaman? Did he doubt that there was a prophet in Israel, and was he not responsible for this ignorance? His lifeless profession exposed him to the judgment of God more than did the ignorance of Syria's idolatrous monarch. But the prophet's word reaches another besides this king, giving the knowledge of the true God to an unhappy man who does not know Him and who will find salvation with Him. His word condemned the king of Israel and brought grace to Naaman. "He shall know," said Elisha.

This great man knew nothing as yet. He comes to the prophet "with his horses and with his chariot," witnesses to the power of man, and stands there "at the doorway of the house of Elisha," expecting from the signs of that deference to which he was entitled according to the world. But neither his power nor his dignity nor his merits have any value when it comes to entering into relationship with God, and that is the first lesson he must learn.

"And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean" (v. 10). Instead of coming in person, the prophet sent a messenger to him; it is the same today with the written Word. This message is fully sufficient to heal the leper. The Word, being the revelation of all the thoughts of God, contains a thousand things other than this message; but this message, addressed to sinful man, contains but one thing, and that the most elementary — the remedy for sin — and there is no other. "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times." This command reduces all Naaman's thoughts down to nothing He becomes angry and goes away — but a little more and he would have returned to his land as leprous as when he left it. He had thought that the prophet would do great things for the captain of the Syrian army: "He will certainly come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper." How many consecutive acts would he not perform according to Naaman, in order to reach the desired result! Nothing of the kind; the message is one of greatest simplicity. The prophet does not need to come in person; his word has the same value as himself, for it is the Word of God. And much more, the remedy is not to be sought; it exists. It is the river of the land of Canaan, whose virtue is ever flowing without interruption, and which is at the disposal of a leper who goes down into it. Naaman thought, "The prophet will do"; Elisha sends to tell him, "God has done." "Go and wash thyself." He appeals to nothing but faith. Naaman must believe what God has told him. Is it because this thing is understandable? It is not. — Because it is possible? No more so. — but because God has said it! This overthrows men's ideas about salvation. Was it not so when Jesus said to the man born blind, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam"?

What is this Jordan, then, in which one is purified, and where one acquires new birth, as it were? We have seen in the course of our meditations that Jordan is death, but death with Christ, through which we must pass to be delivered from sin. All the fullness of this death (washing seven times) must be applied to us to this end; we must find in it the end of ourselves, so that we can say with the apostle: "I am crucified with Christ." Naaman wanted something else, but if God had done as Naaman had thought, He would have given credit to a leper. Behold then a salvation toward which ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, ten changes of raiment, and all the dignities that this great captain could bring had less value than a single mite — a salvation fully prepared, to acquire which only the obedience of faith was necessary.

Death!  - but, says Naaman, there are the rivers of Damascus, the Abanah and the Pharpar; are they not better than the Jordan? No, death which does not flow in the land of God's promises is powerless to purify the sinner. Far from being his deliverance, it would be his condemnation, for it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment. The Jordan is not a type of that death, but of the death of Christ, of our death borne by Him to deliver us, and which we will never have to undergo. And it is our death, too, for as we are united to Him in His death, so are we in His resurrection.

Only a bit more and this unhappy man's fate would have been irremediably fixed. Scripture tells us twice that he turned and went away in anger. But God, who had directed everything up to this point, wanted to save him. He uses the exhortation of Naaman's servants to this end. Their word is right: God might order us to do great things, and if we, like Naaman, have an ardent desire to be delivered, would we not do them? but these are of no value to Him. He is pleased to make Himself known by things that are base and despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to naught the things which are. This is the weakness of the cross, but it is the power of God!

As soon as Naaman had experienced this power by simple faith in the divine word, thankfulness brought him before the prophet. He is now put into direct relation, no longer with the work, but with the Person who has accomplished it; he is brought to God. "Behold," he says, "I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." He knows God, and let us observe, he knows Him at a time and in a sphere where all on man's part is in ruin. Everything in Israel's history had changed, but not God; His power and His resources are as intact as in the most prosperous times. Naaman's faith recognizes the God of Israel when Israel itself is disregarding Him. He draws near and desires to give Him something, to offer Him a present. This is the devotion of a heart that understands that he owes everything to the God who has delivered him. But despite his insistence, the prophet refuses. In the beginning, Naaman had wanted to give in order to receive; now he wants to give because he has received, but that may not be. He must learn that when God gives, it is to give again, for His riches are inexhaustible. His work being entirely free, He does not allow anything which might even have the appearance of attributing another character to Himself. Naaman, enlightened by faith, understands this very quickly. "If not, then let there, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of this earth; for thy servant will no more offer burnt-offering and sacrifice to other gods, but to Jehovah." He requests a small thing, but one of great importance to himself, a gift well consistent with the one he had received, for God had proposed to him a little thing which had procured for him a great salvation! Being unable to remain in Canaan, he wants to carry away with him just enough of the land of promise to raise an altar for sacrifice and to establish the worship of the true God. In this "two mules' burden" he takes Canaan with him and finds there a place for worship and adoration, for the world, far from God, does not offer him the least place where true worship may be rendered. Thus God will be as "a little sanctuary" to him. It is the same today for God's children gathered at the Lord's Table; although left in the world, they may realize heaven, their Canaan, their altar, the reminder of sacrifice, and they may worship. It was in this that Naaman could at least render something to God; it is in this that we offer the fruit of our lips, blessing His name.

Nevertheless Naaman is not yet delivered from his every question. "In this thing Jehovah pardon thy servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, Jehovah pardon thy servant, I pray thee, in this thing." The believer's life cannot be without progress nor work of the conscience; he rightly feels his weakness in reference to the world and how much he may dishonor God by his inconsistency and the difficulty of his position. We do not find great faith here, no doubt, but there is uprightness of heart in this new convert. He must learn that the difficulties he anticipates do not exist for God and, as far as his conduct is concerned, the Lord would watch over him, daily supplying him the light needed for every step. It is a matter of faith. God does not instruct us ahead of time concerning every difficulty we will meet. Often what seems an inevitable obstacle to us, disappears before us; it is for God to direct the circumstances, and there is not such circumstance that can overcome simple and dependent faith. "Go in peace, " the prophet says to him. Do not preoccupy yourself with this matter; do not let yourself be robbed of your joy by the thought of what may happen to you. God is powerful to provide for everything What is important today is that you go in peace, with no question between yourself and the God who has saved you. Leave tomorrow's task to tomorrow. What divine wisdom, what comfort for the soul in this simple answer: "Go in peace."

Scarcely has Naaman received salvation, the knowledge of the true God, and peace, than the enemy goes to work to destroy that which God has built. The instrument he uses is Gehazi, the prophet's own servant. Odious character! This man, then, had learned nothing in his master's school! This latter's example had produced no fruit in his heart! He had accompanied Elisha just as Elisha had previously accompanied Elijah, rendering similar services to him. In this path of devotion and self-sacrifice Elisha had found communion with God, knowledge, power, and a double measure of the Holy Spirit. And Gehazi? Notwithstanding, his master had used him as an instrument for the blessing of the Shunammite, even introducing him to the intimacy of his counsel with regard to the good he desired to do to this woman; he had borne Elisha's staff, had witnessed the child's resurrection, had prepared the prophet's feast, had served as an intermediary to feed the people, as later the disciples of Jesus also did. All this was forgotten for the same motives that impelled Judas to betray the Lord. The interests of the world, cupidity, avarice, had laid hold of him. Until then, as he had had to do mainly with the poor, his lusts had not been stirred up by the temptation of riches, but the sight of this high-ranking person and of the treasures he offered so freely became the starting-point, or rather the manifestation, of things until that day hidden in the recesses of his heart. To all the preceding blessings, and to those which would necessarily have followed these first ones, (for God never fails, when we are faithful, to grant us an overabundance of spiritual riches), to all these things he preferred money — riches — without for one moment thinking that his lust would draw down divine judgment upon himself.

But this is not even the most serious aspect of his conduct. He ventures to dishonor the character of God, whom the prophet represents in the eyes of this new believer, still inexperienced and overjoyed with his healing. Every Christian concerned for the glory of Christ will feel this aspect deeply as the most odious aspect of Gehazi's act. It compromised the servant of the Lord and compromised also the free grace of God; it might, had it been the sole thing involved, have brought this newborn babe back to the legal thought of obligation, of a yoke of slavery, taking away from him the free joy of his salvation. Gehazi preferred the seduction of riches to the eternal well-being of a soul; he is one of those who offend one of these little ones and of whom it is said, "It were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea." Are we adequately considering that the worldliness of our walk may do irremediable harm to these little ones in the faith? How this thought should cause us to give heed to all our conduct!

"Behold, my master has spared Naaman, this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought; but as Jehovah liveth, I will run after him and take somewhat of him." This wretched man calls upon the name of the Lord to possess himself of riches, using the very same words that his master had used (v. 16) to refuse them. He lies in order to appropriate the goods of another. But should any doubt have been raised in Naaman's heart as to Elisha's personal selflessness or the free character of the gift of God, God shows that He is concerned about spiritual babes, and this disastrous result is not produced. Gehazi's cupidity and lying, on the contrary, bring out the generosity of Naaman and his desire to serve the family of God, the sons of the prophets. "Consent to take two talents," he says to Gehazi — more than twelve thousand United States dollars at the time of translation of this volume. Gehazi hides all these riches; this dissimulation before men is a result of a bad conscience engaged in a devious way, but will he succeed in hiding this before God?

Gehazi "entered in and stood before his master," as Naaman had stood before Elisha (v. 15), as Elisha himself stood before God (v. 16). What audacity beyond description — if he was the least bit conscious that he was known and scrutinized by the Lord. He had neither felt nor realized that from a distance the prophet's eyes had followed his every movement and observed his thoughts. And much more! Elisha's heart had gone with him, "when the man turned again from his chariot." What was more important than all else to the heart of the man of God was the danger run by the soul of the man who had just departed from him in peace. We may conclude that if his heart went with Gehazi, it was because he had ardently besought the Lord to preserve this newborn babe in the faith. His prayers had been answered.

And now, turning to Gehazi, he addresses these solemn words to him: "Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and bondmen, and bondwomen?" Yes, was it the time, amid the ruin of Israel, when already the final judgment hung suspended over the people; was it the time, at the eve of the destruction of this nation, to acquire something for oneself? Was that then the character which a servant of the Lord ought to be bearing? A solemn question which also addresses itself to our consciences, for today the ruin of Christendom corresponds to the time of the ruin of Israel. If we realize this fact, what manner of men will we be in holy conduct, selfless as Elisha, in order that the liberality of the gift of God be not diminished, and like him, knowing the times and not acquiring advantages in the world, because we know that the end of all things is at hand.

Gehazi's judgment does not wait: "But the leprosy of Naaman shall fasten upon thee, and upon thy seed for ever" (v. 27). It is Naaman's leprosy! The impurity of the flesh which had characterized that idolatrous man, stranger to God, is the same impurity which the Lord placed upon the prophet's unfaithful servant. There is no difference between them . The horror of sin is not mitigated by the fact that one might belong to the people of Israel, that one might have a position of nearness and of special relationship with the Lord while being far from Him morally. It is the same for the lifeless Christian profession. Instead of blessing him, God marks him, so to speak, with his abhorrence, and all his seed is defiled thereby.

2 Kings 6.1-7

The Sons of the Prophets and the Jordan

Before beginning the subject of these few verses, we would like to recapitulate the history of the "sons of the prophets" as this book presents it. We have seen that the sons of the prophets represent the prophetic remnant of Israel, brought into relationship with the Messiah by His Spirit at the time of the end.

In 2 Kings 2 they are still scattered here and there, some at Bethel, others at Jericho. They have a partial knowledge of God's thoughts; they know from prophecy that the Lord will take up Elijah, but they lack true intelligence. They are not yet joined together, with a common character that forms them, so to speak, into a vessel of testimony. Some remain at Bethel, attached to the promises of God, others at Jericho, feeling the weight of the curse of God against His people. They do not stop at Jordan and in figure, do not understand its value. Nor do they know all the efficacy of the death of Christ which they contemplate at a distance (2 Kings 2: 7). They show their ignorance of His resurrection, for in seeking Elijah's body they seek "the living among the dead."

We see them next (2 Kings 4: 1-7) in distress; death occurs among them, and their widows lack the means of subsistence. It is then that, in type, the oil they need — the Spirit — is poured out for them by the ministry of Elisha. We find them thereafter gathered together in one body of testimony around the prophet at Gilgal. Self-judgment, affliction, and repentance characterize them — always in type. It is then that they learn the value of the holy humanity of Christ, come into the world to bring life when "there is death in the pot" because they were unable to distinguish good fruit from bad. It is there that, in their extreme poverty at a time of famine and of tribulation, the Lord feeds these poor witnesses. At last in this same place where at one time Israel had been when she had entered into Canaan, they feed in figure upon Christ in humiliation and in resurrection, and come to know Him. Little by little their spiritual intelligence increases, marked by a growing appreciation of the Lord.

After these things, the Jordan, already presented previously as the death followed by the resurrection of Christ, is shown in 2 Kings 5 to be the only means of purifying the Gentiles, for whom it begins to manifest its influence before the prophetic remnant has part in it. But, while dwelling at Gilgal, this prophetic remnant cannot remain there indefinitely. This time of grace in relation to the Gentiles now comes to its completion. "Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee is too strait for us"(2 Kings 6: 1). They want to go a step further, to find a dwelling-place other than the one, however precious it may be, of affliction and of repentance. This place is the Jordan. Now they know the value of the Jordan. There death had been annulled by the power of the spirit of Elijah; the prophet had passed through it to go to heaven. Elisha had returned there in power to bring blessing to them. They already know the death of Christ as the only way possible to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They had come to know it as the purification for the defilement of the Gentiles, at the very time when this defilement had been attached to unfaithful Israel (Gehazi). This marvelous Jordan which had healed Naaman's uncleanness is the source ever open for Israel's uncleanness. The remnant want to build themselves a house and dwell there; at last the remnant recognizes that for them this death is the place of blessing and of rest. This is the point the faithful reach. When they reach this place they remain there, they dwell together there. They have found rest, a rest like the swallow, a house like the sparrow.

Elisha approves of their plan and puts them to the test, saying to them: "Go ye." But how shall they go without him? They must dwell there under the direction of the Spirit of Christ, or else there will be no blessing with them. How shall the Spirit of Christ remain at Gilgal while they go to dwell at Jordan without Him?

Just like the Lord when Jairus appealed to Him, so Elisha consents to come with his servants. He says, "I will go" (v. 3). Once come to the banks of the Jordan, they go to work. But suddenly the work is interrupted. One of the sons of the prophets loses his tool in the river, a tool that was not even his own, for he had borrowed it. His poverty, his incapacity are thus manifested: he has no resources. The river of death has swallowed up all his hope. Elisha alone — Christ in Spirit with the remains — can bring the remedy. Death is conquered; it not only has the gift of cleansing, but it restores to the believer the power he has lost of laboring in the work of Christ and of making Israel to dwell in safety. Everything comes from Him, from the power of His Holy Spirit, from the virtue of His death. He it is who directs the work, who gives the means of accomplishing it, who fills the hearts of His own with the feeling of their own incapacity, who establishes the work of their hands (Ps. 90: 17). Without this event the prophetic remnant might have had confidence in its own capacity to do the work of God in Israel. The Spirit of Christ alone has the secret of putting strength in their hands so that they might labor at His work.

Let us note that all this takes place in the midst of the ruin of the people, and that we have not yet the type of the peaceful possession of the millennial blessing Elisha alone could dwell at Carmel. Here it is a matter of the gradual experience of the prophetic remnant, occupied with building a house of habitation where Elisha might be with them during the reign of the profane king This is the moment described in Psalm 90 when Christ repents concerning His servants (v. 13). He comes to their aid in all their infirmities. The same means which had in times past changed the waters of Marah into sweet waters gives power for the remnant's work and causes death to restore that which seemed to be lost, by the same stroke also destroying every pretension of this poor people's creditor to reclaim that which had been confided to them under the system of the law.

We cannot insist enough upon the prophetic value of these accounts. It is not, as we shall see, that we cannot find a gospel application in them, as in every other portion of Scripture. But let us state that it is good to keep these events in their natural setting in order to avoid wild interpretations. Now that we have said this, let us examine the moral explanation of this account, that which is applicable to our own circumstances.

The Jordan is an excellent dwelling-place for the believer. He must always abide there where he is crucified with Christ. This is where we find the power of the Lord with us. It is there that, gathered about Him, we realize the unity of the Church: "Let us make us a place there, where we may dwell" (v. 2). There the Lord gladly comes along with His own to give them His help and His power when they invite Him there. He recognizes and approves of their simplicity of heart, which realizes that blessing is found at the place where the nothingness of man has been proven by His death. Without His personal presence with His people, all our work would be ineffective. Thus, His help is not wanting when we put our hand to the work.

The axehead of the man of the sons of the prophets had not been, as in Israel's case, an instrument of death for his neighbor (Deut. 19: 5); yet even in this case there was a resource for the people who, in their ignorance, had been instrumental in the death of Christ, for they might flee to the city of refuge.

In the scene before us, the work is simply interrupted, work that had been undertaken for the family of God. But what a world it is in which a son of the prophets does not even have a tool of his own. Christ answers, nonetheless, to the very least need of the sons of His people. He is full of compassion for the anguish of a poor human heart concerning a lost tool. This loss, however infinitesimal it may be, moves His heart. The miracle is childish, so to speak but it is a miracle of love. The world, in reading this passage, may well greet it with a mocking sneer. Is it possible, the world will say, that God would reveal such infantile things to us? The believer understands this tender care and rejoices in it, worshipping. He knows that God is for him, and that He who delivered up His own Son for us will also give us all things with Him. He provides for the very least need of his own, pouring the same love into the work that He supplies for the greatest needs. Christ Himself, who humbled Himself unto death, can, far more than did Elisha for the prophets, sympathize with our infirmities and provide for them.

This passage offers us yet another instruction. At Marah, a stick, symbolic of the cross of Christ, had removed the bitterness of the waters, symbolic of death; here the same means abolishes the power of death which was holding the object it had seized. Death from which no one returns, is man's natural destiny since the time man has sinned. The cross alone, from the moment it is brought in, is able to vanquish and annul this inexorable power; it comes to our help to restore our goods to us. And death vanquished can withhold nothing that belongs to us.

2 Kings 6: 8-23

Dothan

The healing of the captain of his army does not seem to have produced any effect upon the conscience of the King of Syria. His troops had already made several incursions upon the territory of Israel (2 Kings 5: 2; cf. 2 Kings 6: 23), and the relations between the two Kings were so strained that in the affair of Naaman the king of Israel thought that the king of Syria was seeking a quarrel with him (2 Kings 5: 7).

Now it was no longer a matter of skirmishes; war had truly broken out. The king of Syria sets up his camp here and there, seeking to draw Jehoram into a trap by the latter's ignorance of his adversary's movements; but he leaves God out of his calculations. Elisha comes to the aid of the king of Israel, warning him repeatedly of the location of the Syrian camp. Was God's favor resting upon Jehoram? In no wise, for this king's heart had not changed since the day Elisha had said to him, "What have I to do with thee? go to the prophets of thy father and to the prophets of thy mother" (2 Kings 3: 13). But God wanted to prove to the king of Syria and to his army that there was a prophet in Israel, that the Lord was there, as He had already shown once before in the healing of Naaman. In acting thus He showed His longsuffering toward Jehoram and his people, and if, in the presence of such favors, this wicked king would not turn to the Lord, he had no more excuse.

Seeing his plans continually foiled, the king of Syria suspected treachery in his court, for the idea of God and of His intervention — this comes out constantly in the course of these accounts — does not even occur to him. The world always thinks this way. It attributes all the events of life to second causes rather than seeing the hand of God in them. One of the king's servants, more alert than his king to the true state of affairs, opens his eyes. Generally discernment and spiritual understanding diminish with a man's elevation, and those that should have the most interest in knowing the truth are those who know it the least. "Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber" (v. 12). What a troublesome, disturbing, yes, even frightening thought! What! an invisible Person is "acquainted with all my ways; For there is not yet a word on my tongue, but lo," He knows it altogether (Ps. 139: 34). When one's heart is not honest, does not arrive at this conclusion, and does not cry, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? and whither flee from thy presence?" one tries to forget and rebels against God (Ps. 139: 7). This is what happened to the king of Syria: "Go," he said, "and see where he is, and I will send and fetch him" He had but one thought: to get rid of the prophet and to obliterate this gaze which was observing his every movement; then he would feel himself delivered from this annoying witness who was hindering him from carrying out his will, from accomplishing his plans. So he uses his entire strength, his whole army, horses and chariots, to seize one single man! The world is always annoyed by the presence of God. In Gethsemane a company of soldiers, a crowd, and officers, all armed with swords and staves, gathered against Christ in order to send Him back to heaven, whence He had come — the Witness who was a burden to them. Did the king of Syria not realize that even if he could get rid of the visible bearer of testimony in Israel, he would by no means get rid of the eye of the invisible God?

"Go and see where he is." The eyes of the flesh could easily discover where Elisha was, for he did not steal away. God has nothing to hide; He is light itself. Men, on the contrary, love darkness and fear the light. This is why the army came up "by night" and surrounded the city (v. 14).

Elisha's servant, having arisen early, saw all the host of the enemy, the horses and the chariots, and was afraid. His eyes did not deceive him, but what he was lacking was the eyes of faith. That is why he immediately despaired: "Alas, my master! how shall we do? (v. 15). In effect, the self-assured Syrian army was deploying all its strength against a single, defenceless man; and how could he resist? The servant saw the army and came to this conclusion. He is not to be excused, for in his position as the prophet's servant, he was constantly in contact with the invisible, and ought to have known that no human strength was able to stand before the power of God.

"Fear not," says Elisha.* This is always grace's first word. It is able to reassure a troubled soul. How many times this word "Fear not" is spoken in Scripture! It fills the Old and the New Testament. Everything in this world is of such character to inspire poor, feeble, sinful beings like ourselves with fear. We are confronted with difficult circumstances, the world, its seductions or its hostility, Satan's hatred, our own selves, and our sinful nature; beside, there is the necessity of presenting ourselves before God and of having to do with Him. Who will answer so many troubling questions? Who can calm the anguish and agitation of our hearts? God alone can, for He has the answer to everything.

{*In all the passages that we are about to quote, the word "Fear not" is the same in the Greek of the New Testament and the Hebrew of the Old.}

"Fear not," said Jesus to the sinner who casts himself at His feet, rebuked in his conscience in the presence of His mighty grace (Luke 5: 10). It is the first word of our history. "Fear not," He said to his disciples when the storm rose up, threatening to swallow them (Matt. 14: 27). "Fear not," when shipwreck is fully assured (Acts 27: 24). "Fear not," He says to the little defenceless flock in the midst of wolves who have the power of killing the sheep (Luke 12: 32; Matt. 10: 28; Rev. 2: 10). "Fear not," when Satan displays all his power to hinder the work of God (Acts 18: 9). "Fear not," when death has already done its work (Mark 5: 36).

But this word is especially heard at those solemn occasions when weak, infirm, human, fleshly beings are called to meet God. Even if He only reveals Himself by an angel mighty in strength, a heavenly messenger, the soul to whom He addresses Himself is deeply troubled; it needs, like Zacharias or Mary, this so very comforting word, "Fear not" (Luke 1: 13, 30). How much more when poor men find themselves in the presence of the whole heavenly host, and the glory of the Lord shines about them, do they need this word, " Fear not" (Luke 2: 10). And what will happen to the disciples, when on the holy mountain they must enter the glory-cloud, the dwelling-place of Jehovah? "Fear not," Jesus tells them. The poor women who were thinking that they had forever lost the meek and lowly Man whom they had followed upon earth, finding themselves suddenly in the presence of the risen Christ, needed this word, "Fear not." Lastly, the beloved disciple who had laid his head upon Jesus' bosom, meeting Him clothed in the resplendent and awesome vestments of God the judge, and falling at His feet as dead, is gently revived by this word, "Fear not" (Rev. 1: 17).

The secret of this word is grace; we have to do with grace alone. It reassures us even when we find ourselves in the presence of a God of judgment, for the Judge is our Savior.

In the Old Testament, the soul is much less often reassured when it finds itself in the immediate presence of God, because God is there not yet fully manifested as the God of grace. The friend of God, Moses himself, said: "I exceedingly fear and quake." All the more do we hear this word when Gideon meets the angel of the Lord face to face and when Daniel, humbled, stands before the representative of the Messiah (Dan. 10: 12,19). But in contrast, this word "Fear not,' reoccurs continually as the assurance of the isolated believer in the midst of difficulties and distress and of the world's hatred. Abraham, Hagar, and Isaac are examples (Gen. 15: 1; Gen. 21: 17; Gen. 26: 24). A persecuted priest (1 Sam. 22: 23) and a Mephibosheth (2 Sam. 9: 7) hear it from the mouth of David, the Lord's anointed, with whom they sought refuge. A poor Zidonian widow, ready to succumb, receives it from the lips of the prophet (1 Kings 17: 3).

This word meets the ears of the people of God every time they have to do with the enemy, whether in Egypt (Ex. 14: 13) or in the confines of the wilderness (Num. 14: 9; Num. 21: 34; Deut. 1: 21; Deut. 3: 2, 22; Deut. 7: 18; Deut. 20: 3; Deut. 31: 6, 8), or in Canaan under Joshua (Joshua 8: 1; Joshua 10: 8, 25; Joshua 11: 6), or even in the period of ruin which characterized the kingdom of Israel (2 Chr. 20: 17; 2 Chr. 32: 7; Isa. 7: 4), and in the post-exilic period (Neh. 4: 14). And when Israel lay in the "lowest pit" cried to God in their distress, the Lord answered, "Fear not" (Lam. 3: 57).

Lastly, when the guilty people, bowed beneath the judgment of God, chastened and repentant but near despair, shall hear these words pronounced at the end of their time of trial: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people! we hear this word "Fear not" repeated and multiplied in echo after echo. Fear not, my love will comfort thee, I will help thee, I will strengthen thee, I will be with my servant. Have I not redeemed thee? Am I not with thee? Fear not, I will refresh thee. Fear neither shame, nor insult, nor reproach. Thou are mine, and I have received thee in grace. The entire latter portion of Isaiah has this consoling word from God as a refrain (Isa. 41: 10, 13, 14; Isa. 43: 1, 5; Isa. 44: 2; Isa. 51: 7; Isa. 54: 4).

The assurance of God's favor dispels fear, perfect love banishes it. How many times in the Psalms do we find this absence of all fear before the enemy, before the shaking of all things, before the threats of the flesh and of man (Ps. 27: 3; Ps. 46: 2; Ps. 56: 4, 11; Ps. 118: 6)! In truth, all is joy for the believer, all is confidence, perfect assurance and peace, because through everything he has God for him, He of whom it is said, "If God be for us, who against us?"

"Fear not," says Elisha to his servant, "for they that are with us are more than they that are with them" (v. 16), and he prays, saying: "Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see." The eyes of his flesh saw the army of the enemy and did not deceive him, and notwithstanding he was blind. There were things that required the prophet's intercession and the intervention of the Lord in order that he might see. His eyes were then opened, and "behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (v. 17). Angels, these chariots of fire and this cavalry, once gathered to take Elijah up to heaven, are now gathered to protect one single man without defense upon earth, bringing to naught all the plans of his enemies. This divine intervention on behalf of the redeemed has never ceased. Jacob had contemplated it when angels in two bands had met him at Mahanaim, and in the presence of imminent danger he had been able to say of himself, identifying himself with the Lord's host: "I am become two troops" (Gen. 32: 1-2, 10). This same angelic army will strike the adversaries of the Lord and of the Assembly when He shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of His might in flames of fire (2 Thess. 1: 7), according as it is written, "Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire" (Heb. 1: 7). As Esau's band disappeared before those of Mahanaim, so the army of the Syrians was like a band of ants before the holy myriads which covered the mountain, only it was a matter of protection, not of combat, as when David heard the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees (2 Sam. 5: 24).

The history of Jacob, whom the Lord named Israel, is repeated here. The true Israel was present in the person of its representative, the prophet. At the time of the end the remnant will have its eyes opened and shall hear these words: "Fear not." When many shall say, "Who shall cause us to see good?" they will be able to cry, "In peace will I both lay me down and sleep; for thou, Jehovah, alone makest me to dwell in safety" (Ps. 4: 6, 8).

Angelic intervention more directly characterizes the dispensation of the law, and consequently also the time of the prophetic remnant,* but it is not absent in the dispensation of grace, as we see in the history of Peter (Acts 12), only today the believer is in direct communication with Christ, without any intermediary. His eyes are opened to "see Jesus," not to see angels. He can say, "We have seen the Lord " not the chariots of Israel. Most intimate communion of the Christian — a portion better than that of the remnant! And from the moment that Jesus comes upon the scene, the soul receives from Him the assurance that it has nothing to fear, because He is the absolutely sufficient resource for every eventuality.

{*At the time of the end, in the Revelation, the Lord will make Himself known in angelic form through His providential ways until the time of His manifestation upon Mount Zion. Hence the expression found in this book: "another angel"}

God, who opens the eyes of Elisha's servant, blinds the Syrian army upon the prophet's request. The same God who had closed and opened the heavens at Elijah's prayer, opens or closes men's eyes at Elisha's prayer. This is because these requests come from hearts in real communion with the mind of God who ask Him only for that which he desires to do. "If we ask him anything according to his will he hears us" (1 John 5: 14). How much more reason there was for this with the Lord Jesus. He could say, "I thank thee that thou hast heard me; but I knew that thou always hearest me" (John 11: 41-42).

"He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha" (v. 18). What grace the Lord grants us! He reckons as coming from us that which we have asked by faith and through the Spirit — free gifts of God! The prophet henceforth may show himself to his enemies; they do not recognize him. He leads them to Samaria. Then the Lord opens their eyes at the prophet's request. The eyes of Elisha's servant had been opened to see His deliverance; their eyes, to see their loss in the presence of God's judgment. Resourceless, in a hopeless position — irremediable ruin! But He who alone has the right to judge does not do so; it was His grace that brought them before His judgment. The profane, unbelieving king sees them and wishes to put them to death! "My father, shall I smite? shall I smite them?" Despite his eyes being open, he is as blind as his enemies.* He wishes to exercise judgment, he who deserves it a thousand times more than this idolatrous nation, for he neither sees nor is able to understand grace. Elisha answers, "Thou shalt not smite them." Jehoram deserved to be smitten and had no right to smite others, but God wants to show him, as well as all others, that no judgment is to reach those who are convicted of their lost estate. It was not yet too late for them. The grace of God had just brought them to judgment, but to judgment in this world and not to that judgment after this life, when every resource will be closed off to them. Willingly or unwillingly, these men had met the God of Elisha, not the God of Elijah. They are not consumed by the fire from heaven that they merited, but are plucked, as it were, from the fire that they may experience the compassion of the God whom they had offended. "Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master," says Elisha. Still trembling all over, instead of the sword of the king they find a feast that God has prepared for them. It is the great supper of grace.

{*The various ways of seeing are of most profound interest in this chapter. We find. first of all, Elisha, the seer, who had no need of having his eyes opened to see the Lord's army; then, his servant, dominated by the care of visible things, who needs the prophet's intercession to see invisible things for his reassurance. Then, we find the Syrian army, doubly blinded because they think they see, and plunged into night; then this same army, at last seeing its fate under the judgment of God, but at the same time having their eyes opened to sit down at the "great repast" of grace. Finally, we find the King of Israel, a stranger to the thoughts of God, who thinks he sees, and whose "sin remains" (John 9: 41), a sad representative of Israel, enemy of Christ, ripening more and more for judgment.}

What had these men done in order to have part in such liberality? That which Saul of Tarsus and so many other enemies of Christ had done, in ignorance, no doubt; but they had made war against God, and God answered their hatred thus. From this time on, "the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel"; these isolated assaults end, but Satan cannot remain quiet.

2 Kings 6: 24 - 2 Kings 7: 20

The Siege of Samaria

The enemy of God's people never considers himself beaten. If the Syrian bands, convicted of their wrong-doing by the power of the God of Israel, cease making incursions into the land, Ben-Hadad in contrast gathers all his army to besiege Samaria, and this siege brings a great famine in its wake. Such are the consequences of Israel's sin. The enemy, without knowing it, was sent by God in judgment against this people. But at the same time he is a type of the prince of death, from whom sinful man cannot escape. The famine is a consequence of the presence of the enemy, who certainly would never dream of feeding those whom he is oppressing. It is like another form of death pressing down upon this guilty people. In all this chapter, then, it is death — that terrible, inevitable fate deserved by sinful men — that reigns. But God has resources even against death. He has the prophet to proclaim this, and if He announces that He will bring the famine to an end, we shall see that this is brought about by doing away with the enemy, the instrument of His judgment. This introduces us into the domain of grace and of the gospel.

After this brief summary, let us examine in detail the contents of this interesting chapter.

Samaria was the capital and center of a religious world which still maintained the appearance of upholding the worship of the Lord, but which had corrupted it. We find this same world in our day in another form, and it is precisely on account of its religious pretensions that it is the object of the judgment of God. Every kind of sacrifice was tolerated at Samaria, and the famine, instead of causing the people and their king to reconsider, only manifested the terrible egoism of men's hearts, who, in order to avoid dying of hunger, were sacrificing even their own children instead of sacrificing themselves for them. If such things could be met with here, it was not because the external features of religion had been banished. The king even wore "sackcloth within upon his flesh" as a sign of mourning and of mortification, probably in hope of averting the danger, but without having his conscience touched and his heart changed. We see the same features taking place in Christendom when nations are smitten with public calamities.

The king was mortifying himself at the very moment when, full of hatred, he was seeking the life of the prophet of the Lord. "God do so, and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall remain on him this day!" he said (v. 31). He who had had to say to the woman in distress, "If Jehovah do not help thee, whence should I help thee?" and who had rent his clothes before the horrible reality, with violence rejected the only man by whom a means of salvation was offered to him. How completely he had forgotten that the prophet had saved his life, "not once, not twice," and that the Lord with limitless patience had been stretching forth a helping hand to him! All that was meaningless to him, for the only thing he would not admit — and that was exactly the most important thing —  was that his sin had merited him death and judgment.

While these things were happening, the prophet was seated in his house, conversing peacefully with the elders; but, as "seer" he does not need for God to open his eyes to know the man's intentions, or to realize the protection of God. Faithful to his oath, the king sent a messenger with the order to behead Elisha and, himself thirsty for vengeance, followed on the heels of this executor of His sentence. Before he had arrived, the prophet had seen him: "Do ye see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head?" The man, finding the door barred, could not accomplish his mission, and returned to his master. His plans foiled, the king renounced all trust in God: "Behold, this evil is of Jehovah: why should I wait for Jehovah any longer" (v. 33). How many times man, in his state of revolt against God, reasons like Jehoram! Since God does not accord me what I desire, does not grant me the healing of one dear to me, does not bring me out of my material difficulties, I will do away with my obligations toward Him; He no longer exists for me. Ah! it is because like Jehoram, man's heart does not wish to go to the root of his trouble — sin — and admit of its consequences. He does not want to repent; his pride refuses to cast itself upon the mercy of his judge, recognizing that He would be right to condemn him. The very appeals of God afford him fresh occasions to harden his heart.

How will God respond to so much wickedness and rebellion? — He has His grace announced by the very man whose life the king is seeking! "And Elisha said, Hear the word of Jehovah. Thus said Jehovah: Tomorrow about this time shall the measure of fine flour be at a shekel, and two measures of barley at a shekel, in the gate of Samaria" (2 Kings 7: 1). Yes, God proclaimed that the following day He would give abundance and satisfy the poor who are hungering, when their very sin was the cause of the famine.

At the proclamation of this good news, one of the king's aides mocks at God: "And the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, Behold, if Jehovah should make windows in the heavens, would this thing be?" (v. 2).The king did not believe this message, as is seen in what follows (v. 12); he kept his hatred and rebellion intact in his heart. Nevertheless, his state was not as terrible as that of this mocker, when the good news of the grace of God was being proclaimed by His prophet. This latter says to the mocker: "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof." God has immense longsuffering toward all sinners, but those that mock at Him and His Word are irremediably lost. At the end of this chapter we shall see that this man is the only one who, in a scene of deliverance and abundance, is cut off without sharing in any part of it.

This character of mockers is not as rare as one might think in our day. On the contrary, one may say that it characterizes this time in which we live of which Peter said: "Knowing this first, that there shall come at the close of the days mockers with mocking, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from the beginning of the creation. For this is hidden from them through their own willfulness, that heavens were of old, and an earth, having its subsistence

out of water and in water, by the word of God, through which waters the then world, deluged with water, perished. But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3: 3-7). Let us not think that mockers are people who laugh at all piety. The unbelief of the past century and a half perhaps bore this character but the times have changed. Today's mockers display their unbelief very seriously; they reason. For them, the Word of God is null and void, just as it was to Jehoram's captain, and having no confidence in it, they trust in the stability of visible things, affirming that they will never come to an end. They are willingly ignorant — and that is the character of their mockery — of that which God has revealed to them in His Word. Their judgment is at the door.

And now God shows us that if man does not want Him, not only does He prepare, as in the preceding chapter, a great feast for His enemies, but He also prepares souls in view of the enjoyment of the feast.

"And there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate, and they said one to another, Why do we abide here until we die?" (v. 3). These four men were unclean, for leprosy is the picture of sin which defiles a man. As such, they could not dwell with the people; their uncleanness placed them outside the gate of Samaria. They were, at the same time, as being completely leprous, excluded from the presence of God. Moreover, their condition was such that they could not ignore it; their sickness had this special feature of being well-known in Israel so that one could not hide it from God, nor from others, nor from oneself. Lastly, apart from the direct intervention of God outside of all human resources, it would inevitably lead to death.

Such was the personal state of these four men at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. That which made it the more terrible was that death surrounded them on every hand. "If we say, Let us enter into the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if abide here, we shall die. And now come, let us fall away to the camp of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they put us to death, we shall but die" (v. 4).If they could have entered into the city, they would have found famine and death. To stay where they were was, without contradiction, death. To go to the enemy, representative of the judgment of God and wielding His sword, would this not still be death? But on that side, at least, there was a glimmer of hope. "If they save us alive, we shall live." Their lives were dependent on the good will of their enemies. Perhaps they might not pronounce the death sentence?

Do we not encounter the same circumstances today? The sinner, convicted of sin, cannot find help and deliverance from the world, even in its religious aspect. He meets only famine and death there. He cannot remain in his present state: it is death also. Before him is the threat of the judgment of God, and that is death — terrible and fatal death! But perhaps the Judge may have pity upon him — let him go then and cast himself down at the feet of the Judge! Let him go; he will learn that this God who is Judge is the God of love, the Savior God!

But our account does not go this far. These lepers do not rise up to meet God. They advance, uncertain and fearful, come "to the extremity of the camp of the Syrians; and, behold, there was no man there." What had happened? "The Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, a noise of a great host " and believing it to mean an attack by Israel's allies, they had fled, abandoning their tents, asses, and horses, and the camp just as it was in order to save their lives.

The enemies themselves, the instruments of God's judgment, had disappeared. Judgment had fallen upon them. There was no more judgment. How had this come to pass? The noise of a great army had been heard, something weak and insignificant in reality, in no wise comparable to the horses and chariots of fire at Dothan, but a most mighty thing because it came forth from the Lord Himself. He was in this noise, and that was enough to bring to naught all the power of Ben-Hadad.

For us, dear Christian readers, this noise has been heard at the cross, where the Son of God had to do with all the power of the prince of death and all his army. He vanquished him with his own weapons, but without any display of strength. In the death of one Man, crucified in weakness, was found God's power to conquer, to bring to naught, to destroy this terrible enemy. Such was the death of Christ. Satan held men captive through the fear of death, and he was conquered by his own weapons, just as Goliath's head once was served by weak David with the giant's very own sword.

Death was conquered, judgment annulled for these four lepers. Tremblingly they advanced toward these. In their place they found life, an abundance of goods, riches, and that with which to appease their hunger, all the spoil of the enemy, at no cost to themselves They gather the fruit of victory which for us is that of the Lord. There is peace in the camp; no one opposes them; they are satisfied, discovering the treasure which they appropriate. But can they keep silence and keep them for themselves? No, the joy of salvation must be communicated; these men become messengers of good news to others. "This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace!"

That which characterizes this chapter is not a God who removes the defilement of sin; else these lepers, like Naaman, would not have remained such as they were; but a God who removes judgment in the person of the enemy and at the same time destroys the power of death, in order that poor, defiled creatures might live and enjoy the blessings of which they had been deprived.

Let us notice another characteristic of the gospel in this account. When Elisha made known that "tomorrow" the famine would cease, he said, "Hear" (v. 1). This word is addressed to all without distinction, to the people, to the king, to the mocking lord, just as the sower's seed falls indiscriminately upon every kind of ground. It is the same for the victory won. All are invited. Its results are offered without distinction to all. The people, the whole city, the king and his servants are all invited to this feast. The famous "tomorrow" announced by the prophet has been changed to "today." All may come, feast, and enrich themselves, but are far from sharing the joy of the lepers. These lepers, in the presence of the marvels of their salvation cannot remain silent; they must speak: "We hold our peace!" We see how the king and his servants receive the announcement of deliverance (vv. 12-15). For them, this salvation which costs them nothing hides a snare. Let us at least, they say, do something on our part, and they engage to pursue the enemies. With two chariots and five run-down horses! All they can do is to delay the hour of deliverance in seeking to ascertain that which the lepers had laid hold of before their investigation. Their thought, in the presence of the good news, is pure unbelief. The king says: "Let me tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry, and they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city" (v. 12) Then, at the proposal of one of his servants, he adds, "Go and see." Sight, for them, replaces faith, and if they have part, like the others in the results of the deliverance, sight does not save them; it has never saved anyone. The captain is a frightening example of this. The prophet had said to him: "Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof" (v. 19). "And so it happened to him; and the people trampled upon him in the gate, and he died." For him, seeing was the immediate prelude of death.

2 Kings 8: 1-6

The Shunammite Again

2 Kings 7 has just presented truths to us which may be applied in the gospel; the verses now before our eyes bring us, together with the Shunammite, back to the ground of the faithful in Israel. It is necessary that we use the types of Scripture soberly in order to avoid forcing their interpretation, but on the other hand, it must not be forgotten that we have here prophetic writings, which only in part are historical in bearing, revealing to us through types, principles as to the events in the end times.

Here we find again, as in this entire history, the character of grace of the prophet Elisha. As in 2 Kings 7 he, a true minister of the good news for all, announced the good news to all the people without-respect of persons, so here he is occupied in grace with a faithful remnant, the Shunammite, to whom his heart was attached by so many bonds according to God. This upright woman had been the object of the special care of God who preserved her at a time when His judgment fell upon all the land. The prophet knew of the years of famine beforehand and had informed the Shunammite, just as he had known ahead of time the end of the famine at Samaria and had announced it to all the people, small and great. He communicates his secret to this soul, chosen by him, and whom together with her house he wanted to shelter. The preceding chapter and this one mention two famines. The first, that at Samaria, was local and partial; it was a judgment of God, but the enemy served Him as instrument to produce it. The second which now occupies us, much more severe, was a direct judgment of God extending to all the land of Israel. These same facts are seen in the Revelation, where the judgments at first have a providential character, and then acquire an extreme intensity when they are applied directly by the Lord.

"Rise up," says the prophet to the Shunammite, "and go, thou and thy household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn." This woman, whose joy was to dwell in the midst of her people, must abandon her goods and her inheritance and flee before imminent judgment, accepting the first shelter that might present itself. A complete cycle, a week of years, was assigned to her as a time of refuge among strangers. It was not a matter for her of remaining, like Abraham, in Canaan, in the midst of the famine, nor like Isaac of making a short sojourn in Philistia, for neither of these patriarchs was to go down to Egypt. No, she must sojourn where she could, the only condition being that it be not in Canaan. Judgment was to reach to all the land of Canaan, just as to all Egypt in the time of Joseph; only for Canaan now, there was no providential provision to remedy the evil. The Shunammite must remain outside the place of this tribulation which was to come upon all Israel. This is in figure the history of the faithful remnant at the time of the end, whereas the Church, in contrast to the remnant, will be kept from the hour of trial.

We may affirm that at that time the Shunammite was a widow. During her husband's lifetime the prophet could never have said to her, "Thou and thy household." She then had lost her protector; she is obliged to leave her goods, once considerable, and these pass into the hands of strangers. Fallen into want, she departs to be nourished by the Lord in whatever refuge she might be able to reach. But she takes with her her son whom the prophet had raised from the dead.

All these details prefigure the history of the remnant of Israel at the time of the end. They shall have experienced the power of resurrection before fleeing far from their land. They will be the true Israel according to the counsels of God, the woman of the Revelation who gives birth to a male child, and who flees to the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God where she is fed (Rev. 12). This people's portion will be exactly like that of the Shunammite; then they will be brought back, like her, into their own portion at the end of days when God's judgments upon the land of Israel shall have come to an end.

It is within these parameters that we may lay hold of the typical meaning of our account. That which is not a part of the type is that the day comes when Jehoram takes an interest in the miracles of Elisha. His conscience is in no way engaged. He had proven this above measure throughout all his career, but one may be very far from God while yet showing an interest in Him — both in Him personally, and in His work. This is even a prominent characteristic of the last times. Never have people inquired into miracles and into the Word of God more than in our days. These things are of great interest even to hearts where they are not mingled with faith. We may therefore understand that the king desired to inform himself about the main facts concerning the prophet. Gehazi, the unfaithful servant, to whom Naaman's leprosy was attached for ever, this Gehazi was now at the king's court. A leper, under God's judgment, has the ear of the unbelieving monarch! Formerly, sharing the prophet's poverty, he had been his blessed intermediary to the faithful, and the intermediary of these faithful in Israel to Elisha. He is still able to recount to the world, whose servant he had become, miracles of the past, being well enough instructed in these things to present them truthfully, but he can go no further.

A similar position can easily be found today in Christendom. People who, like Gehazi, prefer the advantages that the world offers them, may be accredited to expound the things of God. They speak the truth, but without the power to apply it to consciences; their own conscience being bad, they cannot reach the consciences of others. There were, no doubt, subjects that a Gehazi would avoid treating of, subjects necessarily prohibited him. How could he speak of Naaman's healing when he himself was covered with leprosy? and what indiscreet questions might his account have awakened in the king's mind? Nevertheless, God uses all — the king's curiosity, the presence of Gehazi at his court — to accomplish His plans of grace toward His beloved ones. The woman appears with her son at the very moment they are speaking of her. Who is it who brings her to this point? God Himself, for she must receive at the mouth of an eyewitness the testimony of her identity. Gehazi's role finishes there. The king has no more need of him; "And the king asked the woman, and she told him" (v. 6). God, who had brought her there, also touches the king's heart. He restores everything to her who had lost everything.

With her the prophetic history ends. Israel's judgment being exhausted, she and her house fully enter into their portion at the end of days. The king says, "Restore all that was hers, and all the revenue of the land since the day that she left the country even until now." "Even until now!" The days of tribulation are past for the faithful remnant who again find all the blessings of which they had been deprived during their exodus among the nations, along with all the lost interest, with nothing wanting

2 Kings 8: 7-16

Ben-Hadad and Hazael

It may seem strange to more than one reader that Elijah had not followed the positive injunction of the Lord at Horeb (1 Kings 19: 15-17), to anoint Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha. The fact was that Elijah met Elisha first, whom the Lord brought onto his path. He cast his prophet's mantle upon him for the first time, renouncing, so to say, his commission, in order to transfer it to Elisha, although his own prophetic career was not yet finished. From the moment Elisha was thus designated as his successor, these two other deeds became incumbent upon him. The anointing with which Elisha was sealed as prophet was the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in 2 Kings 2 of our present book. This anointing with the double portion of Elijah's spirit could not be conferred upon him except through Elijah's being gone up to heaven. Had he been anointed when Elijah met him for the first time, he would have been consecrated a prophet of judgment like his master, but, as we have seen throughout his history except in the exceptional case of the children at Bethel, Elisha is a prophet of grace and of deliverance for the remnant and even for the nations.

It was incumbent upon Elisha according to his commission to anoint Hazael and Jehu, who were to exercise judgment, but in the passage which recounts Elisha's meeting with Hazael, the anointing of this latter is passed over in silence. As a matter of fact, through the prophetic word the rod of God was placed into Hazael's hands, but the anointing could not be mentioned when the man of God, come in grace, was weeping bitterly over the evil that Hazael would do to the children of his people.

The anointing of Jehu (2 Kings 9) corresponds more to that which we might expect of the command given by the Lord to Elijah, but Elisha renounces acting personally and has his mission accomplished by one of the sons of the prophets. Is not this a striking proof of the fact that the character of Elisha is one of grace and not of judgment. The word of God must be fulfilled, but not to the detriment of the character of grace which the prophet bore.

It would be the same for the Prophet above all prophets, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who came to be baptized of John the Baptist must baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. After having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by virtue of the perfection of His humanity, He baptizes with the Holy Spirit by virtue of His ascension into heaven. This anointing characterizes the day in which we live, and that of fire, that is to say of judgment, has not yet taken place. The Lord has not yet sent the rod of His anger against Israel and against the world. He will do this later, but presently He neither wishes nor can He lose His character of Savior come in grace.

If this is so, what does this word spoken to Elijah signify: "Him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay"?

We must anticipate the account in 2 Kings 13 to see this realized. The story reported to us is all the more striking in that we see Elisha come to the very end of his career: "And Elisha fell sick of his sickness in which he died." It is just at this moment that Joash, king of Israel, comes to see him. At its own time and place we shall again consider this account in detail, but it is there that the prophet confers to Joash on behalf of the Lord, judgment upon that which has escaped Jehu's sword, that is to say, upon Hazael and his successors. Jehu had been incapable of defending the integral territory of Israel against Syria, but Elisha intervenes, and it is Israel that defeats its conquerors. Nevertheless, even on this occasion, the prophet, all the while he is pronouncing judgment, does not lose his character of grace. Prophetically he exercises judgment himself, for he lays his hand on the king's hands to draw the bow and beat the Syrians, but in view of delivering Israel.

Let us again take up the course of our account. Ben-Hadad*, King of Syria, was sick. "And it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. And the king said to Hazael, Take a present in thy hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Jehovah by him, saying, Shall I recover from this disease?" (2 Kings 8: 7-8). These were exactly the same words that Ahaziah, king of Israel, had pronounced when he sent his messenger to consult Baalzebub (2 Kings 1: 2). This denotes two things. The first is that all men, whether idolaters, or whether knowing the true God, alike have a constant preoccupation with death.

{*This Ben-Hadad is evidently he who had besieged Samaria in the preceding chapter, and probably, although he is not named, the king of Syria who had sent Naaman to the king of Israel and whose bands had harassed the territory of the ten tribes. Nevertheless we must not forget that Ben-Hadad is a generic name for the kings of Syria. It means "son" (or worshipper) "of Hadad," probably the Sun. We find in the time of Asa, king of Judah, (1 Kings 15: 20), then in the time of Ahab (1 Kings 20: 1) a Ben Hadad, then under Jehoram the Ben-Hadad of the siege of Samaria who now occupies us, and finally, (2 Kings 13: 24) the Ben-Hadad who succeeded Hazael.}

Having no other hope than that of visible things, they are profoundly tried by the thought that they may be obliged to leave these, to say nothing of the uncertainty as to the future that fills their spirit. The second is that the religious resources so-called that they have at hand are unable to satisfy. A king of Israel with some knowledge of the true God, however mixed up it may have been with superstition and idolatry, found nothing solid in this superficial knowledge, preferring to address himself to a demon in order to receive a reply that would satisfy him. A sun worshipper, receiving no answer from his god, preferred to address himself to the man of God who was there in the way before him. He wants to consult the Lord through him, not to find an answer for the needs of his conscience, but only to know if his life will be prolonged. The case of the king of Israel is even more serious than that of Ben-Hadad, for it is that of an apostate, but the king of Syria is not motivated by a sense of real need in turning to the man of God. Could not he who had been the instrument for Naaman's healing heal an ordinary illness, and had he not already displayed divine power in deliverance? So very little does Ben-Hadad know the prophet who had refused Naaman's gifts, that he sends him a royal present by Hazael with the intention of ingratiating himself with him.

Hazael comes before the man of God and repeats the king's words. But in the depths of his being something is already stirring, hidden desire, coveting, a plan, perhaps vague, but which waits only to be confirmed. Elisha has read his heart. His secret thoughts do not escape the God's eye. Elisha's answer would be ambiguous to anyone else. To Hazael it has a meaning that hastens his decision. His lust brings forth sin. Elisha "settled his countenance steadfastly, until he was ashamed." Under this intense gaze that examined the recesses of his conscience, Hazael, laid bare, felt ill at ease. He will certainly recover! This was precisely what Hazael feared. If the king were healed, what would become of his own plans and secret desires? "But Jehovah has strewn me that he shall certainly die." Yes indeed, he tells himself, my only chance is to get rid of my master; and since God knows it and does not hinder me, that justifies me. One feels it. This man must have reasoned thus, already a murderer in his thoughts. Searched to the depths of his heart, ashamed under God's gaze, for all that he does not abandon his perverted will, but justifies it by the fact that God knows about it.

After these words Elisha weeps, thinking about the evil that Hazael will do to his people. Shall we say that in revealing these facts to Hazael, he is inciting him to accomplish this? Hazael betrays himself a little in the presence of the prophet who tells him all the truth: "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" One senses more than one is able to prove, in the presence of this hypocritical and closed nature, that the destruction of Israel is an important thing to Hazael. It is easy for him to give himself the role of a dog when it is a matter of doing this, but nonetheless he has the ambition to accomplish it. Lastly, Elisha reveals to him the reason why he has been sent to Damascus. "Jehovah has shewn me that thou wilt be king of over Syria." The elements that comprise this darkened soul are now complete. All the obscure desires and ambitions of his spirit are settled. The king may recover, but he will die. I will be king in his stead and will torment Israel. From the thought to its execution there is but a step. Thus God prepares the rod which will chasten His people, until the moment when He will break the rod itself.

2 Kings 8: 16 - 2 Kings 17: 41

Kings of Israel and of Judah

2 Kings 8: 16-29

Jehoram, King of Judah, and his Son, Ahaziah

The beginning of this passage presents a small chronological difficulty which the rationalists have not failed to exploit against the authority of the biblical account (cf. 2 Kings 3). Here we are told that Jehoram of Judah began to reign over Judah during the lifetime of his father, in the fifth year of Jehoram of Israel. Now in 2 Kings 1, Jehoram of Israel succeeds his brother Ahaziah in the second year of Jehoram of Judah. This can be explained very simply by the fact that Jehoshaphat of Judah had conferred the regency upon his son Jehoram, and at the end of seven years, while Jehoshaphat was still alive, he fully conferred the kingdom upon him, perhaps in view of difficulties he might have had with his brothers (2 Chr. 21: 1-4). The first year of the regency of Jehoram of Judah corresponds to the time when his father Jehoshaphat went up with Ahab, king of Israel, to retake Ramoth-Gilead from the Syrians. These so-called contradictions are never such to the simple Christian who has received these accounts from the hand of God. It is not always possible for him to answer the objections for he is a limited and ignorant creature, but in waiting upon the Lord he will sooner or later receive the answer — when God judges this to be appropriate. To him it remains an established fact that God has spoken, and that He will be found true when He speaks, whereas every man will be found a liar.

The short history of King Jehoram and King Ahaziah of Judah, woven in here in order to link together the order of events, nevertheless presents serious and instructive features. The daughter of Ahab (the husband of Jezebel) was the wife of Jehoram of Judah. Ahaziah, Jehoram's son, was also "the son-in-law of the house of Ahab." These profane alliances led the one and the other into the ways of the kings of Israel. The same holds true at all times. A Christian yoked together with a child of the world necessarily loses his testimony and even the appearance of his Christianity, for the world is never improved by the Christian's alliance with it. Rather, to the contrary, it is bad company that corrupts good manners. True, the Lord, faithful to the promises made to David, does not destroy Jehoram of Judah, but this latter does not find in the world that rest which his corrupted religion cannot give him and which the discipline and chastening of God do not leave him. Edom, which until now had a governor dependent upon the throne of Judah, revolts and chooses a king for itself. The consequence is war. Jehoram has the advantage, but the revolt is not crushed, and this unsubdued enemy continues on "unto this day." At the same time, Libnah revolted. Libnah was a city of Judah, a priestly city belonging to the sons of Aaron (Joshua 21: 13; 1 Chr. 6: 57). What a shame for Jehoram! In his own kingdom one of the morally most important cities detached itself from him. The reason is given in 2 Chronicles 21: 10-11. The sons of Aaron could not associate themselves with one who "had forsaken Jehovah the God of his fathers," and who urged Judah into this path by his high places and fornications. Some testimony was then still left in Judah, and this testimony was to Jehoram's shame. The Lord separated from him a part of the priesthood, that which alone could yet maintain Jehoram's relationship with Himself. When we come to our study in Chronicles, we will consider the judgment of this impious king in greater detail.

Ahaziah the son of Jehoram of Judah, began to reign in the twelfth year of Jehoram of Israel (2 Kings 8: 25). His mother was Athaliah, daughter of Omri, a common way of speaking among the Jews; for she was in fact the granddaughter of the head of this dynasty, Omri, the daughter of Ahab, and the wife of Jehoram of Judah (v. 18). She was thus the sister of Jehoram of Israel. Ahaziah himself was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab. As Jehoshaphat his grandfather had made an alliance with Ahab in order to retake Ramoth-Gilead, which had fallen under the power of the king of Syria, so Ahaziah the son of Jehoram of Judah made an alliance with Jehoram of Israel, son of Ahab, to make war against Hazael, the king of Syria, at Ramoth-Gilead, which was a city of refuge (Deut. 4: 43). This was done according to the advice of his counsellors of the house of Ahab and of Athaliah his mother (2 Chr. 22: 4-5). This alliance with the kings of Israel was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. Jehoram of Israel suffered the same fate at Ramoth as Ahab, who had earlier been wounded by the Syrians at the same place (1 Kings 22: 34). He retired to Jizreel to be healed of his wounds. It was there that his ally Ahaziah, king of Judah, came to him to express his sympathy. By the world's standards this was an act of simple courtesy, but after having opposed Hazael, God's rod against Israel, Ahaziah subjects himself to the blows of Jehu, the second of God's rods against his ally. These judgments upon Israel neither move him nor restrain him in his pathway, and lo, these judgments will reach his very own person!

2 Kings 9

Jehu, King of Israel

Jehu's entire history takes up three verses in Chronicles (2 Chr. 22: 7-9), which speaks sorely of his relations with Judah. We shall return to this when we study Chronicles.

The chapter we are considering brings out, as we have mentioned above, the character of the grace of Elisha. Instead of anointing Jehu himself, he entrusts this mission to one of the sons of the prophets. This young man must not remain for an instant with Jehu, but he must flee as soon as his deed is accomplished. All is done secretly and in haste, for when it is a matter of judgment, Elisha's soul neither rests nor abides there. Judgment must take place, for God has spoken, but God finds his delight in grace and approves his servant's manner of acting.

How much, in virtue of its judicial character, does this scene differ from that which accompanies the anointing of David! Here this son of the prophets must make Jehu rise up "from among his brethren," lead him far away from all eyes into "an inner chamber," and anoint him without witnesses in haste and secretly. Samuel, on the contrary, anoints David king of grace "in the midst of his brethren"; they do not sit down at the table until he arrives, and this family feast reunites them for a common meal. After that, Samuel rises up in peace and goes to Ramah (1 Sam 16: 11-13). These scenes of communion form an absolute contrast to the one which unfolds here. Jehu is God's rod against Israel and Judah, and God cannot have communion with an instrument of judgment, however necessary it may be. Later He will approve (2 Kings 10: 30) the way Jehu carried out his task, but without communion with him; for all the while He is speaking thus He is approving neither the man nor his motives, as we shall have occasion to note more than once in these chapters.

If the prophet Elisha had wept before Hazael, what would he have done before Jehu? He also gives as brief as possible a commission: "Thus said Jehovah: I have anointed thee king over Israel" (2 Kings 9: 3). A prophet himself, he leaves up to this son of the prophets without dictating the words to him, the concern for what he will have to add to it by the Spirit.

This young man reveals to Jehu the unsparing judgment upon the house of Ahab. The motive for this judgment was the way in which this king, urged on by Jezebel, had treated the servants of the Lord and His prophets. In fact, there will ever come the time when the Lord will call to mind that which has earlier been done to "His brethren," whether in Israel or in the Christian assembly.

The fact that the young prophet adds all this detail to the words of Elisha is very characteristic of this latter's career and moral essence. Not once, except at Bethel (and we have shown the reason for this), does he pronounce judgment himself, though he must pass through a scene where all is judgment on God's part. This judgment must put an end to the dynasty of Omri in order to fulfill the sentence pronounced upon Ahab. For the same reason, the Lord had already put an end to the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat (1 Kings 15: 28-30), and to that of Baasha (1 Kings 16: 1-4), each time repeating the dreadful word: Him that dieth . . . in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat" (1 Kings 14: 11; 1 Kings 16: 4; 1 Kings 21: 24).

The young man flees according to the command given by the prophet. He did not have to retract that which has been decreed, has no explanation to give, no warning, as had been the case for Ahab (1 Kings 21: 27-29); judgment was at the door and to be executed immediately.

Jehoram of Israel (vv. 11-15), wounded in battle, had just left Ramoth-Gilead where Hazael had kept him at bay, and had come to Jizreel to be healed of his wounds. During this time the captains of his army were at Ramoth, continuing to occupy and to keep this important post, justly claimed by the kings of Israel (cf. 1 Kings 22: 3). We see here how God has the upper hand in all events and over all men when the moment to accomplish His decrees has arrived. Scarcely had Jehu received the anointing oil than — without any preliminary arrangements, for they do not know what the prophet whom they call a fool had just done — all the captains acclaimed Jehu as king Were they wise men themselves, these men who without intelligence, without reasoning it out, without a choice in the matter, sound the trumpet and say: Jehu is king; while the one who despite his youth had just proclaimed God's mind, being fully aware of the reason for it, was called a fool or imbecile by them?

In our days we can often observe the same anomaly. The Christian, having knowledge of the thoughts of God, can announce them to men in their fullness and in detail, these events for which the world will be the "heater. Those who are wise call them fools, until that day when their eyes will be opened — but too late — to acknowledge the truth of what has been announced to them.

Let us note that Jehu does not conspire against Jehoram until after he has been proclaimed king He then immediately takes measures so that the king of Jizreel should not receive any news of what had taken place (v. 15). Jehu's character made up of great impetuosity joined together with much prudence, decisiveness, and understanding of human nature, offers ample material for study. Let us note this trait: "If it be your will, let not a fugitive escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jizreel" (v. 15). He artfully engages his accomplices in a collective responsibility, in order that in case of failure everything cannot be laid to his charge. That which follows will give us a second example. But it is in this that we may also ascertain his lack of piety and of dependence upon God, and his ambition which takes advantage of the word of Jehovah to assure himself of full power. He is thinking only of himself, of his own interests, and of the gratification of his passions; he exercises judgment to assure himself of benefits, and covers all this egoism with a cloak which he calls "zeal for Jehovah."

During the interval, Ahaziah had come down to Jehoram to express his sympathy concerning his wounds. Despite its appearance of urbanity and cordiality, this liaison was odious to the Lord. The lamp that had been maintained up to now in David's house, was about to be extinguished unless God should occupy Himself with trimming it. But his relationship to a family of an apostate race was of more value to Ahaziah than the glory of the God of Israel. Similar conditions are often met with in our days. The family of God has, however, nothing to gain by such relationships. Each time Israel gained an advantage through the friendship of the king of Judah, what did it give in exchange? The loss was always on the side of those who, in some feeble measure, still bore the testimony of the true God.

Jehu goes to Jizreel. "Is it peace?" This is the great question raised. Judgment is at the door, and Jehoram does not yet know whether it is peace or wrath that has come to him. What use are his messengers and the precautions he takes to him? None of his servants returned to warn him and advise him to be on his guard. The prudence of Jehu had provided for this. "Turn thee behind me," he tells them —  excellent means to reach his ends without prematurely awakening the distrust of his king But God is controlling all things, even those that are contrary to his character. He is a God of truth; His ways are straight and never crooked. He has said: "There is no peace . . . to the wicked", His sentence must be executed.

"Jehu . . . drives furiously." The rumbling of thunder announces the storm to all except to Jehoram, as deaf to the approach of the tempest as he had been to that of the grace so often pronounced before him. He does nothing to ward off his fate. He comes with Ahaziah to seek refuge at the foot of the tree upon which the blow is to fall. Alas! Such is the lot of men. They seek for peace outside the peace that God offers to all, and find nothing but agitation, anguish, and finally the judgment of God. "Peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is nigh, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isa. 57: 19-21). Also in that moment when men will "say, 'Peace,' then sudden destruction will come upon them. "What peace," answered Jehu, "so long as the fornications of thy mother Jezebel and her sorceries are so many?" Jehoram cries while fleeing, "Treachery, Ahaziah!" Not treachery, but judgment! The word of God to Elijah is fulfilled to the letter. "And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay" (1 Kings 19: 17). Jehu himself smites king Jehoram. Then he recalls the prophecy of Elijah to Ahab (1 Kings 21: 19-24), not in the identical words, but with the same meaning Miserable king! In what was he trusting? In his title and his royal dignity, as we see by his riding forth which leads to his ruin; in the twelve long years of his reign, no doubt, (and who would dream of treachery after such a long reign); in the faithfulness of his subjects and of those who surrounded him. Vain supports! "How are they suddenly made desolate!"

And who has made all these circumstances work together to this result? Who caused Jehoram to depart from Ramoth, leaving Jehu and his captains there? Who had led him to Jizreel, the scene of Ahab's sin? Who led him to Naboth's vineyard in his chariot? Who left him lying there outside the city in the very place where the blood of this righteous man had flowed? One cannot mistake it; it is the hand of the Lord.

Ahaziah meets the same fate (vv. 27-29), nevertheless with mitigation, the Lord having not yet finally rejected the house of Judah. If Ahaziah's "coming to Joram was from God the complete ruin of Ahaziah" (2 Chr. 22: 7), yet he was not abandoned to the beasts of the field and the fowl of the heavens like a vile criminal, but he was buried in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David.

Jehu enters into Jizreel (vv. 30-37). Jezebel hears of it and paints her face and decks her head in savage confidence of triumph. She wants to show him that she does not fear him with his company, for she still has authority and power. From high up in the window she flings down these ironic words to him: "Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of his master?" Is it peace for you? You are not worth more than Zimri, Baasha's assassin. He had succeeded in reigning for seven days following his conspiracy; then he had perished. All these disdainful thoughts reverberate in these few words. Jehu lifts his face to the window where the queen is standing, and cries out, "Who is on my side? who?" And to two or three eunuchs who nod to him from above he says, "Throw her down! And they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses; and he trampled on her" (v. 33). Here we see how much Jehu is a stranger in his thoughts to the honor and the glory of the Lord, all the while knowing the divine decree and that he is its executor. One might have expected that the word "Who is for the Lord?" might have come forth from his mouth, but God had little place in the thoughts of this violent and ambitious man. Even that which had been prophesied by Elijah concerning Jezebel, a scene at which he had been present (v. 25; cf. 1 Kings 21: 23), does not recur to his memory. He says, "Go, look, I pray you, after this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter" (v. 34). When the men returned, having found nothing more than some wretched dog-eaten remains, he recalls the prophecy, but only when it is in accord with his passions. If it be a matter of governing his conduct by the prophecy, he pays it no heed.

2 Kings 10

Jehu (continued)

Jehu sends a message to Samaria, whose rulers, the elders and great ones, were bringing up Ahab's seventy sons. "And now,' he says, "when this letter comes to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots, and horses, and a fortified city, and armor, look out the best and worthiest of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house" (vv. 2-3). This letter, beneath its generous appearance, breathes forth the threatening of a man sure of himself, or at least wishing to appear so. As we continue on we discover several character traits of this remarkable man, at least remarkable according to the world's thoughts. Impetuousness, promptness of decision, a political eye, a knowledge of and a disdain for men, skillfulness in taking advantage of situations or in bringing them about, an imposing of himself on others or a using of them for his own purposes, an absolute absence of all scruples when it is a matter of surmounting obstacles, and all this basing itself upon the consciousness of being an instrument of the Lord in His work of destruction.

The rulers of Samaria become frightened and show that they are ready for treachery and murder that the Lord had not commanded them. They obey Jehu when he says to them, "If ye are mine, and will hearken to my voice, take the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jizreel tomorrow at this time" (v. 6). Always the same thought as before: Who is for me? Who is mine? Jehu thus obtains the advantage of having this massacre accomplished by others, whose act justifies him before the inhabitants of Jizreel. "Ye are righteous! behold, I conspired against my master and killed him; but who smote all these?" (v. 9). He proudly proclaims his conspiracy and crime, but he has as accomplices all the great ones and captains of Israel whom he had constrained to serve him by his boldness and arrogance. It is he who by his skillfulness gets all the leaders of this people on his side. Then he adds: "Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of Jehovah, which Jehovah spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for Jehovah has done that which he said through his servant Elijah" (v. 10). He invokes the infallibility of the word of God to justify his conduct; then he "slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jizreel, and all his great men, and his acquaintances, and his priests, until he left him none remaining" (v. 11). This was not properly what the Lord had said (1 Kings 21: 21-26). Jehu goes beyond his orders and his commission, but it was in the interest of his dominion that all who sympathized with Ahab should disappear from Israel.

When the Word portrays such characters for us, let us remember that God is far from always expressing to us His approval or disapproval of the instruments that serve his purposes. He tells us of that in which Jehu discharged his task well, and goes no further, leaving the evaluation of his conduct to our spiritual judgment, in order that we may draw instruction for ourselves. Let the reader recall the history of the judges and the manner in which the deeds of Israel's liberators are recalled to us there. We might multiply examples by taking Jacob's history and that of so many others. That God should use a Jehu or a Samson to accomplish His judgments in no wise signifies that there is living faith in these men, or that their heart's condition had His approval. Samson and Barak are named in Hebrews 11, because in this chapter it is not a matter of faith in itself, but of the activity of faith, which is another thing Their conduct, I repeat, is discerned spiritually, and that is why the world does not understand anything of these examples given us by the Word. In other cases, especially that of a king, God usually tells us how He feels. In him He judges the state of the things of which he is the responsible representative; if God would not do this, the righteousness of His judgments could well be questioned, if it were left up to our fallible evaluation of them.

This remark has a very practical application in Jehu's case, who at the same time is both the instrument of God's wrath against the house of Ahab and he to whom the reign is entrusted. On the one hand he receives the testimony of the Lord's approval for having executed that which was right in His eyes (v. 30), and that without any reservation as to his moral character; on the other hand, in the following verse (v. 31) his conduct as king is severely blamed by the Lord. With regard to the massacre of Jizreel, we find in Hosea 1: 4-5 what God thinks of it and what its consequences are: "For yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jizreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jizreel."

Near the shepherds' meeting-place, the brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah (vv. 12-14), undergo the same fate he also had met. In comparing 2 Kings 9: 27-29 with 2 Chronicles 22: 7-9, we learn that before being smitten near Megiddo, Ahaziah had fled to Samaria for refuge and had not yet been forced from his retreat when his brothers came to visit the sons of the king It was not until after the extermination of his brethren that Ahaziah was brought to Jehu and suffered "from God" this "complete ruin" at the ascent of Gur, only to flee to Megiddo to die there, and then to be carried to Jerusalem and be buried there.

If Jehu's action had not been ordered of the Lord, it is no less true that God had decreed it. This passage affords us a serious lesson. To ally oneself, as did Ahaziah, to a world over which divine wrath is suspended, is to expose oneself to the sudden ruin which will overtake it. But those who without thought for the holiness of God go, be it but to strengthen the bonds of friendship with the same world, suffer a similar fate. Ahaziah's brothers suffer fatal consequences. There cannot, there must not be, for those whom God calls to lead His people, any fellowship whatsoever with that which He condemns.

In contrast, we find a striking example of separation from evil in Jehonadab the son of Rechab (Jer. 35), who comes to meet Jehu (v. 15). Jehonadab was of the race of the Kenites, who had entered into Canaan with Israel. They were divided into several branches: the least of these in the extreme north at Kedesh in Naphtali (Judges 4: 11), the strongest in the desert of Judah to the south of Arad (Judges 1: 16), and lastly, a third branch, subdivided into several families in the vicinity of Jabez, which belonged to Judah (1 Chr. 2: 55). We do not know what led Jehonadab from the kingdom of Judah to that of Israel. Was he part of those following Ahaziah's brethren, as Jehu's abrupt question might suggest? Whatever the case may have been, he had no link with the evil which surrounded him. His principles were those of absolute separation to God as a true Nazarite and, being unable to teach these principles here in this corrupt sphere that surrounded him, he had at least taught them in his family and in his house. The circle of his testimony was a limited one in the presence of the infidelity flowing like a rising tide over the two houses of Israel, but it was nonetheless a testimony, and God approved it. We know these details from Jeremiah 35. Jehonadab's principles were those of every true Nazarite. Firstly, to abstain from wine, which represents the intoxicating coveteousness of the world. Secondly, to refrain from building a house, that is, to refrain from establishing oneself upon the earth in a permanent way. Thirdly, to refrain from sowing grain, as if one were expecting something, even if it were only a year of harvest. Fourthly, to refrain from planting a vineyard, that is to say, to refrain from cultivating that which would sooner or later lead to the abandoning of one's Nazariteship — and how many believers have lost their Nazariteship through failure to watch over this point! Fifthly, to dwell in tents, as true sons of Abraham, as pilgrims and sojourners in the land of promise. Jehonadab understood that this land given to God's people was in no wise a present possession, as long as the moral ruin of the people existed along with the material disorder which was its consequence. His faith was still waiting for a rest for the people of God. He and his sons testified to this by their attitude.

We are not told on what occasion Jehonadab had taught these commands to his own, but as the one and only historical mention of him that is made is found in our chapter, we may infer from this that the sight of the evil and of the general ruin after the glorious reigns of David and Solomon had made him feel the necessity of a very narrow walk, and of a return to "that which was from the beginning," taught by the patriarchs, in contrast to the laxity which surrounded him. May we also at this time of the end be true children of Jehonadab the son of Rechab, not in outward practices which leave the heart far from God and through which Satan deceives souls, as is so common today, but by the moral conduct which these practices symbolized during the dispensation of the law!

Jehu greets Jehonadab and says to him, "Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?" Jehonadab can answer, "It is." But there is a difference here. His heart was upright with respect to the Lord; his principles have shown us this. Jehu's heart was upright with respect to Jehonadab to whom he confided his plans, but could one say that it was upright in respect to God? That which follows will show us: "Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah" (v. 16). Yet nevertheless, how greatly divided was this zeal! If zeal for the Lord is wholehearted, the servant of God barely speaks of it, but rather is disposed to exclaim, "I am an unprofitable servant." That Jehu was zealous need not be doubted, but in what proportion was this for the Lord? Saul of Tarsus was an ardent zealot for the traditions of his fathers; concerning zeal, he persecuted the Church, believing that he was serving God. Paul said of the Jews, his brethren according to the flesh, that they had a "zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." There was more true zeal, more understanding, more power in Jehonadab's holy separation than in the impetuous walk of Jehu. Verse 31 informs us about the value and measure of the zeal of this latter.

After having slain "all that remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke to Elijah" (v. 17), Jehu moves against the priests of Baal. Here too we see human caution, a leaving nothing to chance, joined with a craftiness which, however, is not the dominant trait of his character (v. 19). In any case, it is not the simple and courageous walk of faith according to the truth. How greatly Jehu's attitude differs from that of Elijah who stood alone in unshakeable confidence in the Lord, over against the hostile power of the king, of all the priests of Baal, and of a people halting "between two opinions" standing alone against all, because the God in whom he trusted was with him. No subtlety in this scene at the brook of Kishon! The authority of the prophet's word alone was enough to destroy all the priests of the false god!

It is not that Jehu did not appreciate the word of God spoken by Elijah, but he went no further. Beyond the prophet's word concerning himself he had no real understanding of the thoughts of God. He quotes only Elijah (2 Kings 9: 25, 36; 2 Kings 10: 17); he does not know anything save the judgments of God. He does not even mention Elisha, whose career he had been able to follow from its beginning Grace has no hold upon his heart. Nothing is more dangerous than a partial understanding of divine principles. This always leads to a false application of these principles and a bad walk. Jehu thought he had accomplished everything by his work of extermination, and did not understand that all the zeal imaginable was not worth a single act of obedience which would have separated him from the religion of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, by which he made Israel to sin.

At the time of the extermination of the priests of Baal, of their temple, and of their idol, when Jehu assigned his captain and his servants their roles with such great strategic sense (vv. 18-27), Jehonadab the son of Rechab's manner of acting brings out the character of this man of God. Jehu had confided his plan to him; he accompanied Jehu, but did not appear (v. 23) except to verify that no servant of the Lord was confounded with the servants of Baal. Is not this a beautiful role, similar to that of Jeremiah: "If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth" (Jer. 15: 19)? Jehonadab was as the mouth of the Lord in separating first of all his own house, then all the true servants of the Lord from the corrupt and idolatrous mass.

Today, as then, the work which separates from the world and gathers together all the children of God, for these two functions are but one, has the full approbation of the Lord, whatever the world may say, or even those Christians who wish to keep up relationships with the world. It is also there that power is found (Jer. 15: 20). Elijah possessed the Spirit of God who effected a complete separation from evil in him, and whose power animated the prophet with a holy zeal for the Lord. Jehu had zeal without the Spirit, a zeal using human means to answer to God's commands. What then will happen? If in appearance the result, the extermination of the priests of Baal, is the same with both Elijah and Jehu, it is completely otherwise in reality. Elijah, (all the while he is being disciplined) continues on his pathway in the power of the Spirit, resembling at the end of his career the Christ, whom in type he represents, and he ends gloriously, taken up to heaven by the chariot and horsemen of Israel. Jehu, fiery executor of judgment upon others, does not exercise it in any way upon himself, and does not turn aside from evil and idolatry to serve God alone The calves of Jeroboam, that national religion consecrated by usage, do not give offense to him, for unquestionably his politics and the human interests of his reign accommodate themselves to them perfectly. In spite of that, what a fair appraisal on God's part! He credits Jehu with the fact that he had "executed well that which is right in my sight" in judging the house of Ahab, and on this account gives him a posterity upon the throne unto the fourth generation.

On the other hand, what righteousness and what perfect holiness in God. He uses Hazael, His rod, to smite Jehu. "In those days Jehovah began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote them in all the borders of Israel; from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, both Gilead and Bashan" (vv. 32-33). During Jehu's lifetime his kingdom is cut short on all sides, and especially in the region of the tribes beyond Jordan. These woes are God's judgment upon his conduct. Here God expresses His discontent, not by words, but by acts, which do not seem to have reached the conscience of the king

The chronicles of the kings of Israel (v. 34), if they would ever be found, contain the acts and all the might of Jehu, but not what he was before God, nor the judgment of God upon his conduct as king

Jehoahaz, his son, then reigned in his stead.

2 Kings 11

Athaliah

Athaliah was a granddaughter of Omri, daughter of Ahab, sister of Jehoram of Israel, wife of Jehoram of Judah, and mother of Ahaziah. She had other sons of whom the greater part, no doubt, were from other mothers, for there were forty-two of them (2 Kings 10: 14). We are told concerning them and their mother: "For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had devastated the house of God; and also all the hallowed things of the house of Jehovah had they employed for the Baals" (2 Chr. 24: 7). Is it astonishing that God should have permitted their extermination by Jehu? When Athaliah learned of the death of her son Ahaziah (the king's brothers had, as we have seen, suffered the same fate before he did), this ambitious woman, without scruples and without natural affection, put to death all the king's sons — her own grandsons — in order to secure the kingdom for herself. God's judgment passed like a tempestuous wind sweeping away everything in Israel and Judah. The instruments of this judgment were the fleshly zeal of Jehu and the iniquity of Athaliah's idolatrous heart. Both produced the same result, massacre and murder. These instruments, especially Athaliah, imagined that they were thereby accomplishing their plans, but in the final analysis, they were only the sword of the Lord to vindicate the holiness of his character by this extermination. Moreover, God will break the sword when it will have finished its work and will show in breaking it that He is a righteous God who does not leave crime unpunished.

The royal house of Israel is destroyed without leaving a single man, and God begins the trial of His patience again with a new dynasty, that of Jehu. But it is not so with the house of Judah. The faithful God keeps His word, for He had said that He would give David "always a lamp for his sons" (2 Kings 8: 19). In the person of Joash He sustains for Himself a feeble candle stub which He does not extinguish, and through whom an era of blessing and of the fear of the Lord would be inaugurated for the kingdom of Judah. The longsuffering of God still delayed the moment of rejecting His guilty people.

Jehosheba, the daughter of Jehoram of Judah and sister of Ahaziah, the wife of Jehoiada the high priest, steals Joash away from the massacre of the king's sons and hides her nephew with her in the house of the Lord for six years, that is, in the part of the house of the Lord where her husband and the priests dwelt.

The presence of the seed of David manifests that which was according to the heart of the Lord in Judah. Around the anointed is grouped and concentrated everything that could work together for the restoration of the people. Despite all the disorder, the place where the Lord had made His name to dwell still existed, and the king was there securely under His safe-keeping And, what is more, a faithful high priest could walk before the face of His anointed and regulate all things according to God's mind, the secret of which he had, even in the absence of a recognized royalty.

In the seventh year, true year of jubilee and of deliverance, Jehoiada presents the king's son to the officers of the army. He sets them, with most minute precautions, over the safe-keeping of this sacred person, this precious jewel, without which the house of David would be extinguished. No profane person could approach this inviolable person without incurring death; his bodyguards accompany him upon his entering and his exiting. One feels that Jehoiada's heart is aflame for the son of David, his only hope and that of the kingdom, to lose him would be to lose all, and he did not want to be deprived of him at any cost.

Is not Jehoiada an example for us? Will we suffer in this difficult time, more perilous, despite all appearances, than that of Athaliah, that anyone touch the person of the Son of God? Let us surround Him, every one with his weapon in his hand. Our weapons are not carnal; they are the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Let us press together around Him, be we but a few, and God will be with us as He was with the faithful group that surrounded Joash, and the efforts of the enemy to destroy the name of the holy Son of God and to destroy his testimony will be foiled.

Jehoiada, to defend the kingship, has recourse to David's weapons. "And the priest gave to the captains of the hundreds king David's spears and shields which were in the house of Jehovah" (v. 10). Thus he returned to the origin of the divine institution of the kingship. These weapons were good and were kept in the house of God. So we too must defend "that which was from the beginning." We do not seek this Word in human arsenals, but in the temple of God. It is hidden there in the most holy place, where the Spirit of God alone is able to reveal it to us and make us take hold of it.

Then they bring Joash out to the entrance of the house, into its court. The king's son has upon himself the anointing oil which consecrates him; the crown, sign of his royal dignity; and "the testimony," the law, which the king, seated upon his throne, was to copy out for himself and from which he was to learn to fear the Lord and to keep His statutes (Deut. 17: 18-20).

In spite of the surrounding poverty and the invasion of apostasy, what, in fact, was wanting for this restoration? The temple of God, His habitation in the midst of His own, was there; the high priest, the mediator between the Lord and the people, was there; the son of David was there, doubtless recognized only by some, but soon to be acclaimed by all the people; the anointing, the Holy Spirit, was there; and a feeble remnant acclaimed the anointed of the Lord and surrounded him, just as David's mighty men had at one time surrounded the king.

To Athaliah (vv. 13-16), the restoration of the kingship according to God was a conspiracy. She cries, "Conspiracy,'" as Jehoram of Israel had cried, "Treason." Neither the one nor the other could assert their rights for a moment. Jehoram falls under the rod of God. Athaliah cannot assert any claim to these rights when the chosen of the Lord is made manifest. So it will be for Christ's enemies before the judgment and before the appearing of the glory of His kingdom. But what joy for the heart of Jehoiada and his faithful wife! They had waited patiently through a full cycle of years for the Lord's time to manifest His anointed; they did not allow themselves to become discouraged nor pressed by impatience into using human means to bring about the triumph of the king's cause. During these long years, they had lived in secret with the precious object of their hope, and at last they were receiving the glorious result of their faith. Let us imitate their patience. Our Joash is still in the secret place of the sanctuary. Let us there learn from day to day and from year to year to know Him better. May He increase in our eyes. Soon He shall appear, and all shall rejoice in this sight; but even today some, like Jehoiada and his wife, because they have dwelt with Him while He was not yet visible, will have been showing forth, while awaiting His glory, the bright rays of His dawning, like the morning star arisen in their hearts!

"And Jehoiada made a covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should be the people of Jehovah; and between the king and the people" (v. 17). A covenant supposes two parties: here, under the law, they engage themselves mutually, the Lord on the one side, the king and the people on the other. It is as if the king were answering for the people and the people for the king, as forming but one whole in relation to the Lord. But this engagement is rendered yet the more solemn by the covenant between the king and the people. They mutually engage themselves to follow the same path. "Then all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and broke it down: his altars and his images they broke in pieces completely, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars" (v. 18). It is a community of zeal for God. There is no need for the subtlety and artifices of Jehu (2 Kings 10: 18-27) to extirpate Baal from Judah. One sees here the powerful action of the Spirit of God in a people — much more blessed, in sum, than the action of a single individual, even when in fact, he is accomplishing the will of God. Jehu had conceived his plan by himself alone and had confided its execution to guards and to captains. Here, the whole people, laying claim to their title as the people of the Lord, intimately bound to the king whom God had given them, extirpate Baal, his house and his worship; and for about 180 years, until the reign of ungodly Manasseh, this abominable idolatry disappears from the house of Judah.

Jehu had assembled all the people to speak to them with subtlety, doubtless not having confidence in their disposition. Here the people act in virtue of the covenant, and that is where it must begin. Jehu's zeal had not reestablished the covenant, though destroying Baal, and it goes no further than that. The ancient idolatry, Jeroboam's calves, exists for him, whereas the new idolatry has been extirpated. It is always thus when the flesh has a part in reform. It cannot remedy that abandoning of God which has characterized it from the beginning; otherwise it would no longer be the flesh. The natural man (and this takes place under our eyes every day), may well extirpate an idol, whether it be wine or any other vice, only to replace it with and to bring all the more into relief the idolatry of self, his own self-righteousness, and his want of conscience with regard to God, a God whom he pretends, like Jehu, to serve with zeal.

Athaliah is led into the king's house by the way of the horse-gate, there to be put to death. Joash enters by another gate, that of the couriers, that he might sit peacefully upon the throne of David. The path to this throne must not be defiled by blood. It was not so for Jehu with relation to Jezebel. Her blood was sprinkled upon the wall and upon the horses, and Jehu, trampling her underfoot, entered into the house to eat and to drink (2 Kings 9: 33-34). All this scene, though decreed by God, breathes "the fury" of him who is its author. In Judah, all takes places in solemn calm and in the consciousness of the presence of God, maintained by the high priest. It is with the Lord that souls have to do, for Him that they act, His honor that they seek, for, without these motives there could never be purification or complete restoration. In Judah this presence of God acting upon the conscience of the people brings, after purification, a blessed result. "All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet" (v. 20). Joy and peace are the portion of the souls who, in order to please God and serve Him, have separated themselves from that which dishonors Him.

2 Kings 12

Joash, King of Judah

The condition of which we have spoken did not last. The reign of Joash is a sad example, given us by the Word, of a happy beginning in the power of the Spirit of God and an end from which everything the beginning had promised disappears. Byway of exception, Chronicles exposes to us the details of Joash's final unfaithfulness, whereas Kings, no doubt to establish the contrast between the worship of the true God reestablished in Judah and the idolatrous religion of Israel, speaks to us only of the happy and blessed beginning of this reign. Let us then begin with this, but let us first of all examine that which in Joash's character could lead to completely deny the principles that characterized the beginning of his career.

The first words of our account inform us as to this: "And Joash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, all the days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him" (v. 2). Joash, brought up in the law of the Lord from most tender years, guarded with pious care from all outward temptation through the solicitude of Jehoiada and Jehosheba, gifted with a pliant character, distinguished more by his submission than by his energy, submitting to good influences as long as they prevailed, but in danger through lack of "virtue" of yielding to evil influences — Joash was accustomed from childhood on to enjoy a relationship with God through an intermediary without feeling the need for direct communion with the Lord. Not that he lacked the spirit of initiative; the course of piety in which he was enlisted rendered him capable on occasion of reproving even the high priest himself (v. 7); but he lacked the immediate direction of the Spirit of God.

Children of Christians often offer this spectacle. Their parents' faith guides their first steps, a thing which is legitimate and approved of God. They later manifest a genuine faith, but not stripped of its first habits, looking to men rather than to God Himself. Their conscience has never been deeply exercised about man's sinful state and his natural distance from God. They believe that which they have always believed; however one cannot doubt that they have life. Their conduct leaves nothing to be desired, and they have a real interest in the things of God. The Word is not unknown to them, and one sees a Joash reminding even the high priest of the "tribute of Moses the servant of Jehovah laid upon the congregation of Israel, for the tent of testimony" (2 Chr. 24: 6). But the hour of their spiritual emancipation has not yet sounded, when it should have taken place long ago. Knowledge and real piety do not make up for the lack of a direct relationship of the soul with the Lord. The Christian must seek this before all else. Thousands of godly souls remain in a condition of childhood, depending first of all upon their parents, and later upon their spiritual leaders, instead of depending upon God and the Word. Let the leader disappear, and their godliness disappears with him; let him turn aside, and their soul turns aside after him. However amiable certain traits of this piety may be, let us be kept from it, especially during the difficult times that we are passing through. Let us meditate often on this word of the apostle, addressed to the "little children": "And ye have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things" (1 John 2: 20, 26-27). Not that obedience to leaders should be wanting Christians are to obey their leaders and submit to them because "they watch over your souls"; the apostle also charges them to "Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God" (Heb. 13: 7, 17). In no wise, however, does this imply that they must submit to all these without discernment, nor, if they would be kept, that they should refrain from seeking direct and immediate communion with the Lord. Joash obeyed leaders indiscriminately, whether Jehoiada or the princes — and that was his ruin.

Leaders may change or fail; Christ alone does not change: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is "the great shepherd of the sheep." It is to Him that we must cleave. This is one of the solemn instructions that the character and career of Joash offers us.

From the beginning of his reign, one thing, apparently secondary, foretold its decline: "Only, the high places were not removed: the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places" (v. 3). From Solomon's reign on, the presence of the high places was tolerated, for in the beginning, before the erection of the temple, these had not necessarily been idolatrous. Solomon had sacrificed to God at the great high place of Gibeon (1 Kings 3: 2-4); but already the people, encouraged by the king's example, were seeing something else in this, and their superstitious or idolatrous thoughts rose up with the incense that was burned there. Through these high places of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, had allowed shameful idolatry to get a grip upon his kingdom. From thenceforth none of Judah's faithful kings had the courage to abolish them. Asa, whose "heart was perfect with Jehovah all his days," did not remove them (1 Kings 15: 14). Jehoshaphat, who "walked in all the way of Asa his father,' who "turned not aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of Jehovah," allowed them to remain (1 Kings 22: 43-44). The high places are not spoken of in connection with Abijam the son of Rehoboam, Jehoram of Judah, and Ahaziah, because these ungodly kings followed the ways of the kings of Israel and engaged in worse idolatry than they. The same thing that is mentioned about Joash is mentioned again about Amaziah his son, although he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 14: 34); about Azariah (or Uzziah) the son of Amaziah (2 Kings 15: 34); about Jotham the son of Uzziah (2 Kings 15: 34-35); whereas Ahaz the son of Jotham, who followed the ways of the kings of Israel, used the high places for his abominable idolatry (2 Kings 16: 34). With Hezekiah and the first true restoration of Judah, the high places at last disappeared (2 Kings 18: 4). Ungodly Manasseh, his son, rebuilt them (2 Kings 21: 3); Amon, Manasseh's son, followed the way of his father. Lastly, Josiah, at the time of the second restoration was not content merely to remove them like godly Hezekiah, but destroyed them altogether, defiled them, and filled the places where they had been with bones (2 Kings 23: 8, 13-14). This destruction was so complete that none of the evil kings that followed found it possible to rebuild them. In actual fact, only one king of Judah, Josiah, and that near the end of the history of the people, definitely extirpated this evil, this permanent danger for the people of God. These end times, this time of ruin corresponding to our own day, give us such an example. If, as in Josiah's days, God's present testimony is of much lesser importance and extent in the eyes of men, if they even consider it according their own expression, as a negligible quantity, it is not so in God's eyes. The testimony of a Hezekiah or of a Josiah is recorded in His "book of remembrance," and although it raises but a temporary dike against the course of decline and but temporarily postpones the execution of judgment, it brings out the character of God in this world and serves as a means of salvation or edification for the good of souls.

Joash's first concern was the temple of the Lord, the place of God's presence in the midst of His people. When there is a revival of godliness, this neglected object requires a totally new value. God's children feel the need of gathering there where the Lord has been pleased to make His name to dwell, and of honoring His presence in the midst of His own by their activity, by their devotion, and by all their conduct.

"And Joash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, the money of every one that passes the account, the money at which every man is valued, and all the money that comes into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, let the priests take it, every man of his acquaintance; and let them repair the breaches of the house, wherever any breach is found" (vv. 4-5).

As we have said before, we see here with Joash an exact knowledge of the law of the Lord which had been given him at his coronation. A goodly sum must have been employed, according to the king's order, for the restoration of the sanctuary. First of all, we have "all the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah." This included all the cases mentioned by Moses of voluntary gifts and gifts of "a willing heart" for the building of the sanctuary (Ex. 35: 5, 20-29; Num. 7). Money from the spoil may be included in this category (Num. 31: 25-54). Atonement money and ransom money made up the second category (Ex. 30: 11-16; Num. 3: 44-51). Lastly, the money at which every man was valued at consisted of every voluntary gift which was not prescribed by any law or ordinance. This was given at different times, as some of the passages referred to show us. To Joash the important thing was to go back to "the tribute of Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness" (2 Chr. 24: 9), and not to turn aside from the word of the law, when it was a matter of honoring the house of God and all that was connected with it. It is the same in our day, No more than for Joash is it a question for us of beginning to build the house, of re-erecting a new Church; it is only a matter of repairing the breaches, and for that God does not abandon us to our own initiative which would but add new breaches to the ancient evils. In the Word of God we too have our tribute of Moses, the indication of what God is expecting of us; and if our hearts are "willing," they will seek but one thing, the interests of Christ and of the house of God upon earth.

If Joash is full of zeal at this moment, he does not find this same degree of zeal in the priesthood or even in godly Jehoiada who is its head. The priests were employing for their own use the gifts they received from their acquaintances (vv. 7-8). It was not that they did not have the right to live from the things offered at the altar, but their own interest were taking precedence in their hearts over those of the Lord and of His house; their conduct showed this. They lived from their gifts, and the house of God retained its breaches. Jehoiada himself let them do so without protesting Further down (v. 15) we see that people without any official character, from among those who were set over the work down to the carpenters and masons, "dealt faithfully," much more so than the priests themselves. May we exhort ourselves, following the example of these men, to show the same heart for the work and faithfulness in the service entrusted to us, in order to "adorn the teaching which is of our Savior God in all things" (Titus 2: 10).

On the other hand, those who had the money in hand to distribute to the workers, did not distrust them, for they recognized the selflessness brought to light by their entire conduct. Thus a happy communion reigned among all, and nothing came in to hinder the orderly advance of the work. Such a result is always produced when the interests of the house of God, instead of being relegated to the background, are considered as the chief thing.

In spite of this, the needs of the priests were not forgotten. Certain sums (the monies of the trespass and sin offerings) were not deposited in the chest placed at the entry of the house of the Lord, and these remained set apart for the priesthood (v. 16). Thus everything was provided for with order and measure.

Between verses 16 and 17, the account in 2 Chronicles 24: 17-22 is woven in, that is to say, the fall of Joash who went as far as to murder Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. When we come to the books of Chronicles, there will be time to meditate upon this last sad year of such a lovely reign; but this deed was enough to destroy the fruit of Joash's testimony.

Hazael, the king of Syria, God's rod, comes up against Jerusalem after having seized Gath, located at the foot of the mountains of Judah and which formed the key to the land on the side of the land of the Philistines. Joash, in order to pay his ransom to Hazael, sent him all the hallowed things of the house of God. What had become of his wonderful zeal for all that pertained to Jehovah? According to 2 Chronicles 24: 23-27, this did not prevent Hazael from presenting himself at Jerusalem with a small number of men, to the shame and disgrace of Joash's great army, now without strength because he had forsaken the Lord, the God of his fathers. All the princes of the people who had incited the king to evil and had conspired against Zechariah are put to death. Thus the word spoken by that dying prophet was fulfilled: "Jehovah see and require it." Joash himself, left "in great diseases" by the enemy, is slain by his servants, an Ammonite and a Moabite, unconscious instruments of divine justice, this also avenging the blood of the son of Jehoiada upon the king according to the word of the prophet.

2 Kings 13: 1-9

Jehoahaz' son of Jehu, King of Israel

The Lord fulfilled His promise made to Jehu: "Thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel" (2 Kings 10-30). Jehoahaz succeeded his father. Second Chronicles, which gives the history of the family of David, makes no mention of Jehoahaz because there were no relationships between this king and Judah. When such relationships did not exist, this book passes over those kings in silence. Jehoahaz did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam any more than did his father, and even the Asherah, idol of the Phoenician goddess of love, whose impure worship had been inaugurated by Ahab at Samaria (1 Kings 16: 33) remained in Israel's capital. Also God's rod, in the persons of Hazael and Ben-Hadad his son, continued to beat down the ten tribes.

Nevertheless, what mercy in the heart of God! It is sufficient that Jehoahaz, without his heart being changed in any way, besought the Lord, for Him to answer, moved by the misery and oppression of Israel. "And Jehoahaz besought Jehovah, and Jehovah hearkened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them" (2 Kings 13: 4). He takes account of the slightest movement of an unhappy soul toward Himself. God is very easily found. Who henceforth might be able to say that he had sought Him in vain, when the most ungodly man, should he but for an instant turn toward Him, would receive an answer? "And Jehovah gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before" (v. 5). This savior appeared, as we shall see, in the person of Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz. At last the people might enjoy a little quiet. Had they attributed this favor to God, this blessing would have continued, but "they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, ' but "walked therein" (v. 6). The remark is constantly made that the world gladly enjoys God's favors without being the least bit careful to serve him.

2 Kings 13: 10-25

Joash, King of Israel, and Elisha

Joash, the son of Jehoahaz and grandson of Jehu, reigned sixteen years, the first three years simultaneously with Joash, king of Judah, whose reign lasted forty years. Not only did he not turn aside from any of the sins of Jeroboam, but "he walked therein" (v. 11), the Word here indicating to us that he took them as his rule of conduct. These kings of Israel who one after another followed the same path had very powerful and readily discerned motives for acting thus. Indeed, their authority and the possession of their kingdom were, humanly speaking, bound to a religion which separated them from Judah's worship with its temple and Jerusalem as its center. To return to the worship of Jehovah would have been to abandon their dominion, to submit themselves to the family of David, and to renounce their own royal prerogatives. Their thoughts naturally had no connection with those of God. The Lord's judgment had separated the ten tribes from the house of David. Had they remained faithful to the Lord, He would doubtless have taught them the way to combine His worship with their being deprived of the temple. But rather than that, though separating them in practical respects from Judah, He could have kept them in relationship religiously with the temple at Jerusalem. This is all the more striking in Joash of Israel's case, in that later God delivered into his hand the king of Judah and Jerusalem. If he had had any concern for Jehovah whatever, occasion was thus offered him to renew the religious bond with the temple of God that had been broken by Jeroboam. Much later still, Josiah, this faithful king of Judah, furnishes us with another example. Without pretending to recover his royal prerogatives over Ephraim, by his zeal he becomes the restorer of the worship of Jehovah among those of the ten tribes who had escaped the captivity (2 Kings 23: 15-20).

As for the power of Joash of Israel, it was great. His reign was important, and he accomplished many things. But he lived without God, and what is left of him? As with so many other rulers over men, nothing remains as to him but this word: "This man was born there" (Ps. 87: 4).

There was however a bright spot in the life of Joash of Israel (vv. 14-21), as in that of Jehoahaz. The latter, at a time of oppression and misery, besought the Lord, who answered him. Joash went to visit Elisha when Elisha was dying, and wept over his face. At this time circumstances were still as difficult for him as they had been for his father. Hazael, and after him his son Ben-Hadad, were making their yoke weigh heavily upon Israel. The "savior of Israel" had not yet been manifested in the person of Joash. Only God's grace could consecrate him for this work; but meanwhile the prophet, dispenser of this grace, was about to die. With him the last means of deliverance for the people would disappear. What would become of Israel without him? The king laments, weeps over the face of Elisha, crying out: "My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" Remembering the prophet's word at Elijah's rapture, he thus expresses his sorrow at losing him. Was not he, Elisha, the prophet of grace, who was about to die, as worthy of going up to heaven as Elijah? At the same time the king was bearing witness by these words that Elisha had the same value to him that Elijah had had to Elisha. If the only agent of blessing between God and Israel must die, all blessing was then lost to this oppressed people. Joash's heart is torn. Perhaps this was merely a superficial feeling, in any case it was not very long-lasting, but it was one that drew the sympathy of the heart of God to this votary of idols. He had promised a savior to Israel; Joash would be this savior. Had he not gone down to Elisha, deliverance would have been hindered, and victory impossible.

Let us notice an interesting fact: We have here two histories of Joash, each one ending in a summary which repeats the same words (vv. 12-13; 2 Kings 14: 15-16). The first history contains the king's general character; the second, his victories over Syria and over Judah. Between these two portions we find the end of Elisha's career, and what was able to make of this evil king an instrument of deliverance for his people. This was grace. God shows grace whenever and as long as He is able to do so. Grace delights in a soul in which even a flash of repentance appears, or in the mere sigh of an oppressed heart. With his last breath the prophet's moments, now numbered, are yet used to rekindle, be it but for an instant, the little spark of life still remaining in the heart of the king, this blackened firebrand.

Moreover, let us notice that the word spoken to Elijah: "Him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay," is only fulfilled, and that prophetically, in these last moments of the prophet's life. So little is he a prophet of judgment that he does not exercise judgment except in figure, and even this judgment is nothing other than the salvation of Israel and its deliverance from the yoke of Syria. Thus, as we have seen all though his history, Elisha never loses his character of grace, but in order to communicate grace to his people, he must die, and this is what we shall find in the passage now occupying us.

If Joash is to become a savior for Israel, it will in no wise be because he merits this title by or in himself. His heart is unchanged, his ungodliness remains, but God will use him as instrument of a salvation whose starting-point is the death of the man of God. "And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took a bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thy hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it; and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands, and said, Open the window eastward" (vv. 15-17). The king was only to follow Elisha's word and must not take any initiative, but more than that, it is Elisha's hands that direct the hand of the king, that identify themselves with the judgment of Ben-Hadad, but at the same time with the salvation that this judgment would bring about for Israel. Elisha's hands are those of the savior of the people; without them there would not be any deliverance. Here the prophet is the representative of the Lord; it must be demonstrated that everything comes from Him.

"Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, An arrow of Jehovah's deliverance, even an arrow of deliverance from the Syrians; and thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou hast consumed them" (v. 17). The king shoots his arrow eastward; nothing is done without the word of God. Joash is unable to understand anything of this; the prophet must explain the matter to him. It is needful for Joash to know that he is an instrument devoid of action, having no worth in himself, when God condescends to employ him.

"An arrow of Jehovah's deliverance!" Such is the general plan. Next we find the detail of the defeat of the Syrians. "And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed" (v. 18). The destruction of Syria would depend upon the degree of faith, of zeal, of trust in God which Joash is about to display. It will be shown whether this instrument can become a means of complete deliverance for Israel by itself. Alas! When it is a matter of smiting upon the ground without having Elisha's hands over his hands, when, in a word, he is left to his own resources, the king strikes the ground with his arrows three times and stops. Before so much grace and condescension on God's part, the man shows himself to be not only insufficient, but faithless. Before, when he was shooting his arrows eastward, he was ignorant of the significance of this act and was not responsible to know it. God explained it to him. Now that he could understand it in striking his arrows upon the ground, he stops. The wrath of the man of God, God's wrath, blazes against him: I would have completely delivered this people; that depended upon you, and you were not willing to do so! You shall smite the enemy but thrice.

Just as does Elijah's end, so Elisha's speaks to us of Christ. It is with a dying Christ that we find grace and deliverance. A sigh sent up to Him is enough that one can be freed from the enemy who is oppressing us. This salvation is offered to the most wretched, to the most unworthy, who may thus become instrument of deliverance for others. What an honor and what a privilege! But the heart's natural unbelief paralyzes the action of the Spirit and reduces all God's good will towards man to nothing As long as we allow ourselves to be directed by the word in every movement we must make (this account is the evident confirmation of this), success is assured to us; once the least thing is left to our responsibility, we grind to a halt and thus thwart the Lord's plans of grace.

The scene that follows (vv. 20-21) is as striking as that which we have just considered. The history of Elisha does not end with the prophet's wrath, but ends with death for himself and resurrection for others. During his lifetime, Elisha, like Elijah his master, had brought a dead person back to life. This event, which in itself alone demonstrated God's presence in a man in the midst of Israel — this event which later characterized the Son of God at the tomb of Lazarus — had even reached the ears of the king. But a scene marvelous in another way from that of the Shunammite's son unfolds before us now. It is in his death that Elisha becomes the means of life for one who is dead. It was reserved for Another, and for Him alone, to come forth from the tomb in the power of the life that was in Himself, and to be declared Son of God in power, Son of the living God, through His own resurrection. Here it is by the death of the prophet, in touching Elisha's bones, that one who had died finds life. This thing became much more real, even in a material way, at the death of our beloved Savior. It was at His death, when He had dismissed His spirit, that the bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised to enter into the holy city. From the moral and spiritual aspect it is by entering through faith into contact with a dead Christ that we have eternal life and resurrection in the last day (John 6: 54). In His death the power of death has been conquered for us, and the dominion of him who held this power is broken. He who was unable not to want to die, has died that He might give life.

However, let us not forget the prophetic character of this scene. The end of Israel's last great prophet, the herald of grace, is not linked up with chariots and horsemen which carry him to heaven; it is linked up with a tomb. "Elisha died, and they buried him." After his death the enemy's oppression is displayed in a Moabite incursion upon Israel's territory. The poor people do not even have leisure to bury their dead, but they find the sepulchre of Elisha just in the nick of time to cast in a dead body. From the moment that this dead body, typical of Israel, is laid among the dead and comes into actual contact with the dead prophet, from the moment that he "touched the bones of Elisha, and he revived, and stood upon his feet" (v. 21). So it will be with Israel in the last days; Israel will find national life again and come forth from among the dead from the moment they enter into relationship with Him whom they have pierced, and believe in Him. This will be the last miracle of grace worked for this people, when it will have been demonstrated that the nation's state is without resource and hopeless. The history of Elisha ends here.

In verses 22 to 25, the prophet's word to Joash is fulfilled. Hazael had taken the cities of Israel away from Jehoahaz; Joash retakes them from Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael, and "three times did Joash beat him."

2 Kings 14: 1-22

Joash, King of Israel — Amaziah, King of Judah

Amaziah, the son of Joash king of Judah, began to reign in the second year of Joash king of Israel. He reigned fifteen years simultaneously with this king and twenty-nine years in all at Jerusalem. At this point let us notice here in the history in kings, the role of mothers in the conduct of their children. When these mothers come from Judah and Jerusalem, it is rare to see their sons follow the worship of false gods. Only the four last kings of Judah, in the time of its thorough decadence, escape this influence of their mothers, who were of the same tribe and were themselves enveloped, so to speak, in this apostasy. It is said of these kings, that they "did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father(s) had done." But we shall come back to this remark again.

The mother of Joash of Judah was Zibiah of Beer-sheba; the mother of Amaziah the son of Joash was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. We shall meet other such examples. Contrariwise, the influence of idolatrous mothers or wives was pernicious for the kings.

The wife of Jehoram of Judah was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab (2 Kings 8: 18); Ahaziah was the son of Athaliah (2 Kings 8: 26). This observation should make Christian mothers realize their responsibility and ought to exercise them to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord; on the other hand it shows that the union of a Christian family head with a woman of the world is morally disastrous for the children issuing from such a union.

Amaziah "did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not like David his father: he did according to all that Joash his father had done" (v. 3). To govern his conduct, Amaziah should have gone back to the origin of the kingship and to the conduct of David, king according to God's heart. No doubt David had seriously failed in his life and had had to undergo severe discipline on this account; but David's heart had always been upright when it had been a matter of the Lord's service and of the throne of God in the midst of His people. Amaziah followed the footsteps of his father Joash whose life was divided, as we have seen, into two very distinct periods, one of true godliness, the other of a decline all the more marked in that its beginnings had been so brilliant.

Nevertheless, this beginning by itself does not denote a heart devoted unreservedly to the service of the Lord. A straw in a piece of cast iron is enough to cause it to break when the right occasion presents itself. This straw was the maintenance of the high places. We have already spoken of this subject, and we return to it to observe that, apart from the two exceptions already mentioned, this word "Only, the high places were not removed" is like a refrain accompanying the history of the faithful kings of Judah; whereas another refrain, "He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," designates the kings of Israel. These kings ordered their conduct in matters religious according to that of the head of their royal house, who was an idolater. The kings of Judah, instead of governing themselves according to David their father, were generally content to seek their point of departure in the reign of Solomon, who had not abolished the high places. But it is always very dangerous to accommodate oneself to a system which, even when boasting of great antiquity, does not seek the mind of God as its source. This is also the history of the responsible Church. Instead of linking up her testimony with "that which was from the beginning," she found her starting-point in the customs, traditions, and principles that characterized her when she was already in decline. Joash tolerated the people's incense-burning upon the high places; he himself, no doubt, did not participate in these idolatrous customs, but he was no less guilty. To tolerate evil in the people whom God had entrusted to him was the equivalent of committing it himself.

A second point is to Amaziah's praise: "And it came to pass when the kingdom was established in his hand, that he slew his servants who had smitten the king his father" (v. 5). He did not let evil go unpunished in the sphere of his responsibility. At least in this respect he understood, like Solomon at his accession to the throne, that to tolerate crime and evil was to make himself liable for it. This question of liability is little understood today. Most Christians feel that they are not guilty in tolerating evil in the sphere to which they belong, that their responsibility is taken care of if they abstain from evil personally. This is a serious error, which sooner or later bears its sad fruits! "Holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever" (Ps. 93: 5) — not only the Christian individually. The ruin and final apostasy of Christendom plays a large part in the misunderstanding of this truth. In this at least, Amaziah was faithful, somewhat counterbalancing his lack of vigilance with respect to the high places.

"But,' it is added, "the children of those that smote him he did not put to death; according to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses wherein Jehovah commanded saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin" (v. 6). There again, Amaziah shows an intelligent respect for the Word of God. This commandment of the Lord had been given in Deuteronomy 24: 16 and Amaziah governed himself by it with the obedient heart required of all those who hear and read His Word.

Between verses 6 and 7 we have an intentional hiatus filled in by 2 Chronicles 25: 5-16. We shall follow our custom of not, except in passing, encroaching upon that which this latter book presents, for by this omission the Word brings out the sin of the kings of Israel, by opposing it to that which was righteous and godly in the conduct of the kings of Judah. Nevertheless, the account in Chronicles gives us to understand the event related in verses 7 to 14 of our chapter. Amaziah, for a time disposed to use troops of Israel whom he had hired to fight Edom, and warned by the prophet that "Jehovah is not with Israel," gives up his project which had already been executed in part and sends this contingent back to their homes. With only his own army and in dependence upon the Lord, he undertakes the campaign against Edom, and wins a brilliant victory. The troops of Israel that had been dismissed fall upon the cities of Judah, smiting three thousand men and taking much spoil. But, as the prophet had said to Amaziah, the Lord was able to give him much more than the wages given to the men of Ephraim. If he must in some measure incur the consequences of his unbelief in hiring them without having consulted the Lord, he can on the other hand count upon the blessing that follows obedience.

This calamity, casting a pall upon his victory over Edom, does not drive the king to the Lord. Even his victory becomes an occasion of stumbling for him. He brings the gods of the Edomites to Judah and bows down before them without listening to the protests of a new prophet.

His pride as a victorious king being wounded, and incensed by the humiliation which the troops of Ephraim had inflicted upon him, Amaziah provokes Joash the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. He collides with a pride even greater than his own. Joash answers him by a very transparent parable: Jehoram of Judah, the thorn-bush of Lebanon, husband of Athaliah the daughter of Ahab, had sent to Jehoram of Israel, the cedar of Lebanon, asking him for a wife from the house of Ahab for his son Ahaziah. Jehu, the wild beast in Lebanon, had trodden underfoot Ahaziah, the king of Judah . . . And now his successor, instead of humbling himself, was glorying in his victory over Edom! Here we see Joash's irritation break forth, seeing his military forces despised while Judah alone had been sufficient to conquer Edom.

Amaziah does not listen to this warning, and "it was of God," Chronicles tell us (2 Chr. 25: 20), "that he might deliver them into the enemy's hand, because they had sought after the gods of Edom." Judah is beaten, Amaziah taken prisoner, Jerusalem broken down, all the treasures of the king and of the temple taken away as spoil along with hostages (vv. 12-14). Amaziah meets his God, whom he had professed to serve and honor, as a consuming fire from that moment when he forsakes Him to serve other gods.

This same unfaithfulness is the cause of Amaziah's tragic death. Our chapter simply recounts that they conspired against him at Jerusalem and that he fled to Lachish, that they sent after him to slay him, and that they brought him on horses to bury him with his fathers in the city of David. But Chronicles gives us the solemn reason for this drama: "From the time that Amaziah turned aside from following Jehovah, they made a conspiracy against him."

In the meantime (vv. 15-16), Joash of Israel, the son of Jehoahaz, died so that Amaziah lived an additional fifteen years after his conqueror. His son Azariah succeeded him. He recovered Elath for Judah and restored it. This city which previously, together with all the territory of Edom to which it belonged, had been under the rule of David and had formed part of the Solomon's dominion, had been an important outlet for his maritime power, for it was located not far from Ezion-Geber on the shore of the Red Sea (1 Kings 9: 26; 2 Chr. 8: 17). After Azariah, it did not remain in the hands of Judah for long Sixty-eight years later, Rezin the king of Syria, recovered it (2 Kings 16: 6).

2 Kings 14: 23-29

Jeroboam II, King of Israel

Jeroboam, king of Israel, the third successor of Jehu, succeeds Joash, his father. "He did evil in the sight of Jehovah: he departed not from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" (v. 24). Nonetheless his reign lasted forty-one years! One might believe, and we have several examples in this history, that God always promptly cut off the kings whose conduct dishonored Him. Such is the case with Zechariah, the son of this same Jeroboam (2 Kings 15: 8), but it is not so here. God has different ways which He knows how to reconcile with His longsuffering and His mercy. His pity for Israel's state of being oppressed directs His ways concerning Jeroboam's reign. "Jehovah saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and that there was not any shut up, nor any-left, nor any helper for Israel. And Jehovah had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens; and he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash" (vv. 26-27). God raises up a savior for this people in the person of this king who had incurred His displeasure, just as He had previously done with Joash his father (2 Kings 13: 5). "He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the sea of the plain" (v. 25).

The territory of Hamath, the principal city of upper Syria, had at one time belonged to Solomon (2 Chr. 8: 3). Jeroboam's victory restored to Israel "the entrance of Hamath," a very important strategic position. The city of Hamath itself does not seem to have been part of the conquest, but the borders of Israel were restored from the entrance of Hamath to the Salt Sea, which is the Dead Sea (cf. Joshua 3: 16). Taking possession of this enlarged Israel's territory at the expense of that of Judah, for a part of Damascus and of Hamath had formerly belonged to the latter (v. 28).

Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai, had announced this event beforehand (v. 25). Jonah is the first prophet about whom we have a prophetic writing Our passage here presents him as a prophet of Israel. His prophecy has not been preserved for us. It spoke of a particular event which had no abiding import. It is mentioned in Scripture, but it is not, according to what we have in 2 Peter 1: 20, a "prophecy of scripture." The latter is never interpreted by the events near at hand to which it alludes. Jonah is presented to us in this passage as a prophet of grace and of temporary deliverance of Israel.

A few words will suffice to characterize the book which speaks of him. Jonah, representing the people who glory in their legal righteousness, rebels against the Lord, who wishes to send him to the Gentiles. He is for the moment thrown into the sea by the nations whose ship can then sail in peace upon a calmed sea. At the end of three days, the prophet, representing the Messiah who takes the place of unfaithful Israel, is raised, and the new Israel announces the judgment and grace that follow its repentance. He is then enlightened as to the merciful purposes of the Lord.

Apart from its prophetic meaning which ought not to detain us here, Jonah's preaching against Nineveh has a historical importance for the course of events which are unfolded in this part of the book of kings. It shows us the considerable role of the Assyrian kingdom at this epoch, a kingdom which would enter into conflict with that of Israel, to accomplish the judgments of God.

The prophet Amos, who prophesied in the same epoch, announced to the house of Israel that Jeroboam's conquests would not be long-lasting The Assyrian would capture these from them. "For behold, O house of Israel, said Jehovah the God of hosts, I will raise up against you a nation; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hamath unto the torrent of the Arabah" (Amos 6: 14). Less than one hundred years later, this prophecy was realized under Hezekiah (2 Kings 18: 34; 2 Kings 19: 13). Jeroboam had "put far away the evil day" (Amos 6: 3), in reconquering Israel's borders to "Hamath the great" (Amos 6: 1-2), and unto the sea of the plain. Behold, says Amos, the evil day is near at hand. On the eve of ruin, the prince was relaxing, thinking only of his ease (Amos 6: 4), and behold, Hamath itself and Gath (recaptured by Uzziah — 2 Chr. 26: 6), and Calneh and Babylonia were about to fall into the hands of the Assyrians! The house of Jeroboam was threatened with ruin under the judgment of the Lord, who would "not again pass" His people any more, and who would cause judgment to fall upon them from top to bottom, even to their foundations (Amos 7: 7-9).

It is remarkable that Hosea, prophesying under the reign of Uzziah, of Jotham, of Ahaz, and of Hezekiah, kings of Judah, mentions only Jeroboam, king of Israel, and passes over his successors, under whom he likewise prophesied, in silence (Hosea 1: 1). For him their history seems to stop with Jeroboam, although Zechariah, this latter's son, represented the fourth generation granted the house of Jehu by the Lord (2 Kings 10: 30). But Zechariah, the last link of this chain, is in fact already rejected. He reigns only six months, and God turns away from him and his successors, according to His word: "I will not again pass by them any more" (Amos 7: 8; Amos 8: 2); and according to that which Hosea says: "They have set up kings, but not by me" (Hosea 8: 4).

Amos gives us some details about the end of the reign of Jeroboam II (Amos 7: 10-17). Amaziah, priest of the calf at Bethel, warns the king that Amos is prophesying against Israel, adding (which was a lie) that he had foretold the violent death of the king By this slander, Amaziah was seeking to rid himself of the prophet and to have him sent away to Judah, for he was giving him competition at Bethel, "the king's sanctuary, and . . . the house of the kingdom." (Bethel, "the house of God" had been completely forgotten.) God's true witness embarrasses Amaziah, who clings to his usurped priesthood and to his official position. Amos answers him: "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And Jehovah took me as I followed the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel" (Amos 7: 14-15). Amos was not dependent upon a prophets' school, but directly upon God, nor was he of the priestly family. Christ expresses Himself likewise later on in the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 13: 6). The Holy Spirit had chosen Amos from among the shepherds of Tekoa (Amos 1: 1), from being among the sheep, just as He had formerly chosen David, His anointed. The Lord had said to him, "Go" and he had gone. We have in Amos an example of the ministry that is attached directly to that of Christ, and that is a foretaste of what the entire Christian ministry later on would be, or rather ought to be. Now the prophet takes the false minister and his false pretensions to task directly: "Therefore thus said Jehovah: Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided with the line; and thou shalt die in a land that is unclean; and Israel shall certainly go into captivity, out of his land" (Amos 7: 17).

A terrible judgment must fall upon these official men in the service of the world and of its false gods whom they christen with the name of the Lord; as for Israel, they must certainly be carried away captive. Henceforth there would be no more repentance in God's heart with respect to them. The time was come; it was too late, as it is said in Revelation 22: 11: "Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still; and let the filthy make himself filthy still!" Judah was to be spared a while yet, and God wanted to produce revivals there until the hour foretold by Jeremiah would sound for Judah.

2 Kings 15: 1-7

Azariah or Uzziah, King of Judah

Second Chronicles 26 gives us the detailed history of Azariah or Uzziah, who succeeded Amaziah, his father. His mother was of Jerusalem. His reign was long, beginning when he was still very young. "And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Only,' the account adds, "the high places were not removed: the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places" ever the habitual refrain for Judah, just as with the calves of Jeroboam for Israel. The prophet Micah alludes to these two characters to explain the judgment of God upon his people. "For the transgression of Jacob is all this " he says, "and for the sins of the house of Israel. Whence is the transgression of Jacob? is it not from Samaria? And whence are the high places of Judah? are they not from Jerusalem?"(Micah 1: 5).

Our account of the reign of Uzziah contains the same hiatus that we have already noted with regard to Amaziah.

Like the idolatry of the latter, the sin of Uzziah, reported in 2 Chronicles 26, is passed over in silence. We have above said that the reason is evident. It is a matter of bringing out, without weakening it by the account of their faults and of their inconsistencies, the piety of the kings of Judah, contrasting this with the idolatry of the kings of Israel which cried to the Lord for vengeance. Here we find only, "And Jehovah smote the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate house," (v. 5) without the cause of his judgment being mentioned.

In fact, Uzziah, blessed at the beginning for his faithfulness, but puffed up by the enormous success of his career, had thought he could usurp the high priest's place in offering incense upon the golden altar himself. This act may recall the rebellion of the Levite, Korah, long before, who wanted to take Aaron's place. But with Uzziah this evil had another character. The idea of his dignity, of his considerable importance as king, led him, the civil power, to usurp the religious authority. This sin forms one of the numerous elements of present-day Christendom. The Lord judges Uzziah by striking him with leprosy. He is expelled from the temple by the priests and remained excluded from the congregation of Israel until his death. This authority, of which he was so proud and the honor of which he had not attributed to the Lord, is removed from him and entrusted to his son Jotham years before his death. It was impossible to tolerate fleshly pretensions — terrible defilement when one brought these into the house of God — and Uzziah dies, separated from the blessings of this house for having disregarded the dignity of the high priesthood (type of that of Christ), which the Lord had established there.

2 Kings 16: 8-12

Zechariah, King of Israel

We shall not enter into the chronological difficulties raised concerning the date of the accession to the throne of Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam II, our purpose not being to answer here the attacks of unbelief. When difficulties are raised by human reasoning, wisdom consists in waiting upon God to resolve them, if we lack the necessary light. Our dependence upon Him is thus put to the test, and we can be certain that in due time we shall receive the answer. How often have Christians who were in humble submission to the Word made this experience!

Zechariah, the last king descended from Jehu, reigns only six months at Samaria. "And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." If, as we have seen, the godly kings of Judah were lacking in energy to abolish the high places — and how Solomon's negligence in respect to this had born disastrous results among his successors, accustomed to patterning themselves according to the customs tolerated by the glorious head of their dynasty — those of Israel, by contrast, had walked resolutely in the custom instituted by Jeroboam I. Examples are not wanting in present-day Christendom to characterize these two tendencies. From the moment when, not going back to the pure fountain of the Word of God, Protestant Christendom, at the very time when accepting the scriptural truths proclaimed by the reformers, also accepted certain anti-scriptural dogmas which these had not given up, all was already destined for quick ruin. From the moment when, walking in the semi-idolatrous religion of the bishops of Rome or of the East, Catholicism forsook the Word of God to substitute its own fables for it, judgment must overtake it. It has been pronounced and will in the near future fall on the great harlot.

Here the final period of usurpations and of assassinations which precede the carrying away of the ten tribes begins, the period of which Hosea, the prophet of Israel, had said: "They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me" (Hosea 7: 7). The heart of the prophet in his lengthy lamentation betrays his anguish concerning Israel. The time had come when God would "visit the blood of Jizreel upon the house of Jehu, and cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease" (Hosea 1: 4). The Lord had kept silent about the blood shed by Jehu at Jizreel; He had not spoken of it to anyone, no, not even to guilty Jehu. Contrariwise, it might have seemed to him that when God said to him, "Thou has executed well that which is right in my sight" (2 Kings 10: 30), and I shall reward thee, that God was approving all that Jehu had done. Far from it! If the Lord had raised him up for judgment and approved him in that, the time was come when the fleshly guile and the furious violence of this king must find their chastisement. The word of the Lord: "Thy sons shall sit upon the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation" (2 Kings 15: 12), had been accomplished as recompense, and now His word was being accomplished in retribution and in righteous judgment. What a God is ours! Who is able, as He is, to weigh in the same balance both the acts He approves of and those He condemns, to reward and to punish them in rendering retribution according to His ways of righteous government?

2 Kings 15: 13-22

Shallum and Menahem, Kings of Israel

Shallum conspired against Zechariah, killed him, and reigned in his stead. His crime scarcely benefited him, for at the end of a month he fell beneath the blows of Menahem. We are touching the reason for all these acts of violence: each is wanting to usurp power for his own gain. With conscience no longer lifting up its voice, sinners are delivered up to all the instincts of their evil nature.

The city of Tiphsah not having wanted to open its gates to Menahem, he treats it with utmost cruelty. He succeeds in maintaining himself upon the throne for ten years. He does that which is evil, walking in the sins of Jeroboam all his days. Under his reign the Assyrians at last appear upon the scene: "Pul the king of Assyria came against the land" (v. 19). This is the first king of Assyria whose name is mentioned in biblical history. This personage has occasioned much debate among critics, who seem to agree now to consider him identical with Tiglath-Pileser, one of the greatest and best-known among the Assyrian monarchs (2 Kings 15: 29; 2 Kings 16: 7; etc.). In keeping simply to the letter of Scripture, we shall rather be led to see in Pul, king of Assyria, a distinct person, according to what is told us in 1 Chronicle 5: 26: "And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh." The carrying away of the tribes beyond the Jordan is attributed in verse 29 of our chapter to Tiglath-Pileser, whereas Pul is presented to us in verse 19 as coming against Israel, but influenced by an immense tribute of silver (more than six million U.S. dollars in terms of the value of silver at the time of the translation of this book) to become the protector of the king of Israel "that his hand might be with him to establish the kingdom" so greatly shaken "in his hand." This Pul, we have not yet pointed out enough, "turned back, and stayed not there in the land" (v. 20), which was not the case with his successor. It is true that human documents are silent with regard to him, and perhaps will always remain so, but we have the Word of God as guide, and our safeguard is to receive it simply, as God has given it to us. Hosea mentions the fact that is before us now: Ephraim went "to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb; but he was unable to heal you, nor hath he removed your sore (Hosea 5: 13). This king Jareb may well be none other than Pul* His name means, "He who contests," doubtless an allusion to the combative power of the Assyrian, whom Israel thought to appease and to propitiate by presents. "The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calf of Beth-aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the idolatrous priests thereof shall tremble for it, for its glory, because it is departed from it. Yea, it shall be carried unto Assyria as a present for king Jareb" (Hosea 10: 5-6). Even one of Jeroboam's calves had been carried to Assyria as a present for its king! And the same prophet adds in another place: "They are gone up to Assyria as a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has hired lovers" (Hosea 8: 9). But what a shame for Israel! Their god given to the enemy of their race as a common present! That too was of the Lord.

*Perhaps also Shalmaneser. In this case, the calf of Bethel would have been sent to this latter by Hoshea. Beth even (Hosea 4: 15; Hosea 5: 6) signified "House of iniquity," taking the place of Bethel, "House of God."

In the final analysis, what was the use of all the politics and quests after alliances and protection, turning now toward Assyria, then toward Egypt? Did they delay for one instant the judgment that had been decreed? And it is the same in our own day, is it not? The guarantees that nations are seeking to procure one from the other will all disappear like chaff carried away by the wind when "the Lamb that was slain" shall step forward to take the book of God's counsels and ways toward the world and carry it into execution.

2 Kings 15.23-31

Pekahiah and Pekah, Kings of Israel

Menahem not having died a violent death, his son Pekahiah reigned in his stead. The retributive government of God is not exercised toward Menahem, and his case, like a number of others in this history, teaches us that God's earthly government is not the measure of His righteousness nor His full retribution of the ways of men. This was the error of Job's friends, against whom Elihu rose up in anger.

During the two years of his reign, Pekahiah like all his predecessors persevered in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Let us note here that which is repeated so often in the preceding chapters, that by the sins of their kings, Israel was made to sin. The sin of an individual is rendered considerably more serious when it becomes a stumbling-stone for others, and its consequences are reckoned to those who carry away the ignorant and poorly established in the pathway of their own disobedience.

Pekah, the son of Remaliah, assisted in his conspiracy by men of Gilead, kills Pekahiah as well as two of his companions. He reigns twenty years in Samaria and follows, with regard to the Lord, the way of the kings of Israel. The results of his reign are summarized in verse 29. The Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser comes up against him and carries away captive the Reubenites, the Gadites, and that half tribe of Manasseh, all the people settled beyond the Jordan, "and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan — unto this day" (1 Chr. 5: 26). The dismemberment of the kingdom of Ephraim begins with the tribes which, for their own convenience, had chosen their portion on the other side of the Jordan.

It is always so. Christians who do not enter resolutely and without a backward glance upon the ground where, like the Jordan, the death of Christ an insurmountable barrier between them and the world, such Christians are the first to be exposed to the attacks of the enemy and become the poor captives of the world, with which, despite their real faith, they have not consented to break completely. Thus the dismembering of the kingdom of Israel begins to take place. This would be completed under the reign of Hoshea. We shall return to Pekah in the next chapter, but before this we find mention made of the reign of Jotham.

2 Kings 15: 32-38

Jotham, King of Judah

This son of Uzziah began his reign the second year of Pekah (cf. 2 Chr. 27: 1-9), and reigned sixteen years at Jerusalem. His mother, Jerusha, daughter of Zadok, was probably of the priestly family. With her we continue to observe the blessed role of the mothers of the kings of Judah. Nothing of the kind for the kings of Israel. But "the people still acted corruptly" (2 Chr. 27: 2), because of the lack of decision in these godly kings who did not dare attack idolatry at its root. The account in Chronicles teaches us that Jotham "became strong, for he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God." Godliness is a source of strength for us also, and of spiritual power. From the moment that our ways are not ordered before God, strength forsakes us. Serious reflection for all, and a thousand times yet more serious for those who have a particular responsibility with respect to the people of God. Only the sense of this strength presents a danger. We have seen in the case of Uzziah that this feeling pushed him to lift himself up before the high priest (2 Chr. 26: 16-21). Jotham does not become puffed up by his strength. Also it is said of him, in comparing him with his father: "Only he entered not into the temple of Jehovah" (2 Chr. 27: 2). On the contrary, being humble, he was occupied with the house of God. He "built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah" (v. 35), a deed characteristic of his reign in the book of kings. What a privilege when a believer leaves behind him as a remembrance, that which he has done for the house of God! God records this deed and leaves it with us as a memorial for Jotham. There are other deeds in his life, and Chronicles informs us of them, but is it not touching to see that God puts this one into the spotlight as characteristic, in His eyes, of the reign of this faithful king Without giving way to imagination, there is nothing that forbids us to think that the daughter of Zadok might have inculcated into her son from his youth on a respect for the temple of the Lord, and that under this influence the center of the king's activity was the house of God.

Pekah, the son of Remaliah, allied with Rezin, king of Syria, begins to go up against Judah in the days of Jotham (v. 37). The sin of Judah necessitated the discipline of God, but the consequences of this discipline could be removed by the godliness of their leader, as happened later under pious Hezekiah with regard to the Assyrian. It seems also that this may have been the case during the reign of Jotham.

2 Kings 16

Ahaz, King of Judah

Ahaz, the son of Jotham, began to reign over Judah three years before the death of Pekah, king of Israel, who reigned twenty years at Samaria. As though God would spare bringing shame to his mother, her name is not given us. Instead of serving the Lord, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and returned to the evil days of ungodly Ahab, establishing in Judah the worship of Baal and that of Moloch, to whom he sacrificed his sons (2 Chr. 28: 2). His predecessors had never abolished the high places, and had allowed the people to burn incense there without themselves joining in this idolatry. Ahaz himself "sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree" (2 Kings 16: 4). He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord like the kings of Israel. Let us observe that this designation "evil" is always given us in reference to the Lord. It no doubt happens that forsaking God delivers the guilty one to all sorts of moral evil, to crime and impurity, but it is not always so. Jeroboam I, Joash of Israel, and Jeroboam II were remarkable monarchs in the eyes of men. Two of them were "saviors" of their nation, contributing to establish its repute and to reconquer its domains. But for God, the question is a different one. It is a matter of determining the relationship that these kings, as Ahaz king of Judah here, had with Him. The simple fact that the moral stature of a man is found in his conduct relative to God is especially forgotten in our days. A man may be a freethinker, even an atheist; if he conducts himself morally and renders service to humanity, even Christians will regard him as an excellent man, as though God could accept something from him or in some way exempt him from believing in Him on account of His good conduct. This is a fatal error for such a man, but it is especially distressing when one sees it sanctioned by Christians who thus are not recognizing that without the fear of God there cannot be even the beginning of wisdom for man. When these unbelievers appear before God, they will be convicted by Him — alas! too late for them — of having done that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Christians who have excused their unbelief will be responsible for having by their guilty approbation of them closed the path of repentance. Ahaz "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel" (v. 3). Double condemnation for this king who, knowing the worship of the true God in Judah, turned his back upon Him in order to follow the abominations of the idolatrous nations.

Also the judgment which was prepared for the people under Jotham now overtakes Ahaz on account of his unfaithfulness. We are told, "Then Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle; and they besieged Ahaz, but were unable to conquer him" (v. 5).* Although we must, to limit ourselves, postpone the mention of the prophets of Judah till we study 2 Chronicles, we are obliged here and there to depart from this rule and to refer here to Isaiah, the more so as Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, plays an important role there. The king of Israel, once at war with Syria, is now its ally, no doubt in order to free himself on the one side from the yoke to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who, as we have seen previously, had stripped him of a large part of his territory, but also to regain, while serving the designs of his ally, that which Judah had taken from him.

{*We will not speak here of the victories won by Rezin and Pekah over Judah, nor of the Prophet Oded, who succeeded in reaching the consciences of some of the chief men of Ephraim, making them send away their prisoners and the spoil taken from Judah instead of retaining these captives. All this account will be found in its place in our study of Chronicles.}

These two kings, then, went up against Jerusalem and "besieged Ahaz, but were unable to conquer him." The hearts of Ahaz and his people are agitated "as the trees of the forest are shaken with the wind" (Isa. 7: 2). The Lord sends Isaiah to meet the king The prophet is accompanied by his son Shear-jashub, whose name signifies "the remnant shall return" (cf. Isa. 10: 21). He speaks in grace to this wicked king It is true that whatever may happen, God remains faithful to His promises, and He will renew His relationships with Israel and Judah in the persons of Christ and of the remnant. But how touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Take heed and be quiet" let Me act. He says, "Fear not" to him who on his part had everything to fear. He gives him the date when Ephraim "shall ... be broken, so as to be no more a people." Evil is decreed for a fixed and irrevocable time, and in spite of everything, if he would believe, then Judah would yet continue to exist for a little while (Isa. 7: 9). The Spirit of God, through the prophet, says to Ahaz: "Ask for thee a sign from Jehovah thy God." Ahaz answered, "I will not ask, and will not tempt Jehovah" (Isa. 7: 10-12), coloring his unbelief and his disobedience with an appearance of piety. To tempt the Lord was to distrust Him, but in fact, Ahaz did much more than distrust Him: he did not believe the word of the Lord. Then God announced a sign to him: Judah, that is to say, the house of David represented by Ahaz, had wearied the patience of God, who would replace him by Immanuel, the Seed of the woman (v. 14). But before the second son who to be born to the prophet would know "to refuse the evil, and to choose the good, the land whose two kings thou fearest shall be forsaken" (v. 16). Before this Maher-shalal-hash-baz (haste ye, haste ye to the spoil) should know "to cry, My father! and, My mother!" the lands of Pekah and of Rezin should be forsaken. This prophecy was literally accomplished, and the design of these kings to establish "the son of Tabeal" over Judah was brought to naught.*

{*The name of Tabeal, which has somewhat intrigued scholars, would seem to indicate by its roots, a man bound both to Syria and to Ephraim, whom these two powers were interested in choosing as a candidate for the throne of Judah.}

Ahaz prefers to confide in the king of Assyria against Pekah and Rezin than to confide in the Lord and to obey Him. This explains his answer to Isaiah. He had "sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying: "I am thy servant and they son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried it captive to Kir, and put Rezin to death" (2 Kings 16: 7-9). Also God declares to Him: "Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days which have not come since the day when Ephraim turned away from Judah — even the king of Assyria" (Isa. 7: 17); and against Israel and Syria: "The riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria" (Isa. 8: 4). Thus, that which the Lord had pronounced against Israel which had sought the support of Assyria (Hosea 5: 13-14), He now pronounces against Judah, who sough this same alliance. The first result of this trust in Assyria seemed to be favorable for Judah. Tiglath-pileser seized Damascus, carried away its inhabitants, and slew Rezin. The prophecy pronounced long before by Amos (Amos 1: 3-5) is now fulfilled.

Ahaz is not at the end of his transgressions. Isaiah's prophecy had no effect upon his conscience. He went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, whom he congratulated for his help and for his success. Having seen Rezin's idolatrous altar, he sends its pattern to Jerusalem and has it erected in the court of the temple. He finds a high priest to accomplish this act of sacrilege. 2 Chronicles 28: 22 tells us that Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, for to burn a sacrifice upon an altar other than the brazen altar was to sacrifice to false gods.

Do we not find something similar in today's religions when men professing to be Christians think that they are able to approach God by another altar than that of expiation, in which they do not believe? Like Rezin's altar, theirs is much broader, has a much more beautiful appearance than that of God. The old-fashioned religious narrowness has given place to broader views, they say. It is no longer the blood of the cross that justifies and redeems the sinner. They have another Christ than that One, a Christ who by His life has renewed humanity's ties with God, His cross being nothing more than the crowning act of a life of devotion. The new altar has no point of contact with the old. Its form and its beauty render it infinitely more desirable to the world than the brazen altar, so the latter is removed from its place, set aside (v. 14); it is no longer the indispensable way of approach when presenting oneself before God in His sanctuary. In sum, there is a new way of approach; a new religion is set up, and the first is relegated to a corner. At most, the brazen altar may serve to "inquire by" (v. 15), not, as one has said, that one might think of what one must make of it, but in order to use it for superstitious practices. It is thus that in one whole part of Christendom the use of the cross is misdirected and employed for grossly superstitious practices. Ahaz's religion, when it is a matter of so-called worship of the Lord, on the one hand ends in unbelief regarding the very foundation of the faith, the cross of Christ, and on the other hand, ends in superstition when it is a matter of this same foundation.

Ahaz's sacrilege extended to the lavers (v. 17), which as we have seen in our meditations on 1 Kings, served for washing the victims, typifying the complete absence of defilement in Christ offered for expiation. Ahaz removes the lavers from their bases. And here again, do we not find an analogy with that which is taking place in our sight or that is being spoken of round about us? The thought of the perfect purity of Christ, the Lamb of God, is given up by making Him subject to the same tendencies that we have and by presenting Him as One tempted by internal lusts to which He never yielded. While keeping the lavers, they remove them from their bases.

It was the same for the brazen sea (v. 17), vessel for the daily purification of the priests. This was set upon oxen, symbolic of the God's patience toward His people with regard to their practical purification. This purification could not be accepted except by virtue of God's longsuffering in all His ways toward His people. Ahaz removed the basin from that which constituted its base and "put it upon a stone pavement." Is not this stone pavement a striking picture of the nature and heart of man? All the religious tendencies of the present day are established upon the pretension that the human element and not the character of God are the basis of our practical consecration for His service, and that man's resolution of will renders him able to walk without defilement and without sin in God's pathway here on earth.

Lastly, Ahaz changes the entry of the house of Jehovah (v. 18) which was prohibited to others besides the king He does so "on account of the king of Assyria." He disowns his own privileges as head of the people of God, and also the "covered way of the sabbath," the privilege of the people themselves — all this in order to avoid offending the world whom he is serving Now the king of Assyria may declare himself satisfied! The very foundations of Israel's religion, by which the people were sanctified for God, have disappeared. Why should not the world henceforth enter into relationship with the God of Israel by means of the altar of Damascus? This religion, modified and stripped of its power and of its privileges, suits it perfectly!

2 Kings 17: 1-6

Hoshea, King of Israel

We now come to the last events of the history of Ephraim, otherwise called the ten tribes. Hoshea, the murderer of Pekah, reigned nine years in Samaria while doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. His conduct in relation to Him was less profane than that of his predecessors, only, he did not take into account the judgments of God by which the subjection of Israel to Assyria had been foretold through all the prophets. From year to year king Hoshea had been sending presents to the king of Assyria (v. 3), following the example of one of his predecessors, Menahem, who by means of presents had declared himself a vassal of Pul's in order that this latter might establish the kingdom in his hands (2 Kings 15: 19-20). Later Tiglath-pileser had come up against Pekah and, as we have seen, had transported the tribes beyond the Jordan to Assyria. Pekah evidently had not followed, as had Menahem, this rule of submission to Assyria, which would explain the political motives for the carrying away of these tribes. These political motives are not given us in the Word, but the divine motive is indicated to us by a word in Chronicles: "And the

God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser . . . and he carried them away" (1 Chr. 5: 26). Here in 2 Kings, the usual ways the kings of Assyria act toward Israel are brought to light. "Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant, and tendered him presents" (2 Kings 16: 3). The threat of an invasion by an enemy stronger than he obliges Hoshea to submit himself, howbeit unwillingly no doubt, to his vassalage. But these presents hardly help him. "For they are gone up to Assyria," says Hosea the prophet, "as a wild ass alone by himself; Ephraim hath hired lovers. Although they hire among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall begin to be straitened under the burden of the king of princes" (Hosea 8: 9-10).

"But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and sent up no present to the king of Assyria as he had done from year to year" (v. 4). Actually, this two-faced, suspicious conduct of the king is mentioned by the prophet: "Ephraim feedeth on wind, and pursueth after the east wind: all day long he multiplieth lies and desolation; and they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt" (Hosea 12: 1), and again "Ephraim is become like a silly dove without understanding: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria" (Hosea 7: 11). So, discovering Hoshea's conspiracy, Shalmaneser "shut him up and bound him in prison" (v. 4). "As for Samaria her king is cut off," according to the prophecy of Hosea (Hosea 10: 7), without the circumstances of his death being reported to us. The king of Israel having been made a prisoner, "the king of Assyria overran the whole land, and went up against Samaria, and besieged it three years" (v. 5; cf. 2 Kings 18: 9); but it was not Shalmaneser in person who took the city, for it is told us, "And at the end of three years they took it" (2 Kings 18: 10). Actually, during this interval Sargon (Isa. 20: 1) had succeeded Shalmaneser, or at least was at the head of the army during a short interregnum. The fate of this rebellious city was terrible, according to the word of Micah who prophesied " concerning Samaria and Jerusalem": "Therefore will I make Samaria as a heap of the field, as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will lay bare the foundations thereof. And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her harlot-gifts shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make a desolation; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and to a harlot's hire they shall return" (Micah 1: 6-7). Hosea also describes this event: "Samaria shall bear her guilt; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up" (Hosea 13: 16).

"The king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (v. 6). It has been supposed that part of the ten tribes fled to Egypt at that time. We do not think that the expression in Hosea 8: 13: "They shall return to Egypt," is to be interpreted in this manner. This same prophet had said: "They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria"; then, "Ephraim hath hired lovers (Hosea 8: 19); then again: "Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria shall they eat that which is unclean" (Hosea 9: 3). All this fully harmonizes with Hoshea's conspiracy, as also this other word: "He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king" (Hosea 11: 5). "Return into the land of Egypt" does not necessarily mean to flee there, but to seek assistance there, as it is said in Isaiah 31: 1: "Woe to them to go down to Egypt for help."

As to the passage in Hosea 8: 13, it must be observed that the prophet continually associates Judah's iniquity with that of Ephraim. "The peoples shall be assembled against them, when they are bound for their two iniquities. And Ephraim is a trained heifer, that loveth to tread out the corn; I have passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to draw; Judah shall plough, Jacob shall break his clods"(Hosea 10: 10-11). So he also reunites them together in the same future blessing once they will have reached the complete measure of their servitude (Hosea 10: 12). This observation helps us to understand that "They shall return to Egypt" in 2 Kings 8: 13 applies to Judah, morally associated with Israel. What proves this is the following verse: "Israel...buildeth temples, and Judah has multiplied fenced cities," but even more so "For behold, they are gone away because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Moph (or Noph=Memphis) shall bury them" (Hosea 9: 6). Now we know from the account of Jeremiah 43 to 44: 1 that the fugitives of Judah fled before the king of Babylon and found refuge in Egypt, and at Noph, among other places. They forced the prophet to accompany them there, and we know that there he prophesied against them when they thought they were safe from their oppressor (cf. 2 Kings 25: 26).*

{*Apart from this explanation, we do not intend to try to resolve the historical difficulties contained in these books. So also, for the most part, we are not touching the questions of chronology. Others have answered the objections of so-called "higher criticism" with regard to these.}

2 Kings 17: 7-41

The Divine Recapitulation of the History of Israel

Now God Himself recapitulates this long history of Israel which begins in Exodus and ends in our chapter. Not that it is ended for good; it is ended only as that which concerns this people and its kings, viewed as responsible. The bowels of the prophet Hosea, moved with divine compassion, announce its future restoration: "My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man — the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not come in anger. They shall walk after Jehovah; he shall roar like a lion; when he shall roar, then the children shall hasten from the west: they shall hasten as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will cause them to dwell in their houses, saith Jehovah" (Hosea 11: 8-11). This same God who had given them a king in His anger and taken him away in His wrath (Hosea 13: 11) says, "I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death" (Hosea 13: 14), and again "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His shoots shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They shall return and sit under his shadow; they shall revive as corn, and blossom as the vine: the renown thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon" (Hosea 14: 4-7).

From verses 7 to 18 of our chapter God shows what He had done for Israel since, delivering from Egypt, He had introduced them into Canaan (v. 7). He then speaks of that which they had done, first of all acting "secretly" against the Lord, walking according to the idolatry of the nations which God had dispossessed before them, and in the statutes that the kings of Israel, beginning with Jeroboam I, had established in founding and maintaining their national religion of the calves of Dan and Bethel. Moreover, they had erected everywhere in their fortified cities, and even to the watchmen's tower, high places and male and female idols in greater excess than had Judah, which was content to keep the high places, at one time consecrated to the worship of the Lord, turning them into places of idolatrous practices (vv. 8-13). The Lord had testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets. Had they listened to these? No, they had forsaken the commandments of the covenant to deliver themselves up to terrible apostasy, described in all its aspects in verses 14 through 17. Finally, in His wrath God removed them from before His face and "there remained but the tribe of Judah only,' no doubt for a short time, but God still recognized it according to the word of Hosea: "Ephraim encompasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet walketh with God, and with the holy things of truth" (Hosea 11: 12).

In verses 19-20 God mentions Judah as in passing This latter had followed the statutes established by the ten tribes, and the Lord was rejecting all the seed of Israel. But from verses 20-24 He returns to Ephraim and to its separation from the house of David. It was doubtless a judgment of the Lord against Solomon, and as such ordered of God, but on the other hand it was the fruit of the evil heart of Israel for whom the temple of God at Jerusalem had little importance when they thought of becoming a nation independent of Judah. Perhaps, notwithstanding, Israel would not have dreamed of forging a new religion for itself from many bits and pieces if the political views of Jeroboam, a complete stranger to the fear of God, had not forced the people to enter upon this path. "Jeroboam violently turned Israel from following Jehovah, and made them sin a great sin" (v. 21). But on the other hand, "the children of Israel walked" (they were therefore themselves guilty) "in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them" (v. 22). And Israel was carried away to Assyria. We see here in verse 24 and also in verse 6 the enormous extent to which the kingdom had grown. The Assyrian monarch made the people of Babel and of other places come to replace those deported from the cities of Samaria.

These idolatrous nations, brought into the land of Israel, did not fear the Lord He sent lions among them, which slew them. In spite of its desolation, God was caring for the land of His inheritance. He was asserting His rights over it, not allowing these to be taken away. He would not have the land again fall under the curse from which He had delivered it when He had exterminated the Canaanites. Whatever the ruin might be, the name of the Lord must not be entirely removed from the land of Israel, and that in view of the future, for the remnant, the true Israel, is to inherit the land.

Decimated by lions, these poor ignorant pagans who likened the God of Israel to their own false gods understood this judgment. They were more intelligent than the Lord's people (v. 26). The king of Assyria had one of the priests who had been carried away captive sent to them in order to "teach them the manner of the god of the land"; but this priest himself had supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God and so was unable to teach them anything but his own corruption, so that on the one hand they learned "how they should fear Jehovah," whereas, on the other hand, "every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made" (v. 29). A corrupted religion — this fact which is so evident must nonetheless be especially insisted upon — cannot lead men on in the truth and will always mold them according to its own pattern. And so it is said, "They feared Jehovah, and made to themselves from all classes of them priests of the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the houses of the high places" (v. 32). Had not Jeroboam done the same thing with regard to the priesthood? That which they learned from the priest of Samaria led them on in that same path, only they go a little further and the priests whom they establish, following the pattern set by Jeroboam, became simply priests of their idols (v. 32, cf. v. 29). The word of God repeats that "they feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, whence they had been carried away" (v. 33), but it adds in verse 34: "To this day they do after their former customs: they fear not Jehovah, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances, nor after the law and commandments that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel." Let us not forget that the fear of the Lord, this first step in the path of wisdom, cannot be allied with the idolatry of the world, no more with heathen idols than with those of the present-day world which, in rejecting Christ, has recognized the overlordship of Satan. Those who in appearance fear Him, in fact do not truly fear Him if they do not obey Him, for to fear Him is to obey Him. God does not tolerate mixtures.

Observe in all this passage how the fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom, had been brought before the conscience of the people (vv. 35-40), as well as the nations. The Lord had said to Israel: "Ye shall not fear other gods"(vv. 35, 37, 38), "Jehovah alone . . . him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship" (v. 36), "but ye shall fear Jehovah your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies" (v. 39). In this short passage the expression "fear Jehovah" occurs eleven times! All else depended upon this elementary ordinance and still depends on it!

As for these nations, in making them feel His displeasure by the attack of the lions, the Lord had impressed upon them that they turn to Him. Then, following the same principle toward them that He had used with His own people, He left them to their own responsibility. They pay no more attention to this than had Israel. But which of these two groups was the more guilty? When the captives of Judah were restored to their land that they might receive Christ, they deeply despised the Samaritans and had no relationship with them (John 4: 9) But they went further than that, and said to their Messiah, "Thou art a Samaritan!" (John 8: 48). It is thus that the religious man judges other men, he who himself is under the same judgment, and so too He judges God! The rejected Jesus accepted this name that He might in a parable show that despite this position of dishonor which was accorded Him He alone was the dispenser of grace, in contrast with religious men whose self-righteousness prevented them from being a neighbor to wretched Israel, fallen into the hands of the nations who had spoiled it!

2 Kings 18-25

The Last Kings of Judah

2 Kings 18-20

Hezekiah, King of Judah

The history of Israel being ended, we now find, to the end of this book, the history of the kings of Judah. Before considering its details, let us enter upon a general subject of greatest importance.

THE REVIVALS OF THE END

Outwardly, no doubt, Judah "yet walk[ed] with God" (Hosea 11: 12); but its ruin had already long been manifest. It had been particularly accentuated since godly Jehoshaphat had sought an alliance with Ahab. All the while keeping up this outward appearance, given up by Ephraim from the beginning of its existence, Judah was morally far from God. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel inform us about its inward condition. It is thus that Isaiah, describing Judah's state during this period, writes: "For as much as this people draw near with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is removed far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do marvellously with this people, to do marvellously, even with wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their intelligent ones shall be hid" (Isa. 29: 13-14). And again: "This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of Jehovah" (Isa. 30: 9). And again, at the eve of the invasion of Sennacherib: "The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling hath surprised the hypocrites: Who among us shall dwell with the consuming fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting flames? — He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from taking hold of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil" (Isa. 33: 14-15). It is useless to multiply quotations. Furthermore, we shall have occasion to return to the subject when, with regard to Josiah's reign, we consult Jeremiah concerning the subject of the moral history of Judah.

In the midst of this state of things, Ahaz, king of Judah, had made it his business to alter the fundamental institutions of the temple of the Lord. We do not see the people protesting in the least against this profanity. They let him do as he pleased. And so the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Judah under the reign of Ahaz (2 Chr. 28: 9) delivering it into the hand of Ephraim, and against Ahaz, "for Jehovah humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah lawless, and transgressed much against Jehovah" (2 Chr. 28: 19). Only ungodly Manasseh later surpassed the iniquity of Ahaz.

But, between these two kings God raised up a testimony in Judah. We are entering the period of revivals, properly so called; the first, that of Hezekiah, with which we are about to be occupied; the second, that of Josiah. The prominent characteristic of these revivals is that they are absolutely the fruit of the grace of God. They are not foreseen, no preliminary work introduces them, no sign of repentance on part of the people precedes them. They are the direct work of the Spirit of God and break forth in a brilliant way in the midst of the ruin of Judah. Hezekiah is the son of a profane father who was devoted to idolatrous abominations. Hezekiah's son Manasseh surpassed Ahaz in apostasy. Manasseh's son Amon was just as apostate as he, but Amon's son, Manasseh's grandson Josiah, is the instrument of the second revival in Judah. After him comes the period of the end, when the lamp of David seemed extinguished forever.

These revivals have a particular importance for us. We are witnessing the end of the history of Christendom, which, except for the pagan idolatry involved in Judah's apostasy, has the greatest moral analogy with the end of the Judah's history. Judgment has been pronounced long ago by the Word upon the present state of things (read 2 Timothy: 2 Peter; and Jude), and no one takes heed. At the moment of their sudden destruction, men will yet be crying, "Peace and safety." For the time being the grace of God by these revivals is placing a dam before the torrent that will sweep them away. He is using them to withdraw from the already condemned mass a greater or smaller number of souls who have become attentive to the voice of His gospel. He thus is making ready for His Beloved to take His own to Himself, by completing the number of the elect so that not one of them will be wanting at that last call when they are finally being gathered together.

These revivals at the end do not all have the same character, but when one seeks to distinguish them from the returns to godliness that preceded them, one finds first of all that they concern not only the king, but are shared by the people; next, that despite their diversity they have as common characteristic a complete rupture with the traditions which by their antiquity appeared respectable in the eyes of men, but were not the teaching of the Holy Spirit and had not been instituted by God. The revivals at the end are, in a word, a rupture with tradition and a return to that which was at the beginning. This fact strikes us particularly in the history of Hezekiah and in that of Josiah. David, the head of the royal family, had never sacrificed upon the high places; he had had but one concern: to find a place for the ark of the Lord. This place having been found in Zion, he crave to it and worshipped God there. Solomon does not follow his father's walk but turns aside from it in that he sacrificed to the Lord upon the high places, a dangerous practice that bore abominable fruit when the king's heart allowed him to be carried away by strange women(1 Kings 11: 7). Since that time the sacrifices upon the high places, this tradition of Solomon's reign, were no more banished from Judah, and one can say, as we have already observed, that the high places were part of its national religion.* We have reason to affirm then that this religion, while keeping some features of the truth, had given up that which was from the beginning, and which went back, not only to David, but to Moses (see Deut. 12: 1-2). It had facilitated Jehoshaphat's alliance with the king of Israel, for even if there was no moral bond existing between them, the conformity of certain religious practices between their two peoples blinded this godly king to the impiety of such a mutual alliance. This initial laxity bears its fruits sooner or later. Iniquitous Ahaz attacks, not the high places of Solomon, but the things established by him according to the model David had communicated to him in the beginning, that is to say, the house of God itself. He treats lightly all the divine principles proclaimed in the arrangements of the temple, just as in our own day all doctrines are treated lightly, without any more respect for the divine institution of the things of Christianity than the respect Ahaz had for the altar and the lavers.

{*We shall see, in the study of 2 Chronicles, the manner, contradictory in appearance, in which this book presents this important subject to us.}

We have said that the common characteristic of the end time revivals is separation from the religion of the day, in order to return to that which was taught at the beginning in the Word of God. We go on to find, under Hezekiah, (and even more radically under Josiah, who carried this out throughout the whole territory of Canaan), the complete destruction of all that stood in relationship to the high places, statues, groves, incense, priests, and all this religion of soothsayers, mediums, and others toward which Israel had been drawn. In comparing Josiah's history with that of Hezekiah, we shall observe the distinctive characteristics of these revivals, for, as we have mentioned, each has its special character according to the different epochs of time, the needs of which God knows. Let us confine ourselves for now to considering the revival which characterizes the reign of Hezekiah.

2 Kings 18: 1-18

Hezekiah and the First Revival

Hezekiah's mother was probably of the priestly or levitical family and no doubt, as we have often noted, the Lord used her in the upbringing of her son, whereas Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, could only have had a bad influence upon him. But whatever may have been the case with these favorable or unfavorable influences, it is grace alone that explains the characters of Hezekiah and of Josiah; the last kings of Judah, ungodly despite their Jewish mothers and their godly father, are the proof of this.

"He did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done" (v. 3). God traces his faithfulness back to the example given by David, a fact all the more remarkable in that it is not stated of his predecessors. Jotham "did what was right in the sight of Jehovah: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done" (2 Kings 15: 34); Uzziah, "according to all that his father Amaziah had done" (2 Kings 15: 3); Amaziah "according to all that Joash his father had done (2 Kings 14: 3). The Word of God makes the same remarks about Josiah as about Hezekiah (2 Kings 22: 2), thus confirming the fact that these two kings returned to that which was at the beginning One cannot today call a revival a true revival which does not have this character.* It was the same in the days of Ezra and of Nehemiah. In the very scene of ruin, the people returned to the divine foundations and to the Word of God, at the same time separating themselves from all activity in common and any alliance with the world. In our days, claims are made of being able to create revivals, while still being joined together with professing Christendom which dishonors God, the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word. It was not so with Hezekiah. In no wise did he compromise with the corruption which had been introduced into Judah. Only, what distinguishes him from us, simple Christians, with regard to principle is that Hezekiah had a special authority and responsibility as king, given him by God, and that his duty was to use his own authority to cleanse the people, an activity which, as in the preceding reigns, could well have left his subjects more or less indifferent to his personal piety. The revival was accomplished in the king's heart, the king was its agent, and there might have been a question whether the heart and conscience of the people would follow the impetus thus given. Now we see in 2 Chronicles 30: 10-14 and 31: 1 that Hezekiah's zeal bore fruit and was followed by the humiliation of the people and by unity of heart and mind to cleanse themselves from evil. Not only those of Judah, but also the remnant of Ephraim after the carrying away felt the blessed effect of the king's piety, so that the destruction of the implements of idolatry spread not only to Judah and Benjamin, but also to Ephraim and Manasseh.

{*We are not speaking here — that goes without saying — of the evangelization of the world and of the conversion of sinners.}

"He removed the high places, and broke the columns, and cut down the Asherahs, and broke in pieces the serpent of brass that Moses had made; for to those days the children of Israel burned incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan" a piece of brass (v. 4). Here this cleansing is attributed to the king alone. It was complete on his part, going even as far as the brazen serpent which Moses had made. Is it not striking to note that the Word does not mention the brazen serpent from the time when Moses lifted it up in the wilderness, and yet Israel had carefully kept it for more than seven hundred years, no doubt in memory of the marvelous deliverance brought about thereby on behalf of the people. Israel had been healed by its means, and was it not natural that they should desire to keep it as a visible testimony to his healing It was a respectable thing, an ancient type of deliverance from sin and its consequences by the sacrifice of Christ, but this object in the hands of the enemy of our souls had become a means of idolatry for the people, who burned incense unto it. Faithful Hezekiah's intervention was needed to single out and destroy this hidden idolatry, clothed in the guise of a divine institution. The serpent was a symbol, not a thing having in itself any miraculous property. The unique occasion when it had been employed not having been renewed, and being impossible to be renewed, it had no more value in itself than any other nehushtan or piece of brass. Nehushtans, more hidden, but also more gross than ordinary idolatry, are ever numerous in Christendom. Like Nehushtan, the cross of Christ has given rise to superstitious practices. To possess a piece of the "true cross," to kiss it, or to revere a piece of bronze or of ivory representing the Lord dying upon the cross —  these are general practices in a large part of Christendom. Man is attached to the symbol and sees in it some value or special property. He makes of the symbol his God. Is it better than the idolatry that defies the attributes of God? Certainly not; it is an idolatry just as gross, but still more dangerous, because it takes that which is most sacred, most elevated, the cross, center of all the counsels of God, the symbol of eternal love, to make of it an idol which the eyes of the flesh see, which the lips of the flesh kiss, an idol which has neither eyes to see nor ears to hear. Faith rids itself of these things and takes them for what they are, neither more nor less than a piece of wood or brass.

"He trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel" (v. 5). He finds here the particular and very striking character of Hezekiah, and of the revival which accompanied his reign. It is trust in God. This trust caused him to reject all human aid. He does not, like other kings, seek the help of Egypt in order to escape Assyria (Isa. 30: 1-5; 31: 1-3) or lean, like his father upon the Assyrian against other enemies from without. Nevertheless, even from that side his faith presents its weaknesses, as we shall see.

In respect to trust, Hezekiah had no equal among the kings of Judah. This trust is inseparable from obedience: "He clave to Jehovah, and did not turn aside from following him, but kept his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses" (v. 6). Let us beware of so-called trust in God which links itself to disobedience of His Word. If I trust in Him, I will cleave to Him; if I cleave to Him, I will keep His Word, and I keep it just as He has confided it to me at the beginning, just as Hezekiah kept "his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses." One may find, no doubt, trust in Him mixed with much ignorance, but ignorance is not disobedience. Only, from the time one's soul is brought into relationship with the clear revelation of the mind of God, and yet prefers its religious forms to it — its high places and its Nehushtan — it will never have true trust in God. Yes, trust, cleaving to the Lord and obedience are things that are inseparable. The result of Hezekiah's faith is soon apparent; "Jehovah was with him; he prospered whithersoever he went forth" (v. 7). What a happy circle of blessings! God's favor and spiritual prosperity accompany faithfulness. May these blessings be ours, dear reader! Amen.

We are then told that Hezekiah "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not" (v. 7). He acted in opposite fashion to how his father Ahaz had done, who, solemnly warned by Isaiah not to fear the attack of Rezin, king of Syria, and of Pekah, son of Remaliah, and exhorted to ask of the Lord a sign that His promise would be fulfilled, had preferred to have recourse to the Assyrian. God then had declared to him that this king of Assyria in whom he trusted should fill the breadth of the land of Immanuel with "the stretching out of his wings" (Isa. 7: 1-17; Isa. 8: 8). Hezekiah, it seems to us, acted according to God in not recognizing this authority. It was not the same later on for Judah, when it had to do with Babylon, as we can see in Jeremiah and at the end of our book. To revolt against Nebuchadnezzar when God has transferred the sovereignty to him and was using this yoke as a judgment upon Judah, was to revolt against God. In Hezekiah's case, it was a declining to accord to the Assyrian an authority which God had in no wise given him at that time with regard to Judah. Hezekiah was God's servant and could not be the servant of the king of Assyria. And thus victory over the Philistines (v. 8) is granted him following his trust in God which had caused him to shake off this yoke.

But even there, so far as the dominant character of his faith is concerned, we see from the beginning of his reign that the trust of this godly king wavers. God often allows things to happen in order to teach us to know our own hearts, so that we might have no confidence in our own hearts. The history of men of faith from Abraham to David affords us numerous examples. It is in regard to the very trust that above all else characterizes his walk that Hezekiah takes his first false step. Israel's terrible disaster through Shalmaneser's invasion doubtless caused his confidence to be shaken, but when Hezekiah saw all the cities of Judah fallen into the hands of the king of Assyria, his heart failed him. He sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying: "I have sinned; retire from me: I will bear what thou layest upon me" (v. 14). Fear gripped him. Like Peter, he beheld the wind and lost sight of the Lord. He compared himself to the king of Assyria, instead of comparing him to the Lord. This king imposed tribute upon him; Hezekiah stripped himself of everything in order to pay it, even to removing the gold from the doors and from the pillars of the temple of the Lord. What use was it to him? The king took no account of it. What did it matter to him to break his word to this despised servant of Jehovah?* Chronicles is silent about this failure (2 Chr. 32: 1-8) and proceeds, as does Isaiah 36, to the account of that which follows in our chapter from verse 17 on. This is because, as we have often seen in the course of these meditations, it is a matter here of the king in responsibility, whereas Chronicles shows us the action of the grace of God in the hearts of those whom He employs in His service. The discipline was full of blessing to Hezekiah's heart, as we shall see in what follows.

{*It has been supposed that Hezekiah could not have paid the entire tribute, which amounted to an enormous sum, but inscriptions confirm the biblical account and show that he paid it in full. This was therefore perfidy on part of the Assyrian monarch, and God used it for Hezekiah's discipline.}

Before going further, let us observe that the account in Chronicles (2 Chr. 29-31) places much emphasis upon one part of Hezekiah's activity at the beginning of his reign, activity which the account in Kings passes over in silence. In effect, Chronicles presents to us, all along, Hezekiah's zeal to restore the worship and the house of the Lord, whereas our account here depicts his energy in separating himself from evil and in purifying the people from it. These two characteristics are inseparable for a true revival, and it may be said that the first, the return to God, must needs excel the second, or to put it even more clearly, that separation from evil follows the restoration of our relationship with God. That is so true that Chronicles shows us Hezekiah as having it "in [his] heart to make a covenant with Jehovah" "in the first year of his reign, in the first month," and that the hollowing of the temple began "on the first of the first month" (2 Chr. 29: 3, 10, 17). Thus from the first day of his reign this twenty-five-year old king resolutely undertakes the cause of God. He comes to the throne young, inexperienced, having under his father's reign only witnessed sights that would serve to turn souls away the Lord. How then are we to explain his attitude? He enters upon his career with faith alone, with the fruit of grace!

"And in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them" (v. 13). Here we would make a historical observation which is important. Hezekiah reigns twenty-nine years. In the fourteenth year of his reign, Sennacherib comes up against him. 2 Kings 20 tells us that after his supplication, when he was sick unto death, the Lord added "to [his] days fifteen years" Hezekiah's illness therefore took place at the beginning of the Assyrian invasion and before this latter's defeat, and is not presented to us in its chronological place.* Also these events are mentioned in an imprecise way: "In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death" (2 Kings 20: 1). By this fact, we can measure the depths of the trial which this man of God had to pass through. On the one hand, the invasion of all his country except for Jerusalem (2 Kings 18: 13); on the other hand, a fatal illness, and that at the time when he had restored to his people the worship of the true God, exterminated idolatry, and freed Judah from Assyrian bondage! One understands that his faith, subjected to this terrible trial, wavered, that his trust in God was momentarily dimmed in his heart.

{*What we say of the date of Hezekiah's illness is confirmed by the word of the Lord at his healing: "I will add to thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for mine own sake" (2 Kings 20: 6).}

The king of Assyria, who had besieged and conquered Lachish, sends his servants, the Tartan or general at the head of his armies, the Rabsaris (chief chamberlain) whose functions are not too well-known, and the Rab-shakeh, the political head of the king's household and his mouthpiece on important occasions. They stand before Jerusalem, and Hezekiah's servants, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah come out to them. Except for this moment, our account agrees almost word for word with that in Isaiah 36 and 37.

2 Kings 18: 19-37

Rab-Shakeh's Discourse

The first part of Rab-shakeh's discourse deals with Hezekiah's trust in the Lord, trust which we have seen characterizing his piety. "What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? . . . Now on whom doest thou rely, that thou hast revolted against me?" (vv. 19-20). Here the formidable pride of the Assyrian is laid bare. Could Hezekiah, deprived of his territory, shut up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage, resist the army of the Assyrian? The last thought that occurs to the enemy is that one may confide in an invisible God, and that Hezekiah might have other governing principles, other succor than that of the world. If he were trusting in someone, it must be in Egypt. These thoughts increased the king's wrath against Hezekiah. Egypt was exactly the enemy against whom his expedition was directed, and if Hezekiah had revolted it was, so he thought, that he was expecting its help. This was the case with all the surrounding nations who had thrown off the heavy yoke of the Assyrian. Was Hezekiah's case different from all these? Perhaps he was pretending to trust in the Lord. "And if ye say to me, we rely upon Jehovah our God . . . " (v. 22). Empty words! Hezekiah had taken away the high places and the altars of this God, for Sennacherib is ignorant of the true God and confuses Him with the idols which faithful Hezekiah had abolished. You may as well say you are trusting in Egypt! The world can never understand that Christians are not seeking to be allied with the world, and in fact there is nothing astonishing in this scepticism when we look at the condition of Christendom all around us. Is religion menaced with danger? Is it undergoing attacks or persecution? The Christian world immediately has recourse to the governments of this world to avoid this or to be delivered from it. Christendom's behavior and works are founded upon the influence of the world or its financial aid. Their good works have no other support. The unbeliever is justified when he says to us, "But 'if ye say to me, We rely upon Jehovah our God . . .' in actual fact, you are not trusting Him any more than we are!" It was not so with Hezekiah. He could let the Assyrian speak, for he knew from what gods he had cleansed his people. He knew upon which God he could count.

But a very serious thing to consider is that the unfaithfulness of Judah had given the enemy an occasion to blaspheme the true God and to deny his existence. Since you had high places and altars, these were the Lord for you, he says. He does not know the Lord except by the idols which Judah had made its gods. He had the right to say to them, You have the same kinds of gods I do, and you serve them in the same way. And now you are saying: As for us, we trust in the Lord! What Lord, pray tell me? The Lord of the high places, or the Lord of the altar you have just set up? Are they different from one another?

And now, it is Jehovah that "said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it" (v. 25). Did not the Assyrian have the right to speak about the Lord too, to say, "I have the same God as you, I know Him as well as you"? Are not these same expressions heard daily in the world today? War breaks out between two nations. Which one has God on its side? Both of them call upon His name, sure of the victory. Where is He, the true God? Alas! even among Christian nations — neither on the one side nor on the other. The true God is unknown to both. This was not the case with Hezekiah. His trust in God was being questioned by the enemy who was defying and mocking him. What should he do? Let the enemy talk, but himself hold his peace, looking humbly to God. The enemy was saying, The Lord is with me against you. Let him say so, Hezekiah, and just trust in your God whom the enemy does not know!

The Rab-shakeh speaks in Hebrew to the people upon the wall. Hezekiah's servants beg him to speak in the Syrian language. This he refuses in words of defiance and disdain. The danger of seeing the people become discouraged may have filled Hezekiah with anguish. But the same danger leaves the believer's soul tranquil and peaceful. He has only to keep silence. His trust in God answers to everything.

And now the Rab-shakeh attacks the person of the king Hezekiah is a deceiver, a seducer (vv. 29, 32). He is lying to you in persuading you to trust in the Lord (v. 30). Do not listen to Hezekiah (vv. 31-32). Listen to the king of Assyria (v. 28). He will let you live in tranquillity; then he will carry you away to "a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive-trees and of honey" (v. 32), a land just as full of good things as the land of Canaan. There is where you will find true abundance (cf. Deut. 8: 7-10). No doubt you will be in bondage too, but the Assyrian will see that you are happy! Satan has always spoken thus to the hearts of men. Woe to him who listens to him, for the prince of this world never makes a man happy. Is it necessary to reason with him, to enter into controversy, or even conversation with him, even to answer him? Our first parents only proved it too well, to their own ruin and that of their posterity; the man of faith is not tempted to answer him. "But the people were silent and answered him not a word; for the king's command was, saying, Answer him not" (v. 36). It is only a matter of keeping silent and leaving the enemy to his threats or to his honeyed words. The people trust the words of the king, their leader, and imitate his faith. God uses this open attack of the Assyrian against God and against His anointed to strengthen and to revive the people.

2 Kings 19

Sennacherib and the Lord

Before going on, I want to make one or two remarks upon the three accounts of the life of Hezekiah contained in the Word (2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chr. 29-32; Isa. 36-39). Only our account in Kings begins with Hezekiah's revolt against Sennacherib, followed by the invasion of Judah and the humiliation of the king upon his lack of trust. This is because this account presents to us the careers of kings placed under responsibility. God's discipline toward Hezekiah on this occasion shows him that only trust in the Lord is able to sustain him. This same account insists above all upon the character of the true testimony at the time of the end; this consists of forsaking any mixture with the idolatry of the world. Next we find Sennacherib's attack against Jerusalem, where Hezekiah's absolute confidence in the Lord is put to the proof and comes forth victorious.

In the account in Chronicles, we find the king according to the counsels of God. Judah is nothing more than a little insignificant remnant, confined to Jerusalem. From the first day on, the king appears as prepared by God for his work of grace. The temple of the Lord remains with the remnant who look after it. Hezekiah cleanses it, restores the worship of God in its integrity, and the worship of the false gods is uprooted and abolished. The remnant of the people thus acquire the right to be the bearers of the testimony of God. But the city of God must still be secured against the enemy, by cutting off the resources that supply the city; he is left with nothing at all in common with the testimony. The picture is complete within the measure and the limits of this little, humbled people. The history of Sennacherib's attack against Jerusalem is much briefer here than in the other two accounts.

In Isaiah we have the history of Hezekiah from the prophetic point of view. Three facts only are set forth in detail there: Sennacherib's attack and Hezekiah's grievous illness, followed by the visit of the ambassadors, which sets forth prophetically Babylon's rise and fall in relation to Judah. In this account Hezekiah is in some respects a type of the Messiah, in many other respects a type of the remnant. This latter, condemned to death, recovers life in resurrection, as it were. Hezekiah's illness, also mentioned in the two other accounts, acquires in Isaiah a very special prophetic importance through the mention of the "the writing of Hezekiah," the prophetic lamentation of the remnant who desire to celebrate the Lord "in the land of the living" (Isa. 38: 9,11).

Let us now resume the course of our account.

After the Assyrian's threats against him, Hezekiah goes up to the house of the Lord a first time. As it appeared, little was left to this poor king All Judah sacked, the Assyrian army besieging the only city still remaining standing, Jehovah's servant of the Lord despised, treated as an evildoer by the nations, the name of the Lord trampled underfoot, circumstances such that all must be borne in silence, and this humiliation accepted as the righteous retribution of the sin and disobedience of the people. Did they have any resource, this weak "remnant that is left" (v. 4)? Yes, indeed! They still had Jehovah's temple, His beloved city, Mount Zion, the son of David and his throne, the prophet —  bearer of the word of God; they still had much more than David himself had in the cave of Adullam! The flesh might become discouraged; faith could not in any wise, for amid this indescribable disaster faith possessed everything that gave it firm assurance, everything that consoled it, and that caused it to rejoice in the affliction: Immanuel, the presence of God with His people. Is it not the same today? Seek the testimony of God in the midst of a world ripe for apostacy. Faith alone can discover it, "the remnant that is left"; but faith does discover it; it prefers the house of God to all the tents of wickedness, the poor and afflicted people to all the prosperity of the Assyrian; it hearkens to the voice of the prophet, and closes its ear to the blaspheming voice of the enemy's servants. It gathers around the Lord's Anointed, and how shall it fear, since God sees and beholds the face of His Anointed?

Not that this confidence excluded anguish, and that the extreme danger did not press upon the heart, nor that they do not wear sackcloth and rend their garments in token of affliction, of humiliation, and of mourning But the danger drives Hezekiah and his people towards the house of God and towards the oracles of God to receive counsel, strength, and consolation. "This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of reviling; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (v. 3). In such times as well as in our own it must be felt that these are days "of trouble and of rebuke," that our part is deep humiliation, that like this little remnant we have to take upon ourselves the reproach of a great people, and that we have to express it by our tears and sighing over the state of Christendom which has so dreadfully dishonored the Lord. But one thing suffices the afflicted remnant and ought to suffice us: the Lord is there; it is He, not ourselves, that has been defied. Therefore, let us say like Hezekiah: Perhaps the Lord will hear the words of him who reproaches the living God, and punish the words which He has heard (v. 4), and the Lord will answer us.

"Be not afraid," said Isaiah, "of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a spirit into him and he shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land" (vv. 6-7). The word of the Lord is fulfilled to the letter. The news that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, who had seized Egypt, was advancing against him when his own objective was precisely the conquest of Egypt, caused him to depart suddenly to meet him.*

{*It is at his return from this expedition that his camp is smitten upon the mountains of Israel, just as will be that of the future Assyrian in prophecy.}

But before his departure Sennacherib sends a written message to Hezekiah. He had previously sent his spokesmen with this message to the people: "Let not Hezekiah deceive you . . . neither let Hezekiah make you rely upon Jehovah" (2 Kings 18: 29-30). Now he says to Hezekiah, "Let not thy God, upon whom thou relies", deceive thee" (v. 10), likening Him to the false gods that he, the Assyrian, had destroyed. It was a direct "reproach" against the "living God." The rage that filled the Assyrian monarch, hindered in his project and wounded in his pride, now shows itself in its true character. It is the God of Israel whom he opposes.

Hezekiah goes up to the house of the Lord a second time. It is no more a question of humiliation like the first time, but one of a direct attack upon the name of the Lord whom Hezekiah honors. God must take account of this letter. The king places God's cause into God's own hands, but he knows that to honor His name, the Lord will save His humbled people. "And now, Jehovah our God, I beseech thee, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, Jehovah, art God, thou only" (v. 19).

Then Isaiah causes the king to know the word of the Lord pronounced against the Assyrian. If Hezekiah bears upon his heart the interests of his God when it is a question of the enemy, Jehovah answers him that He will not allow the world to reproach "the virgin-daughter of Zion;" since she is bride of the Great king "The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee" (v. 21). Thus God justifies the character and honor of His beloved ones, guilty but humbled, when these justify His personal honor and character. The Assyrian in his foolishness had lifted up his eyes against the Holy One of Israel. He had been the rod of the wrath of God, who had given him this power from long before, but he had become proud of his success and had not feared to lift himself up against God. He had said: "I have come up...I will cut down...and I will enter...I have digged...I have dried up..."(vv. 23-24), whereas it was the Lord who had decreed the ruin of the nations and of His people by this means (vv. 25-26). "But I know," said the Lord, "thine abode, and they going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me. Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest" (vv. 27-28).

The Lord then gives Hezekiah a sign of His deliverance: The first year they should eat that which would grow from the fallen grain, a poor harvest, but which would keep them from dying of hunger. It is, prophetically, the history of the preservation of the remnant at Jerusalem. The second year there would be a strength of growth; in the third year the harvest and the fruit of the vine should come. The Lord explains this parable to the king: "And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they that escape: The zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this" (vv. 30-31). The remnant of Judah should be established anew by the Lord, and filled with His blessings.

If it be so with Jerusalem, how much more so with the Assembly, the Bride of Christ — weak remnant in the midst of ruins, lacking the power to bring to birth, and so abased that the enemy can say, "Let not thy God, upon whom thou relies", deceive thee"; but precious to Christ who will make her to sit with Him upon His throne, and shall plant her forever in the courts of God like a tree laden with blossoms and fruit.

The Assyrian should not enter the city, nor shoot arrows into it, nor cast a bank against it; nevertheless the enemy army was surrounding it at that very moment. But God intervened because of His name, and because of David His servant toward whom He would neither revoke His covenant nor His promises (vv. 32-34).

The very night of this prophecy the camp of the Assyrians was smitten. In the morning they were all dead bodies. "The stout-hearted are made a spoil, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep . . . When God rose up to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth" (Ps. 76: 5, 6, 9). It will be thus also that the Assyrian of the end time, the king of the North, shall meet his judgment: "But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to exterminate, and utterly to destroy many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the mountain of holy beauty; and he shall come to his end, and there shall be none to help him" (Dan. 11: 44-45). He himself, the head of his army, suffers the sentence pronounced against him by the prophet (v. 37). His sons smite him with the sword as he was bowed down in the house of Nisroch his god. He had said to Hezekiah: The Lord will not deliver you; and behold, his god Nisroch was incapable of delivering him when he worshipped before him.

In all this we follow the progress of the man of God, and the reward which his trust in the Lord receives. At the beginning he rebels against the Assyrian when perhaps, lacking knowledge of his own heart, he could have mistaken for confidence in God alone that confidence to which self was not a stranger. Then he loses his confidence before the enemy, but God uses the discipline to remove from him all his self-confidence. In this trial Hezekiah, humbled by the

state of his people, seeking no support within his own heart, commits all to God. His confidence increases in the measure that the trial grows. He no longer thinks of himself nor of his people, except to judge them; he seeks only the glory of the Lord; linking the salvation of Israel to this glory, however. God answers him by showing him that Jerusalem, the son of David, and the beloved remnant occupy His thoughts exclusively. He delivers His people by judgment, answering the humble prayer "the remnant that is left" addresses to Him by the mouth of the prophet (v. 4).

2 Kings 20: 1-11

Hezekiah's Illness

"In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death" (v. 1). As we have already said, this event historically precedes the enemy's attack against Jerusalem, but it follows it in all three accounts that we have. The book of Chronicles tells us of it in few words, that of Kings at greater length, and Isaiah in great detail, for this prophet adds to it: "the writing of Hezekiah" which is not found in the historical books. There are various reasons for this transposition. The first is that in the sending of the ambassadors Babylon's role is linked to the illness of Hezekiah. Babylon was destined to cut off the Assyrian under whose jurisdiction it then was, and was henceforth to play the preponderant role in the history of Judah. This role, that of the power transferred to the Gentiles and the establishment of the first universal monarchy, does not begin to appear in God's ways toward His people until the historical — not the prophetic — role of the Assyrian has ended. The second reason is that it was necessary to set Hezekiah's faithful career before our eyes before his grievous illness which threatened to put an end to it. From the prophetic point of view, especially in Isaiah, this makes Hezekiah's tears and supplications all the more poignant. His death might have appeared to have been a judgment of God when his whole life has been spent before Him in integrity. This is also why the writing of Hezekiah is not found in the prophecy properly so called, for it describes the feelings of the remnant appointed to death. In effect, the remnant will be called upon to pass through similar circumstances. Upright in heart, having served God all their lives, like Hezekiah cleansed from evil and from all evil associations, they must realize in their souls what it is to be cut off from the land of the living under the weight of the governmental indignation of God against Israel of which they form part. But they will be delivered and come to life again, as a result of the part they have in the death and resurrection of the Messiah. The third reason is that in the book before us it was important not to interrupt the account that began with the legitimate revolt of Hezekiah, continued with the invasion of Judah when the king's confidence was put to the test, and ended with his marvelous deliverance in answer to implicit trust in God when all human help was impossible.

After having reached Hezekiah in his circumstances, God's discipline reached him in his person: "Set they house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live" (v. 1). He must die. What misery! He who could say, "Ah! Jehovah, remember, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in thy sight" (v. 3), this man must die! For a godly Jew, to walk before God in the land of the living was an evident sign of His favor. Was this favor then withdrawn from the king? God would take no account of fourteen years of devotion to Himself, to His cause, and to His house! He was therefore being rejected as a useless instrument, just at the moment when his piety and his confidence in God had shone out in a special way! This kingdom which God had entrusted to him would have fallen into other hands, less pure than his own!

All this speaks to us of that which overtook the Messiah, of whom Hezekiah is but a feeble type. He also must be cut off in the midst of His days, be cast down after having been lifted up. He also, the faithful Witness who had done solely the will of God, had to suffer death; He also had to depart with nothing and lose His kingdom and all His earthly glory. But Christ — and this could not be the case with Hezekiah — suffered these things because He was bearing the iniquity of a great people, and must suffer God's righteous condemnation in our place. A man like Hezekiah could in no way redeem his brother nor give God a ransom for him (Ps. 49: 7); but He could pass through the experience of the wrath of God in His government. And this is what will happen to the remnant. Like Hezekiah, lifting up their voice to God from the depths, they will learn that the Lord will not take heed to their iniquity because He has visited it upon the Messiah.

It is therefore only in the measure in which Hezekiah participates in the experiences of Christ that he can be considered a type of the Messiah in our passage. Personally, just like the Lord, the zeal of the house of God had eaten him up too, but this not without a failure. He could say, "I trust in thee"; when it came to dying, he seemed to be cut off from the land of the living without cause; only, Hezekiah was a sinner, and as such it was necessary for another to take his place under the judgment of God.

"Hezekiah wept much" (v. 3). The Lord never wept because of the lot that was reserved for Him, for He had come into this world to die. He wept over rebellious Jerusalem; He wept before the tomb of Lazarus as He saw the power of death weigh upon poor fallen men, but He never wept for Himself. Only in one sense, like Hezekiah, He "offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death with strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5: 7), but it was not, like Hezekiah, in order not to die; it was to be saved out of death, to be delivered through resurrection from the horns of the buffaloes, so that the fruit of His work for us might not be lost. As for Hezekiah, tears became him, as they will become the upright remnant. He must learn to accept the sentence of death as being due to him; to say at first without understanding God's purpose: "What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it (Isa. 38: 15); to understand at last, at the end of all his anguish, that the Lord "was purposed to save" him (Isa. 38: 20).

God's answer does not wait long: "And it came to pass before Isaiah had gone out into the middle city that the word of Jehovah came to him saying, Return, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus said Jehovah, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of Jehovah" (vv. 4-5). Scarcely has Hezekiah's soul been searched out than the word of the Lord comes to Isaiah. One senses that God had beforehand prepared for the king all that He here accords him in his affliction. Hezekiah is brought back to life by a sort of resurrection. "Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered"(v. 7) To all appearances the means had no value, but applied at the prophet's word it is found to be the power of God unto salvation. "And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Jehovah will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of Jehovah, the third day? And Isaiah said, This shall be the sign to thee from Jehovah, that Jehovah will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah said, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: no, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried to Jehovah, and he brought the shadow back on the degrees by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward" (vv. 8-11).

Ahaz had set up this dial. Since his reign the shadow had gone forward. Time was passing rapidly and must end in night, in the complete vanishing of the monarchy under God's judgment. The Lord could hasten this end, for the measure was full, but it pleased Him to answer the desire of the godly king and the prophet's request by delaying the hour instead of hastening it, thus granting an extension of time to the power of the king But this miracle has a deeper meaning It signifies that God could and would overturn all the order of nature and its laws which made the sinner subject to death so that He might accomplish the salvation of His beloved ones. Death no longer retains its fatal course; that life which was declining and which would then, as it were, be cut off from the loom like the weaver's fabric (Isa. 38: 12), would commence anew for the faithful remnant in the resurrection of the Messiah, their representative. For us it begins anew in eternal life by the resurrection of the Savior. Such is the sign that Hezekiah asks for. His request denoted a complete confidence in God who alone can do the impossible with the impossible. In reversing in Christ that which through sin had become nature's order for us so that He might save us, the Lord assures us that His counsels concerning us will be accomplished.

"On the third day thou shalt go up to the house of Jehovah." It is thus that Christ's death and resurrection give us, at the end of three days, free entry into the sanctuary.

Hezekiah had already received, without asking it, the sign of the enemy's final overthrow (2 Kings 19: 29-31) in the fact that God had kept alive, without any human intervention, this remnant from which He would form the new Israel; he learns here by what means this remnant should be saved.

Let us observe before ending this part of Hezekiah's history the prophet Isaiah's remarkable role in all these events. Like the Word of God which he represents, he is the bearer of the sentence of death against the best of men who form part of a sinful, fallen race. Death is decreed, and there is no appeal. This message produces a deep affliction in the soul that receives it. Immediately Isaiah announces the happy news of the king's healing He then indicates the means by which this healing may be effected, and applies it to the fatal boil. Lastly, he makes known the sign by which, reversing the order of nature, the Lord engages Himself to effect that which He has promised. These things take place in virtue of the mediation of the prophet who cries unto the Lord, for one does not possess the blessing except by the personal intervention of the Lord Jesus. We have here a complete example of that which the gospel brings to the soul of every sinner.

2 Kings 20: 12-19

The Embassy from Babylon*

{*As Hezekiah had despoiled himself of his treasures in order to ward off the king of Assyria's attack against Jerusalem (2 Kings 18: 15-16), one might suppose that the embassy from Babylon had come before that time, shortly after Hezekiah's illness had befallen him in the fourteenth year of his reign. It would seem that if Hezekiah had showed all his treasures to the ambassadors, he would not yet have been impoverished by an enormous tribute which forced the king to strip even God's temple of its gold. But the event related in 2 Chronicles 32: 23 must be remembered. After Hezekiah had been delivered from Sennacherib, "many brought gifts unto Jehovah to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; and he was thenceforth magnified in the sight of all the nations." Then again: "Hezekiah had very much riches and honor" (v 27). It was therefore only after Sennacherib's attack that the embassy from Babylon came, and that those who were sent got to see the treasures of king Hezekiah (v 31).}

A brief passage in Chronicles, the only passage in this book that speaks of all the contents of our chapter, informs us of Hezekiah's state of soul when the ambassadors were sent by the king of Babylon: "In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to Jehovah; and he spoke to him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was lifted up; and there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. And Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah" (2 Chr. 32: 24-26). Here we see the king's feelings when he received the messengers of Babylon. "His heart was lifted up." At that time under Berodach-baladan Babylon was not yet that which she later became.

Her king had thrown off the overlordship of Assyria and wanted to ward off the return of this power on the offensive by seeking friends among the nations located to the west of his kingdom. He therefore sent a letter and a present to Hezekiah by his ambassadors. Our passage says that Hezekiah "hearkened to them." Thus they had some request to make of him, some alliance to propose to him against their common enemy, whose yoke Hezekiah had himself thrown off. The Word does not tell us that this alliance was concluded, but that the king received the ambassadors favorably. Here he once more made the humiliating experience that his trust in God was not absolute. According to the account in 2 Chronicles 32: 27-31 God had abundantly blessed him for his faithfulness during the first fourteen years of his reign: he had "very much riches and honor," and it was just at that time that "the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land" arrived. Such was the avowed purpose of Berodach-baladan. As for his secret purpose, he flattered Hezekiah's pride. On this occasion "God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart" (v. 31). Left to himself, "his heart was lifted up." He displayed the riches God had given him so that he might vaunt himself before the eyes of these strangers instead of glorifying before these idolaters the God who had saved him by a miracle when he was appointed to death, and who had richly blessed him in replenishing his treasures. These treasures, together with his arsenal, his house, and his domain were passed in review before a jealous world which could not, except merely superficially, be a friend to the saints and the people of God. And lo, in the near future "all . . . which thy fathers have laid up . . . [should! be carried to Babylon" (2 Kings 20: 17; Isa. 39: 6). There was, Chronicles tells us, "wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem," and Hezekiah had to make painful experience of it. But during the interval his soul had been humbled and restored. He was now prepared, as he says in his writing, to "go softly all [his] years" the fifteen years of life he yet had before him "in the bitterness of [his] soul." Softness and bitterness together! These qualities which seem unable to harmonize, harmonize perfectly for the Christian. To the bitterness of the discipline by which we are broken is joined the unspeakably sweet feelings of the Father's love, which He has bestowed on us!

Isaiah plays a new role here, that of the Word which penetrates and searches us out. Happy are we if, like Hezekiah, we do not try to hide anything from Him with whom we have to do. The godly king, taken aside, acknowledges and owns everything before the prophet. "What said these men? and from whence came they to thee?" asks Isaiah. "They came from a far country, from Babylon," answered Hezekiah. Did this "far country" where the prodigal son could live in pleasure far from the face of God (Luke 15: 13) have anything to do with the presence of God? These men came "from Babylon,' cradle both of rebellion against God and of idolatrous worship. Hezekiah had not contracted an alliance with their king, but had bound himself to him by friendship. The prophet asks, "What have they seen in thy house?" The king answers, still with the same sincerity, "All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not strewn them." Then Isaiah announces the judgment of God: "Hear the word of Jehovah: Behold, days come that all that is in thy house, and what thy fathers have laid up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left" (1 Kings 20: 14-17). Is this not the final sentence of the Word if our hearts allow themselves to be attracted and puffed up by things of this earth? "And the world is passing, and its lust." Nothing shall be left!

Hezekiah, having hidden nothing from the Lord, accepts his sentence in all humility. His words recall those of David: "I have sinned against Jehovah,' but they contain yet more: "Good is the word of Jehovah which thou hast spoken" (v. 19). With a contrite heart he accepts the consequences of his deed. The testimony which God had entrusted to him does not escape his hands unharmed; on the contrary, it is hopelessly ruined. This revival, begun in the freshness of divine power, ends through the fault of him who had been its instrument. But in a personal way Hezekiah's heart and conscience had gained through these experiences. If his testimony had been unable to maintain itself and had slipped into ruin, his soul through discipline had recovered its fellowship with the Lord and this humble confidence in Him which it had forsaken for a moment to let itself to be ensnared by the words of the enemy who had flattered his pride.

"And Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem," Chronicles tells us (2 Chr. 32: 26). Blessed result of personal humiliation — it produced the same result in others. When the Assyrian had appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, the king and the people had been of one heart and mind to answer him not and to despise his threats, trusting in the Lord. Discipline having produced its fruits, Hezekiah's wish "Is it not so? if only there shall be peace and truth in my days! was fulfilled" "The wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah" (2 Chr. 32: 26).

2 Kings 21: 1-18

Manasseh

Often a period of revival is followed by a faster pace down the pathway of decline; and remarkably, it is not said that God especially emphasizes this state of things by His judgments. The reign of Manasseh, characterized by a real overflow of idolatry, is the longest reign registered in the history of the kings of Judah and of Israel. One cannot judge men's condition by the greater or lesser severity of God's ways toward them. This was precisely the error of Job's friends, who were judging his character according to his tribulations, and in their arguments assumed that men must be relatively righteous by their lack of tribulation. Manasseh began his reign when he was twelve years old and it stretched out for fifty-five years at Jerusalem. His mother's name is given us: Hephzibah — My delight is in her — the very name restored Jerusalem shall be called by the Lord (Isa. 62: 4). For the time being Hephzibah had, alas! brought forth a monstrous being, object of the Lord's displeasure. Is it for this reason that neither the father nor the birthplace of Manasseh's mother are mentioned? Manasseh rebuilt the high places destroyed by his father, raised up altars to Baal, made an image of the love-goddess Astarte whose impure worship put even her worshippers to shame, placed her statue in the temple, built altars in the house of the Lord and in its two courts, devoted himself to the worship of the stars, sacrificed his son to Moloch, gave himself up to fortunetellers and enchanters, and by all his conduct caused Jehovah's people to err. There was no king in Judah more abominable than he; nevertheless his reign was prosperous, first of all in its duration, and except on one occasion we do not see that it brought any special calamities upon his people. We repeat what we have already said, God judges the deeds of men according to what they are in relation to Himself, and not according to how they conduct themselves toward the world round about them. Should we conclude that an atheist is any less guilty before God because he has devoted himself to humanitarian causes? In no wise. Men will be judged according to what they have thought of God and His Christ, and if their works do not have the Father and the Son for their object, their works are evil. Such was the case with Cain who attempted to acquire merit for himself by the abundant fruits of his labor, while hating his brother Abel.

Manasseh's deeds called for judgment, but God was not yet done with His testimony in Judah. "And Jehovah spoke by his servants the prophets" (v. 10). It is thus that God's Word still remains the only resource in these difficult times, but it is nothing other than the testimony of imminent judgment for the people, judgment from which there is no appeal. "I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipeth a pan, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt even to this day" (vv.13-15). The Lord links their state to their exodus from Egypt. From that time on they had been sinning Could one, can one say that God has not exercised patience toward those upon whom His name has been invoked?

The Word adds that, "Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another" (v. 16). Thus Manasseh persecuted God's people, those who were innocent of all these infamous deeds. God here leaves us with this terrible sight which called for divine vengeance, but Chronicles, which is always pleased to note the action of grace, gives us information about the end of Manasseh's history. He had, up to a certain time in his history, accepted the suzerainty of the kings of Assyria. Esarhaddon had succeeded Sennacherib (2 Kings 19: 37), then Assurbanipal his son. Babylon, which had thrown off the yoke of Asshur under Berodach-baladan, had soon been reconquered and brought back under the dominion of the kings of Assyria. Manasseh, probably enveloped in a conspiracy of all these oriental kingdoms against this harsh servitude to the Assyrians, is led captive to Babylon weighed down with chains of brass To judge by history, such was probably the cause of his cruel captivity. But the true cause is revealed to us by the Word. It was Jehovah who brought upon Manasseh and his people "the captains of the host of the king of Assyria" (2 Chr. 33: 11).

The purpose of God, who does not desire the death of a sinner was attained. Manasseh humbled himself, judging his entire conduct before God, and God brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then he was as zealous to burn that which he had been worshipping as the pious kings who had preceded his father Hezekiah, and the people followed in the same path. Joel, who prophesied under Manasseh, seems to allude to this event (Joel 2: 12-14). Only the high places were not abolished. It was not a revival in the proper sense of the term, but a return to God through the affliction which had caused this wretched man to cry to Him and receive deliverance from all his distress. This subject should be taken up later in our study of Chronicles. The book of Kings stops when it has taken note of the king's responsibility; that of Chronicles shows us grace acting through judgments to restore him. What a blessed thought, that the hearts of the most hardened may become the objects of grace! How many will be found in the Lord's presence whose careers, as here, seemed broken by judgment, and who, beyond any doubt, were touched by repentance unto salvation.

2 Kings 21: 19-26

Amon

Amon's short reign of two years is characterized by the same impiety as that of his father, even more serious, if this is possible, in that as witness of the judgment inflicted upon Manasseh, and of his repentance and forsaking of his idols, he ought to have received instruction for himself. His mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. She must have been an Edomite, if Jotbah is the same place as the Jobathah of Israel's journeys (Num. 33: 33; Deut. 10: 7). It was not without cause, as we have often said, that our book makes discrete allusions to the maternal origins of the kings throughout. Whatever the case may be, to raise up idols that have been destroyed is even worse in the eyes of Jehovah than to set up new ones. It is an insolent despisal of God after He has revealed Himself to us through His ways and His Word that He might make us forsake that which dishonors Him. To return to such is to act as though God did not exist and had not spoken, and this is also what makes Christendom so guilty. God had separated it from idolatry and its immoral principles; it has returned to these principles, as we see when we compare 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 with Romans 1: 29-32, and later it will return to idols themselves. Amon "forsook Jehovah the God of his fathers"; such is his sentence. For him there was no place left for repentance. He died a violent death just like the last kings of Israel.

2 Kings 22: 1 - 2 Kings 23: 30

Josiah

2 Kings 22

Josiah and the Second Revival

Having in this chapter arrived at the second great revival which took place in Judah's last days, we shall find in it ample material for our own instruction. We have said with regard to Hezekiah that end time revivals are characterized by rupture with traditions, however hallowed by long usage some of these may be, and by a return to things that have been from the beginning It goes without saying that apart from this special and powerful action of the Holy Spirit one encounters times when individual piety predominates and cuts off the idolatry then current, as seen in Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah. Those who act with God are ever able thereby to exert an influence of blessing around themselves; but a remarkable thing in the ways of God is that in the measure in which evil increases and draws the world to its final judgment, so does the truth of God shine in brighter splendor and shed about it a more general influence that revives souls.

Under Josiah, as under Hezekiah, there is a resolute and complete rupture with ancient evil, long tolerated or established in Judah. Josiah's faithfulness in this respect, so as it is reported to us in Kings, is altogether remarkable.

Josiah began to reign while still a small boy and consequently under the care of his mother, Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozcath, a woman of Judah (Joshua 15: 39). He walked, like Hezekiah, "in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left" (v. 2). The first thing we are told of him here* is that he began by taking care of the Lord's house, repairing its breaches, counting upon the faithfulness of those who were charged with this work. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house acquires an entirely new importance to believers, and its state of ruin draws out their solicitude. It ought to be so in the days that Christendom is passing through at present. The voice of the faithful ought to be heard, drawing the attention of God's people to His house, the Assembly of the Living God, as being that object that is most dear to Christ's heart. It is in no way a matter of freshly rebuilding the ruined temple but one of repairing-its breaches, of faithfully bringing the necessary material, of adding to this building cedar wood and hewn stone pleasing to God who had built the house. Likewise at this time of the end the Christian who is conscious of his calling, instead of adding wood, hay, and stubble to the house, will bring to it that which is suitable to the house of God — living stones, hewn by the Holy Spirit, in the quarry of the world, cut by the Master, and capable ultimately of forming a part of the building of God. The revival in our times has comprehended this. For it, God's Assembly exists, although this Assembly is in ruin; whereas it takes no account of those buildings that men call their churches and which are maintained by men. It is not to these buildings that Christ's faithful witnesses will bring material, but to the Church of the Living God, and each is responsible to Him alone for the work which has been entrusted to him. "But no reckoning was made with them of the money that was given into their hand, because they dealt faithfully" (v. 7).

{*The order is different in Chronicles, where Josiah begins by the cleansing of the land and then occupies himself with the temple. This same book shows us Hezekiah beginning with the temple and then cleaning the land. In Kings this latter is Hezekiah's first act.}

This zeal for the house of God has an immediate and most important result: "And Hilkijah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah" (v. 8). If Josiah had not had the restoration of the temple at heart, the book of the law, which was kept there (2 Chr. 34: 15) would not have come to light again. This is the special character of Josiah's revival. Hezekiah had more especially shown confidence in the Lord accompanied — this goes without saying — by a real submission to the word of God which Isaiah the prophet bore, but under Josiah we find, as it were, a totally new revelation of the written Word, and in this particular case of the books of Moses. In this revival the Holy Scriptures, neglected and forgotten as it were during the preceding reigns, again suddenly occupy their place of importance. This was the great blessing attached to the revival called the Reformation. The Bible, brought out of obscurity through providential ways and presented to all, immediately shone forth with brightest splendor. Nevertheless, it is painful to see that the Reformation did not begin, as did Josiah, with a zeal for the house of God, but doubtless the importance of Christ's Assembly was being reserved for a latter time and had not yet been manifested.

When zeal for the house and obedience to the Scriptures go together, these latter become as it were a totally new revelation. Things already known be of God certainly do not lose their importance, but a light bursts forth that not only astonishes and impresses people as having been totally unknown until then, but that also touches consciences most deeply. "And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his garments" (v. 11). Is it possible that the Word of God could have been violated in such a way by his people! Is it astonishing that the consequence of this has been their ruin?

And now who will interpret this Word for us? How are we to "inquire of Jehovah" regarding what we are to do, knowing that according to this Word we have incurred His displeasure? The prophet alone, the representative of the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1: 11), can interpret it for us. Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkijah the high priest, he seeks to be put into direct relationship with the Word. There were many prophets at the time of ungodly Manasseh (2 Kings 21: 10). In Josiah's time, in these days of revival but of profound weakness, we find a prophetess at Jerusalem. Not that prophets were lacking in Judah (2 Kings 23: 2), but activity entrusted to a woman characterizes decline, just as with Deborah in the book of Judges. Like Deborah, Huldah, this servant of Jehovah, does not seek to exercise a public ministry like the false prophetesses of our days; she employs her gift in the sphere appointed her. Josiah's servants come to her: "Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter of the town" (v. 14). Here we are far from an Isaiah whose ministry embraced the whole range of prophecy and whose presence characterized Hezekiah's revival. But the Spirit of Christ speaks through this woman, to confirm "all the words of the book that the king of Judah hath read" (v. 16), and, at the same time to reassure Josiah as to his own future. God had respect to the king's deep humiliation: "Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before Jehovah, when thou heardest what I spoke against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and curse, and didst rend thy garments and weep before me, I also have heard thee, saith Jehovah" (v. 19). To humble himself was, in fact, the only thing needful. This characterized Josiah and at all times characterizes the faithful remnant in the midst of evil (Ezek. 9: 4) in the days of the ruin of the Church, and among those who profess to know the name of the Lord. Today one can recognize the hearts of the faithful by the humiliation they feel at the state of things. Josiah's heart was very sensitive to this; he rent his garments and wept. But according to verse 20 he was to be "taken away from before the evil," as Isaiah says (Isa. 57: 1).

2 Kings 23: 1-20

The Book of the Covenant and the Sanctification of the People

The importance of God's house on earth, that place where the Lord causes His name to dwell, and of the book of the covenant — this now, as we have seen, is what characterizes the spiritual revival under Josiah. Let us not hesitate to repeat: in the times in which we live these two things always characterize a true revival. Interest in the Assembly of the Living God and not in the miserable imitations thereof with which fallen Christendom has replaced it, zeal for the inspired authority of the Holy Scriptures — this is that to which every faithful soul that is seeking the glory of the Lord will be attached today, whatever the cost may be.

The king has all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem gathered about him and goes up to Jehovah's house, having "all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great." He causes to be read before them "all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah" (v. 2). This book of the covenant included not only the covenant of Sinai, but also that which was made in the plain of Moab, that is to say, all the words of Deuteronomy. It applied exactly to the people's state as it now was; and God had beforehand described it in this book. Deuteronomy spoke above all of obedience and made the blessing or cursing of the people whom God had redeemed from Egypt depend upon obedience to the Word. Here this covenant is renewed: "The king stood on the dais, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart, and with all his soul, to establish the words of this covenant that are written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant." (v. 3).

In these end time revivals a powerful effect is produced upon all, although reality is found only in the hearts of the remnant. The book of Jeremiah, who prophesied under Josiah, shows us that in fact the moral state of the people was in no wise changed. They easily consented to the abolition of idolatry through the faithfulness of the king, but their hearts remained as far removed from God as ever. The prophet says: "And Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath committed fornication. And I said, After she hath done all these things, she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her sister Judah, the treacherous, saw it. And I saw that when for all the causes wherein backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet the treacherous Judah, her sister, feared not, but went and committed fornication also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her fornication that she polluted the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And even for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, said Jehovah" (Jer. 3: 6-10. Read also Jer. 5: 27-29; Jer. 6: 9-15, 29; Jer. 8: 8-13).

In spite of that, a moral constraint upon souls is exercised by means of those who are faithful, even upon those who are in fact afar off from God. In 2 Chronicles 34: 33 we see that Josiah "made to serve, all that were found in Israel — to serve Jehovah their God: all his days they did not depart from following Jehovah, the God of their fathers." It is thus that all the people here enter into the covenant. Amon had reestablished all that Manasseh had abolished at the time of his repentance. Josiah in his zeal for God and for God alone, quite different from Jehu's zeal, completely cleanses Jerusalem, Judah, and Israel, as far as his arm could reach. In the fields of Kidron he burns all the objects that had been accumulated in the temple for the worship of Baal, Astarte, and the stars, and carries their dust to Bethel, the initial site of Jeroboam's idolatry. He suppresses (v. 5; Zeph. 1: 4) the Chemarim — the priests established by the kings of Judah to burn incense before false gods. He completely destroys the lewd statue of the goddess of love which had been set up in house of the Lord, and casts the powder of its ashes on the graves of those who had worshipped her. He does away with the prostitution which had been widespread at Jerusalem under guise of the worship of Astarte. He gathers together the priests who under repentant Manasseh had continued to offer sacrifices to the Lord upon the high places (2 Chr. 33: 17). He does not treat them like the Chemarim, but does not allow them to go up to the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem. All fellowship with a religion which, even in being separated from idolatry, had dared to despise the only gathering center for the people, is resolutely broken. In this we find instruction for the day in which we live. This deed of Josiah's shows us that a true revival cannot be associated with worship which is not rendered around the Lord's Table, the only gathering center for His own. Nevertheless, Josiah acknowledges the right of these priests to eat "of the unleavened bread among their brethren" (v. 9). The individual holiness of those whom the Lord had consecrated is fully recognized, but for the moment, if not forever, their functioning in Israel's worship is not tolerated. Josiah furthermore abolishes the horses given to the sun and demolishes and burns the altars which had dared to replace God's only altar. In his zeal for the Lord he even attacks altars built by Solomon (v. 13).

He goes still further. His interest extends to all the people of God. He goes to Bethel, condemns all this evil at its source, and thus fulfills the prophecy once pronounced before Jeroboam against the altar where that king had offered up sacrifices (vv.15-16; 1 Kings 13: 2). However, he spares the sepulchre of the man of God who had pronounced these things. Whatever the unfaithfulness of this man had been, he recognizes what had been done for God by him, also sparing the bones of the prophet of Samaria, the cause of his fall, but who had humbled himself for his error. It is thus that every truly Christian heart acknowledges that which men of God in the past times have done to serve Him, and respects their work, though blemished by failures which caused it to lose its power or spoiled its result (vv. 17-18).

Lastly, the king goes through all the cities of Israel destroying the temples of the high places without pity for their idolatrous priests whom he exterminates, although since the people had been carried away by the Assyrians, the influence of these to all appearances had been lost. He acts in view of a future restoration; and his heart, fervent in the service of the Lord, is attached to this; for prophets, even during his own reign, were announcing a restoration under the scepter of a king of righteousness and peace.

2 Kings 23: -21-23

The Passover

"And the king commanded all the people saying, Hold the passover to Jehovah your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. For there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover holden to Jehovah in Jerusalem" (vv. 21-23).

The celebration of the passover is given us here in few words, whereas Chronicles describes it at length (2 Chr. 35: 1-19); but this event has too great an importance in the history of the revival to fail to arrest the reader's attention for a moment. We have just spoken of the two great principles which characterize revival in the end times: breaking with the idolatry of the world or its religious traditions, and returning to the Holy Scriptures. Following these two facts and as consequence of them we have the celebration of the Passover.

The Passover as an institution had first of all been celebrated in Egypt. The people of Israel had been redeemed from the land of bondage by the blood of the passover lamb. Through it, God's judgment which overtook Egypt was turned aside from Israel. The people, placed under the sprinkling of the blood, ate the passover. It was a figure of the appropriating of the sacrifice of Christ that faith does for us once for all: this symbol corresponds to what is said of the Christian in John 6: 53.

The memorial of this deliverance comes next. It was repeated each year on the fourteenth day of the first month (Ex. 12: 14, 26-27, 45). This memorial was celebrated by all the people. In normal circumstances no one in Israel could abstain from it, under penalty of being "cut off from Israel." As a first condition to partake, it was necessary to be circumcised (Ex. 12: 48). This sign was the sign of the separation to God by the judgment of sin and the cutting off of the flesh. And so, at the time of entering into the land of Canaan, after the passage of the Jordan, all those who belonged to the generation whose fathers had fallen in the wilderness and who had not been circumcised were circumcised at Gilgal. "The reproach of Egypt" was thus rolled away from them, and they could celebrate the Passover in the plains of Jericho (Joshua 5: 6-12).

By the fact that it was given to a redeemed and circumcised people, the memorial became the symbol of the unity of the people of God. The Passover was thus at the same time the remembrance of redemption and the proclamation of the unity of the people.

The Spirit of God shows us that this celebration was a fundamental institution, first of all in traversing the wilderness (Num. 9: 1-14) and then upon entering Canaan (Joshua 5: 10). From that time on the Word does not mention it again until the days of Hezekiah, not as though it had not been observed under the judges, under David, Solomon, and the kings, but it was not the special object presented by the Holy Spirit; whereas we see the feasts of the seventh month, especially the feast of tabernacles, occupying a preponderant place under the reign of Solomon.

At the time of Hezekiah's revival, the Passover was not celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month, but of the second month (2 Chr. 30: 15), the date authorized by the Word for those who were unclean or on a journey at the time of the celebration of the feast (Num. 9: 11). The priests found themselves in the first situation, having lacked the zeal to sanctify themselves, they were unclean, and Hezekiah acts in consequence of this. Josiah's Passover was celebrated on the appointed date of the first month (2 Chr. 35: 1). The need of sanctifying oneself for the Lord was much more generally felt than it had been under Hezekiah, for the Word of God was better understood, and the desire to obey Him was more real.

At the time of Ezra, the Passover was celebrated by "the children of the captivity" on the day consecrated thereto, "for the priests and the Levites had purified themselves as one man" (Ezra 6: 19-20).

Therefore, in the measure that we advance in the history of the ruin of the people of God, the greater the importance to the faithful the Passover and the state of soul appropriate to it acquire; and, quite remarkably, the sign of the unity of the people becomes all the more important as the people are dispersed all the more by the ruin.

Is it needful to add that these truths answer to the present day? The Lord's Supper, which on that night in which Jesus was betrayed replaced the Jewish Passover as a memorial, is served and the Lord's Table is set up for His redeemed people and for them alone. The Lord's death is proclaimed there until He returns. At the same time this table is a rallying center for the people of God, and it is the proclamation of the unity of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10: 17), even at a time when everything apparently contradicts this truth, or even when, as at the time Hezekiah, those who proclaim it are laughed at and mocked (2 Chr. 30: 10).

The history of the Passover does not end here, and in fact shall never be ended. A willing people will yet celebrate it upon earth during Christ's millennial reign (Ezek. 45: 21). It will be celebrated at the same time in the heavenly kingdom where the glorified saints will be gathered around the Lamb that was slain (Rev. 5).

Thus since redemption is accomplished, the memorial of that which has acquired it for the people of God lasts, come what may, and will last throughout eternity. The remembrance of the death of Christ is always necessary for it is the sole foundation for every blessing

Let us return now to Josiah's Passover. The account in our book, though very brief, is characterized by an important expression: "As it is written in this book of the covenant" (v. 21). No doubt, as we see in Chronicles, the people under Hezekiah had also come to celebrate it according to "the word of Jehovah" and "the law of Moses, the man of God" (2 Chr. 30: 12, 16), but under Josiah the written Word, marvelously preserved and rediscovered in the temple, takes on a yet much greater importance. Nothing that pertains to this memorial should be done without the Word. It was "according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon" that they were to prepare it (2 Chr. 35: 4); "according to the word of Jehovah through Moses" (v. 6) that one ought to present the sacrifice to the Lord (v. 12); "according to the ordinance" that one should roast it with fire (v. 13); "according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer" that each occupied his place to observe the due order according to God in singing and praising (v. 15). And all was done "according to the commandment of king Josiah" (v. 16), that is to say, the instrument of this revival had the intelligence neither to communicate nor order the people to do anything but that which was in accord with the Scripture.

Let us take these things to heart. Josiah, warned by the Lord, knew perfectly well that in doing this he would not stop the course of judgment; he also knew that he would be gathered to his fathers before the evil would come and that his eyes should not see it (2 Kings 22: 20), but he had but one thought. Feeling with deepest humiliation the dishonor inflicted upon the Lord and His worship, he was pressed to honor Him in the midst of the ruin of Israel, in the very place where He had been so dishonored. By all his conduct he was protesting against the infamy which had been committed in Judah under the cloak of religion. He humbled himself under this apostasy, as being responsible for it just as others were, but without being in the least distracted all his activity was directed toward the service of the Lord and toward the cleansing for Him of a peculiar people, however abased or dispersed they might be.

Josiah's era was not marked, as Hezekiah's, by special attacks of the enemy, by trials coming from without or from within. It was a relatively peaceful time when indifference certainly played a greater part than hatred; but whereas the world rested and let things be, Josiah used this lull to show forth greatest activity for his Master.

Our times, we have already said, resemble those times, and the faithful have the same position and the same duties. May we use these end times with their relative calm to render testimony to these three things: separation from the religious and irreligious world which surrounds us, attachment to the Scriptures, and gathering God's children around the Lord's Table until He comes.

Our chapter adds that "all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah took away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkijah the priest had found in the house of Jehovah" (v. 24). Thus, to the end of his career Josiah put into practice the principles he had drawn from the Scriptures. There was no king like him, neither before nor after him, and that was not due to his personal merit nor to his righteousness, but to the fact that the Word of God, mixed with faith in his heart, had become an integral part of himself.

2 Kings 23: 28-30

Pharaoh-Nechoh

Josiah's end does not correspond to the initial blessings of his reign. We have seen that by special grace God had accorded external rest to him, so that his testimony might develop in peace. It was Josiah himself who now allowed himself to be drawn into war. The time had come when, according to prophecy, the power of the Assyrian which had been weighing so heavily upon all the peoples was to be broken to give place to the universal empire of Babylon. Nechoh goes up with an Egyptian army against the king of Assyria. Josiah takes the Assyrian's part against Pharaoh, something that God had in no wise commanded him. What did he have to do with supporting the tottering structure of this power, Israel's cruel enemy? Through prophecy he knew that the final ruin of the Assyrian was near. Was he commissioned by God to correct world happenings or to lend his support in them? Nothing in this world's condition can be improved in God's eyes, and we know that this world is already judged. Josiah had been set apart from all the course of this world to serve the Lord, he and his people, and we see him meddling in politics! He does not have to wait long for the result: the world punishes us for our intervening in its affairs. "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah?" Pharaoh, who is conscious of being an instrument of God, says to him: "God . . . is with me. God has told me to make haste," and "the words of Nechoh [camel from the mouth of God" (2 Chr. 35: 20-22). From the moment that he entered upon this path, Josiah lost his discernment of the mind of the Lord and was no longer able to recognize the word of his mouth.

It is always so. Spiritual intelligence and a true understanding of the Word are linked to true separation from all that makes up the world, including its politics. And for the rest, the child of God will always be a terribly poor diplomat, because he cannot avoid letting himself be governed by moral principles to which the world pays no heed. But on the other hand, who can know the world's future like the Christian? A simple child in the faith cleaving to the Word of God through his knowledge of the future will be able to instruct the greatest politician, for such a child knows all its details according to the revelation God has given him of them.

Josiah must suffer for his doings, for this intervention was serious unfaithfulness for a man favored by the blessings and the fellowship of his God. He was killed by Pharaoh at Megiddo, and buried in his sepulchre. Jeremiah lamented for the end of this pious servant of Jehovah (2 Chr. 35: 25).

2 Kings 23: 31-25: 30

The Final Downfall

2 Kings 23: 31-35

JEHOAHAZ

All God's favor under the reign of Josiah, the blessing and the joy with which the Lord had filled the hearts of the people, bear no results in the successors of this king Jehoahaz, chosen and proclaimed king by the people in his father's stead, "did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all this his fathers had done" (v. 32). He is linked not to Josiah, but to his unbelieving and idolatrous fathers and he is not numbered in the line of faith. It is not possible to have Josiah or Abraham as father without producing fruits meet for repentance. Here the axe was being laid to the root of the tree and Judah's royalty was about to pass through its last convulsions before being finally cut off. Mothers issuing from among the people of God are henceforth without influence, whether because there is no more ear to hear them, or whether because they themselves take part in the ruin. Hamutal, the wife of Josiah and mother of Jehoahaz, was the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah and apparently of the priestly race (cf. Joshua 21: 13). Her son reigns only three months, and yet finds time to do evil and by his conduct toward God to gainsay that which Josiah had established.

Pharaoh-nechoh avenges himself upon him for the opposition of Josiah who had foolishly supported the Assyrian by seeking to prevent the march of the Egyptian army. Bound with chains, Jehoahaz is led to Egypt and dies there. Pharaoh takes no account of this royalty established by the people. Jeremiah prophesies about him: "Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. For thus said Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more; for he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more" (Jer. 22: 10-12). Nechoh takes Eliakim, the son of Josiah, and establishes him king "instead of Josiah his father," changing his name to Jehoiakim. This latter becomes servant and tributary to the king of Egypt and gives Pharaoh the gold and silver that he gathers up through taxes.

2 Kings 23: 36 - 2 Kings 24: 7

Jehoiakim

The same observation applies to this king's mother as to the mother of Jehoahaz. Her name is Zebuddah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. She probably came from one of the cities of Judah. Jehoiakim, at first tributary to Pharaoh, then becomes tributary to Nebuchadnezzar whose reign began the fourth year of Jehoiakim. The Lord's warnings are lavished upon him by Jeremiah (Jer. 22: 13-19) and other prophets; they are not heeded. He slays Urijah, a prophet who prophesied against Jerusalem and against Judah, but who, lacking faith in presence of the king's murderous plans, fled to Egypt (Jer. 26: 20-23). Jeremiah also runs the same dangers, but this man of God trusts in the word of the Lord: "And I, behold, I appoint thee this day as a strong city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land; against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee saith Jehovah, to deliver thee" (Jer. 1: 18-19; see also Jer. 6: 27; Jer. 15: 20-21). The Lord watches over him according to this word. When in his unbelief the king, after having cut up the roll of the prophecy of Jeremiah with a penknife and thrown it into the fire, seeks further to seize the prophet and his faithful companion, Baruch, we are told that "Jehovah hid them" (Jer. 36, especially vv. 23, 26).

Jeremiah had begun to prophesy in the thirteenth year of faithful Josiah when the people were still enjoying the prosperity which the faithfulness of the king had procured for them, but the people had not listened. Then the prophet announced the seventy years of captivity under the yoke of Babylon (Jer. 25: 11), the destiny of all the nations, at the head of whom he placed Jerusalem, comparing it to the idolatrous peoples, and finally, the destiny of Babylon itself (Jer. 25: 17-29). This account indicates what the universal monarchy begun by Babylon would be like, regardless of how short its dominion might be by comparison with the long Assyrian dominion. But Assyria had never formed a compact kingdom, well established and universally recognized like that of Babylon.

Jehoiakim had changed masters. He could hardly wait to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. After his land had in part become a prey for all his neighbors (2 Kings 24: 2), this monarch went up against him and bound him with chains of brass to take him away to Babylon (2 Chr. 36: 6). We learn through Jeremiah what word the Lord had pronounced concerning him: "Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost" (Jer. 36: 30).

"Verily, at the commandment of Jehovah it came to pass against Judah, that they should be removed out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done; and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Jehovah would not pardon" (vv. 34). From the time of Manasseh this irrevocable decree had gone forth from the Lord; it had been suspended during Josiah's reign, and would have remained so during the reigns of his successors had they been willing to listen (Jer. 25: 1-11). There were two causes for this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood; and Jehoiakim, like Manasseh, had shed the latter according to his power in Jerusalem, the city that has killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to it.

From thenceforth Pharaoh came not again any more out of his land (v. 7), the Babylonian empire having deprived him of all his possessions from the Nile to the Euphrates.

2 Kings 24: 7-17

Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah, or Coniah)

Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. His mother was Nehusta, the daughter Elnathan of Jerusalem. It appears more and more evident that the mothers of these latter kings had themselves, like their sons, forgotten the Lord. In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. This great king himself then came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah: "As I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet upon my right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them before whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bear thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. And into the land whereunto they lift up their souls to return, thither shall they not return. Is this man Coniah a despised broken vase? a vessel wherein is no delight? Wherefore are they thrown out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah! Thus said Jehovah: Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah" (Jer. 22: 24-30).

All the treasures of the king and those of the temple were carried away to the capital of the Chaldeans, and all the noble or able-bodied people, men of war, princes, and craftsmen were taken away captive (vv. 14-16).

This carrying away having been effected, Jeremiah in a vision sees two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord (Jer. 24), the only place where the true state of the people might be appreciated. One of these baskets was full of very good figs in God's eyes, like figs that are first ripe; the other of very bad figs. That which men saw was exactly the opposite of that which God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. The* goodness rested upon the fact that they had submitted to Gods' judgment due their iniquity. This same principle holds true for us, only thanks be to God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our stead upon the cross. Once the sentence was executed, God could look down with favor upon those who had been its objects. "And I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up" (Jer. 24: 6). He was able to establish them in His presence forever. They must be perfect for that, and it was in this character that the Lord viewed the poor captive remnant. It is the same for us: in virtue of Christ's judgment God sees us perfect in Him, however wretched we may be in ourselves.

The Lord announces the restoration of the people. "I will bring them again to this land," but at the same time He proclaims that in the future He would give them moral perfection before him, the result of a new covenant in which everything would come from Him. He alone is its author; it will be a covenant of grace, not of responsibility. "And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart" (v. 7).

The "bad figs, which cannot be eaten for badness" (v. 8), and with which God Himself could do nothing, were those who, not having undergone the first judgment under Jehoiachin, must undergo a second and this time final judgment. Whereas God declared that everything was lost, they, trusting in themselves, were boasting that they were the representatives of the people of God. The land of Egypt, type of the world under the dominion of Satan, suited them very well. Instead of accepting the judgment of God they revolted against Him, as we shall see in the history of Zedekiah.

In the midst of the ruin God opened a door of hope to the people. It was from among those who were carried away that God would raise up a remnant, nucleus of Israel of the future, over whom the king of righteousness, the Anointed of the Lord, would reign after all the sons of David had completely failed in their responsibility. The words of Jeremiah concerning the end of Jerusalem's desolation were later to console and strengthen Daniel's heart when the Babylonian captivity was about to reach its end (Dan. 9: 1-3). We find these same words of consolation for people of the carrying away under Jehoiachin in Ezekiel: "And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, it is thy brethren, thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel, the whole of it, unto whom it inhabitants of Jerusalem say, Get you far from Jehovah: unto us is this land given for a possession. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Although I have removed them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries whither they are come. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will even gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye are scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away from thence all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Ezek. 11: 14-20).

Let us again mention with regard to Jehoiachin, an event related by Jeremiah (Jer. 28) which took place under Zedekiah. A prophet, and there were many of these in this period, Hananiah the son of Azzur, prophesied before Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. According to him, at the end of two years the yoke of the king of Babylon which Jeremiah was bearing on his neck before all the people as a sign was to be broken. At the end of two years the captives of Judah (those that had been carried away under Jehoiachin) were to be brought back to Jerusalem and the holy vessels restored to the house of the Lord. Thereupon he broke the yoke borne by the prophet. He did that which the princes had done who were counselling those who had been carried away not to build houses, in opposition to what Jeremiah had told them (Ezek 11: 3). Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: The wooden yoke which Hananiah had broken was to become an iron yoke upon all the nations, and the false prophet was condemned to death because he had "spoken revolt against Jehovah" (Jer. 28: 16). Two months after this prophecy God's sentence was carried out.

This little scene shows us what the feelings of the people and of their leaders were, in the midst of God's judgments. They did not accept these judgments and did not submit themselves to them. Their national pride would not stand this humbling; neither they nor their king would turn to God to seek His will.

Thus, all along we have had occasion to observe through the prophets that the hearts of the people were desperately evil, and that their state necessarily called for God's judgment.

Just as it was necessary to accept the judgment, so it was necessary to bear it patiently until the end of the seventy years assigned it by the Lord. So Jeremiah wrote to those taken captive under Jeconiah (Jehoiachin): "Build houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and-give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there, and be not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto Jehovah for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace" (Jer. 29: 5-7). At the appointed time there was to be a restoration. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you in your latter end a hope" (Jer. 29: 11).

2 Kings 24: 18-25: 21

Zedekiah

Zedekiah was Jehoiachin's uncle and been established in office by the king of Babylon, who had changed his name form Mattaniah to Zedekiah. His mother, Hamutal, was a daughter of Judah; we shall not repeat our remarks previously made about her.

In setting Zedekiah into office, Nebuchadnezzar counted on having a king dependent upon himself who would not foment new revolts. Zedekiah's two predecessors had had obliged the king of Babylon to make two expeditions against Jerusalem, but now he expected to have peace with this proud, turbulent nation that submitted to his scepter. The prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 17) in a parable describes the politics and purposes of Nebuchadnezzar. The great Babylonian eagle had cropped off Jehoiachin, the top of the young shoots of the cedar of Lebanon, and had carried him away to Babylon. He had then taken the seed of the land —  Zedekiah — and planted it by great waters like a willow tree. It had become a vine, spreading, but not high, for the king of Babylon wanted to have an abased royalty in Judah dependent upon him. This vine turned toward another great eagle, the Pharaoh of Egypt, instead of remaining in submission to the first. God declares through the prophet what the result would be.

"Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon" (1 Kings 24: 20). This act was an infamous and sacrilegious act in the eyes of the Lord, and this is why: Nebuchadnezzar "had made him take oath by God" (2 Chr. 36: 13). And Ezekiel tells us that he "made a covenant with him, and brought him under an oath" (Ezek. 17: 13). Thus to all his other transgressions this king was adding the breaking of an oath made in the name of the Lord. Doing this before the idolatrous nations, he demonstrated before them that he had no regard for the God to whom he pretended to belong Chronicles registers four reasons for the judgment of this king: He did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke to him on behalf of Jehovah; this was rebellion against the word of the Spirit of God. He revolted against Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against returning to Jehovah (2 Chr. 36: 12-13). As to the first point, so often repeated about these latter kings of Judah, we are not told about those who immediately preceded Zedekiah that their idolatry was as dreadful as that of Manasseh, or at least the details are not given to us. But as to Zedekiah, we are informed first of all by Chronicles (2 Chr. 36: 13-14), where we are told that together with all the chief of the people, he defiled the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem"; and the prophet Ezekiel, in his vision (Ezek. 8) gives us details of these abominations. "The image of jealousy," This Astarte set up by Manasseh which "provoked Jehovah to jealousy" was there at the entry of the temple; within the court and in the "chambers of imagery" all sorts of idols had been painted, before which the elders were burning incense; at the entry of the northern gate of the house women were weeping for Tammuz —  probably Adonis; at the entry of the temple between the porch and the altar men were worshipping the rising sun. The thoughts of the hearts of the people were no better. Instead of recognizing that God's judgment had overtaken them because of their unfaithfulness, they said: "We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, in serving wood and stone " (Ezek. 20: 32). The same prophet also presents to us the moral state of the prophets, the priests and the princes. Everywhere there was violence, profanation, dishonest gain, extortion, and rapine (Ezek. 22: 23-31); see also Jer. 32: 30-35).

Zedekiah's revolt might have had plausible political motives in the eyes of the world. As happens today too, it won the sympathy of all those who chafed under Babylon's yoke. But this yoke was according to God, and the Lord proclaimed this in a visible way by the prophet Jeremiah who walked through the city bearing a wooden yoke upon his neck. The king of Judah ought to have known and remembered this, had he had the least concern to serve the Lord. But this man, so brave to revolt, down deep was filled with terror, fearing to compromise himself before the princes of the people. He was doubtless being encouraged in his actions by the surrounding nations, as we see in Jeremiah 27: 3, where the kings of Moab, of Edom, of the children of Ammon, of Tyre, and of Zidon had sent their messengers to encourage him to shake off the yoke of Babylon together with them. The chief men of Judah were of the same mind and had their ideas of resistance supported by prophets who used their gifts to lead the people into error and lead them into a path of rebellion against the Lord (Jer. 27: 12: 22).

One can understand the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar who thrice under three successive reigns was obliged to return to Jerusalem to besiege it, and the rage of this despot to whom everything had been subjected by God (The Lord had proclaimed this openly to him. Dan. 2: 37-38) on seeing himself despised and scoffed at by the weak people of the kingdom of Israel who had been brought so low. He made no delay in setting out to punish the revolt. Ezekiel describes his uncertainty about the execution of his vengeance; should he begin with Rabbah of the Ammonites, or with Jerusalem. He practiced divination to know where to begin. Without his being aware of it, the Lord's hand led him against Judah. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it!" said Jehovah (Ezek. 21: 18-31).

Nebuchadnezzar builds ramparts all around Jerusalem and undertakes a siege which lasts about eight months. Famine intensifies in the city, according to the word of Jeremiah: "And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one of the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them" (Jer. 19: 9). During all this time, despite the innumerable dangers threatening him Jeremiah stands firm for the Lord, according to His word: "I will make thee unto this people a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, to save thee and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah; yea, I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible" (Jer. 15: 20-21). His word, again and again repeated, is: "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon." "Thou shalt go to Babylon." He gives the same warning to the nations confederated with Judah (Jer. 27: 3-11) and to Zedekiah and his people (vv. 12-15). The princes persecute the prophet and seek to put him to death, under pretext that he is weakening the hands of the people. Zedekiah fears the princes (Jer. 38: 24). At a given moment Pharaoh with his army comes to the aid of Jerusalem (Ezek. 17: 17; Jer. 37: 5). The Chaldeans, learning this news, withdraw from Jerusalem. Jeremiah shows the people their fallacy. The army of Pharaoh, he says, will return to the land of Egypt, and the Chaldeans will come again. At the time when the Chaldeans withdraw the prophet goes out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to have his portion there among the people (Jer. 37: 12). He is made prisoner, accused of being a deserter, persecuted, and thrown into a deep dungeon where he sinks into the mire. The princes of the people are the most fierce against him. Ebed-melech the Ethiopian speaks to the king in his favor and pulls him up out of the dungeon (Jer. 38). The day the city is taken this man is saved, according to the word of the prophet (Jer. 39: 15). Zedekiah himself persecutes Jeremiah and shuts him up in the court of the prison (Jer. 32: 2-3), but in fact it is the king who is the captive of his captains and of his princes and does not dare resist them, In reality he did not hate Jeremiah, but was under the pressure of the fear of men instead of being governed by the fear of the Lord whom he had despised and dishonored (Jer. 38: 24-28). The prophet, with a boldness that rests upon the word and the promises of God, hides nothing from the king of that which was about to take place: destruction, plunder, conflagration. As judgment is approaching, he cries out all its details in the ears of all and in the king's ears. He says: "Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans; for he shall certainly be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes" (Jer. 32: 4); and again: "Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon" (Jer. 34: 3). And Ezekiel says: "The prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth; they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby; he shall cover his face that he see not the land with his eyes. And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; but he shall not see it, and there shall he die"(Ezek. 12: 12-13). These two prophecies were fulfilled to the letter. When Zedekiah, on the occasion of the temporary departure of the Chaldean army, proclaimed a jubilee and ordered that all Israelite servants should be set free, all "the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land passed between the parts of a calf cut in two to confirm the covenant that they made before the Lord (Jer. 34: 18-19; cf. Gen. 15: 9), but scarcely was the promise made than they transgressed it, going and taking back their servants to bring them into bondage again. And so judgment was pronounced upon them with greatest energy by the prophet (Jer. 34: 20-22).

Only a small remnant who had received the Lord's message and had delivered themselves over to the Chaldeans had their lives saved (2 Kings 25: 11). They were the excellent figs of Jeremiah 24.

Jerusalem is taken. Zedekiah flees with his army toward Jordan. His retinue is dispersed, he is taken, led to Nebuchadnezzar, judged as we have seen, and led away to Babylon, where the king of Babylon "put him in prison till the day of his death" (Jer. 52: 11). Only, according to the word of the prophet, he does not die a violent death (Jer. 34: 4-5), the Lord paying heed to the least bit of evidence of turning in this poor king who had shown a moment of pity for the servant of the Lord and had listened to his word, although he lacked the courage to follow it and the faith to humble himself before God.

The people are carried away to Babylon; the priests and those who had helped with the resistance die a violent death at Riblah. The last vestiges of the power and prosperity of Judah disappear following this attack. Even the two pillars of the temple are broken in pieces and carried away to Babylon as well as all the brass, the gold, and the silver of the house of God. The Lord had been despised. What should Jachin and Boaz yet have to do at Jerusalem? The strength that was in the Lord had departed through Judah's unfaithfulness, and God had destroyed it instead of establishing it. Thus ends the history of man, placed under responsibility before God. God must give him up — but His promises are without repentance. He will re-establish the reign of His anointed upon these two marvelous pillars, and this reign will be unshakeable.

2 Kings 26: 22-26

Gedaliah

Nebuchadnezzar establishes Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the people left in the land to be vinedressers and laborers. This Ahikam had saved Jeremiah in the days of Jehoiakim, when even as Urijah the prophet, he had prophesied against Jerusalem (Jer. 26: 24). No doubt this action had had its influence upon the king of Babylon, who respected and protected Jeremiah. Gedaliah dwelt at Mizpah, a strong city that Asa, king of Judah, had built with the stones of Ramah (1 Kings 15: 22). It was there that Jeremiah went, and there all those from the surrounding regions who had escaped together with the poor people that were left came to seek the protection of Gedaliah, this noble lieutenant of the king of Babylon. He reassured the people, swearing to them that they had nothing to fear in accepting their servitude to the Chaldeans.

For this poor remnant there was a respite of several months. They gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance (Jer. 40: 12). The worship of the Lord even seems to have been held in honor again, now at a time when the temple had been completely destroyed and ruined. At least there was a "house of Jehovah" to which those who mourned over Israel's condition could go up. The captains of the forces that remained gathered around Gedaliah, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah of the royal seed at their head. This latter, however, came with evil purposes, sent by Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, and pushed, no doubt, by his own ambition. Gedaliah warned by Johanan, one of the captains, of the treachery being planned, refused to believe it and to have part in the murder of Ishmael (Jer. 40: 13-16). Ishmael smote him in a cowardly manner, thus for the last time rebelling against the king of Babylon's authority. He massacred the governor's followers and the Chaldean warriors who were found there. On the second day he killed the men who, perhaps ignorant and not free from heathen practices but with broken hearts, had come to seek the Lord; and led captive all the remainder of the people who were at Mizpah along with the king's daughters to the Ammonites (Jer. 41: 4-10). Johanan and the captains of the forces followed him, found him near the waters of Gibeon, defeated him, and recovered the captives from him, while he succeeded in escaping with eight men and going to Baalis.

These delivered captives, filled with apprehension and wanting to go to Egypt, consult the Lord through Jeremiah to secure an answer according to their desires, but in fact they had decided to disobey if this answer would not be favorable to their purpose. The prophet solemnly warned them. If they would stay, this would be their salvation, for blessing always accompanies the accepting of God's judgment when the soul humbly submits and in spite of everything counts upon him to bless. To go down to Egypt where they thought they would find security would be to go on to inevitable judgment (Jer. 42).

In their pride the leaders do not want to accept humiliation, and they treat the word of God as a lie. Is it not always so when God presents His word which condemns the world and the will of man to souls who have chosen the world and their own self will? In face of the most clear sentence they say: "Thou speakest falsely; Jehovah our God hath not sent thee to say" this (Jer. 43: 2). Thus they do not listen to the word of the Lord. Obstinate in their purpose to the end, they revolt against God and take with them Jeremiah and faithful Baruch, not wanting to leave behind these witnesses to their disobedience and of their unbelief. They forget only one thing, that they are carrying with them the Word that condemns them. Jeremiah continues to the end in his faithful exercise of the gift of prophecy that God had entrusted to him. At Tahpanhes, just as at Jerusalem, he is a witness of the true God. He announces the future invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, who at that time would remember these revolts (Jer. 43).

These wretched folk begin again to serve other gods in the land of Egypt to which they had fled. Their state is described to us in these words: "They are not humbled unto this day, neither have they feared nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes which I set before you and before your fathers" (Jer. 44: 10). So God declares that of all those who had gone down to Egypt, except for "a very small company" that would escape (v. 28), "none of the remnant" should "escape or remain, so as to return into the land of Judah" (Jer. 44: 14).

The people openly declare their will to continue sacrificing "to the queen of the heavens," and attribute to her the prosperity which they had formerly enjoyed at Jerusalem (Jer. 44: 17-18). The predicted calamity overtakes them in Egypt, the Lord delivering Pharaoh-hophra into the hands of the king of Babylon (Jer. 44: 30)

2 Kings 25: 27-30

The End

In the thirty-seventh year of the carrying away, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, took Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) out of prison and maintained him at his court all the rest of his life. The lamp that seemed extinguished began again to shed a feeble glimmer, proof that the Lord is always mindful of the promises made to David, His anointed, and that in spite of everything His grace is watching over this guilty race. In fact a day would come, and it was not far off, when according to Isaiah, the Spirit would announce liberty to the captives and proclaim the year of Jehovah's favor, the acceptable year of the Lord. Would the people have it then? They rejected Jehovah's Anointed even as they had rejected Jeremiah and all the prophets before him, but in spite of all, God's promise will be fulfilled as to them, and their final jubilee will be held when the sword of judgment will have accomplished its strange work upon earth, and the everlasting gates shall be lifted up to let the King of glory enter!

1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles

Meditations on the First Book of Chronicles

H L Rossier.

Contents

Introduction

1 Chronicles 1 - 1 Chronicles 9: 34: The Genealogies

1 Chronicles 1 From Adam to the Twelve Tribes

1 Chronicles 2 Judah in Relation to the Kingship

1 Chronicles 3 The Family of David

1 Chronicles 4 More about Judah. Jabez. The Tribe of Simeon

1 Chronicles 5 The Tribes Beyond Jordan

1 Chronicles 6 The Tribe of Levi

1 Chronicles 7 Issachar. Benjamin. Naphtali. Ephraim. Asher. The Daughters of Zelophehad

1 Chronicles 8 The Tribe of Benjamin in Relation to the Family of Saul.

1 Chronicles 9: 1-34 The Ruin of the People and the Restoration of Judah and Benjamin. The Levites

1 Chronicles 9: 35 - 27: The Kingship of David According to the Counsels of God

1 Chronicles 9: 35 - 1 Chronicles 10 The Ruin of the Kingship According to the Flesh

1 Chronicles 11 Establishment of the Kingship According to God's Counsels

1 Chronicles 12 The Kingship Recognized

1 Chronicles 13 The Ark and the New Cart

1 Chronicles 14 - 1 Chronicles 16: 6 David's Victories. The Fruits of Grace in his Heart. His Association with the Levitical Family

1 Chronicles 16: 7-43 The Song at the Kingship's Beginning

1 Chronicles 17 David's Prayer

1 Chronicles 18 - 1 Chronicles 20 The Wars

1 Chronicles 21 Numbering the People and Ornan's Threshing Floor

1 Chronicles 22 Preparation of Materials for the Temple. Solomon's Character

1 Chronicles 23 Solomon Established King. The Levites

1 Chronicles 24 The Priests

1 Chronicles 25 The Singers

1 Chronicles 26 Doorkeepers, Overseers of the Treasures and Judges

1 Chronicles 27 The Service of the King

1 Chronicles 28, 29: David's Last Instructions

1 Chronicles 28 Solomon, the King According to the Counsels of God, and his Responsibility as Such

1 Chronicles 29 David's Prayer. Solomon Established King for the Second Time

Appendix The Order of the Tribes

Introduction

A superficial reader may well think that the books of Chronicles are the supplement of the books of Samuel and Kings. The Jews indeed have attributed this character to them since ancient times. Christians have done the same with regard to the three synoptic Gospels; they think that the Gospels of Mark and of Luke complete Matthew's account of the Lord's life. In reality the Chronicles, like these Gospels, present the thoughts of God from a completely new aspect. They present the kingship in a very important dimension, which these pages aim to bring out. In relation to this subject, one or two preliminary remarks will be useful.

We have insisted, in other Meditations, (Meditations on the Books of Samuel and Kings, by H. Rossier.) upon the prophetic origin and bearing of the books of Samuel and Kings. The Chronicles do not have the same character although, remarkably, we continually find in them the activity of the prophets. Even the Jews did not count them among the prophetic books, to which the majority of the books of history belong, but rather classified them among the “holy writings” headed by the Psalms.

All the historical books, to the end of Kings, recount the history of the people and of the kingdom, until their final ruin. They conclude with the captivity, first of Israel, then of Judah, and go no further than this period. In contrast, the Chronicles, with Ezra and Nehemiah as their immediate sequel, go much further. (Compare 2 Chron. 36: 22-23 with Ezra 1: 1-3). Moreover, the stamp of being composed later, after the return from the Babylonian captivity, is impressed on them throughout the text. In various portions of these books we find proof of their relatively recent date, a date after that of the book of Nehemiah. Thus we see in them that the genealogy of David's family does not end with Zerubbabel, the royal head of Judah returned from captivity, but continues past him to the fifth generation, consisting of Hodaviah and his brothers (1 Chron. 3: 19-24). Just so, we also meet (1 Chron. 3: 22) Shemaiah, the son of Shechaniah, of the third generation following Zerubbabel, who (if indeed this is the same person) returned from Babylon in Nehemiah 3: 29. Lastly, our book describes the Babylonian captivity as a historical event already in the distant past (1 Chron. 6: 15).

It would be easy to multiply citations to support the uncontested fact of the late date of the composition of Chronicles. We will limit ourselves to a few more comments confirming this: First, the omissions in the genealogies in the first nine chapters of our book are a valuable testimony to the time at which it was written. We know, in fact, that at the time of the return from Babylon, the genealogies of Judah and of Benjamin in many cases were insufficient, and that the members of the family of Levi who could not furnish them were excluded from the priesthood (Ezra 2: 62). Comparing 1 Chronicles 9 with Nehemiah 11 convinces us that certain genealogies in Chronicles contain numerous omissions, as might be expected with a people returned from captivity.

Moreover, from the very first chapter onward we find proof of the pronunciation of many names differing from their early pronunciation. It seems that a fair portion of these differences can be attributed to changes in dialect brought about by the captivity. All these elements stand in our book as proof of the disorder into which this guilty nation upon which God had pronounced Lo-Ammi had fallen.

Thus the Spirit of God is careful Himself to indicate the approximate date of these books to us.

The principal object of Chronicles will become clear as we progress in their study; however, it is necessary to insist upon this from the very beginning.

Chronicles give us the history of the kings of Judah, that is, of David's family; whereas in the books of Kings, we find the history of the sovereigns of Israel. Until the captivity of the ten tribes the acts of the kings of Judah do not appear in the books of Kings except in relationship to the kingdom of Israel; then, once the history of the ten tribes has ended with their being carried away, the narrative in Kings carries on exclusively with the account of the careers of the last rulers of Judah.

But the most important suggestion for understanding Chronicles concerns the counsels of God. We must consider several aspects of this:

The Word views man in two ways: According to his responsibility, or according to the position which he occupies in the counsels of God, that is to say in His eternal purpose before time began, before there was any question of responsibility.

The Old Testament contains the history of responsible man, given by God Himself. This history shows that man has always come short of God's expectations of him; failure after failure finally brings him to the cross to which he nailed the Son of God. He for his part ends his history by open revolt against the One who had come to save him. But, at that same cross God for His part, also ends the history of man. He places all our responsibility on His Son, even making Him sin in our stead, so that His counsels of grace toward us might be fully accomplished.

Indeed, it is in the death of Christ that the counsels of God (the mystery of His will, hidden in Him from before all time) have become manifest. There the veil which separated the sinner from God was rent; there man, redeemed by the blood of Christ, saw a way opened to God. Jesus, raised from among the dead, has ascended to God's right hand and from there sending the Holy Spirit, in His own person has prepared a place for man in glory.

The counsels of God, the mystery of His will, are thus fulfilled in the Man Christ, whom God has established as center of all things; but they do not stop there. God gives Christ as Head a body, His complement — as Bridegroom a companion, His Assembly — a body which is His “fullness,” a companion, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.

These counsels of God could in no way be revealed before the cross. At most they were suggested in figure by Adam, type of Him who was to come, and Eve, his companion. Thus Christ not only is the object of the counsels of God, but in Christ we also have become the objects of these same counsels.

Man enters God's glory because man, in Christ, has perfectly glorified Him. The second Adam becomes head of a new race, holy and blameless before God, worthy of dwelling in eternal glory.

The Old Testament revealed nothing of this. And yet a part of God's counsels in relation to Christ comes to light there; doubtless not the highest part, but that concerning the dominion of the earth. This is why the epistle to the Ephesians (1 Chron. 1: 9-10) states that God has “made known to us the mystery of His will...to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.” God's counsel was not to establish the first Adam who had failed, but the Second Adam as Head of the creation, and that in virtue of His sufferings. It is because He was made a little lower than the angels that God has made “Him to rule over the works of [His] hands; [and has] put everything under His feet: sheep and oxen,all of and also the beasts of the field; the fowl of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, whatever passeth through the paths of the seas” (Ps. 8: 5-8). So it is with the establishment of the earthly kingdom of Christ — and this is the subject which Chronicles treats. Here it is not a question of a glorified Man, nor of Christ as the Center of all things, nor of the Head of the Church, nor of our union with Him, but of the Son of God, the Root and Offspring of David, establishing His kingdom upon earth and associating a willing people in His reign in the day of His power. He Himself is the object of these counsels and He will carry them out, whereas men to whom dominion has been entrusted have completely fallen short of God's purpose.

In order to make these purposes concerning Christ's reign known before they would come to pass, God in the Old Testament has given us types of kingdom rule according to His counsels, through examples like David and Solomon. But how could such figures have absolute bearing when these men of God sinned so grievously during their careers? Their history belongs rather to that of responsible man and rule, as presented in the books of Samuel and Kings. Doubtless we see the grace of God at work throughout their history to discipline and restore them, and in spite of everything, to make these fallible men capable of representing Christ's character. God accomplishes this by forming them through trials. This is the subject of the books of Samuel and Kings. But in Chronicles it is not a matter of setting forth restoring grace remedying the faults of the believer placed under responsibility, but rather, a matter of giving us a preview of the counsels of God, and this, as much as possible, without confounding them with any elements which would obscure them.

This explains the character and general bearing of Chronicles. Here God gathers together the features of Christ's future reign in David and Solomon, for example, without however hiding from us the fact that David, even if only on account of two faults (for this book only mentions two), and Solomon, without a single fault of his being mentioned, could not personally be “He that should come,” and that we must “look for another.” Consequently, to achieve their purpose, the Chronicles must pass over all the serious sins of these two kings.

One may object that the books of Chronicles continue the history of the kings of Judah after Solomon and that in the subsequent accounts we do not find anything prefiguring the counsels of God concerning Christ's future reign. This observation is sound except for the fact that a godly king in Chronicles as well in Kings may be a representative of Christ. We must remember that God, in relating their history in Chronicles, establishes another fact: that His counsels have Christ as the Son of David by royal descent in view. At times David's line corrupted themselves terribly, but even then God is careful to emphasize wherever possible, what grace has produced in those who were to be the Messiah's stock. He does this even at a time when the kingship in Israel had already ceased to exist for over two centuries. The ways of grace are particularly evident in this book throughout the history of Solomon's successors. In accord with Chronicles' plan and purpose, all that grace produces in the hearts of even the most wicked kings, such as Manasseh for example, is brought to light, in order to show that grace toward man is the only means of fulfilling God's counsels concerning him.

Summing up, Chronicles does not present the history of responsible kingship, but of kingship according to God's counsels in grace, counsels that will not be completely fulfilled until the crown is set on Christ's head. Therefore Chronicles never fails to record God's ways in grace to remedy the faults of the kings who succeed one another upon the throne up until the appearance of the great King. This is also why the divine account silently passes over faults committed as much as possible. The Spirit of God, as we have said, omits David's serious sins and their consequences; He also omits those of Solomon.

To this can be added yet another characteristic feature. Chronicles says nothing at all about David's rejection and sufferings; it introduces us directly into the glories that follow these sufferings, evident proof that this book does not have, in relation to the work of Christ, the prophetic character of those which have preceded it.

If in Chronicles we find God's counsels concerning Christ in the types of David and Solomon, and God's ways in grace concerning the royal family in view of the appearance of the true King, let us not forget to mention that they contain these same counsels in relation to Judah as Messiah's people. God shows that nothing will hinder the course of His eternal designs toward those who are their objects. Wherever evil rules, there God hastens to bring in good, so that, as a servant of God has expressed it, “we may always have the good which He has produced before our eyes instead of the evil produced by man”. Therefore He prepares everything in view of the full manifestation of the future glory of His Anointed.

It is all the more striking to find in Chronicles the picture of grace operating in the heart of man, for these books are written, as we have seen, after the final ruin of the people and of kingdom rule. But what consolation for the poor remnant, returned from Babylon in servitude and contempt, to find here their history written in these disastrous times by the Spirit of God Himself, and showing on every page that no unfaithfulness on part of the people could modify God's counsels nor alter the grace by which He would establish, in relation to His people, His eternal purposes in the person of Christ.

God's counsels concerning the kingship being the principal truth of this book, we find in it of necessity, on the one hand, all that is linked together with the priestly organization, and on the other hand, to the political organization of the people. Indeed, the kingdom according to God is characterized by divine order in both the religious and civil sphere.

The religious sphere naturally comes first in the organization of the kingdom according to the thoughts of God. Neither the people nor the kingship could subsist without the worship of Jehovah; without this, the nation fell to the level of the other nations and, like them, had to be destroyed. The people of Israel had no reason for existing unless through their religious service they would maintain their relationship to the God who had chosen them to be His own. From the moment Israel abandoned this relationship in order to give themselves up to idolatry, God also abandoned them, as we see in the history of the Judges and later of the Kings. Finally their transgressions became such that God pronounced His Lo-Ammi upon them.

So too it was with regard to the kingship. Responsible to lead and govern the people for God, it could not subsist without the worship of Jehovah and all that belonged thereto. Kingship and priesthood, the two pillars of Israel's relationship with God, could not be separated without causing the whole system to collapse; if one of the two should fail, complete ruin would be the result. Even before the establishment of the kingship, the indissoluble alliance between it and the priesthood was seen in Moses, king in Jeshurun, and Aaron, his brother; there was, however, this difference here, that once the kingship, properly speaking, was established, the priesthood was subordinated to it, because it had come short of its calling; henceforth the faithful priest must always walk before the Lord's Anointed (1 Sam. 2: 35). In God's counsels the kingship and the priesthood, government and religious service, must of necessity subsist together. Hence the immense importance of all that pertained to the service of the temple in the history of David and Solomon, as Chronicles presents them. And when afterwards we witness revivals at the time of the ruin of the kingship, in first place we always see the religious service reestablished, as for example in the history of Hezekiah and of Josiah.

The union of the civil and religious spheres is presented in Chronicles as types of its fulfillment in Christ in a future day. These two elements will be united in Him as the unshakable basis for the kingdom of God upon earth. Christ will be “a priest upon his throne” (Zech. 6: 13).

Note: Let us here note once and for all that since the accounts in Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles agree in a general way, our meditations will only bear upon their points of divergence, as the features they have in common have already been considered in the preceding works.

1 Chronicles 1 - 1 Chronicles 9: 34

The Genealogies

As we approach the first chapters of this book, it seems helpful to insist upon the importance of genealogies for the people of Israel.

They were necessary because, since the promise of the inheritance of Canaan had been made to Abraham and his seed, this seed had to be registered, since it alone had the right to enter the promised land.

Having arrived in Canaan, the people needed their genealogies in order to divide the land among their tribes and fathers' houses.

They were likewise necessary in order to prevent the surrounding nations from mixing with the chosen people.

Finally, and above all, they were indispensable in view of Messiah's kingship, for His lineage must go back through the series of kings, to Judah “the lawgiver,” and then from Judah to Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, Adam and God!

The genealogies were also important in order to establish the succession of the Aaronic priesthood, destined to walk continually before the true King, Jehovah's Anointed.

This, in brief, is the value of the genealogies. Their usefulness was all the greater ever since the people, after having fallen under God's judgment, passed through a period of disorder during which it was difficult, often even impossible, to prove their descent, as we see in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Yet we should quickly note that if one wants to enter into the details of the subject before us, one must be very guarded in his conclusions, for Jewish genealogies present innumerable difficulties. First, very frequently those who are called the son of so-and-so are not necessarily his children at all, but his grandsons, or even his grandnephews. Then there are cases where the head of a clan is regarded as the father of a generation, all the generations between being omitted. There are cases where through the “right of redemption” a distant relative (see the Book of Ruth) becomes the head of an extinct family. There are those cases, very frequent during the captivity, where one family took a place in the inheritance of another family which had disappeared, without being related by direct descent to the head of that race. There are cases too where, the name of ancestors being missing, the name of the birthplace replaced, so to say, the name of the family head. There are cases, common among the Jews, where a person had more than one name (see, for example, these well-known names: Benjamin and Benoni, Reuel and Jethro, Solomon and Jedidiah, etc.). And lastly there are cases where an abridged genealogy was given, the names indicated being nothing more than a few pointers to establish the line of descent.

These facts explain why the enumeration of the same tribe, given at two different periods, displays very noticeable differences. This becomes even more complicated due to the fact that the genealogies contain intentional omissions or transpositions of names meant to emphasize the purpose of the Spirit of God, especially in the book which we are studying.

Added to these many difficulties are the following problems. Sometimes the genealogies of Chronicles contain names of very ancient origin, which we do not find elsewhere in the Old Testament. Many names are not those of individuals, but of clans or families. Others are genealogies which we might term geographic, including, for want of other source material, the names of tribes, of districts, of cities. We have mentioned this fact in our study of Ezra 2. We find it again in 1 Chron. 2: 18-24, 25-33, 42-55; 1 Chron. 4: 1-23, 28-33; 1 Chron. 5: 11-17; 1 Chron. 7: 37-40, etc.

It would be easy to add other difficulties to this already long list. What has been said already should be sufficient to warn Christians who, when they attempt to study the genealogies, stumble over apparent contradictions at every step. Not that the subject in itself does not edify, as for that matter the entire Word of God does, but it is useless to enter upon it simply with one's own intelligence, as the rationalists have so often done. Moreover, we would hasten to point out that these are not the genealogies which the apostle warns us not to give heed to (1 Tim. 1: 4; Titus 3: 9); he was warning against a certain philosophical system that sought to establish endless degrees in a hierarchy of spirits.

As we approach this study we would again insist upon the important fact that after the captivity, due to negligence, indifference, or other causes innumerable gaps existed in the genealogies, and that on this account it was often impossible to recognize certain persons as composing part of Israel, unless at the given moment a divine declaration by the Urim and Thummim should intervene (Ezra 2: 63).

1 Chronicles 1

From Adam to the Twelve Tribes

The chapters we are about to study may at first glance seem devoid of interest. Nonetheless, we shall see that they are full of instruction; furthermore, from their onset they show us the character of the book of which they form the preface.

Indeed Chronicles, dealing with God's counsels and His ways of grace toward man, naturally begins with Adam. It then traces the line of man, chosen according to the counsels of grace, in contrast to the line of man according to the flesh. Man has become sinful; he fell at once after his beginning. Though God has purposes of grace toward him, it is yet an established fact that as a sinner in the first place he begets sons in his image, who have no connection with the divine counsels, sons who are the seed of a fallen and corrupted nature. If God in His mercy does not intervene, man can only beget evil. In these chapters we therefore find the line of the flesh first, and that of the Spirit second, for God does not beget until sinful man has first proven what his nature could produce. This is why the apostle in 1 Corinthians 15: 46 says: “But that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.” Now, that which is spiritual takes part, not of the nature of the first Adam, but of the nature of the Second.

God has ordained it so. The entire question of man's responsibility must be resolved, before the Man according to the counsels of grace would appear; and in fact grace could not be unfolded if it were not first shown into what depths man, left to himself, had fallen. This great truth is foundational to all Scripture, for all Scripture gives man's irremediable ruin as the basis for the gospel of grace.

Therefore it is appropriate that a book like this, which tells us of God's counsels toward man and — as we shall see — especially toward the kingship, show that these counsels proceed uniquely from God's free grace manifested when man, according to the line of the flesh, has proven that he is capable of nothing but evil.

Once it is a question of the genealogy of Christ in the Gospels, we see the line according to the flesh contained in these chapters disappearing completely in order to give place to the line through which, according to election of grace, God's counsels respecting His King are fulfilled. But from the moment it is a question of grace, far from taking perfect men to constitute Christ's lineage, God chooses sinful men — often from among the worst of them — or sinful women, thereby demonstrating the freedom of His choice.

In Chronicles, it is a matter of man, and of the way in which in the course of his history God will realize His counsels in order to triumph in the person of Christ. We see too, as already mentioned, that the genealogy begins with Adam. Verses 1 to 4 agree with what is revealed in Genesis. Moreover, there are no gaps in this first chapter. As soon as we approach Israel's history in 1 Chronicles 2, gaps appear, for when Chronicles was written the genealogies of many members of this people remained undetermined since they could not be proven.

Let us say immediately that 1 Chronicles 9 brings us a little beyond the time of Nehemiah, and interrupts the royal genealogies eight generations before Messiah's coming. The Gospel of Matthew fills this gap revealing to us how, right through the ruin God Himself took care to preserve the genealogy of David's Son, His own Son, until His coming as son of Joseph and Mary. Thus Matthew 1 forms the natural continuation of 1 Chronicles 9.

In 1 Chronicles 1, our present subject, we find two series of names highlighted. The first (vv. 1-4) begins with Adam and ends with Noah's sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The second (vv. 24-27) begins again at Shem and ends with Abraham. These two series form an uninterrupted chain, the point of departure being grace toward fallen man, and culminating in the promises made to Abraham and taken hold of by faith.

Having established this, we find Shem mentioned first in verse 4, although he is not the first-born, a fact which, moreover, is frequently repeated in the genealogies of Genesis before Abraham. But the genealogies of Japheth and of Ham are enumerated before his (vv. 5-16), as we see also in Genesis 10. In God's eyes, Shem, chosen by grace, has the preeminence, but in the natural order that which is spiritual is not first, as we have already pointed out. It is the same with regard to Abraham's offspring: “The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael” (v. 28); Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts, but Ishmael, the elder, is enumerated first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh. So with Isaac, the posterity of his son Esau is enumerated first (v. 35), as we have already seen with Ham and Ishmael.

One or two little secondary considerations will conclude our remarks on this chapter. Among the sons of Ham, Nimrod is simply mentioned as the who “began to be mighty on the earth.” In Genesis 10: 9-12 we find the extent of his dominion in great detail. Genesis 10 deals with the distribution of the nations on the earth, and the developments found there would be useless for the aim of the book we are now considering. For the same reason the boundaries of the Canaanites in Genesis 10: 18-20 and those of the sons of Joktan (Gen. 10: 30-32) are passed over in complete silence here (cf. vv.16, 23).

In verse 32 the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine, are enumerated as we find them in Genesis 25: 1-4. They follow Ishmael's posterity (vv. 28-31) in our chapter so as to show that they also are part of the lineage according to the flesh. The genealogy of Ishmael himself is given according to Genesis 25: 12-15. As for Esau (vv. 35-42), his sons are mentioned in abbreviated form, without the names of their mothers and the numerous details given us in Genesis 26: 1-19.

The kings of Edom are enumerated next (vv. 43-54; cf. Gen. 36: 31-42). Violence characterizes this entire race, for not a single one of these kings has his son as successor.

We believe we must mention these details as characterizing the aim of the Spirit of God in this book. They are in no way, as rationalists claim, a very inexact or willfully altered compilation of other documents, but a selection out of earlier documents of that which is appropriate for the purpose God has before Him.

Moreover, if this first chapter contains, as we have seen, the voluntary omission of certain details, it agrees completely with the genealogical lists of Genesis. We repeat that we do not find gaps here. These gaps begin to appear only when we get to the genealogies of the twelve tribes.

Once the lineage according to nature has been enumerated, the question is considered as closed forever.

Note: However later on we meet with the same principle in relation to the kingship, to the lineage of Saul, and to the priesthood.

God does not come back to it. He cannot in any way use the “natural man,” from henceforth left to himself, without connection or relationship to God, so that he may give place to a lineage according to the election of grace and according to the eternal counsels of God.

1 Chronicles 2

Judah in Relationship to the Kingship

At the beginning of this chapter, the names of the sons of Jacob, called Israel, are mentioned — not in order — with the aim, I think, of presenting them to us as being all, without distinction, objects of God's purposes in grace. Thus we find first of all Leah's children, then Rachel's children mentioned between Dan and Naphtali, the sons of Bilhah, and lastly Gad and Asher, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid.

What we observe here gives opportunity to mention something that seems not yet to have drawn our attention.

Jacob's sons and the twelve tribes are enumerated, if I am not mistaken, twenty-two times in Scripture, and each time in a different order. It would take more space than is available to us to examine the reasons for this in detail. Besides here in verses 1 and 2 of our chapter, we find this enumeration three more times in 1 Chronicles. (See Appendix.)

Let us return to the subject of our chapter:

In Chronicles the accuracy of genealogies depends in large measure on the importance the Jews placed upon them during their captivity, and the disorder they reveal corresponds to the state of the Remnant as we find them in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Quite a number among the people and among the priesthood could not prove their genealogy. Though lacking heads, they could nonetheless be recognized by the names of their families, groups, and cities, which in this way became in essence a “moral person,” recognized as the stem of their ancestry (cf. Ezra 1 and here 1 Chron. 2: 50, 54-55; 1 Chron. 4: 4). In addition, the great disorder that came in explains, at least in part, why very distant descendants of the head of a clan were considered as his sons. (See for example, Shobal, the great-grandson of one of Judah's grandsons (cf. 1 Chron. 2: 50; 1 Chron. 4: 1). This same disorder also explains why we see a family head, whose name had not been previously mentioned, suddenly appearing and counted as the head of a clan (1 Chron. 8: 33).

Caleb's genealogy offers a striking example of this disorder and of how fragmentarily the genealogical registers were preserved. Caleb (who is not without purpose, I think, called Chelubai in v. 9) is the son of Hezron and the great-grandson of Judah. We find his genealogy in verses 18-20, and the descendants of his two wives, Azubah and Ephrath. In verses 42-49 we again find descendants of this same Caleb by his concubines. He is called the brother of Jerahmeel (the son of Hezron, v.9). But at the very end of this enumeration we are suddenly brought into the presence of Achsah the daughter, as we know, of Caleb the son of Jephunneh (Josh. 15: 16). In verses 50-55, for the third time in this chapter, we meet the descendants of Caleb, the son of Hezron, through Hur, the first-born of Ephratah, a part of whose genealogy has already been given us in verse 20.

Finally, in 1 Chronicles 4: 13-15 we find the descendants of Caleb the son of Jephunneh and of his brother Kenaz. But here now, in this portion, this genealogy is truncated.

Must we conclude from all this that the text of Chronicles is a human and capricious compilation and that thus the historical value of this book is nil? This is what the rationalists assert, but thank God, their reason is always at fault when it attacks His Word. No enlightened Christian will deny that the genealogies of Chronicles are composed of fragments gathered up in the midst of general confusion, yet documents upon which God sets His seal of approval. So it is true that a number of passages in these genealogies are of very ancient origin, not mentioned in the other books of the Old Testament.

Caleb's fragmentary genealogy, which we have cited above, is very instructive in this regard. We know from a number of Scripture passages (Num. 13: 6; Num. 14: 30, 38; Num. 32: 12; Num. 34: 19; Deut. 1: 36: Josh. 14: 13) what favour Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, won from God by his perseverance, moral courage, faithfulness, and zeal to conquer a portion in the land of Canaan. The Lord's approval was upon him, whereas Caleb, the son of Hezron and of Judah, despite his numerous descendants, is not mentioned as the object of God's special favor. But if the fragmentary genealogies of Caleb the son of Judah are proof of the existing disorder, God puts these together fragments for a special purpose, and we find a deeper thought in them. Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, is the one whom God has particularly in view, as the Word teaches us; he is the one whom He introduces in so extraordinary a way into the genealogy of the son of Hezron (1 Chron. 2: 49). It is in view of him that this genealogy is inscribed next to that of David, as forming part of the tribe of Judah, from whence the royal race comes. But what connection does Caleb the son of Jephunneh, whose daughter was Achsah, have with Caleb the son of Hezron? Here we find a most interesting fact which has perhaps not been given sufficient attention. Caleb the son of Jephunneh was not originally of the people of Judah. In Numbers 32: 12 and Joshua 14: 6, 14 he is called Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. Likewise, Caleb's younger brother Othniel, to whom Caleb gave his daughter Achsah as wife, is called “the son of Kenaz” (Joshua 15: 17; Judges 1: 13; Judges 3: 9, 11). Now in Genesis 36: 11 we learn that Kenaz is an Edomite name. Hence the conclusion that at some point of time the family of Kenaz, and therefore the family of Caleb the son of Jephunneh, was incorporated into the tribes of Israel just as so many other foreigners, such as Jethro, Rahab, and Ruth, who in virtue of their faith became members of the people of God. This explains a characteristic phrase in Joshua 15: 13: “And to Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a portion among the children of Judah according to the commandment of Jehovah to Joshua...that is, Hebron.” And in Joshua 14: 14: “Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed Jehovah the God of Israel.”

Thus Caleb, who by his origin really had no right of citizenship in Israel, received this right amidst Judah by virtue of his faith and was incorporated into the family of Caleb the son of Hezron, as it appears in 1 Chronicles 2: 49 and in the passages already cited in Joshua. The fragments preserved of the genealogy of Caleb the son of Hezron confirm the place that God assigned to Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and this substitution is one of the important points the Spirit of God calls our attention to here.

To summarize, the name of Caleb is highlighted in this chapter. With this name is associated the thought of “virtue,” that is, of moral energy which in view of a goal to be attained enables the believer to surmount obstacles, separating him from every weight and the sin which so easily entangles him. 2 Peter 1: 5 says, “In your faith have also virtue.” Caleb is an example in this. With this name are associated characters of the same caliber as the son of Jephunneh: Othniel, Achsah (1 Chron. 4: 13; 1 Chron. 2: 49); Hur (1 Chron. 2: 19, 50; 1 Chron. 4: 1, 4); Jair (although this latter later lost everything that his energy had at first acquired, 1 Chron. 2: 22-23); the house of Rechab (1 Chron. 2: 55).

Other members of the family of Caleb the son of Hezron, while witnessing grace accorded to faith, are at the same time unfruitful, which is the result of ruin. Consider for example Seled, Jether, and Sheshan who died without sons (vv. 30, 32, 34).

Unfruitfulness especially characterizes the line of Jerahmeel. Although he was Hezron's eldest son (v .9), he is once again in last place here (v. 25), and this fact agrees with what we have seen of the character of Chronicles in 1 Chronicles 1. The features of the natural man are just as transmissible as the features of a man of faith like Caleb, only these latter are so by grace. David's line does not descend from Jerahmeel, but from Ram, his younger brother (vv. 9-16).

1 Chronicles 3

The Family of David

In 1 Chronicles 2: 9-16 — in fact this is the main thrust of that chapter — we have met with the genealogy of David, descended from Judah, and going back through the ages down via Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Shem, and Noah to Adam. 1 Chronicles 3 presents the descendants of David until just a few generations before Christ. Here, this line of descent begins at Hebron, the place where the tribes first acknowledged the kingship of the son of Jesse. Chronicles passes over David's history and afflictions as the rejected king in complete silence. It sets forth David as the object of God's counsels regarding the kingship, counsels which will be fully accomplished in Christ, the Son of David. Yet, while omitting his sufferings, Chronicles shows us Hebron as the starting point of his glory. Hebron was above all the place of death, for it was there that the tombs of Sarah, Abraham, Jacob, and of the patriarchs were. From this same place Joseph, a type of Christ in rejection, went forth to seek his brothers. Hebron then became a city of refuge from the avenger of blood, prefiguring the cross which shelters a guilty people. Lastly, it was the principal dwelling place of the priests, the sons of Aaron, types of that priesthood which now makes Christ's death the focus of its praises. Therefore this place speaks in a striking way of the cross as the foundation of royal glory and as the basis for all our blessings. Caleb chose it as his residence. Caleb's career culminated at Hebron; David's career begins there.

But, we repeat, if Chronicles shows us, through incidents and in type, the death of Christ as the basis for all, these books dwell upon God's counsels concerning the kingship as their main subject.

Just as its head, for David was the lastborn of his father's house, so the family of David bears the evident mark of election according to grace (1 Chron. 3: 9). Amnon, the son according to the flesh, the shame of his father's house, comes first, only to be repudiated like all that springs forth from nature. In fact, all David's sons, without exception, are included between those two names Amnon and Tamar (vv. 1-9). Moreover, all the sons born before the kingdom's full establishment, at least all those whose history is recorded, undergo a common condemnation: Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah — corruption, rebellion, and pride which pretends to the throne and would supplant Solomon — all come under judgment. One must reach the kingdom definitely established at Jerusalem, the place of free election according to grace (Ps. 132: 13), before being introduced to Solomon, after his father David the man of God's counsels. Once again, nature's order is of no value. Shimea, Shobab, and Nathan, mentioned first as sons of Bathsheba, disappear before Solomon, the youngest son. Likewise, all the other sons that come after him have no right to the kingship.

Verses 10 to 24 give us Solomon's direct descendants. The words “his son” which are constantly repeated down to Zedekiah accentuate the contrast between the descendants according to grace and those according to nature, as we have seen in the history of Edom (1 Chron. 1: 43-54).

From verse 15 onward, after faithful Josiah's reign, we find the kings at the time of Judah's final ruin; this series finally culminates with Zerubbabel returned from captivity but no longer bearing the title of king. After Zerubbabel, Chronicles records still five generations more to Hodaviah and his brothers. If the years of one of these were known, this would give us the approximate date when Chronicles was composed. The names corresponding to Hananiah, Shechaniah, Neariah, Elioenai, and Hodaviah are not to be found in the genealogy of Matthew 1. Some have supposed that the Babylonian rulers may have changed them (cf. Dan. 1: 6-7) in order to efface all traces of kingship from the spirit of the Jews, an assertion which, while not confirmed, could well be probable.

1 Chronicles 4

More About Judah; Jabez;

The Tribe of Simeon

Verses 1 through 23 take up the genealogy of Judah for the second time. Two names especially stand out in 1 Chronicles 2-4. First, that of David, for Judah's kingship is, as we have seen, the principal subject of Chronicles. Secondly, that of Caleb the son of Jephunneh who represents the energy and the perseverance of faith; Hur, who plays a prominent role in Israel's history (Ex. 17: 12; Ex. 24: 14), is a son of Caleb's (1 Chron. 2: 19, 50; 1 Chron. 4: 1, 4). Jabez (1 Chron. 4: 9-10) is of the same clan (1 Chron. 4: 9-10; 1 Chron. 2: 55).

Jabez' mother had borne him with sorrow and had named him Jabez: “Sorrow.” She had herself experienced the consequences of sin. She acknowledged the curse that was its consequence for man, God's righteous sentence pronounced upon the woman whom the serpent had beguiled, for God had said: “I will greatly increase thy travail and thy pregnancy; with pain thou shalt bear children” (Gen. 3: 16). Jabez' mother accepted this sentence by faith. So little did she seek to escape from it, that she passed it on to her son by having him bear the name “Sorrow.” On man's side all hope of happiness was lost through the fall and sorrow was his fatal portion.

Jabez began with this conviction; therefore he was “more honorable than his brethren.” Then he “called on the God of Israel,” knowing that he could only depend on the Lord to be delivered from the curse of sin. He knew, moreover, that this deliverance could be so absolute that he, Jabez, would be able to be without sorrow!

Jabez addresses four requests to God; if God grants them, they will become the proof of his complete deliverance.

This is the first request: “Oh that Thou wouldest richly bless me....” God had cursed man and the earth from which he had been taken (Gen. 3: 17). He alone could annul this sentence and replace it with blessing, the first proof of the end of sorrow. He alone could change circumstances in such a way that the sinner, banished from His presence, might be brought to Him to enjoy His grace and unconditional promises. “I will bless thee”, the Lord had said to Abraham. When all is in ruin Jabez' faith goes back to the counsels of grace and to the promises of God. Is not his history, related only in this book, well-suited to the general character of Chronicles? “And God brought about what he had requested.” In our case likewise, God has abolished through Christ's sacrifice all the consequences of sin, so that we might be blessed in Him with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.

His second request is this: “... and enlarge my coast.” Here and there these genealogies highlight various individuals whose borders God extended in the promised land at a time when the mass of the people had failed to conquer their inheritance completely. Jair has already given evidence of this in 1 Chronicles 2. The names of Caleb, Achsah, and Othniel are likewise examples of this individual energy of faith, which finds its borders enlarged as it relies upon God. So it is with us: our spiritual borders expand in the heavenly sphere while we are upon earth. In order to attain to this we must recognize our irremediable ruin and the incapacity we have demonstrated to extend our borders ourselves, and must manifest humble dependence which relies upon the grace of God alone in order to possess them.

Third, Jabez says: “... and that Thy hand might be with me.” He does not rely on his natural energy to enlarge his borders, but rather on the power of God. This is all the more striking since he came from a family noted for its energy.

Fourth and finally he says: “...and that thou wouldest keep me from evil.” The evil that introduced sorrow into this world has not disappeared; it is ever present. Jabez knows this well, for he does not ask that it be removed, but he desires to be kept from the evil whose existence he sees. Here again, he recognizes that it is not his will, but the power of God alone that is able to keep him.

Absolute confidence in God's grace and power is the only way of obtaining these things. Jabez obtains them. How could sorrow still subsist in the heart of this man of God when all his requests had been granted? No doubt, sorrow has not disappeared from the earth any more than has the evil which caused it, but Jabez' heart, full of those excellent things which had been granted him, had no room for it.

* * * *

The people of God have yet other duties and other activities beside enlarging their borders as Jabez. Joab is “the father...of craftsmen” (v. 14). God has entrusted us with certain functions, humble but very useful in their place, to which we do well to pay attention without coveting higher things. We will thus be kept in humility. Among the sons of Shelah are found “byssus-workers,” potters, and gardeners (vv. 21, 23). These were not noble occupations, but they owed their importance to the fact that these men “...dwelt with the king for his work.” Although very humble, they were his fellow workers within the limits that his work assigned to them; on this account the king retained them around his person; theirs was the great privilege, coveted in vain by many nobles and princes, of dwelling near him.*

Note:The words “And these are ancient things” contradict the rather peculiar notion that this king was Nebuchadnezzar.

So it is with us too. Let us each fulfill our task; let us beware of coveting a high position among the people of God; let us rather be content with humble things. What our Lord asks is that we carry them out diligently. Let us be faithful in little things as long as we work together in His works. To say nothing of a future reward, we will obtain the inestimable present advantage of “dwelling with the king” and of contemplating His face.

* * * *

In verses 24 through 43 we have the genealogies of the sons of Simeon. As a consequence of Simeon and Levi's sin, these two brothers were “divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel” (Gen. 49: 7). However, they differed from each other in that in grace the Lord used Levi's dispersion to give him priestly functions adapted to his position, whereas it was otherwise for Simeon who continued to bear the mark of God's judgment: “And his brethren had not many sons; neither did all their family multiply like to the sons of Judah” (v. 27). Simeon was small in number, partially enveloped in Judah's territory, open to enemy attacks on the south, and without definite borders. But we find here the truth already presented that when collective faith has failed the faith of a few, as previously the individual faith of a Caleb, inspires them to “enlarge their borders.” Many “mentioned by name were princes in their families; and their fathers' houses increased greatly” (v. 38). “They found fat and good pasture” where the sons of Ham had dwelt before (v. 40); they even went to “Mount Seir” (v. 42), occupied by Edom. The extent of their possessions depended neither on their numbers nor upon their power. Like Jabez, they bore the consequences of the curse pronounced upon them, but their extreme poverty which they could not deny impelled them to conquer that which God placed within their reach.

Notice that they obtained their blessings under the two reigns of grace in Judah: that of David (v. 31); and that of Hezekiah (v. 41), at a time when the state of the people was already drawing down upon themselves the approaching judgment through the king of Babylon. How all these details constantly bring us back to the great thought of this precious book! All that is according to nature ends in complete failure and is valueless before God; grace is the only thing we can count upon as we rest upon the counsels and election of grace which are established forever.

1 Chronicles 5

The Tribes Beyond Jordan

Here we find the genealogy of the two and a half tribes which had chosen their portion beyond Jordan: Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. But these tribes are not joined together on account of this circumstance alone; Reuben's place in the genealogy, as we have already seen, is determined by his sin. The birthright was his by right of birth, but it was taken from him (v. 1) and given to Joseph and his sons. As in all the rest of Scripture, Joseph is here a type of the Messiah rejected by his brethren, and subsequently receiving dominion over the nations. But our passage (vv. 1-2) explains why he does not come first here. His place is given to Judah, the stock of the kingship according to God's counsels: “Of him was the prince.” Once again we see here how Chronicles is consistent with its purpose to show the divine counsels as to the kingship. Yet, just as throughout in these chapters, the ways of the flesh are mentioned first (vv. 3-6), and they continue until the ten tribes are taken captive by Tilgath-Pilneser (cf. 2 Ki. 15: 29). It is true that Reuben's energy to enlarge his borders is emphasized (v. 10); but it is no longer the virtue we have seen in Caleb, springing from faith alone. The display of Reuben's activity has a purely human and earthly motive: “Their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead” (v. 9).

Gad (vv. 11-17) has greater spiritual distinction than Reuben. Like the latter, he also sought pasture land (v. 16), but he had still other interests. It is said of him: “All these were reckoned by genealogy in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel” (v. 17). Gad had a true concern about his genealogy. Even though the result of his zeal was annulled by his being carried away captive, at least until Jotham and Jeroboam's day his position in Israel was clear and well established, showing his sincere desire to be part of God's people and, notwithstanding all, not to deny Judah, under Jotham the center of the kingship.

Another matter is mentioned in verses 18-22. These two and a half tribes “made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab; and they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and He was intreated of them, because they put their trust in Him” (vv. 19-20). God granted their prayers just as He had answered the prayer of a single man, Jabez. “They put their trust in Him”; the God of grace owed it to His own character to answer them, however guilty they might be with regard to the unity of the people of God. Thus, in spite of the ruin, grace always responds to faith, and this is one of the distinctive characteristics of the whole of these books of Chronicles. The flesh is condemned; the captivity is the consequence of its independence, but faith is answered, for God is not only a God of government who renders to man according to his responsibility, but also a God of grace who cannot deny His character. In verse 22 we read, “The war was of God.” He had incited the difficulty so as to exercise the faith and confidence of His people, in order that He might then be able to answer them.

The half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan is next mentioned (vv. 23-26). Its territory, compared to that of the other tribes, was immense. In His grace God had prospered the men of Manasseh: “They were many” (v. 23). But the blessings which God's favor had secured for them turned them aside rather than drawing them closer to Him: “And they transgressed against the God of their fathers” (v. 25), and “the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, — unto this day.” At the time Chronicles was composed, these tribes were in captivity in the places here mentioned. This passage, just as many others, could well be used to establish the date of our book.

1 Chronicles 6

The Tribe of Levi

In this chapter we find the genealogy of the priestly family and of the families of the Levites as well as their dwelling places.

The priestly genealogy forms the counterpart to the royal genealogy (1 Chron. 2 and 3), but it ends here at the captivity, without going beyond it as with the line of David (1 Chron. 3: 19-24).

In verse 1, according to the principle often mentioned, we first find the sons of Levi according to natural order or the order of birth: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; then in verse 2, Kohath (and not Gershon) chosen by grace as the stock of the Aaronic priesthood. Aaron, not Moses, is mentioned first in verse 3: “Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam.” The order of this enumeration corresponds to the contents of Chronicles which treats of Judah's kingship according to God's counsels, and of the priesthood in its relationship to the kingship. These three names, Aaron, Moses and Miriam, represent the priesthood, the law, and prophecy; but as soon as it is a question of the counsels of grace relative to the kingship, the law, Moses, gives place to the priesthood.

Aaron's sons are Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu were judged for their sin. And thus in the priestly family we again see that the history of the natural man comes first and then is entirely set aside. After Nadab and Abihu come Eleazar and Ithamar: Eleazar, the priest according to the election of grace, Ithamar, the responsible priest, set aside in order to give place to the former.

Eleazar begets Phinehas, a man of energy, who like Caleb added virtue to his faith and was chosen by God to continue the priestly line. This line continues without interruption down to Azariah (v. 9), who “exercised the priesthood in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem” (v. 10). The line goes on from Azariah to Jehozadak, the last high priest mentioned in Chronicles. He “went away when Jehovah carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar” (v. 15). Ezra and Nehemiah give us information about the high priests who functioned after the return from captivity. Their line is interrupted about 330 years before Christ (Neh. 12: 10-11), just as the royal line of descent stops in  1 Chronicles 3 of , a few generations after Zerubbabel.

In verse 16, the Spirit of God again takes up the genealogy of the Levites, this time in the order of birth according to which their families had been established. The book of Numbers teaches us that their service consisted of carrying the tabernacle and its utensils through the wilderness. The most precious burden, including the ark, was entrusted to the Kohathites. But here we find that “after that the ark was in rest” David appointed men from among the three families of the Levites for “the service of song in the house of Jehovah.” “And they ministered before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting with singing, until Solomon had built the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem” (vv. 31-32).

In each of these three families one Levite stood out above the rest by reason of the gifts he had received from God: for the Kohathites, Heman; for the Gershonites, Asaph; for the Merarites, Ethan. The other Levites “were given for all the service of the tabernacle of the house of God” (v. 48).

The priesthood itself had a dual function. First of all, “Aaron and his sons offered upon the altar of the burnt-offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place.” Secondly, they made “atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded” (v. 49). Thus, the priesthood alone was called to portray the work of Christ as He is described in Hebrews 2: 17: “a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” The Levites on the other hand depicted service and praise in connection with this work.

In verses 54 to 81 we find enumerated the cities apportioned to the Levites, including the cities of refuge. These latter are not mentioned according to the order of their being hallowed, beginning with Kedesh and Shechem as in Joshua 20: 7-9, but according to the order of Joshua 21: 11-40, beginning with Hebron. Here again, Kohath comes first instead of Gershom (cf. v. 20), for it is a matter of the Lord's free choice: “theirs was the lot” (v. 54). Among them, the sons of Aaron received “Hebron in the land of Judah” as a city of refuge (vv. 55, 57). Thus the priesthood, issuing from Kohath, is here intimately united with the tribe of Judah and the place where the kingship was established, whereas the other members of the family of Kohath find their dwelling place in Ephraim and Manasseh. For this reason Judah and Ephraim (cf. v. 66) occupy a prominent place among the sons of Israel. Thus we see Judah and Joseph, who had the birthright, united through the Levitical priesthood dwelling in their midst. These three names, Judah, Joseph, and Levi, speak to us in a way still obscure of the Messiah's features as king, as first-born, and as high priest.

As we have said, the order of the cities of refuge corresponds to that of Joshua 21, being Hebron, Shechem, Golan in Bashan, Kedesh, Bezer, and Ramoth in Gilead.

1 Chronicles 7

Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Ephraim, Asher. The Daughters of Zelophehad

1 Chronicles 7 closes the genealogy of the tribes. The sons of Issachar come first. They “had many wives and sons” (v. 4). The numbering of the men of war begins with Issachar. In this tribe, the number of men of war continued to increase from the time of the establishment of the kingship. In David's time it was 22,600 men, then 36,000 men; and finally, because of their many wives, 87,000 men (v. 5). A second favorable trait of this tribe is that they took care of their genealogies, for we are told that all these men were registered by genealogy (v. 5). Finally, a third feature is mentioned only in connection with Issachar, Benjamin, and Asher: “valiant men of might,” fit to go out to war.

The tribe of Benjamin had the same features as those of Issachar: Care for their genealogies, and mighty men of valor, but this latter feature was outstanding in this little tribe, so intimately united to the kingdom of Judah at Jerusalem. Three times they are called by this name (vv. 7, 9, 11). This reminds us of Christ's character as waging war and conquering. Benjamin is the prophetic type of Him, and is so directly associated with the royal tribe of Judah that they are never separated from it. As Benjamin's antitype Christ comes up from Bozrah, his garments dyed with blood, to establish his reign (Isa. 63: 1-6). Benjamin is “fit for service for war” (v. 11). We shall see him appearing a second time under other circumstances.

Naphtali, Bilhah's son, does not seem to have shown any interest in his genealogy (v. 13). His descendants are scarcely mentioned, and still less, the number of his men of war.

Manasseh, that is to say, the half-tribe beyond the Jordan, comes next. Here, as elsewhere in these genealogies, women are referred to continually, one more proof that these genealogies were put together only after the captivity, amid the irregularities that characterized Israel's ruin. Through the female line of descent indicators could be established so as to retrace a genealogy, whereas a normal state of affairs would not have required such mentions. Thirteen women are alluded to in these few verses (vv. 14-19), including the five daughters of Zelophehad.

Some words concerning these latter would not be inappropriate. They are mentioned five times in the course of biblical history (Num. 26: 33; Num. 27: 1-11; Num. 36: 3-12; Joshua 17: 3-6: 1 Chron. 7: 15), proof of the important place they occupy in God's thoughts. Not one of their names is forgotten; they are Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah (Num. 26: 33). In Numbers 27 we notice several interesting details about them. First, they recognized that their abnormal condition was the result of their father's sin. Although “he was not in the band of them that banded themselves together against Jehovah in the band of Korah,” yet he “died in the wilderness,” and “died in his own sin,” and this was the reason why “he had no sons” (v. 3). Nonetheless his five daughters desire to perpetuate their father's name; as true daughters of Israel they value their genealogy and, consequently, their inheritance. The Lord waits to set their situation in order until they express this need before Him (cf. Num. 26: 33 with Num. 27: 2). He answers them when they stand “before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and the whole assembly, at the entrance of the tent of meeting” (Num. 27: 2), and when Moses “brought their cause before Jehovah” (v. 5). God says: “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right.” Wherever there is zeal to appropriate God's blessings and promises, an answer is sure. But the Lord gives them much more than they were asking. He conveys the inheritance of their father to them and adds a clause containing four articles to His law — these weak women are the occasion for this — which becomes “unto the children of Israel a statute of right.” “And unto the children of Israel shalt thou speak,” says the Lord, “saying: (1) If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. (2) And if he have no daughter, ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. (3) And if he have no brethren, ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren. (4) And if his father have no brethren, ye shall give his inheritance to his kinsman that is nearest to him in his family, and he shall possess it” (vv. 8-11). Besides the precepts set down in the law, God thus gives a special revelation in response to the desire expressed by some daughters of Israel. This desire had His approbation, and it was necessary in order for them to be able to enter into the possession of their inheritance.

In Numbers 27 the daughters of Zelophehad themselves had presented their petition before God, but in chapter 36 Manasseh, the entire tribe to which they belonged, inspired by the zeal of these women, pleads for them before Moses and the princes. The high priest who could intercede for them before the tent of meeting is not found here: Manasseh itself has turned intercessor in favor of the daughters of its people. The tribe is just as zealous to see its inheritance remain complete, without impairment, as the daughters of Zelophehad had been zealous to possess it. The Lord is pleased to acknowledge how right Manasseh's desire is. He declares: “The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well” (Num. 36: 5), just as in chapter 27 He had acknowledged that the daughters of Zelophehad had spoken well. God then gives a new revelation governing marriage in relation to the inheritance, for Manasseh was jealous to prevent even the least bit of the patrimony which he had conquered from being taken away from him. Some might otherwise have appropriated a portion of it to themselves by pleading the natural rights of marriage, an institution originally hallowed by God, but such a usurpation of rights could not be according to God's thoughts. After having given the sons of Joseph opportunity to express their desire — for if man is to receive an answer from God, his faith must ever be active — the Lord grants every liberty to the institution of marriage, giving it His full approval on condition that it take place within the bounds of the tribe (vv. 6-9).

Christians, is it not likewise with us with regard to marriage? Marriage must be within the bounds of the family of God, and within the realm of faith, else disorder will rapidly be introduced into the Assembly. It will lose the portion of her heavenly inheritance or see it diminished. This inheritance should not be impaired nor can it pass into other hands. Every individual alliance with those from without is a loss for the body as a whole, which, in the measure in which this takes place, is stymied in the enjoyment of at least a part of its inheritance.

This is the answer to Manasseh's request: “Every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance among the tribes of the children of Israel, shall be married to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every one the inheritance of his fathers, and the inheritance shall not pass from one tribe to another tribe; for each of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep to his inheritance” (vv. 8-9). Thus from a particular case God draws a general principle, which immediately becomes obligatory. Even so we recall the institution of the Supper, of the first day of the week, the collections, and a special case of discipline at Corinth, all of them becoming general obligations. “Even as Jehovah had commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad” (v. 10). They themselves regarded the revelation which had been given them and which answered to their particular need as a commandment of Jehovah.

In Joshua 17: 3-4, the daughters of Zelophehad present themselves before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua, the son of Nun, and before the princes. They had married their uncles' sons according to the Lord's directions (Num. 36: 11). Now they ask to receive their inheritance. “Jehovah commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren,” they say, relying on God's word alone. For them, this was enough to settle everything, even in a case that went beyond the usual order of the law. Moreover, their faith and their confidence in Jehovah's commandment to Moses results in the same rule with regard to female descendants being adopted throughout all Manasseh, even beyond the Jordan. “The daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons” (v. 6). Thus the rule given to a few became the privilege of all.

This history is of deep interest to us. We should consider the privileges of our heavenly inheritance priceless. Let us not be checked by natural, apparently legitimate, considerations which would tend to hinder us from appropriating our blessings. Let us ask God insistently that these obstacles, if they exist, be removed. Do not think, sisters in Christ, that your enjoyment of heavenly things must be lessened by your position of seeming inferiority. Do not be satisfied until you have acquired the same portion of the inheritance as your brothers. To overcome in this, remember that this is a commandment of the Lord as to you. Your example will have a blessed effect on your sisters: it will inspire them to follow it and to rely upon the same promises. Whatever your humble condition may be, your inheritance is the same as that of your brothers. There is no doubt that you are not called to the same conflicts, to the role of mighty men of valor in battle, but you are called to the same possession as they: you have the same lot, the same heavenly blessings!

1 Chronicles 7: 20-28 speaks of the sons of Ephraim. Their history as a tribe begins and ends sadly, although such a notable place had been reserved for them in their relationship with the tribe of Levi (1 Chron. 6: 66-70). At the beginning (we do not know exactly when), they had stolen from the Philistines of Gath, an act which the Lord could in no way approve. Surely, stealing from the Canaanites in order to enrich themselves while leaving them still alive was not the same as destroying them. In Samuel 15 Saul did the very same thing. Here the men of Gath execute that judgment upon Ephraim which the latter had not executed upon them. “The men of Gath born in the land slew them, because they came down to take their cattle” (v. 21). Later, the accursed race of the Philistines of Gath falls beneath the blows of “mighty men of valor” of Benjamin (1 Chron. 8: 13). God commits the accomplishing of His plans to those more faithful than Ephraim, and those who should have been His instruments are deprived of this honor in a very humiliating way. The tribe that was the very least rose to be the greatest. This execution of punishment must take place, for God's decrees could not be annulled by man's unfaithfulness. The moral result of Ephraim's conduct was not long in waiting: “Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him. And he went in to his wife; and she conceived, and bore a son; and he called his name Beriah [in evil], for he was born when calamity was in his house” (vv. 22-23). In this he was completely different from Jabez, for whom sorrow, the consequence of sin, became the starting point of his relationship with Jehovah. But the God who had blessed Joseph in his son Ephraim, according to the unchanging pattern of Chronicles, does not stop with the evil which this man had merited. The account given us ends with the name of Joshua, the type of Christ in the Spirit, leading His people to the conquest of their inheritance. So it is for God's people today. We must accept that it is by our own fault that evil is in the house, but we must never doubt for an instant that He who alone is worthy to enter Canaan will give us a possession in it. In Him we have the final word of our whole history!

Asher (vv. 30-40) is concerned about his genealogy, and the number of his men of war is given us along with that of Issachar and Benjamin. Like these latter, they are “mighty of valor.”

We cannot emphasize often enough that the importance of the genealogies here is dependent upon the care taken by the families to preserve them during the captivity. Naphtali resembles the dried remnant of a plant that was once green and flourishing, whereas Issachar, Benjamin, and Asher keep intact the deposit that God had confided to them.

1 Chronicles 8

The Tribe of Benjamin in Relation to the Family of Saul

Here for the second time we find the genealogy of Benjamin (cf. 1 Chron. 7: 6-12), but with a very special purpose. It brings us to Saul and his family (v. 33), to the kingship according to the flesh, the ruin of which we shall see in 1 Chronicles 10, and which is to be replaced, according to Chronicles' unchanging pattern, by the kingship of David according to election of God and the counsels of grace. We have few comments to make about this chapter. That obscure passage, verses 6 and 7, seems to be an allusion to Judges 20: 43, if we are to read, according to the marginal note, “to Manukah.”* We have already spoken of verse 13.

Note: According to the French translation of J. N. Darby, the words “at the resting-place” can also be read “to Manukah.”

Benjamin's habitation at Jerusalem, that is to say, at the seat of the kingship, to which Benjamin was entitled according to his geographic situation, is mentioned in verses 28-32. From Benjamin came mighty men of valor, able to draw the bow, which still did not prevent Saul from succumbing to the weapon that was the strength of his tribe and should have been his own strength against his enemies. The sinful nature adorned with all its advantages perishes and cannot even for an instant resist God's judgment.

1 Chronicles 9: 1-34

The Ruin of the People and the Restoration of Judah and Benjamin. The Levites

1 Chronicles 8 has brought us to the kingship according to the flesh, whose ruin will be shown us in 1 Chronicles 10; whereas 1 Chronicles 9 shows us the final ruin of the people: “Judah was carried away to Babylon because of their transgression” (v. 1). We then find the restoration of a feeble remnant, mentioned in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in order to await the promised Messiah at Jerusalem. This ninth chapter corresponds to chapter 11 of Nehemiah. Yet it differs significantly from Nehemiah 11, both with regard to the number of the sons of Judah and Benjamin who dwelt at Jerusalem, and with regard to their names. This chapter adds collateral branches. With regard to the priests and Levites, it is much closer to Nehemiah. Finally, it defines the functions of the doorkeepers of the temple very exactly. We learn also what Nehemiah does not reveal, that some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh, probably left in the land of Canaan at the time of the captivity of their tribes, came to dwell at Jerusalem (v. 3) with the children of Judah and of Benjamin.

Let us note yet another detail. In verse 13 the priests are termed “able men for the work of the service of the house of God.” Indeed the same strength is needed for the service of the house of God as for combat. These functions are very different in nature, but the same spiritual energy is necessary for both the one and the other.

In verses 17-23 we learn what the service, in part, of the Levites was. In these days of restoration they were doorkeepers at the gate of the temple, called “the king's gate.” Formerly they had been “keepers of the thresholds of the tent and their fathers, set over the camp of Jehovah, were keepers of the entrance. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the ruler over them formerly.” Of him it was said: “Jehovah was with him” (v. 20), and that says everything. David and Samuel had instituted the doorkeepers in their trust when the temple, called “the house of the tent” in verse 23, had not yet been built. But still more, these Levite doorkeepers were “over the chambers and over the treasuries of the house of God; for they stayed round about the house of God during the night, because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning pertained to them” (vv. 26-27). Finally, “part of them had the charge of the instruments of service, for by number they brought them in and by number they brought them out. Part of them also were appointed over the vessels, and over all the holy instruments, and over the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices” (vv. 28-29). Others were “in trust over the things that were made in the pans. And some of the sons of the Kohathites, their brethren, were over the loaves to be set in rows, to prepare them every sabbath.” Finally, there were “the singers” (vv. 31-33).

How many diverse functions these humble servants carried on! Modest functions, yes, but without them the entire order of the Lord's service would have been interrupted, or even discontinued! Let us think of this, and when the Lord confides a service to us, insignificant though it may appear to be, let us carry it out with zeal, reminding ourselves that it is necessary for the order of the house of God. Whatever may be our task, may we know “how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth” (1 Tim. 3: 15)!

THE KINGSHIP OF DAVID ACCORDING TO THE COUNSELS OF GOD

1 Chronicles 9: 35 - 27

1 Chronicles 9: 35 - 10

The Ruin of the Kingship According to the Flesh

The subject of the genealogies finishes with 1 Chronicles 9: 34. Verses 35 to 44 again take up the enumeration of Saul's family with a few differences that initiate us into the way in which the genealogies were composed. Thus, in this passage we find the ancestors of Ner back to Gibeon, whereas 1 Chronicles 8: 33-39 gives only the descendants of Ner and add to them those of Eshek, the brother of Azel. As ever, the Spirit of God who directed the composition of Chronicles has a particular purpose. In our passage here, it is first a matter of Saul's ancestors who according to their tribe's right dwelt at Jerusalem “beside their brethren” of Judah; then it is a matter of the direct line of descent from this king, avoiding the collateral branches which here have nothing to do with the purpose of this inspired book.

And so we reach 1 Chronicles 10 which begins with references to the accounts in the books of Samuel and Kings, but as we have so often said, with the purpose of bringing out the counsels of God concerning Judah's royal line, that royal line from which Christ would descend.

Here an observation must be made. God presents man's ruin from two aspects. On the one hand, He gives us man's history in detail, for it is a matter of proving through specifics the irremediable condition of sinful man, placed under responsibility. Only after He has shown that his condition is without remedy does God pronounce judgment upon him. On this account we are given the detailed historical narratives from Joshua to the end of Kings. In the New Testament, the epistle to the Romans presents an analogous character: man's state without the law and under the law is traced from the first chapter until that “O wretched man that I am!” of Romans 7, the final experience of man's desperate state, even that of an awakened man, under the law but responsible before God to keep it.

On the other hand, when God presents the extent of His grace and the working out of His eternal counsels, He sets down at the very onset as being without remedy, man's definite ruin, without mentioning the trial through which He puts him in order to prove this condition to him. Such is the character of the book of Chronicles. The epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament corresponds to this. Regarding sinful man's state this epistle has these words in Ephesians 2: 1 as its fundamental principle: “You, being dead in your offences and sins.”

Saul's history as recounted in the Chronicles is a striking example of this truth. After Saul's genealogy, we find only the account of his death, recounted almost word for word (1 Chron. 10: 1-12) from 1 Samuel 31. But the Spirit of God adds a very remarkable supplementary passage in verses 13-14: “And Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he committed against Jehovah, because of the word of Jehovah which he kept not, and also for having inquired of the spirit of Python, asking counsel of it; and he asked not counsel of Jehovah; therefore He slew him.” In this passage God explains the reason for His final judgment upon Saul, the same as that upon every sinful man: disobedience and departure from God. And remarkably, these are the very words we find again in Ephesians 2, the chapter that proclaims the sinner's condition of death: “sons of disobedience” and “without God in the world” (vv. 2, 12).

God had given Saul to Israel in the flesh according to their request, and this kingship could only end in complete failure. Henceforth God would act in accordance with the counsels of His sovereign grace: He “transferred the kingdom to David the son of Jesse” (v. 14).

1 Chronicles 11

Establishment of the Kingship According to God's Counsels

The end of the old man is the beginning of a new era. This truth is confirmed here. Without any preamble whatever, David's reign begins at Hebron. Saul, the king according to fallen nature, is dead, but that is not enough. David himself, the Lord's anointed, initiates his reign at Hebron, the place that so speaks of death. All that precedes Hebron (2 Sam. 1 - 2 Sam. 3), the gradual way in which David's reign is established, the long war between his house and that of Saul, the former growing stronger, the latter, weaker — all this is passed over in silence in Chronicles. At the very outset the Spirit of God announces the final establishment of David's reign.

A little characteristic phrase missing in the account in Samuel is added here in verse 3: “They anointed David king over Israel according to the word of Jehovah through Samuel.” The establishment of David's reign is here linked with God's unchangeable word and His counsels of grace.

In verses 4-9, which describe the capture of Jerusalem, we again find a noteworthy difference from the account in 2 Samuel 5: 6-9. Here there is not a word about “the lame and the blind hated of David's soul...!” and on the other hand, Joab, who is completely left out of the account in Samuel, here occupies the first place after David: “And David said, Whoever smites the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. And Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief” (v. 6). Here he is not the ambitious, vindictive man, but the man destined, according to God's counsels, to conquer the fortress of Zion for the king. It is even said of him in verse 8: “Joab renewed the rest of the city.” Not a word about his character, nor about his doings up to this moment. His struggle with Abner, his revenge upon this noble captain, the murder he committed, are all passed over in silence, as well as David's pained expression: “And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me: Jehovah reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness!” (2 Sam. 3: 39). Would we not say, if we had only read the account of Chronicles, that Joab was an upright man without reproach? The truth is that here Joab is simply the instrument prepared to install the Lord's anointed, the king according to God's thoughts, at Jerusalem.

David's mighty men are enumerated at the beginning of this account (vv. 10-47), while they are enumerated at the end in 2 Samuel 23. Here they bring in the kingdom. They “showed themselves valiant with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of Jehovah concerning Israel” (v. 10), so accomplishing the plans which God had before made known. They are then enumerated. Among the first three Shammah, although referred to, is not named. A few names mentioned in Samuel are omitted here and a great many are added. Thus our chapter refers to 81 mighty men (30 of them being recorded without being named); 2 Samuel 23 names 37 of them; there they are enumerated as supporters whom David needed to confirm his throne; in our present chapter they have only to acknowledge what God had done in establishing David as His anointed, and cannot do other than support a kingship come forth from the counsels of God Himself. Also they appear before us at the beginning of his reign.

Let us note an even more remarkable detail. Uriah the Hittite, who closes the list in 2 Samuel 23 in testimony against David's sin and fall, appears here as hidden among the other mighty men (v. 41). His name is not highlighted as the accuser of David and of that which was the shame of his kingdom. Likewise, everything pertaining to the terrible fall of the Lord's anointed is completely passed over in silence. Eliam also, the son of Ahithophel (2 Sam. 23: 34), whose father was so intimately associated with the consequences of David's sin, is omitted in our chapter.

The senseless attacks of rationalists against the books of Chronicles oblige us to insist upon all these details, for their general effect is the best refutation of those who see in the Chronicles only a wretched compilation made at a time much later than that which the book ascribes to itself, a compilation made without order, with falsified documents, full of invented names and screaming errors. Oh the folly of human reason when it ventures to judge God's thoughts and would replace them by its own imaginations!

1 Chronicles 12

The Kingship Recognized

Before recognizing David at Hebron (vv. 23-27), a few of the tribes — sad to say, the minority — had in part joined themselves to him while he was still the rejected king. The mistakes he made at this period of his history, the lack of faith which had prompted him to flee to Achish, the results that came upon him from this at the battle with the Philistines and his stay at Ziklag (see 1 Sam. 29, 30), are not mentioned in Chronicles. According to the principle of this book, divine grace covers a multitude of sins; whereas in the second book of Samuel and in the Psalms we see David turning from his wicked path and confessing his faults.

What we find in this chapter (vv. 1-22) is the faith of many, precious fruit of grace. This faith submits to the Lord's anointed, the king according to God's counsels, and acknowledges him at a time when the eye of flesh was not able to discern him in his lowly condition. It is the same today for believers. Our David has not yet received a visible kingdom, but those who acknowledge Him while He is still the rejected king have a special place in the divine annals and are “more honorable than their brethren.” in like manner, men of Benjamin and Manasseh joined themselves to David at Ziklag (vv. 1, 9), and men of Gad, Judah, and Benjamin joined him in the stronghold in the wilderness (vv. 8, 16) before all the tribes hastened to him at Hebron.

In all these cases, whether it be at Ziklag, in the hold, or at Hebron, Benjamin is first (vv. 2,16,29) and does not miss a single opportunity to acknowledge its king. This was an act of faith all the more remarkable in that Benjamin and especially “the brethren of Saul” had every reason according to nature to hesitate and not to make a decision until after all the others. But their faith could vanquish obstacles, for it is associated with “virtue” (2 Peter 1: 5) and cannot be separated from it once called into action.

This little tribe of Benjamin, once nearly annihilated after their sin (Judges 20 — Judges 21), now holds a distinguished place in the testimony. As to them, God notes with approval (vv. 1-7), the fact that they were “of the brethren of Saul.” Theirs was the fervent faith of that first hour preceding the dawn of the kingdom. How can we fail to trace out this faith, for which the personal presence of David alone sufficed, at the very moment when according to man's judgment everything seemed to be lost forever for the Lord's anointed. Driven away by Saul, rejected by the Philistines, he had only Ziklag and even this place fell to the power of Amalek (1 Sam. 30)!

What a help these men would have been to the Philistines, enemies of God's people! But, on the other hand, what a help they would have been to Saul, these men “armed with bows, using both the right hand and the left with stones and with arrows on the bow!” (v.2). Saul's lack of archers to oppose against the Philistines was the immediate cause of his ruin. We are told that he was much terrified when he saw that he could not measure up to the Philistine archers. Nevertheless David did not use this unanticipated help against Saul. He let God Himself direct the circumstances and pronounce judgment in his favor and would in no way fight against His people. How often Christians are presented with similar occasions, Satan succeeding in engaging them in conflict with one another. If they do not learn then that “in quietness and confidence shall be your strength,” they will of necessity come into new difficulties.

The Gadites who joined David in the “stronghold” were “mighty men of valor, men fit for the service of war, armed with shield and spear; whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were swift as the gazelles upon the mountains” (v. 8). They could engage in hand to hand combat with the enemy, being vigorous and fleet as is proper in such a situation. These men of Gad, whom we have seen above so careful of their genealogy which joined them to God's people, are prompt to acknowledge this people's leader. The obstacles to joining him, though of another kind from those of Benjamin, did not stop them. The Jordan, on the other side of which they dwelt, was as insurmountable an obstacle as in the days when the people had arrived opposite Jericho. “These are they that went over Jordan in the first month, when it overflows all its banks” (v. 15). There was now no need of a miracle to allow them to pass over; they knew that the Jordan had had to yield before the people of God, and strong with the conviction of faith, they prevailed over this obstacle in order to join the one who drew them like a loving sovereign.

In verses 16 to 18, Benjamin appears for the second time but associated with Judah to go to David in “the stronghold.” Here they act not only in simple faith, but in the power of the Spirit of God. “And the Spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the captains, and he said, Thine are we, David, and with thee, thou son of Jesse: Peace, peace be to thee! and peace be to thy helpers! for thy God helps thee.” (v. 18). Love and admiration for the person of David animate these men. His personal merit and the assurance that God is with him suffice them. By virtue of this devotion they receive a privileged place from the king: “And David received them, and made them chiefs of bands.”

Manasseh (vv. 19-22) displays neither the faith of Benjamin nor the energy of Gad nor the power of the Spirit as Judah and Benjamin. These men arrive at Ziklag at the last hour, before the battle; they are all strong and valiant; they share with David the not insignificant honor of being rejected by the Philistines.

Like them, let us hasten to gather around Christ while it is still the day of His rejection; let us hasten to acknowledge Him before all shall be obliged to submit to Him when He is manifested in his kingdom. His heart finds a special satisfaction in our voluntary submission in the day of his being disowned by the world. He loves to declare that they who cleave to Him will be His peculiar treasure in the day of His reign!

We have seen that each segment of the people served David with the various gifts that God had distributed among them. The company of those who do battle for the Lord today must do the same. There is not, as some would have us believe, a “Salvation Army” destined to spread the gospel throughout the world, although the gift of evangelist itself is a gift of prime importance. The Christian army is ordained to combat spiritual powers to defend the Lord's rights and not, as does the evangelist, to cause His grace to triumph by making it penetrate consciences. The little army which gathers around David does so as “helping him in the conflict” (v. 1), in order to introduce, through combat, the establishment of His kingdom. Now the kingdom of Christ is not the gospel. In this respect the people of Benjamin had great faith: they expected of David brilliant deeds and a glorious reign at a time when the Lord's anointed counted for nothing in the eyes of men.

Let us now follow David to Hebron (vv. 23-40), where he is no longer acknowledged by some, but by all the tribes.

The number of men from each tribe is noted. Each comes with his own special qualities to take his place in the king's army.

This reminds us of what is said of the body of Christ in Romans 12. “All the members have not the same office”; all have “different gifts”; they must use them according to the manifold grace of God and “as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.” Thus the Lord's army can work together for a common purpose, each exercising the function entrusted to him. Judah bears shield and spear; Simeon is mighty and valiant for the war; Levi is, as we have seen (1 Chron. 9: 13), for the service, for, although each took his place in the army (vv. 27-28) they were not called to combat. Benjamin, freed from the service of Saul, whose house they had once guarded (v. 29), had left this honorary post en mass, esteeming it as worthless, in order to occupy the true post of honor with David.

Faith alone had directed the first Benjaminites. The example they had given was followed by the rest of the tribe. This observation is not an unimportant one, for it is not every one's portion to display the same energy of faith through the Spirit. This is why Paul could say: “Walk thus as you have us for a model,” and to the Hebrews he could say: “Imitate their faith.”

Those of Manasseh had been “expressed by name” by their brethren “to come and make David king.” There was a full fellowship among all of them. Participating by their empathy in sending forth their brethren, they recognized those among them who were most capable of carrying out their commission.

The children of Issachar “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (v. 32), and this faculty was a precious benefit for the people of God. Have we not often proven that we were lacking this wisdom to press on through the problems of these difficult days? More readily do we find Christians marked by brotherly love, like the half-tribe of Manasseh, or power, like the mighty men of valor in other tribes, but the spirit of “wise discretion” (2 Tim. 1: 7) is often wanting and we approach difficult situations without the discernment necessary. Moreover, times change, and we cannot act on one occasion as we would on another. Here the time had come to unite for a common action. Any other action, however plausible it might be, would have entailed fatal consequences. It was time to put aside all else, even legitimate considerations, to unite around David. It was not the time to make endless war against the remnant of Saul's house as Joab been doing; the time had come to own David alone as chief and center. One might invoke the respectable legitimacy of the son of Kish and of his successors, or perhaps the necessity of lying low and waiting for events to unfold; but no such consideration could be of any value. It was a matter of David: the moment had come; one banner alone had the right to wave before all eyes. The children of Issachar had understanding of the times: in giving their opinion, they themselves acted according to God's true purpose to unify the dispersed tribes with Jesse's son as center.

Were not the Christians at Rome to whom the apostle Paul addressed himself true children of Issachar? “This also,” he told them, “knowing the time, that now it is already time that we be aroused out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, and the day is near” (Rom. 13: 11-12). The day of our David's triumph is near at hand; night will soon give place to light; let us awake! Soon the morning star will rise, that star which is already shining in our hearts. Listen to the children of Issachar. If we lack their discernment, let us bear in mind that God has provided for our assistance the wisdom and the counsel of our brethren who understand what Israel ought to do — what is appropriate today for the people of God)! “All their brethren were at their bidding.” May we be like them and listen to those whom the Lord has qualified for counseling.

The children of Zebulun were prepared for battle. If battle would break out, they would not be taken by surprise. They had “all weapons of war.” Moreover, they were supportive of one another, keeping rank; none of them acted in an independent manner, for they realized that unity was their strength. And in addition they were “without double heart” — their affections were not divided. Is not a frequent cause of our defeats a heart wavering between the world and Christ, between our interests, our temporal advantages, and the unique service of David's Son?

Naphtali is a bit like Judah: they bear the spear, or rather the sword and shield, similarly to those men who had built the wall under Nehemiah.

Dan was “armed for war” rather than for battle like Zebulun. This infers that these men were ready to rally at the first call, once war had been declared.

Asher was familiar with strategy. The Asherites could “set themselves in battle array.”

The tribes beyond Jordan came last, as we have said, but even their position at a distance proved to their advantage. They had “all manner of weapons of war for battle.” If distance created difficulties for them in the matter of replacing their weapons, it provoked them to make careful provision.

That which characterized the tribes at this blessed period of their history is that all (v. 38) came to Hebron “with a perfect heart,” without guile, with a single purpose, and that all in Israel who were constrained by circumstances to remain behind “were of one heart to make David king.”

Lovely beginning! Blessed awakening! The fact of having but a single person, the Lord's anointed, before their eyes, was enough to produce this miracle. In this way all divisions can be prevented among God's people. The sovereign safeguard against division is to have Christ before the eyes of faith.

The Spirit of God here delights to show us the effects of grace in the heart. While 2 Samuel 5: 1-3 treats this subject in three short verses, God is pleased to develop it here in all its fullness.

There is still more: brotherly love finds a rich occasion for exercise. “And there they were with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brethren had prepared for them; and those too that were near them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought food on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, provisions of meal, fig-cakes and raisin-cakes, and wine and oil, and oxen and sheep, abundantly; for there was joy in Israel” (vv. 39-40). Nothing was spared where it involved their brethren's well-being, and at the same time they showed their attachment to David. They indeed added love to brotherly love (2 Peter 1: 7). This harmony was undergirded by joy, the true motive for all devotion. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” Paul said to the Philippians, for he knew that in order to remedy the discord threatening them, joy must be the prime component in their hearts.

1 Chronicles 13

The Ark and the New Cart

The characteristic feature of this chapter is omitted in 2 Samuel 6. It is David's desire, once the kingdom had been established, to reunite the entire people not around himself but around the ark, the throne of God where the mercy seat was found. Here we see (vv. 1-2) with what care the king gathers Israel together, with the priests and Levites, to bring back the ark from Kirjath-jearim: he wants to have all the worshippers of the Lord for this, and he adds: “We inquired not of it in the days of Saul” (v. 3). How completely the ark had been forgotten under the preceding reign! From the time of its return from the hands of the Philistines, it surfaces only to demonstrate how little Saul had esteemed it (1 Sam. 14: 18-19).

In view of the great theme which is going to dominate the latter part of this book of Chronicles — the role of the priesthood in its relationship to the kingship — we need to be reminded here of the details of the ark's return and the mistake which David made. On this occasion we see David's ardent desire to find a place of rest for the throne of God, and how much he desired to find complete fellowship on part of the people in this. This desire was of God.

Nonetheless, whatever may be grace's designs, man shows himself weak to carry them out, and God takes care to reveal this to us here. If it were otherwise, we would find an infallible David in Chronicles, whereas God would rather show us His infallible counsels, brought to fruition in view of Christ of whom David is the type. And if God were not to mention any of David's failings here, it would be a dishonor to Christ, for He alone must appear as the Perfect Man, the King according to God's counsels.

However, God chooses an example of one of the less outstanding of David's errors for our instruction. He was filled with the desire to serve God and to associate the whole people with the glorification of His throne. Zion, the seat of the kingship according to God's counsels, in David's eyes was the only place for the ark to rest. All priestly service must have this ark as its center, and its presence was the sure basis for the kingdom's establishment according to God. David acknowledged these things and proclaimed them. Only one thing was lacking, insignificant in appearance but very serious in reality, and what a bitter experience that would instruct the king. The great outpouring of joy and praise accompanying the ark's return could not take the place of obedience to the Word of God. The former was excellent, the latter both necessary and obligatory. David might have excused the manner in which he brought back the ark by the fact that the sons of Gershom and Merari also had wagons to transport the tabernacle through the wilderness, with the exception, of course, of the vessels of the sanctuary. And besides, God had not opposed the Philistines' method when they had returned the ark on a new cart, nor had He even manifested His displeasure to them. Doubtless the Philistines, idolaters and strangers to what the law prescribed, had acted according to their conscience without even a thought of disobeying the Word of God which they did not know; but never does faith act according to the light of conscience, and David should have known this: faith always obeys the Word of God and is not to be separated from it.

This lapse of memory and, more probably still, the lack of importance he accorded to every iota of the Scriptures had two serious consequences. The first was for Uzza, struck down because the oxen had broken loose, prompting an unconsidered, profane action on his part; the second was for David who lost all that had filled his heart just a few moments previously: confidence, joy, and praise, and saw these replaced by fear, recrimination, indignation against God, and bitterness.

But the king's failure and its consequences for his moral state in no way changed the fulfillment of God's counsels. The Lord had chosen Zion; He had desired it for His habitation, His rest forever, and, in spite of all, He accomplishes His purposes of grace. David witnesses the blessings granted to Obed-Edom, when this latter might have, like Uzza, drawn upon himself the Lord's wrath by the least fault. Thus the king learns by experience that the God who had just revealed Himself as judge, though He is a holy God, is a God of grace: a prime subject of Chronicles, but it is vital to understand that it is a great evil to have but little esteem for His Word.

Do Christians consider this when, in order to serve God, in their often very real zeal they resort to all sorts of human expedients, similar to a new cart, and when they without any scruple whatever violate scriptural precepts that are often far more clear and important than that the ark had to be borne upon the priests' shoulders? Like with David, the closer one is to God, the more one is exposed to judgment if one does not give heed to His will as expressed in His Word.

Let us therefore ever consult it for all things; let us become familiar with it in a spirit of dependence and prayer so that we may not act contrary to its directions. Only let us remember that the more we know it, the more too we shall be held responsible to conform to it in every point. God may tolerate ignorance, although this also is sin necessitating a sacrifice (Lev. 5: 17-19), but He does not tolerate disobedience from those whom He honors with His favors. Sooner or later He punishes disobedience.

1 Chronicles 14 - 16: 6

David's Victories

The Fruits of Grace in his Heart

His Association with the Levitical Family

Through David's fault opportunity had been furnished for grace to be manifested. These chapters show us this grace at work in the heart of the king producing that humility and obedience to the Word from which David had wandered in one point.

1 Chronicles 14: 1-7 corresponds to 2 Samuel 5: 10-15. There we see the nations, in the person of Hiram, acknowledging the supremacy of the Lord's anointed and seeking his favor. “And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him a house. And David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel, for his kingdom was highly exalted, because of his people Israel” (1 Chron. 14: 1-2). God shows His servant David that He is accomplishing His counsels of grace toward him in establishing him as king over the people and in causing the nations to submit to him.

After Hiram's submission we find the victories over the Philistines (vv. 8-16; cf. 2 Sam. 5: 17-25), followed here in Chronicles by this characteristic remark: “And the fame of David went out into all lands; and Jehovah brought the fear of him upon all the nations” (v. 17). Thus the Lord Himself extended the king's dominion over the nations by victories which were entirely dependent on his obedience to the Word of God (vv. 10, 14), a lesson which he had learned by the “breach upon Uzza.”

The complete list of David's offspring at Jerusalem is given us for the second time in this book (1 Chron. 3: 5-8; 1 Chron. 14: 3-7) (Elpelet and Nogah are not mentioned in 2 Sam. 5: 14-16). The purpose of this repetition is to show us that God's counsels concerning the kingship are being carried out at the very moment when the king is finding a place of rest at Zion for the ark of God.

The beginning of 1 Chronicles 15 (1 Chron. 15: 1-13) is quite remarkable: “Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites, for them has Jehovah chosen to carry the ark of God, and to serve Him for ever” (v. 2). Then, speaking to the Levites: “Ye are the chief fathers of the Levites; hallow yourselves, ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of Jehovah the God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it. For because ye did it not at the first, Jehovah our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order” (vv. 12-13). These passages are missing in the second book of Samuel, and although Chronicles has, as an exception, recorded David's fault, it is in order to present us with this admirable confession which grace at last produces in him.

The passage from 1 Chronicles 15: 14 through 1 Chronicles 16: 6 is much more specific than 2 Sam. 6: 12-23. What is most striking is the order instituted by David in the levitical family concerning the return of the ark. According to God's thought expressed in 1 Samuel 2: 35, the priesthood is henceforth dependent upon the kingship. Everything is regulated by David. He himself is “clothed with a robe of byssus, and all the Levites that bore the ark” (v. 27). “David had upon him a linen ephod” (v. 27), as in former times Samuel the prophet (1 Sam. 2: 18). He offered “the burnt-offerings and the peace offerings” (1 Chron. 16: 2). His identification with the priesthood goes yet further, for like Melchizedek, “he blessed the people in the name of Jehovah” (1 Chron. 16: 2). Finally, as the true anointed of Jehovah, he satisfies the poor with bread (v. 3; Ps. 132: 15-17). Thus he manifests all the attributes of the Levite, the prophet, the Aaronic priest, and the eternal priest and king with which Christ, the Man according to God's counsels, shall be invested when He appears in His kingdom.

It is David who not only orders the Levites to carry the ark “as Moses had commanded according to the word of Jehovah” (1 Chron. 15: 15), but who also appoints singers, musicians, and “doorkeepers for the ark” whose very names are listed. Amid them all the name of Obed-edom, repeated four times (and twice more in 1 Chron. 16: 38), shines above all the others. He is doorkeeper for the tabernacle together with the sons of Merari; he is singer, doorkeeper for the ark, and musician. Obed-edom, witness and object of God's grace which had blessed his house and all that belonged to him (1 Chron. 13: 14) on account of the presence of the throne of God in his home, receives very special mention in this book of God's counsels in grace.

Note how often the name “God” is substituted in these chapters for the name “Jehovah” used in the corresponding passages in 2 Samuel. Love and grace are related much more to the first of these names than to the second, which speaks rather of His righteousness, His holiness, and His faithfulness to His Word.

1 Chronicles 16: 7-43

The Song at the Kingship's Beginning

The Psalm of David contained in these verses corresponds to the leading thought of Chronicles and differs altogether from the song mentioned in 2 Samuel 22, which is none other than Psalm 18. This latter stands at the very end of David's history when “Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul.” He celebrates the Lord's deliverances for the one who trusts in Him (v. 2), deliverances which began with Israel's exodus out of Egypt (vv. 7-15). Then he lays bare the principles of God's government toward His own: “With the gracious Thou dost show Thyself gracious; with the upright man Thou dost show Thyself upright; with the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure; and with the perverse Thou dost show Thyself contrary” (vv. 26-27); then these same principles toward their enemies (v. 28). This in no wise bars grace toward His beloved, for all that is good in their ways is dependent on their confidence in Him (v. 31). Finally, after all enemies have been conquered the Lord's anointed is established as head of the nations and strangers are subject to him (vv. 44, 48). Such, in a few words, is this magnificent Psalm 18 which we find in 2 Samuel 22 as the last prophetic hymn of David. It is followed in chapter 23 only by the king's last words, when he humbles himself for his conduct, acknowledges God's righteous government toward him but celebrates His grace which is as unchangeable as His promises and proclaims the coming of the righteous Ruler whom he, David, had proved incapable of representing upon earth.

The song of 1 Chronicles 16 is completely different. It is the hymn of the beginning of the kingship, proclaimed by the establishment of the ark in Zion: the ark as God's throne in the midst of His people at last being entered into its rest. Indeed, this song is intimately connected with the ark's return. “Then on that day”, we are told, “David delivered first this psalm to give thanks to Jehovah through Asaph and his brethren.” This psalm is termed “the first” to celebrate the Lord. Here the subject is not, as in Samuel, victory over the wicked, the responsibility of the saints, and God's government regarding them, but God's faithfulness to His promises, at last accomplished by the ark's return to Zion, after Israel had forfeited every right to keep it in their midst.

* * * *

But before continuing the examination of our chapter, I would like to digress with regard to its contents and that of the entire book which we are studying.

It is extremely important to notice that the ways of God in government, and His counsels of grace are two things that are entirely distinct.

God's counsels and the way they are to be fulfilled as to us exist from all eternity: they have been realized in Christ, the perfect Man whom God has exalted to His right hand, giving us the same blessings and the same glory as to Him. As for that which concerns us, the counsels of God are realized by pure grace. This grace is unchangeable, unvarying, and secure forever for those whom grace has saved through faith in Christ.

God's government is in contrast to His counsels. This government is associated with man's responsibility and exists from the beginning of his history. It was first manifested in Eden where man, innocent but responsible, disobeyed and was driven from the garden and made subject to death. From that moment on, God's government continues to function toward man who is responsible to conduct himself in this world in a way conformable to the righteousness, holiness, and goodness of his Creator who rewards the good and punishes the wicked. On the other hand, doubtless, He makes His sun shine on the just and on the unjust, for He is a God of goodness who, rather than desiring the death of the sinner, leads him to repentance by His longsuffering and patience. Nonetheless it is true that men's wicked actions bring their own consequences, generally already here on earth for themselves, and often for their children to the third or fourth generation. But should they are not be judged on earth, the final word of God's judgment will be pronounced at the last judgment.

As for the elect, we must remember that by virtue of the fall and of the sin thenceforth inherent in their nature, not one — not a single one — is righteous. But God, by faith and through the Spirit who is its seal, communicates a new nature to them, a heart capable of loving, honoring and serving Him. They are the objects of grace and through faith in Christ become the objects of God's favor. This great fact answers to the counsels of God who from all eternity has sought to find His good pleasure in men through Christ. To obtain this result it was needful to conquer Satan who had begotten and summoned forth sin, abolish sin itself, and annul all its consequences. This is the result of Christ's work at the cross.

But the new nature he possesses in no wise dissolves this new man's responsibility. He must maintain the position of relationship with God and with Christ in which grace has placed him. Though still having the flesh, the old man, in him, he is responsible to conduct himself before God according to the new nature, not according to the old. The Holy Spirit, the power of new life, makes him capable of this. That is the reason for God's government toward His elect, His children. If they do good, they are the objects of God's favor here upon earth; if they do evil, of His judgment, and this judgment is all the more prompt and direct in that they are part of a redeemed people: Judgment begins from the house of God. As for the elect individually, this judgment which can touch them only on earth can have no other goal than their final restoration. As for the Church, as the body of Christ she is never judged, but the Church as the house of God can definitely be judged, and the Lord will come upon her as a thief.

There is only one case where judgment is definite and without mercy, namely where the world, the sinful man whether religious or not, sets himself against all the appeals of grace.

Besides the ways of God toward the redeemed, toward His house, and toward men, there is His more general government. God is interested in everything that harmonizes with the precepts of His righteousness and holiness. The man who honors his father and mother, or that young man in the Gospel, amiable although unconverted, prosper on earth. The upright man who does not wrong his neighbor reaps earthly advantages, for God's government operates upon earth although its seat is in heaven. In the new heavens and the new earth there will be no more throne, and consequently, no more government. This government, whether toward the saints, or with regard to the good and the evil is treated of in the books of Samuel and Kings; Chronicles treats rather of the counsels and election of grace. But Chronicles first establishes, whether in the case of natural descent or the case of Saul, the fact that the flesh cannot have part in these counsels. Hence, as we have already remarked, the faults of the elect are passed over in complete silence, except when they are necessary in order to show that God can even use them to accomplish His counsels of grace. Thus it was with the events that surrounded the return of the ark.

* * * *

Let us now return to look at our chapter. The Song recorded here (vv. 8-36) is composed of fragments of three psalms. Verses 8-22 correspond to Psalm 105: 1-15; verses 23-33 correspond to Psalm 96: 1-12; and finally, verses 34-36 correspond to Psalm 106: 1, 47-48.

1. The first 15 verses of Psalm 105 are an appeal to celebrate the Lord because of His covenant “which He made with Abraham, and of His oath unto Isaac; and He confirmed it unto Jacob for a statute, unto Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance” (1 Chron. 16-18). This is a covenant of pure grace, God's faithfulness to His promises, in contrast to the covenant of Sinai, based on the people's responsibility. The passage cited ends with these words: “He suffered no man to oppress them, and reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm” (vv. 21-22). We do not find a single word about Israel's oppression by the nations as a result of their disobedience. All is free grace in this passage. This is all the more striking as the second part of Psalm 105, omitted here, cannot concur with the purpose that we have indicated. Indeed, in verses 16 to 22 of this psalm we see Joseph rejected by his brothers and sold as a slave, then established as ruler of the nations, bringing us back to Israel's history in responsibility. In verses 23-45 we find the deliverance from Egypt, the journey through the wilderness under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, and finally, the people's entry into Canaan, “that they might keep His statutes, and observe His laws” — and we know what this regimen of law led to.

This first portion therefore entirely omits the history of the people in responsibility, in order to bring out grace and the promises made long before the law.

2. Verses 1-12 of Psalm 96 continue the call to Israel to celebrate the Lord among the nations, and the nations themselves are called upon to give Him glory and strength, to say everywhere: Jehovah reigns.

This section is remarkable for the omission of details that pertain to the theme of Christ's reign but do not pertain to the theme of David's reign. Thus 1 Chronicles 16: 23 omits the “new song” of Psalm 96: 1 which in the Word is always connected with a new scene, whether upon earth or in the heavens. But this condition will only be fulfilled under Christ's reign. Our verse 27 says, “Strength and gladness [are] in His place,” and in its verse 6 the psalm says, “Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” This was not yet the beauty of Christ's reign, although it was the joy of David's reign at its commencement; also, at this time the sanctuary had not yet been built for the ark. In the same way, in verse 29 our chapter says, “Come before Him,” rather than “Come into His courts” (Ps. 96: 8), and this is again in relation to the transitory state of David's reign. Finally, the words of verse 33: “For He cometh to judge the earth,” replace the words of the psalm (v. 13): “For He cometh to judge the earth: He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness.” Such a fullness of government could not correspond to David's reign.

3. The third section of our chapter (vv. 34-36) is a citation from Psalm 106: 1, 47-48. Its first verse, “Give ye thanks unto Jehovah; for He is good; for His loving-kindness endureth for ever” is very appropriate to the character of Chronicles and to the moment when David rendered his “first” psalm. This song will be sung during the millennium, but it could be sung at the dawn of the reign of David and of the reign of Solomon (2 Chron. 5: 13), at the moment when God in type fulfilled His counsels of grace with regard to the kingship. Our passage treats only of the establishment of the ark in Zion, and absolutely omits all the rest of the psalm, for the psalm contains the history of the people in responsibility and their complete failure in every circumstance through which they passed, whether in Egypt, in the wilderness, or in Canaan. This account would not have been in accord with the purpose of our book.

Finally, our verses 35 and 36, corresponding to the last two verses of Psalm 106 (vv. 47-48) look ahead to the final accomplishment of all the blessings listed in our chapter. They will be completely realized only by Israel's deliverance from among the nations, a time yet future when this praise shall resound: “Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity!” David's people rejoice in anticipation in this praise. “And all the people said, Amen! and praised Jehovah” (v. 36).

After this song, we find in verses 37-43 the provisional order of worship before the final establishment of the ark in Solomon's temple. Henceforth the ark of the covenant was placed in Zion, and this is, as we have seen, the prime point of the first book of Chronicles in relation to the kingship. The ark was placed “under curtains”, in a tent which David had spread for it. The tabernacle in the wilderness with the brazen altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary was at Gibeon. There burnt-offerings were sacrificed morning and evening. Here David sets up the personnel who would carry out these two functions: at Gibeon, the offering of the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark. There, too, this song was to reverberate, which will endure as long as the Lord Himself: “Give thanks to Jehovah, because His loving-kindness endureth for ever” (v. 41). Among those who perform the service before the ark, Obed-edom has the first place, in the midst of so many Levites chosen by David. He was the witness and object of the blessings which the ark brought with it, the special witness of the counsels of grace.

This entire passage that treats of the service of the ark is omitted in the second book of Samuel.

1 Chronicles 17

David's Prayer

We have but few comments to make on this chapter, in view of the account in 2 Samuel 7. Nevertheless, in this chapter we find fresh proof of the conscious modifications (additions or omissions) made in view of the object the Spirit of God proposes in this book. Before noting them, let us again remind ourselves that Chronicles presents God's counsels and promises with regard to the kingship established in the house of David, counsels and promises which will be fully accomplished in Christ, “for whatever promises of God there are, in Him is the yea, and in Him the amen, for glory to God by us” (2 Cor. 1: 20).

In verse 1 of our chapter, the Spirit omits the words: “When Jehovah had given him rest round about from all his enemies,” which do not fit in with our account of the kingdom established by the ark's return. Likewise in verse 10: “I will subdue all thine enemies” is in the future tense in contrast with “I have given thee rest from all thine enemies” which characterizes 2 Samuel 7: 11.

As we have already noticed previously, the name of Jehovah is usually replaced in this chapter by that of God.

In verse 11 “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons,” directs our thoughts to Christ, the king according to God's counsels; whereas 2 Samuel 7: 12 “Thy seed...which shall proceed out of thy bowels” indicates Solomon, David's son.

Verse 13 is very remarkable. God says: “I will be his father, and he shall be my son,” a passage which is cited in Hebrews 1: 5 in reference to Christ and concerning God's counsels regarding His Anointed. This same passage in 2 Samuel 7: 14 applies to the fallible and responsible king: “I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men,” etc. This is what happened to David himself in the book of Samuel, whereas Chronicles mentions neither his failure nor the prolonged chastisement, the “rod of men,” which was its consequence.

In verse 14 it says: “And I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom for ever; and his throne shall be established for ever.” In 2 Samuel we read: “And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made firm for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (v. 16).

For the same reason we read (vv. 18-19): “What can David say more to thee for the glory of thy servant? thou indeed knowest thy servant. Jehovah, for thy servant's sake ...hast thou done all this greatness,” etc. This phrase “thy servant” carries our thoughts far beyond David, to the person of Christ. 2 Samuel 7: 21 is worded thus: “For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness, to make thy servant know it.”

And finally in verse 27: “And now, let it please Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may be before Thee for ever; for thou, Jehovah, hast blessed it, and it shall be blessed for ever”; whereas 2 Samuel 7: 29 says: “For thou, Lord Jehovah, hast spoken it; and with thy blessing shall the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.” The first of these passages refers to the unconditional promises made to Abraham (Gen. 12: 2); the second expresses a desire that could not be realized by the posterity of David, the responsible king, as he himself says in his last words: “Although my house be not so before God.” Nevertheless, trusting in the promises of grace, he immediately adds: “Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in every way and sure; for this is all my salvation, and every desire, although He make it not to grow” (2 Sam. 23: 5). Recognizing the ruin of his house under the rule of responsibility, he goes back to the eternal covenant, to “the sure mercies of David,” and this truth which is emphasized in Chronicles, in 2 Samuel sustains the king's heart when at the end of his career he must face the ruin of his house, the fruit of his own failure.

1 Chronicles 18-20

The Wars

Just as with 1 Chronicles 17, a few comments will suffice as to these chapters whose contents we have considered in detail in our Meditations on the Second Book of Samuel.

In the first place we find joined together here in a connected account David's wars and exploits just as they are narrated in 2 Samuel 8; 10 - 2 Samuel 11: 1; 2 Samuel 12: 26-31; and 2 Samuel 21: 18-22. The text is identical except for a few small details where the account in Chronicles augments that of Samuel.

Thus, these chapters present the warrior king, whereas the rest of the book unrolls before our eyes the peaceful portion of David's reign, completely occupied with the service of the ark and the preparations for the erection of the temple. Still, the military apparatus that fills David's reign in 2 Samuel cannot be passed over in silence in this book, for Chronicles treats of the kingship established, its relationship to the ark, then to the temple, and of the order of worship. Moreover, the account of David's victories is necessary in order to show us the manner in which the kingdom could be instituted, Israel delivered from their enemies, and peace, righteousness, and rule over the nations inaugurated by Solomon. These things could only be brought about through a conquering and triumphant king whose victories are presented to us in a block so as not to have to come back to them again, since they are not the subject of the book. Christ's dominion will be introduced in this same way at the end.

In the second place, Chronicles passes over the history of Mephibosheth recounted in 2 Samuel 9 in silence, and also Saul's crime in putting the Gibeonites to death (2 Samuel 21: 1-14). These omissions are characteristic of the thought of our book. Everything that has to do with Saul and his house has come to an end at the beginning of our account. The natural man and his genealogy, the natural king, Saul, and his posterity, are mentioned first in order immediately to be forgotten, as we have seen. Such is the history of the old man and all that belongs to him. God cannot draw out His family from him. The new man alone, who follows as second in order, and the family of faith, are the objects of God's counsels. This new man begins with Christ, the First-born from among the dead, and ends with Christ, the heir of all things. When, as here, it is a matter of the royal race, Christ is the root and the offspring of David. The king according to nature, Saul, is dead and is no longer in question here — neither he nor his family — for in Chronicles death is pronounced from the onset on the old man.

In the books of Samuel and Kings, which instead of pronouncing this summary judgment follow man's history in responsibility until his final ruin, this history still does not in any way exclude the intervention of grace. Mephibosheth is a striking example of this, but that does not belong to the subject of Chronicles. There Saul is passed over and all that concerns his house is omitted. Even the tribe of Benjamin cannot rally to David except by first detaching themselves from Saul (1 Chron. 12: 1-7).

Thirdly, these chapters pass over David's crime in complete silence: the story of Bathsheba and Uriah, and the terrible consequences of corruption and revolt that these events brought to the king's house (2 Sam. 11: 2; 2 Sam. 12: 25; 2 Sam. 13 - 2 Sam. 20). Nothing is better suited to help us discern the Spirit of God's purpose in Chronicles. How can the king according to God's counsels, this David who represents Christ (though Chronicles is careful to show us on two occasions, by his failures, that he is but a feeble sketch of the divine portrait), be portrayed to us as a murderer?

On the other hand 2 Samuel, which presents us with a responsible David, in spite of that — and let us rather say on account of that — shows him to us as an object of God's inexhaustible grace. This same book, in order to depict the Savior in His humiliation and rejection, is compelled to record the faults which led David to be rejected by his people and dethroned by the usurper. Finally, this book employs these same circumstances to paint the picture of the precious favors which have been occasioned by the rejection of the Savior.

1 Chronicles 21

Numbering the People and Ornan's Threshing Floor

We now come to 1 Chronicles 21, so important with regard to the ways of grace toward Israel. As we have done on other occasions, let us try to note the very instructive differences between this chapter and chapter 24 of the Second Book of Samuel. There is much to be gained by minutely comparing the one with the other.

Let us first of all note that here the thought of numbering the people is the result of Satan's direct action against Israel, and not as in 2 Samuel, the result of the Lord's wrath. To this end, Satan inclines David's heart to sin so that he might bring God's counsels toward His people to naught. But God uses the very schemes of the enemy to accomplish His own purposes, in introducing David and Israel into His presence on a new footing, that of grace, substituted for the ordinances of the law. In 2 Samuel 24 we find another thought: David's heart is put to the test when the Lord was angry against Israel and judgment was ready to fall on the people. If David, who represented the people, had not allowed himself to be seduced, this judgment could have been avoided.

But it is marvelous to see here that had he resisted, the counsels of grace made manifest in Christ and His work could not have been proclaimed. We can therefore say that David's failure was necessary because through it God substituted the rule of grace, with the throne and the altar at Zion for its center, for the rule of law and responsibility, with the tabernacle for its center.

Not that this numbering was not most sinful, for by it David had sought his own glory instead of the Lord's glory. He had desired to know his own resources instead of relying upon those of God — the God who had raised up David, had taken him from the pastures, from the flocks, had made him prince over Israel, and had given him a name like the name of the great ones on earth! What more did David want? Alas! under Satan's instigation he wanted to make a name for himself and see what resources he could count on while excluding the Lord. If he had succeeded, he would have glorified himself and become independent of God. This is what made this fault so serious and so foolish for a believer like David. When he came to himself (v. 8) he confessed this sin which was nothing other than independence and human self-will.

Joab seeks to dissuade David from this decision: “Are they not all, my lord O king, my lord's servants? why does my lord require this thing? why should he become a trespass to Israel?” (v. 3). The role of this man, energetic and valiant but without scruples once an obstacle blocks his path, and above all cunning to claim and maintain the first place — this role, so condemnable in the books of Samuel and Kings, has disappeared in Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles 11: 5-6 Joab had been the instrument chosen by God to capture “Zion,” the city of David; through this exploit he had become chief and captain. Here we find him again, taking sides for God against David: “The king's word was abominable to Joab” (v. 6). Joab is therefore on the one hand the instrument for accomplishing God's purposes toward Jerusalem, and on the other hand the instrument to warn his master not to fall into sin lest he become “a trespass to Israel.” In Chronicles his entire role is reduced to these two episodes together with yet a third in 1 Chronicles 26: 28. He does not succeed, but his warnings make the king's failure even more serious and leave him without excuse. “But the king's word prevailed against Joab.” However, the latter does not fully complete his mission, for he did not number either Levi or Benjamin.

The difference between the figures of the census and those of 2 Samuel 24 seems to come from the fact that the latter does not count the standing army of 1 Chronicles 28 to which must be added also the captains of hundreds and the captains of thousands. Indeed, it was not the regular army that David wanted to number, for he knew its sum perfectly well, but he wanted to know in what measure Israel could be the force which he, David, would be able to use on occasion.

Let us now return to the truth already stated, that in order to manifest God's counsels toward the kingship it was indispensable that our book record David's failure. This failure brings out grace, but at the same time it shows the necessity of judgment, for it is only as righteousness and grace are in accord that the reign of peace can be ushered in.

Let us remember that at that time the Tabernacle, as a system established by God, had really come to an end. The ark, the symbol of God's presence in the midst of His people, had been carried into captivity, abandoned, and then brought back by God Himself to the fields of Jaar in view of the establishment of a new order of things. Lastly, it had been brought to Mount Zion by the kingship according to God, there to await the peaceful reign of Solomon who would build a house for the Lord. But, during this intermediate period the brazen altar, the tent, and the vessels of service were at Gibeon, no longer associated with the ark. One could approach the ark at Zion, but without the sacrifice which was the only way into the sanctuary; one could approach the altar at Gibeon, but this would only give access to the holy place which was completely empty. The relationship between the altar and the ark seemed to be lost forever through the unfaithfulness of the priesthood. This truth that the altar — expiation — was the means necessary to gain access to God's throne, and that without it it was impossible for the Lord to dwell in grace in the midst of His people, had to be established anew completely. The ark was in Zion; it was asserting its place on the mountain of grace, but could it be enthroned there unless the question of sin were definitely settled?

At this time God used the king's sin, the sin of a single man but one representing the people before Him, to show the resources of His grace in dealing with sin upon the altar, the witness of expiation.

Chronicles highlights this great event. God's counsels can be fulfilled only at Moriah (2 Chron. 3: 1). As far as the promises of God were concerned, that had already been revealed in figure to Abraham at this same place when Isaac was sacrificed. Without the Father's “one beloved Son” (Mark 12: 6), no sacrifice for sin could be provided. Hence the name of this place: “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided” (Gen. 22: 14). In type, grace had found a way of displaying itself in its fullness at the altar on Mount Moriah, where Isaac, the father's son, had been offered; and not at the brazen altar which belonged to the order of Sinai and which could never take away sins. At Moriah grace met righteousness, and there God found the means (He alone could do so) to make these two apparently irreconcilable attributes of His Being kiss each other. Thus triumphant grace reigns through righteousness; thus God's counsels are fulfilled!

The failure has scarcely been committed when we find how God judges it and also — according to the warning Joab had given — its consequences for all the people. Over against this judgment the king confesses the evil, and not, as in 2 Samuel 24, when only his conscience accused him. In both cases, he asks God to put away his iniquity; but how could God do so? Must not judgment run its course? David is called upon to choose between three alternatives (vv. 10-12), and this free choice brings out his entire confidence in the mercies of the Lord which are very great (cf. 2 Sam. 24: 14). According to Romans 12: 1, the mercies of God are all His work of grace with regard to sins and to sin. Naturally, the extent of this work could not be revealed to David in the same way it is to us, but he sensed that he could commit himself to it alone. He did not want to fall into the hands of men, for he knew he could find no grace from that direction.

In contrast with the “us” of 2 Samuel 24: 14, here in verse 13 we find an important little word: “Let me fall, I pray Thee, into the hand of Jehovah.” Here David offers himself as a substitute. He stands alone in the breach. Further on (v. 17), he takes the fault entirely upon himself: “Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered?” and he offers his life for the sheep. After that, he intercedes: “Let Thy hand, I pray thee...be...not on Thy people, that they should be smitten.” David could not say to God as Christ: Why hast Thou forsaken me? but he could take the character of a mediator and truly charge himself before God with all the guilt by identifying himself with the judgment of the people.

We are running ahead a bit in order to show how David represents Christ, although very incompletely, since his own sin was the cause. Let us now return to verse 14. The plague is raging in Israel: The angel comes to Jerusalem. What will become of this city, the place of royal grace? How will God reconcile His judgment with His grace? Will He destroy Jerusalem to make His righteousness prevail? Will He pardon it at the expense of His holiness? David “saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem” (v. 16). The king humbles himself, repents, and mourns with the elders. Together they fall upon their faces, but David alone confesses his sin, as representative of the people. David, we say, sees the angel, but the Lord had seen the angel and had stopped him. “And as he was destroying, Jehovah beheld, and He repented Him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; withdraw now thine hand” (v. 15). The first thing that God does is to suspend judgment; only after that does David, seeing the angel, humble himself. Then the angel, standing by the threshing floor of Ornan, speaks to Gad the prophet. At the Lord's command, he had withdrawn his hand, but he had not yet put his sword back into its sheath; he commands David to go up to the very place where he was standing.

The Lord, we have said, had seen the angel; then David had seen him; now Ornan in turn sees him (v. 20). At this sight he and his sons hide themselves, terror-stricken. But Ornan is reassured when he sees David (v. 21), sent by God to erect an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan. Indeed, what could be more reassuring than to see the Lord's Anointed, the one commissioned by God to accomplish expiation and put an end to judgment?

David buys the place of the threshing floor, not just the threshing floor alone as in 2 Samuel 24: 21, 24. This explains the difference in the purchase price. Ornan, full of good will, but ignorant, would like to be able to contribute to this work. David does not allow him to do so; he alone will offer God a sacrifice which he will pays for out of what he has, but which will cost Ornan nothing. David does not wish to give to God that which belongs to another, but that which is his own, just as Christ gave His own life. David acquires everything with his own resources: the place, the threshing floor, the altar, and the burnt-offerings. Ornan's threshing-sledges are not used, as he had desired, to consume the sacrifice: God consumes it with fire from heaven. That is His character in judgment, but it is at the same time, as with Elijah, the sign given by the Lord that He has fully accepted the sacrifice.

All these details reveal to us in David in a marvelous way, Christ, of whom it is said that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Indeed, David here plays this role in figure, although we must not forget that his own sin was the cause of all this scene. He is the mediator, intercessor, and priest, for he builds the altar and offers the sacrifice. The high priest is not even mentioned here, so as to leave all the place to David.

Now judgment has been consummated, the offering is accepted; now that justice has been satisfied, the angel's sword is of no further use. “Jehovah spoke to the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath” (v. 27). Peace with God has been definitely acquired on David's altar in Ornan's threshing floor on the summit of Moriah; peace is acquired for Israel and for whosoever, as Ornan, from among the nations has seen David and has accepted the sacrifice. Henceforth, as long as it is a question of the counsels of God in grace alone, this sword shall never again be drawn against Israel or Jerusalem.

How different is the scene when it is a matter of the responsibility of man or the people! (Deut. 28: 15-44; Ezek. 5: 12-17; Rev. 6: 7-8). And far more yet: for men who rebel against God and who have not received the love of the truth that they may be saved, a sword, more terrible than that of the angel, will issue forth from the mouth of the Son of Man when He shall come from heaven to consume them (Rev. 19: 15).

The divine answer is given man at Ornan's threshing floor. Henceforth it is there that David sacrifices. “At that time when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah” (vv. 28-30). The brazen altar at Gibeon, instead of being a place of security for David, was a terrifying place and he would go there no more. All that had been instituted under the law could not henceforth reassure his soul, for the law was a ministry of condemnation. God had revealed another place of approach to Himself, the place chosen by grace where divine judgment had been abolished, the only one that could suit David from now on.

What would now become of the altar instituted under the law? Another altar had taken its place and had been reunited to the ark, God's throne in the midst of His people. In all this scene we are surrounded by grace which does away with judgment! Zion is the mountain of grace; the altar is the altar of grace; the sacrifice, a sacrifice of pure grace; and henceforth God's throne takes on the character of a throne of grace. We are speaking of this scene as it is presented to us in the First Book of Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 22

Preparation of Materials for the Temple

Solomon's Character

“And David said, This is the house of Jehovah Elohim, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel” (v. 1). The altar that had been built and the sacrifices that had been offered sufficed for David to proclaim the establishment of the temple. Doubtless the Lord's house was not yet constructed, but in effect it was found there where the altar — the sacrifice — and the throne (or ark) was, the real presence of God in the midst of His people. Later, in the Book of Ezra, when the ark had ultimately disappeared, the altar alone remained as gathering center for the people, and then the remnant built the temple around the altar.

These examples show us how we may recognize the house of God, whether we consider the present time as similar to the days of David which preceded Solomon's glory, or whether we view the days we are passing through as days of ruin resembling those of Ezra, which in reality they are.

Having proclaimed the existence of the house of God, David is occupied with its future manifestation (v. 2). The king gathers the strangers living in the land of Israel and appoints them to work together at erecting the future temple. 153,600 in number, as we learn in 2 Chronicles 2: 2, 17-18, they are employed as bearers of burdens and as stone cutters. Only the latter are mentioned here. Their work bears the stamp of servility, yet it is different from that of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9: 21), for we know how costly the stones of the temple were (1 Kings 5: 17). Moreover, we see in verse 4 that the nations beyond the land of Israel were called to join in this great work and that they applied themselves with zeal and absolute good will. So it will be when the millennial temple is built (Isa. 60: 10, 13; Zech. 6: 15).

“And David prepared iron in abundance...and brass in abundance...and cedar-trees innumerable.” In 1 Chronicles 18 of our book, as in 2 Samuel 8, we learn that the brass, silver, and gold came either from the booty of war, of which David kept nothing for himself, or from the voluntary offerings of the nations which sought the protection of the king of Israel. The cedar wood came from Lebanon and was brought by the people of Tyre and Zidon. Other less precious materials also contributed to the temple's construction, for iron was needed “for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joists” (v. 3). Iron was not only useful, but it was indispensable, despite its lesser worth. It was one of the products of the land of Canaan, “a land whose stones are iron” (Deut. 8: 9); and it alone could serve to join together the various pieces of wood in the building. Without it, the doors of the temple could not be opened or closed, nor could the partitions be built. Just so, even the most common materials of the heavenly land are indispensable to Him who has determined the order of His house and whose alone is the secret of its construction. Likewise, let us not despise the materials that enter into the composition of the building if they have value in the eyes of the sovereign Architect of the house.

In verse 5, David, thinking of Solomon's youth, prepares everything necessary for him, for he was not yet strong enough to build this house which was to be “exceeding great in fame and in beauty in all lands.” Likewise, when the true Solomon will take in hand the reins of government, he will find all that will constitute the glory of His kingdom already prepared by the true David, by Him who suffered and was rejected by His people. It is David who commands Solomon (v. 6) to build a house for the Lord, but he had himself received this commandment from God, for the Lord had told him: “He shall build an house unto my name.” Thus God in His counsels has decreed that everything is to be subjected to Christ for “the administration of the fullness of times,” but it is in virtue of His sufferings and rejection that the Lord has the right to the kingdom. Solomon was not called upon to establish it, for the kingdom was only in his person in germ. Solomon was still “young and tender,” but David through his sufferings and victories had prepared everything necessary for God's rest and the reign of righteousness and peace about to be inaugurated.

When it is a matter, in type, of Christ's millennial reign, it is impossible to separate His sufferings and His rejection from His glories. This is why 1 Peter 1: 11 tells us that the prophets testified “before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these.” It is the same here, and we insist particularly upon the little phrase in verse 14: “And behold, in my affliction I have prepared...and thou shalt add to it.”

This is all the more striking as Chronicles does not in any way take up David's afflictions. Except in this passage they are not once mentioned. We have previously seen the reason for this omission. Throughout Chronicles David is shown us as taking possession of the kingdom according to God's counsels and establishing the kingdom by his victories over the nations. This latter feature, as we have already seen, in this book is presented in an accessory way, the Spirit in a single account uniting all the victories of the king won at different times in order to bring in the future reign of his son Solomon, the king of peace.

Martial victory and peace, here presented in type by these two distinct men, will be fulfilled in the person of a single Man, Christ. The distinction we have just made we find expressed here by the mouth of David: “The word of Jehovah came to me saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build a house unto My name, for thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in My sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon [peaceful], and in his days I will give peace and quietness unto Israel. He shall build a house unto My name; and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever” (vv. 8-10). Yet, although Chronicles passes over David's affliction in silence, it was impossible not to mention these words: “My affliction.” Without this there could be no rest for the throne of God in His temple and in the midst of His people. In his affliction David prepared all the materials for the house of God. Also, when in Psalm 132 it is a matter of finding “a place for Jehovah, habitations for the mighty One of Jacob,” habitations of which the ark's return to Zion was only the prelude, the psalmist cries: “Jehovah, remember for David all his afflictions” (v. 1). The temple and the earthly throne before whose footstool the saints will bow are founded upon “the afflictions of David.” It is the same in Revelation 5 with the heavenly throne. Its center is the slain Lamb who is the root of David. Thus the earthly and heavenly portions of the kingdom are both built upon the sufferings of Christ.

David in his affliction had prepared everything for the house of God, and Solomon, the king of peace, was to add yet more (v. 14). So it will be during Christ's reign; he will add all His glories to His temple upon earth as well as to the new Jerusalem in heaven, acquired at the price of His sufferings on the cross.

To organize everything involved in Solomon's reign, it would be necessary that the Lord give him “wisdom and understanding” (v. 12). Indeed, this is the only thing we see him himself asking of the Lord in 2 Chronicles 1: 10. As king of glory he was to prosper in fulfilling all the Word of God, just as it is said here: “Only Jehovah...place thee over Israel, and to keep the law of Jehovah thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to perform the statutes and ordinances which Jehovah commanded Moses for Israel” (vv. 12-13). Alas! Solomon, as the responsible king whose history is given us in the First Book of Kings, completely fails in all that God had entrusted to him; whereas Christ, after having perfectly corresponded to God's thoughts, will deliver into the hands of His Father, intact, the kingdom whose administration will be entrusted to him (1 Cor. 15: 24).

One thing more was necessary for Solomon: “Be strong and courageous; fear not, neither be dismayed” (v. 13). “Arise and be doing and Jehovah be with thee” (v. 16). Strength, firmness, and activity which he could find only in himself were necessary. This is what will characterize the Lord in His kingdom. Not only will He be firmly established by virtue of God's counsels, but He will find the resources of His government in His own perfections. Nothing will be lacking in His character for the prosperity of the kingdom placed in His hands by His God.

What blessing this reign will bring for Israel! “David commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son.” They too were to “set [their] heart and [their] soul to seek Jehovah [their] God.” They too must “arise and build the sanctuary of Jehovah Elohim” (vv. 17-19). And thus the Lord associates us with His kingdom and the administration of His house. He will have disciples, acquired during His rejection, seated on twelve thrones, judging all the tribes of Israel. The new Jerusalem will have twelve foundations upon which will be written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. They will share in the character of Him who strengthened Himself and arose to act. They will share in His work (v. 19); yet not in the wisdom which has prepared everything beforehand in order to obtain this glorious result. This wisdom is uniquely the portion of the true David who has heaped up the materials, of the true Solomon who has ordered everything and set all in motion for the establishment of this eternal kingdom!

1 Chronicles 23

Solomon Established King

The Levites

At the beginning of this chapter, David makes Solomon king of Israel (v. 1); in 1 Chronicles 29: 22, he is made king for the second time. This event, mentioned only in Chronicles, thereby takes on a special importance. In 1 Kings 1, Solomon is anointed, so to say, at the last moment of David's reign, when the life of the latter, like a candle-end about to die out, was still throwing off a feeble glow, and the old king was lacking the strength to make a prompt, manly decision according to God. Solomon's ascension to the throne put an end to Adonijah's usurpation, and signalled the judgment of all those who, like Abiathar, Joab, and Shimei, had opposed God during David's reign. Chronicles suppresses this entire account and does not even mention Abishag, the Shunammite, who became the occasion of Adonijah's judgment. The events we have cited, along with many others, enlighten us as to the comparative scope of Kings and Chronicles. In the book of Kings David is responsible to appoint Solomon king according to God's order and would have, we can clearly see, failed in this responsibility, had God not intervened (see 1 Kings 1). Solomon likewise was responsible to establish his kingdom upon righteousness with regard to those who had taken advantage of the reign of grace in order to do evil. He did so according to God's thoughts, although later he fell into sin.

Chronicles presents an entirely different order of thought. When God's grace, which had been glorified over against judgment, had been proclaimed at Ornan's altar upon Moriah, the reign of peace could be instituted, for peace depends upon grace. Once the victim's death has intervened, the sacrifice becomes the basis of all blessing, righteousness is satisfied, grace has stopped judgment, and peace is made. Peaceful Solomon can now be established king over Israel by David while David is yet reigning. The son sits with his father on his throne. Does this not speak to us in a striking way of Christ's reign? Expiation having been accomplished on the cross, Christ has sat down at the Father's right hand on His throne (Ps. 110: 1; Rev. 3: 21); crowned with glory and honor in the heavenly part of His kingdom. This first phase of His kingdom has taken place and is existing at present, just as it was at Solomon's establishment by David. The second phase of Christ's reign will take place when, like Solomon, He will be established and anointed a second time with regard to His earthly kingdom (1 Chron. 29: 22).

In First Kings, Solomon's having his place on the throne during his father's lifetime is presented in a way much less striking, but in accord with the purpose of this book. The two personalities, David and Solomon, are there rather united in one, so that the reign of the second is the uninterrupted continuation of that of the first.

Note:1 See Meditations on 1 Kings by H. L. Rossier. Introduction.

In  1 Chronicles 29, as we have already said, Solomon is made king a second time to rule over Israel and, according to God's counsels, to take in hand the reins of the earthly kingdom. Thus this book closes in a worthy way with the fulfillment in Him of the promises as to the government of this world.

From verse 3 we see David numbering the Levites, for the preparation not only of the materials for the temple, but also of all its service, down to the least detail, depends entirely on him. The Levites are first numbered from the age of thirty years and upward, but they perform the work of the service from the age of twenty years and upward (vv. 3, 27). This was the order established by David and not that which had been established by Moses with regard to the sons of Kohath (Num. 4: 3). Once the reign of peace had been positively established, the Levites could enter into the activity of service at a younger age. The obstacles which had hindered this before Solomon's establishment were removed; the Levites no longer had to “carry the tabernacle, nor any of its vessels for its service” (v. 26). The difficulties created by the fact that the Lord had journeyed under one tent with the camp of Israel were lifted. The strength of mature men was no longer necessary from the moment when it was no longer necessary to carry the ark, the altars, and the vessels from stage to stage, or to load the rest on carts. Henceforth the service would devolve upon younger men who could devote themselves to the various tasks in the house of God without being betrayed by their strength.

All these arrangements were done “by the last words of David” (v. 27). Notice how much these differ from those uttered in 2 Samuel 23: 1. There we see David confessing to having completely failed in his responsibility, although the eternal covenant based upon God's grace could not be annulled. At the same time the eyes of the prophet-king are directed to Christ, the Just Ruler, who will bear the full weight of responsibility of His reign unwaveringly. Here there is not a word about responsibility. The king ordains the order of a perfect service beforehand: a service that answers to God's thoughts concerning the ultimate reign of His Beloved One.

The Levites were 38,000 in number. 24,000 of them — thus the majority — directed the work of the house of God. They had the office of leaders and overseers among God's people. 6,000 were officers and judges. It is important to understand that administration and judgment is not entrusted to the greatest number of God's servants. A still smaller number, 4,000, kept the gates. Their function was to guard that nothing profane or foreign should find its way into the temple. Disasters may take place among God's children when all think they are qualified to discern, failing to accept the fact that this service is entrusted to some to the exclusion of others. Lastly, 4,000 Levites praised the Lord with instruments. Here again we find an order that affects us with regard to praise. If the Christian Church is composed without exception of kings and priests, which was not the case with the Jewish assembly, then the Church is not composed of Levites.

A certain order, a certain initiative as to the direction of the praise was incumbent upon the musicians. It is the same in the assembly: a small number have been qualified for this office which has its importance just like everything that relates to worship. Praise was offered with instruments made by David (v. 5). David alone was the author of all that had to do with the future temple, even of the musical part of the worship. Nothing like it had been instituted under the system of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The instruments themselves had been invented by David in connection with the glorious accession of Solomon to the throne, a type of the millennial reign of Christ upon earth. Today praise is in connection with His heavenly glory and consequently has an entirely spiritual character.

After the numbering of the Levites comes their division into courses (vv. 6-23) according to their three families: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.  -  Aaron and Moses belonged to the sons of Kohath, but Aaron and his sons are “for ever” separated from this family of Levites in order to exercise the office of the priesthood “for ever” (v. 13). As for Moses, once “king in Jeshurun,” lawgiver, mediator, and leader of the people: he together with his sons enters into the tribe of Levi (vv. 14-26), and does not with his family occupy a place superior to his brethren from the moment the reign of Solomon begins. Thus we see him on the holy mountain disappearing completely together with Elijah to give place to Jesus alone, entering into His kingdom.

A difference is noted here between the priests and the Levites. The former did service to the Lord Himself (v. 13), the latter, “did the work of the service of the house of God” (vv. 24, 28).

In verses 28 to 32 we find the details of the Levites' service. They attended to:

1. the courts and the chambers;

2. the purification of all holy things; and

3. the work of the service of the house. This latter consisted of three aspects: a. arranging the showbread; b. providing the flour for the meal offering and for the unleavened cakes; c. attending to all measures of capacity and size.

4. They struck up the praise.

5. Lastly, the service connected with the burnt offerings on the sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the solemn feast days devolved upon them.

All this was to take place “continually before Jehovah” (v. 31). In verse 32 their service is summarized in three points. They kept their charge: firstly, in relation to the tent of meeting; secondly, to the sanctuary; and thirdly, they were servants of the sons of Aaron their brethren.

All this is full of instruction for anyone who wants to devote himself to the service of the Lord, and any such person should meditate on the details in this passage. Two features dominate all the rest here. On the one hand, a service worthy of the name must be rendered to the Lord; on the other hand, the servant must take a place of humility, of modesty, and of inferiority in relation to the priestly family which, as we know, includes all believers, and must not be composed of men who lord it over God's heritage, regarding them as belonging to themselves (1 Peter 5: 3).

1 Chronicles 24

The Priests

In this chapter we find the divisions of the priests. First, there is that which cannot be wanting in Chronicles: the flesh has been completely put aside and judged in the person of Nadab and Abihu. Then come Eleazar and Ithamar. On account of the unfaithfulness of Eli and his sons, Ithamar loses his preeminence under the reign of David and Solomon, and then under Christ's millennial reign, although the priesthood is not taken away from him (v. 3). Eleazar, through Zadok who is descended from him, occupies the first place on account of Phinehas' zeal. He becomes the founder of the faithful priesthood which will walk forever before the true Solomon in His kingdom (1 Sam. 2: 25; Ezek. 48: 11). David here distributes the priests into classes according to their chiefs: Zadok descending from Eleazar, and Ahimelech, from Ithamar. Abiathar, descending from Ithamar, was, as we know, driven from the priesthood by Solomon (1 Kings 2: 26): but this fact is not mentioned in Chronicles, where we find the priesthood as well as the kingship established according to the counsels of God.

As we were saying, Eleazar occupies a place of special blessing: “And there were more head-men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar” (v. 4). There were sixteen heads of fathers' houses in the family of the former, eight in that of the latter. “And were they divided by lot” (v. 5). It was the will of God, and not that of man, that set them in courses, for before the gift of the Holy Spirit the lot was the sign of God's direct intervention without the will of man (Acts 1: 26; Luke 1: 9). “The princes of the sanctuary and the princes of God were from out of the sons of Eleazar and from among the sons of Ithamar” (v. 5), it is said, thus emphasizing the difference between these two families.Note: This sentence is based on the French J. N. Darby translation where different words are used for “'of' the sons of Eleazar” and “'of' the sons of Ithamar.” [Translator] “One father's house was drawn for Eleazar, and one drawn for Ithamar” (v. 6), so that the sons of Eleazar had a double portion. Thus there were twenty-four classes of priests according to God's thought. We see this order reproduced in the twenty-four elders — kings and priests — of Revelation 5.

In verses 20-31 we find the numbering of the sons of Levi who still remained to be divided by lot. First (vv. 20-25), the sons of Kohath (see Amram, v. 20 and 1 Chron. 23: 12), then, in verses 26-31, the sons of Merari, Gershon having been counted as a single course on account of its fewness in number (1 Chron. 23: 11). Note that the least among the Levites had the same portion as the chief fathers in the division by lot according to the Lord's free choice (v. 31).

1 Chronicles 26

Doorkeepers, Overseers of the Treasures, and Judges

In verses 1-21 we find the courses of the doorkeepers. Obed-Edom is here, as always, the object of special blessing. Whereas Meshelemiah, the son of Korah, numbers eighteen sons and brethren destined to this office in his family, and Hosah of the family of Merari, thirteen sons and brethren, Obed-Edom numbers sixty-two in his direct posterity. He had eight sons, for it is said that God had blessed him (v. 5). Had he not, together with his family, been the keeper of the ark in his house for three months? It was at that time that the Lord had blessed his house (1 Chron. 13: 14; 1 Chron. 16: 38). He had become a doorkeeper of the ark when David brought it up to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 15: 18). We see him and his numerous family with him here as doorkeepers of Solomon's future temple. Of his sons it is said that they were rulers in their father's house, that they were mighty men of valor, able men in strength for the service. We do not reflect often enough that the service of the doorkeepers, like that of the priests (1 Chron. 9: 13), required these qualities. It is hardly enough to say that this unprepossessing task requires humility, dependence, zeal, and self-forgetfulness; strength and valor are necessary also.

The doorkeepers had charge of all the gates of the temple. They must be able to repel any undertakings against the house of God besides watching with continual energy so that no defiled person might enter the courts of the Lord, but also must keep the doors open so that no member of the priesthood who had the right to enter the temple might be excluded.

The doorkeepers of the future temple were indicated by lot, which moreover designated the keepers of each gate. Shelemiah had charge of the door to the east; Zechariah, his son, a wise counsellor, had charge of the gate northward; Obed-Edom was in charge of the door to the south, but he was always specially blessed among all the others, for his sons had under their direction the storehouse.

Among the Levites (vv. 20-28) we find those appointed over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the holy things. During this period which preceded the reign of peace a descendant of Moses (v. 24) was the overseer of the treasures; another, Shelomith with his brethren, had charge “over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which king David, and the chief fathers, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host, had dedicated (from the wars and out of the spoils had they dedicated them, to maintain the house of Jehovah), and all that Samuel the seer, and Saul the son of Kish, and Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated: all that was dedicated was under the hand of Shelomith, and of his brethren” (vv. 26-28), until the moment when all these treasures would be employed by Solomon. Here for the third time Joab's activity is seen in a favorable light.

Other Levites from among the Jizharites were officers and judges (v. 29). Those who remained at Hebron, where David's kingship had begun, were established “for the administration of Israel on this side Jordan westward, for all the business of Jehovah, and for the service of the king” (v. 30), and “king David made” them “rulers over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, for every matter pertaining to God, and the affairs of the king” (v. 32). Thus those who from the beginning of David's reign had been his witnesses and companions receive a special distinction.

1 Chronicles 27

The Service of the King

This chapter (vv. 1-15) deals with the service of the king. As in all these enumerations, the number twelve with its factors is always mentioned. It indeed deals with what concerns the kingdom upon earth, having the twelve tribes as their center. There were army divisions of 24,000 men each for the twelve months of the year, one division for each month. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, is especially mentioned among David's thirty mighty men (cf. 2 Sam. 23: 20) as head of the third division. God delights to remember him.

The overseers of the treasures and of all the goods belonging to king David are enumerated in verses 25-31.

Verses 32-34 remind us of the sorrowful circumstances which accompanied David's career as responsible king, but there is no mention here of the “counsel of Ahithophel,” nor of Absalom's rebellion, nor of Joab's treachery. All this does not enter, as we have often repeated, into the purpose of Chronicles. On the contrary, Hushai the Archite is mentioned opposite the simple reference to the name of Ahithophel; Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, one of the mighty men distinguished by David, opposite the name of Abiathar, whom Solomon drove from the priesthood, because he had supported the usurper Adonijah. Joab, great Joab, the captain of the army, the king's relative, the most influential man next to David, is mentioned with but a single phrase.

DAVID'S LAST INSTRUCTIONS

1 Chronicles 28 - 29

1 Chronicles 28

Solomon, The King According to the Counsels of God, and His Responsibility As Such

In 1 Chronicles 23: 2, David had gathered together “all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites” so as to give them directions for the service of the temple and the order of the kingdom. In this chapter he assembles “all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the princes of the the divisions that ministered to the king, and the captains over thousands, and the captains over hundreds, and the comptrollers of all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the chamberlains, and the mighty men, and all the men of valor, unto Jerusalem.” In fact, he addresses all the people (v. 2), for he wants to make known to all what God has revealed concerning the temple itself, the religious center of the kingdom.

“I had in my heart,” he says, “to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I have prepared to build” (v. 2). This is what Psalm 132 expresses in a very remarkable manner. David, in all his tribulations had not given himself rest until he had found a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord — a place where this covenant, deposited in the ark, could eventually be established for God's people without being exposed to a fresh journey across the desert or to new vicissitudes in the hands of the Philistines. This rest of God was at the same time that of “the footstool of His feet,” for the ark was the throne of God who was seated between the cherubim, the throne which He had established in the midst of His people.

Such were God's counsels of grace. In Chronicles we see them accomplished in David and Solomon as types of Christ, but they were accomplished only in type. For soon this ark, which through David's solicitude had found its rest on Mount Zion and in the midst of a glorious temple built by Solomon, disappeared and its place of rest was completely destroyed.

David had made immense preparations for this house, but he recalls what Jehovah had told him (1 Chron. 22: 8): “Thou shalt not build a house unto My name, for thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood” (1 Chron. 28: 3). Through his sufferings David could prepare the “rest that remaineth for the people of God,” but he could not bring in that rest as long as the kingdom still bore the impress of the warrior character of its leader. So will it be with Christ. At the cross He laid the foundation for eternal rest, but He will not establish this final rest until after all His enemies will have been put under His feet.

In verses 4-6 David insists, in the presence of all the representatives of the people, on that principal fact that Chronicles always emphasizes: the accomplishment of God's counsels according to the election of grace. The Lord had chosen him, David, to be king over Israel forever; He had chosen Judah as prince; in Judah He had chosen the house of Jesse. Among the sons of Jesse He had taken pleasure in David, to make him king. The Lord's free choice as well as God's good pleasure had been upon the least and most humble of them all, strong and mighty no doubt in God's eyes in his struggle with the lion and the bear in the wilderness, but having nothing in the eyes of men that they should desire him. Was he not a type of the Perfect Servant, acclaimed by Jehovah as the object of His good pleasure at the very moment He was publicly taking a place of most profound humiliation in the baptism of repentance? But later came that moment when God declared Him to be the true Solomon, the object of the same good pleasure as at John's baptism, when He appeared on the holy mountain, anticipating the glory of His eternal kingdom.

Among David's numerous sons God had again “chosen Solomon...to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel” (v. 5). Note this expression which we find again in 1 Chronicles 29: 23: The kingdom of Solomon is “the kingdom of Jehovah”; his throne, Jehovah's throne. Do not these words speak to us of God's counsels with regard to Christ's future kingdom? This is all the more striking here as God says of Solomon: “I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his father” (v. 6; cf. 1 Chron. 22: 10; Heb. 1: 5). Solomon is God's son, and he will build a house (Heb. 3: 3-4); he is the Chosen One of Jehovah who “will establish his kingdom forever” (v. 7). Lastly, “Jehovah has chosen [him] to build a house for the sanctuary” (v. 10).

But in this passage we find a characteristic little word: “If.” This is the first time* this word is uttered in Chronicles in relation to the kingship or to the people: “If he be firm to do My commandments and Mine ordinances, as at this day.” “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cut thee off for ever” (vv. 7, 9).Note:  We shall see a second example in 2 Chronicles 7: 17.

Solomon, although considered here in his perfection as the king according to God's counsels, is nonetheless responsible and his kingdom cannot be made firm if he does not measure up to this responsibility. Chronicles, in accord with its purpose, does not present Solomon to us as having failed. Even less than in the account of David's history, it does not mention his fallibility or his faults. Yet nonetheless Solomon remains responsible. Such exactly is Christ's character as the King of righteousness and of peace. He will be responsible to Him who has entrusted the kingdom to Him and will carry out His office perfectly until He delivers up the dominion into the Father's hands (1 Cor. 15: 24). Doubtless Solomon personally failed completely in this, but Chronicles does not mention this, since it deals with the counsels of God realized in Christ.

However we find here another reason for presenting the blessing as conditional. The successors of the first two kings are neither Davids nor Solomons. Kingship according to God's counsels does not go beyond them, for in them in type it reaches to the millennial reign of Christ. Nevertheless the kingship continues through Solomon's line until the appearing of the true King, the house of David forming an uninterrupted chain which ends in Christ. Now this line of descent only rarely offers us features of the true King. The house of David falls into ruin; the people of Solomon give themselves up to idolatry. All this cannot be passed over in silence in Second Chronicles when it tells of the royal house and of the chosen people. Yet, as we shall see in studying the Second Book, the general character of this inspired writing is maintained in the midst of ruin and God acts in grace, covering a multitude of sins at the least trace of repentance, whereas the books of Kings expose the faults of all the kings without mitigation, even those of David and Solomon.

The “if” therefore serves in part as an introduction to the history that follows Solomon's in the following book.

In verse 8 David is speaking “in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of Jehovah, and in the audience of our God.” He establishes that the people also are responsible, although in this the king takes the first place: “Keep and seek for all the commandments of Jehovah your God; that ye may possess the good land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children after you for ever” (v. 8).

In the preceding chapters we have seen the religious and civil system established by Jehovah by means of the authority conferred by Him upon David. This system does not resemble the order of things established by Moses, although it does not in any way contradict it. Neither the priests, nor the Levites, nor the singers, nor the doorkeepers, nor the army are organized as in the past. Everything is new; everything depends upon the king who establishes them according to lot, that is to say, under the immediate direction of the Lord. In verses 11 to 19 we find the same principle when it is a matter of the temple compared to the tabernacle. Only it is by inspiration (v. 12) that David had received all the details, not by a model placed before the eyes of a Moses upon the mountain, which the latter was to execute. David received these details (they were in him, in his mind) through the Spirit. Nothing depended upon his gift of organization or upon his natural intelligence. Everything came directly from God. “All this said David, in writing, by Jehovah's hand upon me” (v. 19). He also received by inspiration the directions concerning “the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of Jehovah” (v. 13). The vessels themselves were different from those of the tabernacle, without really differing in their typical significance. Their number and weight differed; new vessels were added. So too it was with the musical instruments. The very weight of each object of gold and of silver was determined by inspiration, from the candlesticks to the goblets and forks (vv. 16-17). The ark of the covenant which enclosed the law remained the same, with its mercy seat and the cherubim overshadowing it, for neither the covenant nor the mercy seat could be altered in any way. By contrast, the cherubim that spread out their wings and touched the two walls of the sanctuary, were something entirely new (2 Chron. 3: 10-14; 2 Chron. 5: 7-9).

In verses 20 and 21, David exhorts Solomon anew to be strong, to do it, to fear nothing, for the Lord would not forsake him “until all the work for the service of the house of Jehovah is finished.” This is again an unconditional promise, and Solomon finds help, not only from the workers (1 Chron. 22: 15), but also from the courses of priests and Levites, from the princes, and from all the people.

1 Chronicles 29

David's Prayer

Solomon Established King for the Second Time

“And king David said to all the congregation, Solomon my son, the one whom God has chosen, is young and tender, and the work is great; for this palace is not to be for man, but for Jehovah Elohim” (v. 1). The person of Solomon is here set in the limelight more and more as a type of Christ in His reign. David says of him: “whom alone God hath chosen” (KJV). He is the only one, the object of His choice, the only one who answers to His thoughts and to His eternal counsels concerning the kingdom.

But, as David had already said (1 Chron. 22: 5), Solomon was still “young and tender” and was not yet full grown so as to be able to take up the reins of government. While awaiting this moment, his father had proclaimed him king, and as such, had seated him with him upon his own throne (1 Chron. 23: 1). What is here said speaks to us of Christ. It goes without saying that in Him there was no weakness that would delay His kingdom, for God has exalted Him and has given Him a name above every name — but at present He is seated upon His Father's throne in heaven, and, as Man, He is waiting for the moment determined by God to rule over Israel and the nations. In this sense the time of His full development has not yet come for Him, and the hour of His earthly kingdom has not yet struck.

Now David had done all that was needed for God finally to be able to establish His throne at Jerusalem. “And I have prepared,” he says, “according to all my power” (v. 2); but he adds: “And moreover, in my affection for the house of my God I have given of my own property of gold and silver, for the house of my God” (v. 3). Christ loved the Church and gave all that He had, even His own life, so that He might build it as a holy temple where God could dwell. All is ready for His glorious manifestation, but meanwhile Christ is adding material for the building and even allows us to cooperate in His work. “And who,” he asks, “is willing to offer to Jehovah this day?” (v. 5). Then all the people's representatives willingly offer valuables, “gold, silver, precious stones” (see 1 Cor. 3: 12), and this offering is approved. There are no collaborators in the wisdom which has prepared all, but there are collaborators in the work: and so it is with us today.

But let us not forget that this passage does not deal with the Church. It speaks to us of an earthly people in the midst of whom the Lord was going to dwell and who would be a people willing to contribute of all that they have toward the glorious establishment of the house of God at Jerusalem.

The result of this liberality is general joy, both among all the people and in David's heart: “And the people rejoiced because they offered willingly, for with perfect heart they offered willingly to Jehovah; and David the king also rejoiced with great joy” (v. 9). The prophet Zephaniah describes a similar fellowship in joy: “Be glad with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem...Jehovah thy God...will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will exult over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3: 14, 17).

Then (vv. 10-19) David blesses the Lord. He blesses Him as the God who at Bethel had made promises to Jacob, calling him Israel (v. 10), and who had said to him: “I am the Almighty God: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins” (Gen. 35: 11). Then he celebrates His greatness, His strength, His glory, His splendor, His majesty, for all things are of Him in heaven and upon earth. The kingdom and the exaltation are His, for He is Head above all things. Riches and glory come from Him, for He rules over all things. Power and might are in His hand and He is able to make great and give strength to all.

Thus David with all the people celebrated the glorious name of the God of Israel.

All that the king and his people — who are nothing in the presence of God — can willingly offer Him is of Him, and they only give Him that which they have received from His hand. As for them, before Him they are but strangers and sojourners like all their fathers: they pass on like a shadow and die. And now, all this abundance they are offering Him comes from Him and all belongs to Him, but He takes pleasure in the uprightness of the king's heart who is willingly offering all things, and in the uprightness of the hearts of the people who are doing likewise.

Lastly, David asks this same God who had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob), to keep and to direct the hearts of His people toward Him, and to give Solomon a perfect heart to obey Him, to do all these things, and to build the temple prepared for by David.

Such is this magnificent prayer. It gives all glory to God alone, to God who by virtue of His counsels has made promises to His elect. It puts man in his true place before God. It expresses an absolute dependence on Him who alone can direct the hearts of His own to please Him.

After having praised God, David leads the praises of all the congregation (cf. Ps. 22: 22, 25), a striking image of Him who, after having suffered and having been “answered...from the horns of the buffaloes,” declares God's name to His brethren and gives them the example of perfect praise so that they might imitate it.

Then the people “bowed down their heads, and did homage to Jehovah and the king” (v. 20); thus the king is associated with the Lord in a joint homage. Again this word carries our thoughts to Christ. The man whom we see here blessing God has the right to be worshipped just as as God Himself.

The people offer sacrifices in abundance and, characteristically of Chronicles, Solomon is made king for the second time (v. 22; cf. 1 Chron. 23: 1). The first time we saw him seated upon his father's throne; now he is seated upon his own throne. In Revelation He likewise makes this promise to the overcomer: “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with Me in My throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with My Father in His throne” (Rev. 3: 21). In effect, it is as King upon his throne that Solomon, the son of David was “anointed...to Jehovah to be prince,” and He will bear this character in His millennial reign. Zadok is also anointed “to be priest,” and we see at last realized in him the prophecy which had said: “And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest...and he shall walk before Mine anointed continually” (1 Sam. 2: 35).

“And Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah as king instead of David his father, and prospered” (v. 23). Henceforth the throne of the King is identified with the throne of the Lord! Thus Jehovah is God, but He is also Christ. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things (Col. 1: 16-17); He who is worshipped on the throne (Rev. 4: 11); Him whom God has exalted and to whom He has given a name above every name (Phil. 2: 9). His glory is not referred to in this passage as the result of the work which He has accomplished for us, but as that which He has undertaken to glorify His Father. When we think of His work for us, our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and worship. But His glory as Man exalted to God's right hand, declared by Jehovah to be He who is “the Same and [whose] years shall have no end” (Ps. 102: 27), so that the two Persons are but one, without being confounded — this glory ought also to occupy our thoughts much. Although the name of Solomon does not make us think, as does that of David, of Christ as the Savior of His people, nevertheless in Him we find One who is “Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9: 6), the true Solomon, seated on the throne of Jehovah.

This glorious scene, unprecedented in Israel's history, is presented to us as the inauguration of the reign of peace of Him whom God has chosen and of whom He has said: “Behold My Servant whom I uphold, mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth” (Isa. 42: 1). No event in the Word can give a more astonishing picture of the dawn of Christ's future reign when He will take the government of all things in hand, for He is above all. Then all Israel, all the princes and mighty men, and also all David's sons will submit themselves to Him (vv. 24-25). It will be the time of the fullness of His power!

This scene ends the first part of Chronicles. No doubt we find less moral instruction for ourselves and our conduct in this book than in the books of Samuel and the first eleven chapters of the First Book of Kings. But it brings before us primarily Christ, God's eternal counsels concerning Him, the glories characteristic of Him and of the order of His kingdom, the dwelling place of God established definitively in the midst of His people, the intimate association between these two characters — the true David and the true Solomon — and finally, of His identification with Jehovah in His kingdom.

Would not our souls have suffered a great loss if God had not given us this portion of Scripture? Let the rationalists and unbelievers in the pride of their spurious science despise it: believers worshipfully treasure it and keep each word as a new revelation of the unfathomable riches of Christ!

The last verses of our chapter (1 Chron. 29: 26-30) repeat 1 Kings 2: 10-12 in view of at last closing David's history. The Holy Spirit mentions his old age “full of days, riches, and honor” in harmony with the purpose of this book, and in contrast with his end as it is recorded for us in 2 Samuel 23: 1-6 and in 1 Kings 1.

We have already noticed elsewhere that Chronicles informs us of the prophetic origin of the books of Samuel and Kings.

APPENDIX

The Order of the Tribes

A. Genesis 29-30

Natural order of the sons of Jacob according to their birth

This order speaks to us of man's plans acting according to his own thoughts outside the thoughts of God. We see these plans with Laban's giving his daughters to Jacob and with Rachel and Leah giving Jacob their maidservants. The order indicated here is as follows:

4 sons of Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah.

2 sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant: Dan, Naphtali.

2 sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad, Asher.

2 sons of Leah: Issachar, Zebulon.

2 sons of Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin.

B. Genesis 35: 23

Order of the sons of Jacob dwelling in Canaan

The first three sons of Jacob had manifested themselves to be murderers and incestuous. Their only guarantee for entering into Canaan lies in the promise given to Abraham and in the free election of grace. Here we find these three guilty sons at the head of the list:

6 sons of Leah.

2 sons of Rachel, to whom are joined, so to say, the 2 sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, and the 2 sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant.

In this way, Leah and Rachel are equal in number and possess the same privileges according to the election of grace.

C. Genesis 46: 8-25

Order of the sons of Jacob at their entry into Egypt

We find the order of nature again here, but according to the wives. God has the upper hand in all that concerns the family of promise, but at the same time Leah and Rachel each reap the fruits of their own self-will. The order is as follows:

6 sons of Leah

2 sons of Zilpah

2 sons of Rachel

2 sons of Bilhah.

D. Genesis 49

Typical and prophetic order of the sons of Jacob

We will not enter into this very interesting subject which we have already dealt with elsewhere.Note: See: Jacob ou la discipline (p. 82) by H. Rossier [in the original French], and more especially: Synopsis of the Books of the Bible. volume 1, by J. N. Darby. Let us simply note:

Among Leah's six sons, Zebulon and Issachar are transposed. Issachar represents Israel's servitude to the Gentiles before the appearing of Dan, the Antichrist.

Dan himself, the son of Bilhah, is completely out of place. He represents the Antichrist, and after him we find the prophetic history of Israel's restoration. Naphtali, Bilhah's second son, is again out of place and comes only after Gad and Asher, Zilpah's sons, because he represents the joyous final liberty of restored Israel.

Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of Rachel, crown all this prophecy in a marvelous way as types of Christ.

E. Exodus 1: 2-5

Order of the sons of Israel in relation to their sojourn in Egypt

This order differs from that of numbers 2 and 3.

Joseph, type of Christ, who receives his brothers is entirely set apart from them.

Gad and Asher, sons of Zilpah, are placed last.Note: In Exodus 28: 11, 17-21 the names of the tribes are engraved on two onyx stones “according to their birth” (1 Chron. 28: 10) and on the twelve stones of the breastplate. Here the order is not mentioned and consequently is uncertain. This same uncertainty exists in Revelation 21: 19-20.

F. Numbers 1: 5-16

The tribes represented by their princes who assist in the numbering

Levi is omitted between Simeon and Judah, as not to be numbered. Asher and Gad are transposed. Ephraim and Manasseh replace Joseph. According to Jacob's prophecy (Gen. 48: 14-22), Ephraim takes precedence over Manasseh.

G. Numbers 1: 20-56

Order of numbering for combat

Gad, whose role is more than once to fill in the gaps, replaces Levi, who is absent from the numbering.

H. Numbers 2

Order of the encampment of the tribes

They are arranged under four heads: Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan. Levi is at the center, surrounding the tabernacle.

I. Numbers 7

Order of the princes of the tribes at the dedication of the altar

The same order as that of the encamping except, naturally, that Levi has disappeared.

J. Numbers 10: 11-28

Marching order of the tribes

The tabernacle, taken down and borne by Gershon and Merari, two of the levitical families, goes between Judah and Reuben. The sanctuary, borne by Kohath, the third levitical family, goes between Reuben and Ephraim. The ark alone goes ahead a three days' journey to seek out a place of rest for the people.

K. Numbers 13: 5-17

Order of the heads of the tribes to spy out the land

When it is a matter of spying out the land, all the tribes are deliberately mixed and mingled.

L. Numbers 26

Numbering after the plague

This is like the numbering for combat, except that Manasseh here again takes his place in relation to Ephraim according to the order of birth, whereas for combat Ephraim occupies his place according to the election of grace. This fact is important: it is as though God were beginning anew under the high priest's administration in grace (see 1 Chron. 17) the history of the people in responsibility crossing the wilderness, so that He might bring them into Canaan.

M. Numbers 34: 18-29

Order of the princes of the tribes for the division of the land

Here the order is absolutely outside that of nature. Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, having chosen their part beyond Jordan, are omitted. Moses, the only one in view previously as leader of the people, gives place to Eleazar (the priesthood) and to Joshua (Christ in the Spirit) leading the people and determining their inheritance.

N. Deuteronomy 27

The tribes on Gerizim and Ebal

On Gerizim to bless: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, Benjamin.

All are the sons of the legitimate wives. This list moreover contains the names of those who are types of Christ: Levi, Judah, Joseph, Benjamin.

On Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali.

These, with the exception of Reuben and Zebulun, are the sons of the maidservants. Reuben and Zebulun are the firstborn and lastborn of Leah: they surround the sons of Zilpah. It is as though the curse were being pronounced by the representatives of the entire stock of the first wife and by all that is born of the flesh.

O. Deuteronomy 33

Prophetic order of the tribes, not according to the aspect presented by Jacob's prophecy, but according to the blessings brought by God's government in grace, according to their faithfulness in the land and according to the faithfulness of Moses, type of the future King

Simeon is omitted, for Israel's history as a people in the flesh has been terminated from the outset on with Reuben (cf. Gen. 49: 3-7). Then after Reuben, Judah the Lawgiver appears — Christ. Levi occupies a place of separation among the tribes: his faithfulness has produced fruit: intelligence, consecration, teaching, intercession, and praise. Joseph, also separated from his brethren, has a double portion in the persons of Ephraim and Manasseh. According to the election of grace, Ephraim once again takes precedence over his brother. Judah, Levi, and Joseph are types of Christ. The tribes which then follow are the picture of the blessings of the age to come: activity and rest, virtue, strength, riches, spiritual blessings, eternal rest.

P. Joshua 15-21

Order of the tribes entering into possession of the land

This is a spiritual order. In first place are Judah, Joseph, and Benjamin, types of Christ; only Joseph is represented by Ephraim, the object of the election of grace, and by the half-tribe of Manasseh, which excludes the order according to nature, the other half-tribe having remained beyond the Jordan. Simeon, who according to natural order should be in second place (1 Chron. 19: 1) does not take his place until the spiritual order (1 Chron. 15-18) is exhausted, so to speak. Dan (1 Chron. 19: 40) occupies the last place.

Q. 1 Chronicles 2: 1-2

Already cited at the beginning of this chapter of these Meditations. Instead of order, there is apparent disorder, all being equally the objects of the purposes of God in grace.

R. 1 Chronicles 2: 3 - 1 Chronicles 8: 34.

The genealogical order of the tribes in relation to the kingship

The kingship is established according to God's counsels, the character which it always bears in Chronicles. Judah, from whom comes the Lawgiver, is presented first. But Judah is chosen by pure grace; his history teaches us this here. His wife, a Canaanite, gives him a first-born, Er, whom the Lord slew on account of his wickedness. Thus, just as in 1 Chronicles 1, we find the natural man here first, the man whose whole history begins with the fall and judgment. Nonetheless, God gives Judah the preeminence because according to His counsels the Prince is to come forth from him (1 Chron. 5: 2), and not for any other reason. Also from the beginning of this chapter we see Judah's posterity traced down to David, the Beloved (vv. 13-17). In the enumeration of the other tribes, Levi occupies an important place (1 Chron. 6) on account of the major and indispensable role given him under the kingship for the worship and the service of the temple.

Reuben, the firstborn, has lost all preponderance, not only because this is given to the royal tribe of Judah, but also on account of his sin (1 Chron. 5: 1-2) which relegates him to a place even after that of Simeon, his brother (1 Chron. 4: 24). Besides, we are told that Joseph had the birthright, except for Judah's right to the kingship (1 Chron. 5: 2). It was becoming that he who had been rejected by his brethren should have the first place as head of the family of Israel. The tribes of Dan and Issachar are passed over in silence. This latter feature shows us that in Chronicles we are dealing with an incomplete and even fragmentary genealogical order. 1 Chronicles 2 demonstrates this in more than one place.

S. 1 Chronicles 12: 23-27

The order according to which the tribes come to submit themselves to King David

This doubtless depends in part upon their distance and the difficulty or ease of their journey to come to David at Hebron. Thus it is that the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan arrive last. However, Judah, the royal tribe, comes first. followed by Simeon and Levi who in large part depend upon him, and Benjamin, inseparable from Judah and Jerusalem. Benjamin is mentioned three times in this chapter.

T. 1 Chronicles 27: 16-22

Order of the tribes according to their princes

Here again, the order in which the tribes are mentioned is different from the others. Aaron, the high priest, occupies a place apart in the tribe of Levi and Zadok is the prince of the priesthood. He is “the one who shall walk before [Jehovah's] Anointed” forever and who exercises the priesthood, not only during Solomon's reign, but also during Christ's millennial reign. Joseph, type of the rejected suffering Son, has three princes: one for the tribe of Ephraim, one for each of the half-tribes of Manasseh. Dan comes last for the above-mentioned prophetic reason about the millennial reign. Gad and Asher are missing. Their omission seems to be explained by verses 23 and 24. There we see that David's thought at the time of his failure was to number Israel, not only the men of war, but also all the people from the age of twenty years and under. Thereafter he does so no more, for his past action was, perhaps without his realizing it, an act of rebellion against the Lord; something all the more serious since all his life long he was able to experience that his only safeguard was to trust in the Lord. This time he does not number the people “for Jehovah had said He would increase Israel as the stars of heaven” (v. 23). He even sets Gad and Asher completely aside, just as Joab was once unwilling to number Levi and Benjamin.

U. Revelation 7

Order of the tribes sealed by grace

In this prophetic and symbolic picture every distinction is effaced except that Judah occupies the first place, for in Revelation it is a matter of God's government and of Christ's millennial reign. Here we no longer find the half-tribes of Manasseh. Levi is sealed like the other tribes. Joseph replaces Ephraim. Dan is entirely omitted — he is judged according to Jacob's prophecy; the Antichrist and his people, represented by Dan, cannot be sealed.

V. Ezekiel 48

Order of the tribes established on the millennial earth

Here the temple and the city, the priests, Levi, and the Prince form the center of the land and their position determines the order of the tribes. The position of the latter starts from both sides of this center northward and southward. It is to be noted that the sons of the legitimate wives are closest to the sanctuary, and those of the maidservants at the most distant extremities. Judah and Benjamin, the “Lawgiver” and the “Son of my right hand,” occupy the places closest to the sanctuary, to the north and to the south; because here it is a matter of government, of which they are representatives. There follow on the one side and on the other Reuben and Simeon who thus lose their rights according to nature. Levi belongs in the center: he is connected with the temple, as the “Prince” is with the city. Issachar and Zebulon, sons of Leah, to the south, correspond with Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Rachel, to the north. Ephraim is nearer the sanctuary than Manasseh. Then come the sons of the maidservants. Gad, the son of Zilpah, to the south has, as usual, a place somewhat apart (see F). He corresponds to Naphtali, son of Bilhah, in the north. Dan, the last tribe to the north, as far as possible from the sanctuary, Note: We find 7 tribes to the north of the sanctuary and only 5 to the south. (For these details, see the helpful map at the back of the French J. N. Darby translation Bible and found also in some English Darby Bibles.) once again occupies the place he has always occupied in the distribution of the land. This is perhaps the reason why Asher who, according to a symmetrical plan should be found after Gad to the south, is added to the north, thus accentuating the distance to which Dan is relegated.

2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Meditations on the Second Book of Chronicles

H. L. Rossier.

ISBN 0-88172-203-0

Believers Bookshelf Inc.

P. O. Box 261, Sunbury, Pennsylvania 17801

Contents

2 Chronicles 1-9 Solomon's Reign.

2 Chronicles 1 A King According to God's Counsels

2 Chronicles 2 Solomon and Huram (Hiram)

2 Chronicles 3-5 The Temple.

2 Chronicles 6-7 Solomon's Prayer

2 Chronicles 8-9 Solomon's Relations With the Nations

2 Chronicles 10-36 Solomon's Successors, The Era of the Prophets

2 Chronicles 10-12 Rehoboam

2 Chronicles 13 Abijah

2 Chronicles 14-16 .....Asa.

2 Chronicles 14 Rest and Strength

2 Chronicles 15 Strength and Purification

2 Chronicles 16 Asa's Decline

2 Chronicles 17-20 .....Jehoshaphat.

2 Chronicles 17 The Teaching of the Law

2 Chronicles 18 The Covenant with Ahab

2 Chronicles 19 Jehoshaphat and Jehu the Prophet.

2 Chronicles 20 War Again

2 Chronicles 21 Jehoram.

2 Chronicles 22 Ahaziah

2 Chronicles 23-24 .....Joash

2 Chronicles 23 The Accession of Joash to the Throne

2 Chronicles 24 The Reign of Joash

2 Chronicles 25 Amaziah.

2 Chronicles 26 Uzziah

2 Chronicles 27 Jotham

2 Chronicles 28 Ahaz.

2 Chronicles 29-32 .....Hezekiah

2 Chronicles 29 Purification

2 Chronicles 30 The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

2 Chronicles 31 The Order of the House of God

2 Chronicles 32 Hezekiah's Three Trials.

2 Chronicles 33 Manasseh, Amon

2 Chronicles 34-35 .....Josiah

2 Chronicles 34 The Word of God Recovered

2 Chronicles 35 The Passover and Worship

2 Chronicles 36 The Last Kings

Map/Appendix (to be attached)

Map of Jerusalem in the Period of the Kings

Valley of Hinnom

Valley of Hinnom

Valley of Kidron

Ophel

Gardens of the King

Zion, the City of David

Valley of Gihon, filled

The Broad wall

Map of Jerusalem in the Period of the Kings

Legend

1 The Temple and the dwelling places of the priests.

2 Buildings of the Temple. Storehouse. 1 Chr. 26: 15.

3 The Laver.

4 The Altar.

5 Temple court.

6-6-6 Outer court of the Temple.

7 House of the forest of Lebanon with pillars and side chambers* 1 Kings 7: 2-5.

8 Porch of the throne. 1 Kings 7: 7.

9 Porch of pillars. 1 Kings 7: 6.

10 Flight of steps. 1 Kings 7: 6.

11 House of Pharaoh's daughter. 1 Kings 7: 8.

12 Solomon's House with inner court. 1 Kings 7: 8.

13 Ascent to go up to the temple. 1 Kings 10: 5.

14-14 Stairs and inclined slope from the City of David to the level of the temple.

15 Gate of Sur, or Gate of the foundation (Jesod), or the east Gate, or the King's Gate. 2 Kings 11: 6; 2 Chr. 23: 5; Neh. 3: 29; 1 Chr. 9: 18.

16 Perhaps a Reserve for the animals of the priests. See No. 23.

17 Residence of the “Couriers” or Temple guards. 18-18 Gate behind the Couriers. 2 Kings 11: 16, 19. The North Gate. 1 Chr. 26: 14, 17.

19 High Gate. 2 Chr. 23: 20; 2 Chr. 27: 3 or South Gate. 1 Chr. 26: 17.

20 The Gate of Benjamin or the High Gate of Benjamin or the Prison Gate. Jer. 37: 13; Zech. 14: 10; Jer. 20: 2; Neh. 12: 39.

21 Prison (?)

22 Tower of Meah.

23 Sheep Gate. Neh. 3: 1, 32; 12: 39.

24 Pool of Bethesda.

25 Gate of Miphkad or the Ascent of the corner. Neh. 3: 31.

26 The Gate Shallecheth or the West Gate. 1 Chr. 26: 16.

27 Horse Gate. 2 Chr. 23: 15; Neh. 3: 28.

28 High Tower projecting from the King's house. Neh. 3: 25.

29 Great projecting tower. Neh. 3: 27.

30 Gate between two walls. 2 Kings 25: 4; Jer. 39: 4.

31 Water gate. Neh. 12: 37.

32 The Overflowing Brook (or the brook which runs through the midst of the land), presently the Virgin's Fountain. 2 Chr. 32: 4.

33-33-33 Hezekiah's aquaduct. 2 Kings 20: 20 and the King's Pool. Neh. 2: 14, or the Pool of Siloah. Neh. 3: 15.

34 Fountain Gate. Neh. 2: 14; Neh. 12: 37.

35 Dung Gate. Neh. 2: 13; Neh. 12: 31.

36 Valley Gate and Tower of Uzziah. Neh. 2: 13, 15; Neh. 3: 13; 2 Chr. 26: 9.

37 Pool of Gihon.

38 Pottery Gate and the Tower of the Furnaces. Jer. 19: 2.

39 Gate of Ephraim. 2 Chr. 25: 23. Cf. Neh. 8: 16; Neh. 12: 39.

40 Corner Gate and Tower of Uzziah. 2 Chr. 25: 23; 2 Chr. 26: 9; Jer. 31: 38; Zech. 14: 10.

41 The Old Gate or Gate of the Old Wall. Neh. 12: 39.

42 Fish Gate. 2 Chr. 33: 14; Neh. 3: 3; Zeph. 1: 10.

43 Tower of Hananeel. Neh. 3: 1; Neh. 12: 39; Jer. 31: 38; Zech. 14: 10.

Note: The location of numbers 7 and 13 on the site of Ophel is hypothetical.

Meditations on The Second Book of Chronicles with a map of Jerusalem

H. L. Rossier

Solomon's Reign

2 Chronicles 1-9

The second book of Chronicles continues on from the first book without transition; originally they formed a single account in the Hebrew manuscripts. We have previously remarked the same thing in the second book of Kings about these artificial divisions which are not part of the inspired Word. In fact, the account of the Chronicles is a continuous one until the end of Solomon's reign (2 Chr. 10), and if we are looking for a moral division in our subject, it will not properly be introduced until 2 Chr. 11.

Let us recall a truth, already mentioned many times in First Chronicles: in Chronicles God gives us, in the form of types, an overview of His counsels concerning Christ's royalty, counsels prefigured in the history of David and Solomon. Solomon himself symbolizes the future reign of wisdom and peace that will be inaugurated by the Lord's coming. This is why, as we have noted in 1 Chronicles in the history of David, Solomon's reign does not present any failures in Chronicles and even with the greatest carefulness, one cannot discover there the least allusion to the king's faults.

In the preceding book we have seen how Solomon was elevated to his father's throne before he was established on his own throne. These two facts speak very clearly to us of Christ's present heavenly kingdom and of His earthly kingdom which is yet to come. The account before us will present this latter to us, and here we will not find, as in Kings, a responsible and fallible sovereign, but rather the most perfect figure possible of a government of wisdom and of peace administered by the king according to the counsels of God.

2 Chronicles 1

A King According to God's Counsels

One cannot sufficiently emphasize, at the beginning of this book, that Solomon's reign in Chronicles has an entirely different character than that of Solomon in the book of Kings. His righteousness exercised in judgment on his father's enemies —  Adonijah who had opposed David, Shimei who had insulted and mocked him, Joab whose acts of violence and unrighteousness he had tolerated without being able to rebuke them — all this is omitted in Chronicles (cf. 1 Kings 1-2). The incident of the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3: 16-28) is also passed over in complete silence, for if this scene shows us Solomon's wisdom, it shows us his wisdom in the service of righteousness in order to rule equitably. The king does not pursue the investigation further, and does not rebuke or cut off even the most guilty of these prostitutes. Chronicles does not present Solomon's reign according to the character we have just mentioned. It is above all a reign of peace, presided over by wisdom. It is no less true that during the millennium “every morning [He] will destroy all the wicked of the land,” and that prostitution will be neither tolerated nor even mentioned; but peace will reign. It is this that constitutes the subject of the first chapters of this book.

From the very first words of our chapter (2 Chr. 1: 1), Solomon is presented to us as strengthening himself in his kingdom, whereas in 1 Kings 2: 46 the kingdom was established in his hand after the judgment of all the personal enemies of David. Solomon strengthens himself here with his full personal authority , but nonetheless he remains the dependent man, for if he were not, he would not be the type of the True King according to God's counsels. “Ask of me,” He is urged in Psalm 2, “and I will give Thee...for Thy possession the ends of the earth.” This is why in our passage we find: “And Jehovah his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly.” So too, as long as He retains the kingdom, the Lord remains the dependent Man; when He shall have concluded its administration, He will faithfully give it up into the hands of the One who entrusted it to Him and “then the Son also Himself shall be placed in subjection to Him who put all things in subjection to Him” (1 Cor. 15: 28). Will any earthly kingdom ever resemble this marvelous reign during which for a period of a thousand years — without a single shortcoming, without one denial of justice, without any decrease of peace — Christ will reign over His earthly people and over all the nations?

Dear Christian reader, let's get used to considering the Lord in this way for His own sake, and not only for the resources which He gives to meet our needs. This is the most lofty form of contemplation to which we are called, for we are set, so to say, in the company of our God to take delight in the perfections of this adorable Person. How numerous are those passages of Scripture that reveal, not what we possess in virtue of the work of Christ, but rather, what Christ is for God in virtue of His own perfections. God opens heaven on this Man and says: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight.” And when He was obliged to close heaven to Him at the moment when He was making propitiation for our sins, He says: “But Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall have no end.” And again: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Thy kingdom: Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy companions.” In virtue of the perfection of His obedience and His humiliation, God “highly exalted Him, and granted Him a name, that which is above every name.” This Man is “the Firstborn of all creation”; He has all glory and all supremacy (Col. 1: 15-20). It is because He laid down His life that He might take it again that the Father loves Him. In all this we find nothing of that which He has done for us. But in virtue of His accomplished work we are made capable of taking an interest in His Person and all His perfections. Let us cultivate this intimacy. Doubtless for our souls the outstanding trait of this adorable character is summed up in these words: “He loved me, and gave Himself for me”; whatever knowledge I may gain about Him, it always brings me back to His love. Thus, when He is presented to us as “the Prince of the kings of the earth,” we cry out: “To Him who loves us!” But what I want to say is that what He is in Himself is an unfailing source of joy for the believer. Nothing else so effectively takes him out of his natural egoism and out of the petty preoccupations of earth; he has found the source of his eternal bliss in a perfect Object, with whom he is in intimate and direct relationship.

In verses 2 to 6, we have the scene at Gibeon, but without the imperfections which spoil its beauty in 1 Kings 3: 1-4. In our passage the “only” which denotes a fault has disappeared: “Only the people sacrificed in high places”; “Only he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.” Here the scene is legitimate, if I may so express myself, and Gibeon is no longer “the great high place” (1 Kings 3: 4); on the contrary, it is the place where “was God's tent of meeting which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness...and the brazen altar that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of Jehovah” (2 Chr. 1: 3-5). Not a shadow of anything that would discredit! Solomon sacrifices on the altar, the token of atonement, where the people could meet their God. Was there anything that could be reproached in that? Not at all. No, doubtless the place was only provisional while awaiting the construction of the temple; doubtless also, God's throne, the ark, was not to be found there, for from this time on it was established in the city of David; but in Chronicles Solomon comes to Gibeon with his people to inaugurate the reign of peace which God could introduce on the basis of sacrifice. Indeed, Second Chronicles, as we have already seen, speaks to us much more of the reign of peace than of the reign of righteousness.

In verses 7 to 12, Solomon asks God for wisdom, and here again our account differs significantly from that in Kings (1 Kings 3: 5-15). In our passage, Solomon is not “a little child” who “know[s] not to go out and to come in.” There is no question that First Chronicles refers to him as a little child, but as we have noted in studying that book, from a typical point of view his youth corresponds to the position Christ occupies in heaven on His Father's throne before the inauguration of His earthly kingdom. In Kings, Solomon is ignorant and lacks discernment “between good and bad” (1 Kings 3: 9). In Chronicles this flaw has totally disappeared: the king says that he needs wisdom to go out and come in before the people and to govern them. For this he addresses the One who has made him king and upon whom he is entirely dependent; this will also be Christ's relationship as Man and King with His God. But what is still more striking is that in our passage the question of responsibility is completely omitted, in contrast to 1 Kings 3: 14: “If thou wilt walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments,” says God, “then I will prolong thy days.” In Chronicles, Solomon's responsibility is mentioned only once (1 Chr. 28: 7-10), to depict Christ's dependence as Man, and not in any way to suppose that he might be found at fault. The book of Kings is completely different (see 1 Kings 3: 14; 1 Kings 2: 2, 6, 9; 1 Kings 6: 11). Again, let us note that in 1 Kings God said to Solomon: “Because thou hast asked this thing...behold, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart” (1 Kings 3: 11, 12). In 2 Chronicles God gives him wisdom and understanding “because this was in thy heart.” A type of Christ, he receives these things as man, but his heart did not need to be fashioned to receive them.

We shall not fail to see new proofs at every step of the marvelous precision with which the inspired Word pursues its object.

Verses 14-17. In the fact that Solomon accumulated much silver and gold at Jerusalem, and that his merchants brought him horses from Egypt, “and so they brought them by their means, for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria,” some have thought to see proof of Solomon's unfaithfulness to the prescriptions of the law in Deuteronomy 17: 16-17. The study of Chronicles causes us to reject such an interpretation. Here, Egypt is tributary to Solomon who treats it equitably. He lets foreign nations profit from the same advantages, and so it shall be under Christ's future reign. The same remark applies, as we shall see in 2 Chronicles 8: 11, to Pharaoh's daughter.

2 Chronicles 2

Solomon and Huram (Hiram)

Here, as in all these chapters, we find King Solomon portrayed from the standpoint of the perfection of his reign. The nations are subject to him. The men to bear burdens, the stone cutters, and the overseers are taken exclusively from among the Canaanites living in the midst of Israel, whom the people had not succeeded in driving out (2 Chr. 2: 1-2; 17-18; 2 Chr. 8: 7-9): “But of the children of Israel, of them did Solomon make no bondmen for his work.” Thus a condition of things is realized under this glorious reign which, on account of the unfaithfulness of the people, had never existed previously. All their former mingling with the Canaanites has disappeared, and from now on the Lord's people are a free people that cannot be brought into servitude. Meanwhile the strangers whom unfaithful Israel had not exterminated from their land in time past are the only ones subjected to bondage, while the nations, possessing the riches of the earth and personified by the king of Tyre, are accepted as collaborators in this great work.

Here Solomon explains to Huram the meaning and significance of the construction of the temple, and he does so in a different way than in the book of Kings: “Behold, I build a house unto the name of Jehovah my God to dedicate it to Him, to burn before Him sweet incense, and for the continual arrangement of the showbread, and for the morning and evening burnt-offerings and on the sabbaths and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Jehovah our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel” (v. 4). Here the temple is the place where God is to be approached in worship, a place open not only to Israel, but also to the nations whom Huram represents. The temple is so much the place of worship in Solomon's mind, that only burnt offerings are mentioned here, without any reference to sin offerings; sweet incense of fragrant drugs, the symbol of praise, occupies the first place. When it is a question in Ezekiel 45 of the millennial service in the temple, whether for Israel, or for the “prince” of the house of David, Christ's viceroy on the earth, we find the sin offering, for all are in need of it. Here the thought is more general. Solomon declares to Huram that this great house which he is building is dedicated to the God of Israel “for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build Him a house, seeing the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?” Thus, this sovereign God, this God who is supreme and omnipresent, cannot limit His kingdom to the people of Israel. As for Solomon himself, he knows that he is only a weak human likeness of the King according to God's counsels: “Who am I,” he says, “that I should build Him a house?” Nevertheless he is there “to burn sacrifice before Him.” He presents himself as king and priest, without any mediator; he himself offers pure incense, as the people's mediator, a select incense which rises with the smoke of the burnt offering, a perfect, well-pleasing odor to God, and “This is an ordinance forever to Israel.”

Solomon entrusts to Huram the direction of the work, while he himself is its executor, though confiding it into the hands of the nations. So it will be at the beginning of the millennium, according to what we are told about the temple in Zechariah 6: 15 and about the walls of Jerusalem in Isaiah 60: 10.

The sustenance of Huram's workers here depends entirely on the king: He is the one who offers and appoints it (v. 10), and Huram has nothing more to do than to receive it. It is otherwise in 1 Kings 5: 9-11 where Huram requests it and Solomon grants it.

Huram (v. 11) acknowledges in writing (That which is written is an abiding declaration and is always available for reference): “Jehovah loved His people” in establishing Solomon as king over them, and he blesses “Jehovah the God of Israel,” but as Creator of the heavens and the earth — lovely picture of the praise of the nations who, in the age yet to come will submit themselves to the universal dominion of the Most High, Possessor of the heavens and the earth, represented by the true Son of David in the midst of His people Israel. Thus blessing will rise up to God Himself from those who, formerly idolaters, will be subjected to the dominion of Christ, the King of the nations.

Huram is prompt to execute all that the king requires, and is prompt also to accept Solomon's gifts. In Chronicles we do not see him disdainfully calling the cities which Solomon gives him “Cabul” (cf. 1 Kings 9: 13), and in this way the fault committed by Solomon in alienating the Lord's inheritance is passed over in silence. Here on part of the representative of the nations there is only thankfulness and voluntary submission; he is prompt to accept and to receive, for to refuse the gifts of such a king would be only pride and rebellion.

2 Chronicles 3 - 5

The Temple

2 Chronicles 3 and 2 Chronicles 4 correspond to 1 Kings 6 and 1 Kings 7, but with the difference that here the temple has a special significance. Whereas in Kings it is on the one hand the place where God dwells with His own, and on the other hand the center of His government in the midst of Israel, in Chronicles, as we have already noted, it is the place where one approaches God in order to worship Him, the “house of sacrifice” (2 Chr. 7: 12). In speaking of a place of approach we are not alluding to the sinner who comes by the blood of Christ to be justified before God; we are thinking of the worshipper who enters by that same way into the sanctuary. Thus in the Epistle to the Romans we see the sinner justified by Christ's blood, whereas the Epistle to the Hebrews introduces us into the most holy place by that same way. The fact that the temple is presented as the place of approach explains all the details of this chapter. Here we again find the brazen altar and the veil (2 Chr. 3: 14; 2 Chr. 4: 1), omitted in the description of the temple in the book of Kings; on the other hand, the priests' dwellings mentioned in Kings are missing in Chronicles. The prophet Ezekiel, who does not give us the typical picture but rather the actual description of Christ's millennial reign, in his description of the temple (Ezek. 40-45) brings together the characters of the books of Kings and Chronicles. There we find the altar, the door of the sanctuary, the dwelling places of the priests, and the attributes of God's government all together (Ezek. 40: 47; Ezek. 41: 22; Ezek. 41: 6; Ezek. 41: 18). In fact, Ezekiel's temple sets forth Jehovah, Christ, dwelling in the midst of a people of priests, exercising His righteous government, and become the center of worship for both Israel and the nations; whereas the books of Kings and Chronicles, in order that we may better appreciate His glories, present them to us one after the other.

Other striking details confirm what we have just said. Chronicles mentions neither the sin offering nor the trespass offering; there the altar is solely the place of burnt offerings and peace offerings. Ezekiel, by contrast, insists upon the sin offering as the preparation for all the other offerings (Ezek. 43: 25-27), and then names them not omitting even one (Ezek. 45: 25).

A few more words about the brazen altar: This altar of Solomon's has a very important place in Chronicles. It is not the altar of the wilderness, kept at Gibeon, figure of the way in which God comes to meet the sinner and remains just while justifying him; but rather, it is the altar of burnt offering without which one may not approach Him. The dimensions of the altar at Gibeon are quite different from those of Solomon's altar: the first is five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. Solomon's altar (2 Chr. 4: 1) is twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high. The two principal dimensions are exactly the same as those of the most holy place (2 Chr. 3: 8; 1 Kings 6: 20; Ezek. 41: 4). The altar, Christ, is perfectly suited to the sanctuary; the glories of the most holy place correspond to the greatness and perfection of the sacrifice represented by the altar. Moreover, as we have said, the altar being especially the expression of worship here, it also has the same measurements as the sanctuary; without being perfect in all its dimensions, it is worthy, in the highest degree, of the millennial scene which it represents.

Everything pertaining to Christ's millennial government and even to the emblems of this government is completely absent in Chronicles; for example, the house of the forest of Lebanon, seat of the throne of judgment, as well as the king's palace, and also the cherubim, special symbols of government which are found throughout the book of Kings, on the walls of the temple and even on the vessels of the courtyard.

Even when it is a question of Solomon's person and his deeds, the description which Chronicles gives is intentionally simplified. There the king is presented to us, not increasing in greatness, as in the book of Kings, but established on the throne according to God's counsels, endowed with perfect wisdom, surrounded by riches and glory. Not a single detail is given us about the exercise of his wisdom, whether in discerning evil, whether in judging, or whether in teaching that which is good by his words and writings (see 1 Kings 3: 16-28; 1 Kings 4: 29-34). Solomon is set before our eyes on his throne, in a posture, so to say, unchangeable; peace reigns, the counsels of God concerning His King are fulfilled, and this King Himself is God.

This scene of peace and well-being has its starting point on Mount Moriah, a detail, let us carefully note, which is missing in the book of Kings: “And Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem on mount Moriah, where he appeared to David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chr. 3: 1). It was at Moriah, first of all, that Abraham had offered Isaac on the altar and received him again in figure by resurrection; there, all that the holiness of God demanded had been provided. Next, it was at Moriah where, on the occasion of David's failure, grace gloried over judgment. Solomon's reign of peace is thus established after resurrection, on the principle of grace, just as the future reign of the risen Christ will be based entirely on the grace that triumphed at the cross. Following the sacrifice of Moriah and in virtue of the sovereign monarch's personal perfection, the latter may from this time forward enter his temple. The eternal gates will lift up their heads to let the King of glory pass. He will have a rich entry into His own kingdom. Only in Chronicles do we find the immense height of this porch (2 Chr. 3: 4; cf. Ps. 24: 7, 9; Mal. 3: 1; Hag. 2: 7; 2 Peter 1: 11, 17).

One more characteristic detail: here we see only palm trees and chains on the walls of the house; palm trees are the symbols of triumphant peace; the chains, which also ornament the pillars here, are not mentioned anywhere else except on the shoulder pieces and the breastplate of the high priest. They firmly unite the various parts and appear to symbolize the solidity of the bond uniting the people of God. There are no more partially opened flowers, symbol of a reign that is beginning to blossom out, as in the book of Kings; here the reign is definitely established; there are no more cherubim hidden under the gold of the walls; they appear only on the veil; there are no more secret thoughts, no more hidden counsels of God; they are now made manifest in the person of Christ, but fixed on the veil — His flesh delivered to death. In the most holy place, two cherubim standing with wings extended face “toward the house” (2 Chr. 3: 13), a fact mentioned only here, and contemplate the order of the people of God established from henceforth on. The pillars Jachin and Boaz (“He shall establish” and “In Him is strength”) are essential to this scene, emblems of a reign established from this time on and dependent entirely on the power which is in Christ.

Another interesting detail: Solomon “made ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right hand and five on the left” (2 Chr. 4: 8). 1 Kings 7: 48 mentions only one. Is it not striking to see the loaves of shewbread thus multiplied tenfold? Solomon is viewed as seated “on the throne of Jehovah” (1 Chr. 29: 23); Israel increases under his reign; they ever remain the same tribes, but infinitely increased in the eyes of God, who beholds them and governs them. The true Solomon, Christ Himself, is the author of this multiplication (2 Chr. 4: 8). In the millennium Israel will be complete, as presented to God by Christ, an offering well-pleasing to God.

In 2 Chronicles 5 the ark is brought up from the city of David to the magnificent house which Solomon has prepared for it. The tabernacle and all its vessels, which were at Gibeon, rejoin the ark in the temple: thus the remembrance of the wilderness journey ever remains before God. We are not told of the vessels of the court; most importantly, we are not told of the brazen altar that was set up by Moses and where God in grace came to meet a sinful people. This wilderness altar is replaced by Solomon's altar, itself corresponding to the altar David set up on the threshing-floor of Ornan. Solomon's altar is mentioned in passing in the book of Kings only when all has been finished (1 Kings 8: 22). Kings, as we have said, has another object in view than worship. The ark has at last found a place of rest, but the millennial scene, which these chapters pre-figure, is not the eternal, final rest for God's throne. The staves have not disappeared, although their position denotes that the ark will no longer journey. The entire scene of millennial blessing described here will end when the new heavens and the new earth are established.

The passage from verse 11 to 14 of our chapter is missing in the book of Kings: “And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place (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 forever; that then the house, the house of Jehovah, was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God.” This is the appropriate picture of millennial worship when the “song of triumph and praise” shall be sounded (cf. 2 Chr. 20: 22). There the Lord is praised “for He is good, for His loving-kindness endureth forever.” (As to this song, see also: 1 Chr. 16: 41; 2 Chr. 7: 3, 6; Ps. 106: 1; Ps. 107: 1; Ps. 118; Ps. 136; Jer. 33: 11). All the instruments of music resound, just as in Psalm 150 which describes the same scene. Here we have properly the dedication of the altar (2 Chr. 7: 9) preceding the feast of tabernacles, but only Chronicles shows us the glory of the Lord filling the house twice. In fact, there were two feasts, one of seven days, the dedication of the altar, and one of eight days, the dedication of the house or the feast of tabernacles (2 Chr. 7: 9). Both are found here, with the same hymn and the same presence of God's glory in His temple, a subject most appropriate to this book which speaks of worship and of the fulfillment of God's counsels concerning His reign.

In Chronicles the dedication of the altar takes the place of the great day of atonement (cf. Lev. 23: 26-36), while in Zechariah this day must precede the establishment of the messianic reign. Here it is not a question of afflicting their souls as on the day of atonement (Lev. 16: 29), but of rejoicing, for by means of the altar God's loving-kindness which endures forever has ultimately brought the people to Himself.

The song: “His loving-kindness endureth forever,” so characteristic of the beginning of the millennial reign, is repeated in this book of Chronicles both times when the glory of Jehovah fills the temple; this hymn is completely absent in 1 Kings. The scene is much more complete here: the counsels of God as to the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth are in type at last accomplished. “The glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God “ (cf. 1 Kings 8: 11). The name of God often replaces that of Jehovah in these chapters, an allusion to His relationship with the nations which acknowledge the God of Israel as their God.

In conclusion let us say that in the presence of all the differences in details between 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, every believer will be convinced of the wisdom and divine order which invariably preside in these accounts. The smallest omission as well as every word added in the sacred text are the fruit of an overall plan destined to display the various glories of Christ. We are far from having exhausted the enumeration of these differences; others may discover additional differences with real profit for their souls.

2 Chronicles 6-7

Solomon's Prayer

Many important particulars differentiate this portion of our book from the corresponding chapter of Kings — 1 Kings 8. In the latter chapter, the feast, although prolonged for fourteen days, in actual fact corresponds only to the feast of tabernacles. It is called “the dedication of the house” (cf. 1 Kings 8: 63); but on the eighth day, the great day of the feast, the king sent the people away (1 Kings 8: 65, 66). The passage in Chronicles goes much further: it insists on the fact that “on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly” (2 Chr. 7: 9); thus it introduces the type of ultimate general rest connected with the day of resurrection which the eighth day prefigures. In this way, the blessing is not restricted to the people of Israel alone, but belongs to all who have part in the day of resurrection.

Our passage in Chronicles offers another very interesting observation: Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, “and spread forth his hands. For Solomon had made a platform of bronze, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and he kneeled down on his knees before the whole congregation of Israel” and spread forth his hands towards the heavens. The entire portion of this passage within the quotation marks is lacking in the book of Kings. The platform Solomon made and on which he stood in the presence of all the people had exactly the same dimensions as the brazen altar in Exodus 27: 1. “And thou shalt make,” the Lord had said to Moses, “the altar of acacia wood, five cubits the length, and five cubits the breadth; the altar shall be square; and the height thereof three cubits.”

The wilderness altar was, as we have already said, one of the vessels not mentioned as having been brought from Gibeon to the temple (2 Chr. 5: 5 & 1 Kings 8: 4), for a new altar had been constructed there. But could the first altar be absolutely excluded? That was impossible! The altar of Moses represented solely the place where God could meet the sinner. A type of the cross, it was there that God could manifest Himself as righteous in justifying the guilty, and it was there that His love was in perfect accord with His righteousness to accomplish salvation. The brazen altar formed the basis of all of the Lord's relationships with his people; it was, so to speak, the first door of access to the sanctuary. Nevertheless our book passes over it in silence (not over its memorial, as we shall see) for the work introducing the reign of the King of peace is considered here as completely finished. The altar of the tabernacle, the altar of atonement, in Chronicles is merely the starting point for leading the people to the altar of the temple, that is to say, to the altar of worship, the essential characteristic of Solomon's altar in this book. Thus the first altar of bronze has disappeared, only to reappear here in form of a platform, as a pedestal on which Solomon is placed in the sight of all the people. The place where the sin offering was sacrificed becomes the place where Solomon — Christ — is glorified. “Now,” says the Lord, speaking of the cross, “is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (John 13: 31). This altar, representing final salvation forever for every believer — for for us there is no more sin offering: the cross of Christ henceforth remains void of its burden of iniquity — this altar has yet another meaning: it is the basis upon which the Son of man's glory is established. Because of His sacrifice the reins of government are placed in His hands, and He is presented as the Leader of His people.

But something else strikes us here: Solomon on his platform in reality is much more an intercessor, an advocate for Israel, than a king. There, on the platform he bows the knee and spreads forth his hands in supplication toward heaven. And remarkably, here he is not, as in 1 Kings 8: 54-61, a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, blessing God on behalf of the people and blessing the people on behalf of God, rising from before the altar to stand and bless: no, on his platform which once was an altar he assumes only the place of an intercessor, praying for the people who through their future conduct, their sin already to be seen, would bring to naught all God's counsels, if indeed His counsels could be brought to naught.

This role that Solomon filled on behalf of Israel is the very role the Lord fills today on our behalf. “If any one sin, we have a patron with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours alone, but also for the whole world” (1 John 2: 1-2). His office as Advocate is based on the propitiation which He has accomplished, just as Solomon's intercession was inseparable from this platform, mysterious and marvelous figure of the altar.

At the end of Solomon's prayer we find (2 Chr. 6: 41-42) these words which are absent in the book of Kings: “And now, arise, Jehovah Elohim, into Thy resting-place, Thou, and the ark of Thy strength: let Thy priests, Jehovah Elohim, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in Thy goodness. Jehovah Elohim, turn not away the face of Thine Anointed: remember mercies to David Thy servant.” These words are taken from Psalm 132. In this song, the object of David's afflictions was to find a habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob. This habitation had now been found, but in the imperfection which Solomon's request reveals. God in that Psalm then responds to the king's desire expressed in Chronicles. He shows him Zion, His house, His priesthood, His Anointed, as He sees them in their eternal perfection in answer to sufferings of Christ, the true David. God's rest is still to come, but here Solomon shows us that scene we anticipate.

Next in 2 Chronicles 7 we find in verses 1-3 and 6-7 a passage which is lacking in the book of Kings. “The fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house.” God sets His seal and His approval on the inauguration of this reign of peace; His glory fills the house which has been prepared for Him; all the people bow themselves with their faces to the ground, and extol the Lord with worship and praise. This passage tallies with and admirably harmonizes with the character of the millennial worship, as presented in Chronicles!

Verses 12 to 22 of 2 Chronicles 7 differ little from the account of Kings. Nevertheless it should be noted that here, as in 2 Chronicles 1: 7, the Lord's appearance to Solomon has a character perhaps more direct than in the book of Kings, for it is not said that God appeared to him “in a dream” (v. 12). The house which the Lord had chosen is called “a house of sacrifice” according to its character as a place of worship which we have observed all through this book. God's free choice in grace is also emphasized more in our chapters: God chose Jerusalem, chose David, chose the house (2 Chr. 6: 6; 2 Chr. 7: 12). In response to the office of advocate and intercessor which Solomon had taken in the preceding chapter, God gives him a full answer (vv. 13-14) which is absent in Kings. The consequences of the responsibility of the people and their leaders are exposed completely in this passage, as they had been in Solomon's prayer, but also the certainty that, by virtue of this intercession, God would forgive their sin and heal their land. And He assures His Beloved by this single word, omitted in the book of Kings: “Now mine eyes shall be open,” etc. From the moment Solomon appears before God, the answer to his intercession is sure and, however delayed it must be on account of the people's unfaithfulness, it is no less real a fact granted at the request of the Lord's anointed.

For the second time in these books, Solomon's responsibility is mentioned (vv. 17-18. See 1 Chr. 28: 7); but with the great difference that Chronicles in no way shows, as does the first book of Kings, that Solomon failed therein. Thus in our book his responsibility remains a responsibility to the glory of God, so that in type we see absolutely nothing lacking in the king of the counsels of God.

2 Chronicles 8 - 9

Solomon's Relations With the Nations

These two chapters describe King Solomon's relations with the Gentiles. 2 Chronicles 2 has already referred to the Canaanites and to Huram, king of Tyre, but only in relation to the construction of the temple, the work to which all were called to contribute. The first event related is the peaceful conquest, taking possession of and subjugating all the cities of the surrounding nations. Here we find a detail which is very interesting for understanding Chronicles. The first book of Kings (2 Chr. 9: 11-14) tells us that Solomon gave Hiram, the king of Tyre, “twenty cities in the land of Galilee.” Hiram despised this gift and called these cities the “land of Cabul” (good for nothing); and we have noted that if, on the one hand, the territory of the promised land never had any value for the world, on the other hand Solomon committed positive unfaithfulness in alienating Jehovah's land. As always in this book, Solomon's sin is passed over in silence. Such omissions, repeated over and over again, ought to show rationalists the futility of their criticisms in presence of a design of which they seem unconscious of. Instead of seeing Solomon giving cities to Huram, in verse 2 we see the latter giving cities to Solomon. A day is coming when the world, which Tyre represents in the Word, will come with its riches and acknowledge itself tributary to Christ, and offer its finest cities as dwelling places for the children of Israel. Solomon fortifies them, surrounds them with walls, equips them with gates and bars — in a word, prepares them for defense. There, too, he concentrates his armed forces, not to use them for warfare, but, knowing the unsubmissive heart of the nations, he prepares this power so that peace can rule. During his long reign of forty years we never see Solomon engaged in any war of conquest, but the weight of his scepter must be felt so that the nations will submit. The Word tells us, speaking of Christ: “Thou shalt break them with a scepter of iron.” During the millennium no nation will dare to lift the head in presence of the King, and He will have many other means, too, of making them feel the weight of His arm (see Zech. 14: 12-16).

All the Canaanites remaining in the land of Israel also are subjected to Solomon (vv. 7-10), whereas the children of Israel are men of war and free, but free to serve the King.

Verse 11 tells us of Solomon's relations with Pharaoh's daughter: “And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David to the house which he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy to which the ark of Jehovah has come.” Many have thought that Solomon's union with the daughter of the king of Egypt was an act of unfaithfulness to the prescriptions of the law. Forgetfulness of the typical meaning of the Word may lead to such mistakes. Would we say that Joseph was unfaithful in marrying Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On (Gen. 41: 50)? that Moses was unfaithful in marrying Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian (Ex. 2: 21)?

Always in their relations with the Canaanites, even long before Israel's entrance into the Promised Land, the Pharaohs had given their daughters to various kings of these countries. For the king of Egypt it was a means of subjecting them, for they paid tribute to Pharaoh in exchange for the honor of being his sons-in-law. But never did the king of Egypt give his own daughter to the kings of the neighboring nations; to them he granted his concubines' daughters who had no right to the throne of Egypt and who were not of royal blood through their mothers. “The daughter of Pharaoh” was the daughter of the queen, his legitimate wife, and according to the Egyptian constitution she had the right to the throne in the absence of a son and heir. This daughter, the daughter of Pharaoh — not “one of his daughters” — was given to Solomon. Such a union was the affirmation of Solomon's eventual rights to the land of Egypt. It subjected Pharaoh's royalty to that of Israel's king who could thus become the ruler to whom Egypt must submit; evident proof that the most ancient of earth's kingdoms was consenting to submit to the yoke of Israel's great king. This fact has very real importance as one of the features of Christ's millennial dominion. A word added here is not found in the book of Kings: Solomon said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy to which the ark of Jehovah has come.” A daughter of the nations, however ancient and powerful her people might be, could not live there where the ark had even momentarily dwelt. Despite the union of the King of Peace with the nations, they could not enjoy the same intimacy with him as the chosen people. The ark was Jehovah's throne in relation to Israel; God had never chosen Egypt, but He had chosen Israel as His inheritance, Jerusalem as His seat, the temple as His dwelling place, and David and Solomon to be the shepherds of His people.

This people, today despised and rejected on account of their disobedience, will one day on account of the election by grace again find earthly blessing in Christ's kingdom, and in the Lord's presence. The great nations of the past, Egypt and Assyria, will receive a generous portion, but not that of absolute nearness (Isa. 19: 23-25); they will be called the Lord's people and the work of the Lord's hands, but not His inheritance, as is Israel. Doubtless the fierce oppressors of God's people in former days will have a place of privilege and blessing during Christ's reign, but it will be becoming to the glory of the King, once scorned and set at naught by the nations who oppressed His people, that His people receive highest honors in the presence of their former enemies. And will it not be the same for the faithful Church, when those of the synagogue of Satan will come to bow down at her feet and acknowledge that Jesus has loved her?

Verses 12-16 mention all the religious and priestly service as set before the eyes of the subjected nations and as having great importance for them. Everything is regulated according to the commandment of Moses and the ordinance of David. Sacrifices are offered (“as the duty of every day required”), but only the burnt offerings are mentioned. This is in accord with the design of the book, as we have already said more than once. This passage (vv. 13-16) is absent in the first book of Kings.

In verses 17-18 we once again find the king of Tyre's contribution to the splendor of Solomon's reign. It is no longer just a matter of his collaboration in the work of the temple, but one of contributing to the outward opulence of this glorious reign under which gold was esteemed as stones in Jerusalem.

In 2 Chr. 9 the history of the queen of Sheba, so full of instruction and already dealt with in meditations on the book of Kings, closes the account of Solomon's intimate relations with the nations. We will limit ourselves to a few additional remarks.

Huram placed himself at Solomon's disposal out of affection for David, the king of grace, whom he had personally known; the Queen of Sheba is attracted by the wisdom and fame of the King, whose glorious and peaceful reign is the object of universal admiration. The word of others convinces her to come and see with her own eyes. She “heard of the fame of Solomon.” 1 Kings 10: 1 adds: “in connection with the name of Jehovah”; but here Solomon, seated “on the throne of Jehovah” (1 Chr. 29: 23), concentrates, so to say, the divine character in his person. We find the same thing in verse 8: “Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on His throne, to be king to Jehovah thy God!” whereas 1 Kings 10: 9, the corresponding passage, simply says, “to set thee on the throne of Israel.” Thus it is Jehovah whom Solomon represents in Chronicles. One could multiply such details to show that they all work together, harmonizing in the smallest shades of difference in the picture given us here of Christ's millennial reign.

The Queen of Sheba needed nothing beyond what she had heard to make her hasten to Jerusalem; nevertheless she “gave no credit to their words” until she had come and her eyes had seen (2 Chr. 9: 6). This will indeed be characteristic of believers in the days yet to come; their faith will spring from sight, whereas today, “Blessed they who have not seen and have believed” (John 20: 29).

If the queen's joy was deep in presence of the splendors of this great reign, can her joy be compared to ours in the present day? Is it not said of us: “Whom, having not seen, ye love; on whom though not now looking, but believing, ye exult with joy unspeakable and filled with the glory” (1 Peter 1: 8)?

All the details of this incomparable reign are of interest to the Queen of Sheba; she rejoices in all, sees all, enumerates all — from the apparel of his servants to the marvelous ramp built by Solomon to connect his palace with the temple. Every treasure flows to Jerusalem, the center to which the king was drawing the riches of the entire world. “All the kings of Arabia” and the governors of various districts bring him gold, spices (which played such a considerable role in oriental courts), precious stones, and rare sandalwood. Gold in particular, that emblem of divine righteousness, came from all parts; the very footstool of the throne was made of gold (2 Chr. 9: 18). The king's feet rested on pure gold when he sat on the throne of his kingdom. “Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne,” Psalm 89: 14 tells us (cf. Ps. 97: 2); but it also adds: “loving-kindness and truth go before thy face.” It was his presence which all the kings of the earth sought after, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart (v. 23). “To behold the face of the king” was the supreme privilege; whoever was admitted to his presence could count himself happy. “Happy...thy servants,” said the queen, “who stand continually before thee.” “Blessed,” it says again, “is the people that know the shout of joy: they walk, O Jehovah in the light of Thy countenance” (Ps. 89: 15). To see the king's face is to be admitted to his intimacy. Supreme honor for the nations of the future, but so much the more our present day privilege! Ah, how such favor humbles us! We feel our nothingness before this glorious presence; we bow in the dust before such righteousness, wisdom and goodness. But here is what is said to us: “Happy”, says the queen, “are these thy servants, who...hear thy wisdom.” It is not the voice of great waters and loud thunder, but a voice more gentle than the myrrh-scented breeze; a voice that goes through us; the voice of the Beloved, of Jedidiah, the voice of love! All these sentiments come from seeking His face and being admitted to His presence. And as happened with the queen of Sheba, there will be no more spirit in us. There is wonder and worship in the presence of such wisdom, holiness, righteousness, and glory; a very humble love, for it immediately senses that it is not to be compared with this love; the whole heart is ecstatic and longs only to lose itself in the contemplation of its cherished object. Such were the thoughts of the Shulamite when she contemplated the most perfect of the sons of men. Her eyes saw the King in his beauty (Isa. 33: 17).

Verses 27-28, repeating what was told us in 2 Chronicles 1: 15, 17 (cf. 1 Kings 10: 27-29), describe the reign as it was established from its beginning and as in Chronicles it remains until the end. According to the character of this book, it has come up to all that God was expecting of it. One sees from verse 26 that Solomon's chariots and horses were not an infraction of the law of Moses (Deut. 17: 16), but a means of maintaining his reign of peace over all the nations: “He ruled over all the kings from the river as far as the land of the Philistines, and up to the border of Egypt” (2 Chr. 9: 26). These limits of the kingdom of Solomon in Israel correspond to those which God's counsels had assigned to His people in Joshua 1: 4; they had never before been attained nor have they ever been since. They will only be realized, and that in even greater measure, in the future reign of Christ.

Thus in these chapters we have seen the Canaanites, Tyre, the kings of Arabia, all the kings from the River to the border of Egypt, the Queen of Sheba, and lastly, all the kings of the earth converging upon the court of the great king. Thus ends the history of Solomon, without any alloy whatsoever tarnishing the pure metal of his character as Chronicles presents it. If we have alluded to his love, let us recall however that this is here not so much the hallmark of his reign as are wisdom and peace, but that Jehovah is celebrated on account of His loving-kindness which endures forever. Even his righteousness is presented in Chronicles only in the government of the nations; his throne is described (2 Chr. 9: 17-19) because it has to do with the kingdom, but the house of the forest of Lebanon where the throne is found in its judicial character, is completely absent here (cf. 1 Kings 7: 2-7). In that which is presented to us everything is perfect, and it is astonishing that writings of pious people can affirm the very opposite. No doubt this is because these persons confuse the books of Kings and Chronicles. As a type, the Word can go no further, but let us remember that it cannot give us a picture of perfection when it uses the first Adam as an example unless it passes over his imperfections and serious sins in absolute silence.

At this point in our account we must notice the absolute omission in Chronicles of 1 Kings 11: 1-40: Solomon's sin which was not forgiven; his love for many foreign women; the idolatry of his old age; God's wrath aroused against him; the adversaries raised up against him, Hadad the Edomite, and Rezon the son of Eliada (1 Kings 11: 14-25); the judgment pronounced on his kingdom (1 Kings 11: 11); and lastly, Jeroboam's revolt. Now such omissions make the purpose and general thought of our book shine out before our eyes.

Solomon's Successors

The Era of the Prophets

2 Chronicles 10-36

2 Chronicles 10 marks the second division of Chronicles. Its first division has embraced the history of David and Solomon. Until the end of our book we now have the history of the kingdom of Judah, the counterpart of the kingdom of Israel taken up in the books of the Kings. But before studying Solomon's successors, we must give a brief exposition of what makes their history special.

We have said that Chronicles presents the picture of God's counsels with regard to the kingdom. These counsels have been accomplished in type, but only in type, under the reigns of David and Solomon. David, the suffering and rejected king, has become, in his Son, the king of peace, the king of glory who sits upon the throne of Jehovah. However, although Chronicles is careful to omit Solomon's faults entirely, he was not the true king according to God's counsels. The words “I will be his father, and he shall be My son” (2 Sam. 7: 14) could not find their complete fulfillment in him. The decree “Thou art My Son; I this day have begotten thee” (Ps. 2: 7), did not relate to him, but directed hope to One greater and more perfect than he. But, in order that this future Son might be “the offspring of David,” David's line must be maintained until His appearing; this is why God had promised David “to give to him always a lamp, and to his sons” (2 Chr. 21: 7). Now, how was this lamp going to shine in the royal house until the appearing of the promised Son? How was it to pass through man's poisoned air and moral darkness without being extinguished — which would have made David's true Heir's appearing impossible? Satan understood this. If he could succeed in extinguishing the lamp, all of God's counsels concerning the “Just Ruler over men” would come to naught. But, despite all the enemy's efforts to suppress this light, the Son of David appeared in the world, won the victory over Satan, and became for the Church the Yea and Amen of all God's promises. Yet this subject, revealed in the New Testament, is not what is in question here; as we have seen, Chronicles deals only with the earthly kingdom of Christ over Israel and the nations. This kingdom was contested to the end by Satan. When the King whom the magi worshipped appeared as a small Child, the enemy sought to cut Him off through the murder of the children at Bethlehem. At the cross where he thought to make an end of Him, he could not prevent Him from being declared king of the Jews in sight of all by Pilate's inscription; and, when the enemy thought he was victorious, God resurrected His Anointed and made Him Lord and Christ before the eyes of the whole house of Israel.

Let us return to our book. If for the reasons above it does not show us Satan's maneuvers during Solomon's reign, it speaks of them in an all the more striking manner during the subsequent reigns. The enemy seduces the king and his people to lead them into idolatry; he uses violence in an effort to destroy and wipe out the royal line. But God's watchful care reaches the people's conscience and, when everything seems lost, the Spirit's breath comes to revive the wick that is going out. There are situations where a Joram, an Ahaziah, an Ahaz are so reprobate that they are delivered up to consuming fire, for God Himself, always mindful of “good things,” can no longer acknowledge any good in these kings, and everything, absolutely everything, must be judged. The lamp is extinguished; deepest darkness reigns; Satan triumphs, but only in appearance. God preserves a feeble shoot of this reprobate trunk in the person of Ahaziah — yes, but this single shoot spared from the murder of the royal race, is himself found to be a dry branch destined for the fire. Anew the entire line is annihilated. Is it completely destroyed now? No, there it is — reborn in the person of Joash, and the Spirit of God is once again able to find in him “good things.” In this manner the royal succession continues, so that David's line is not wiped out by these reprobates (see Matt. 1). Thus Satan's struggle against God results in Satan's confusion. What, then, is the reason for his defeat? One thing explains it: the only thing that Satan, who knows so much, has never thought of nor could think of. The secret which he is ignorant of is grace, for his so cunning intelligence is completely impervious to love. This entire second portion of Chronicles could thus be entitled The history of grace in relation to the kingdom of Judah. When grace can revive the flame so as to maintain the light of testimony, it does not fail to do so; when, in the face of the willful hardening of heart of the kings, it can produce nothing, it still raises up to them a posterity from which it can expect some fruit.

Thus we shall witness Satan's desperate struggle against God's counsels and, at the same time, the triumph of grace. This entire period is summarized in the words of the prophet: “Who is a God like unto Thee, that forgiveth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in loving-kindness. He will yet again have compassion on us; He will tread under foot our iniquities: and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7: 18-19).

Nevertheless a time comes when the ruin appears irremediable, when in the struggle Satan's triumph seems assured. The kingdom sinks under waves of judgment; although, as we have seen in the genealogies (1 Chr. 3: 19, 24), feeble representatives of the royal line, without titles, without prerogatives, without authority and without a realm continue to exist. After them, the line — ever more obscure and brought low — perpetuates itself in silence until we reach a poor carpenter who becomes the reputed father of the “woman's Seed.” Christ is born!

Thus nothing has been able to thwart God's counsels — neither Satan's efforts, nor the unfaithfulness of the kings. No doubt, these counsels have been hidden for a time until the coming of the Messiah, depicted beforehand in the person of Solomon. The throne remained empty, but empty only in appearance, until the King of righteousness and peace could sit on it. Here He is! This little Child, lowly, rejected from the time of His appearance, possesses every title to the kingdom. But see Him, hear Him! The crowds seek Him to make Him king; He hides Himself and withdraws; He forbids His disciples to speak of His kingdom. This is because before He receives it, He has another mission, another service to accomplish. He declares Himself king before Pilate and this leads to His execution, but He goes to lay hold of a kingdom which is not of this world. He abandons all His rights — not reserving a single one of them — to the hands of His enemies; He is silent, like a sheep before its shearers. This is because He must carry out a completely different task, the immense work of redemption which leads Him to the cross.

Having accomplished this work, He receives, in resurrection, the heavenly sphere of the kingdom. Like Solomon of old He is seated on His Father's throne while waiting to be seated on His own throne. This moment will come for Him, the true King of Israel and of the nations, but it has not yet arrived. He awaits only a sign from His Father to take the reins of earthly government in hand.

From the moment of His appearing as a little Child, there is no more need of a royal succession. Note: We say “succession” because we would not forget that the “prince” or viceroy of Ezekiel is of royal seed (cf. Ezek. 46: 1-18; Ezek. 48: 21). The King exists, the King lives, the King is enthroned in heaven today; soon He will be proclaimed Lord of all the earth and the offspring of David for His people Israel. But until His appearing, to maintain His line of descent, there is, as we have said, but one means: grace. This is why we have the remarkable peculiarity in Chronicles that everything, even in the worst of kings, that could be the fruit of grace, is carefully recorded. Everywhere that God can do so, He points it out. So, too, this account is not, as we find in Kings, the portrayal of responsible royalty, but the portrayal of the activity of grace in these men. The Spirit of God works even in the dreadfully hardened heart of a Manasseh in order to prolong the royal line of descent a little longer in an offspring (Josiah) who rules according to God's heart. Despite these momentary revivals, the ruin becomes increasingly accentuated. Differing in this from Kings and the prophet Jeremiah, Chronicles scarcely stoops to register Josiah's successors in a few verses before hastening to reach the end: the return from captivity, shining proof of God's grace toward this people.

In order to accomplish the work of grace which would at last bring in the triumph of the kingdom in the person of Christ, it was necessary that the dispensation of the law, without being abolished, undergo an important modification. Under the kings, the system of law continued, for it did not end until Christ; the system of grace had not yet begun, for it finds its full expression at the cross; but during the period of the kings God intervened in an altogether new way in order to manifest His ways of grace under the system of law. He did this by having prophets appear.

Not that this appearing was restricted to the system begun by the kings, for it became evident from the moment that Israel's history was characterized by ruin. Thus we see the first prophets (not mentioning Enoch, then Moses) appearing when the ruin was complete in Israel. In the book of Judges, when the entire people failed, we see the prophetess Deborah arising (Judges 4: 4), and later a prophet (Judges 6: 7-10). Later on, when the priesthood was in ruin Samuel was raised up as a prophet (1 Sam. 3: 20). In the books of Kings and Chronicles, at last, when kingship failed, prophets appeared and multiplied beyond our ability to count them.

Note:

List of the prophets cited in the second book of Chronicles:

Nathan (2 Chr. 9: 29);

Ahijah the Shilonite (2 Chr. 9: 29; 2 Chr. 10: 15).

Iddo the seer (2 Chr. 9: 29; 2 Chr. 12: 15; 2 Chr. 13: 22).

Shemaiah the man of God (2 Chr. 11: 2; 2 Chr. 12: 5, 15).

Azariah the son of Oded (2 Chr. 15: 1), and Oded (v. 8).

Hanani the seer (2 Chr. 16: 7).

Micah (or Micaiah) the son of Imlah (2 Chr. 18: 7).

Jehu the son of Hanani, the seer (2 Chr. 19: 2; 2 Chr. 20: 34).

Jahaziel the son of Zechariah (2 Chr. 20: 14).

Eliezer the son of Dodavah (2 Chr. 20: 37).

Elijah the prophet (2 Chr. 21: 12).

Several prophets and Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (2 Chr. 24: 19, 20).

A man of God (2 Chr. 25: 7).

A prophet (2 Chr. 25: 15).

Zechariah the seer (2 Chr. 26: 5).

Isaiah the son of Amoz (2 Chr. 26: 22; 2 Chr. 32: 32).

Oded (2 Chr. 28: 9).

Micah the Morasthite (Jer. 26: 18).

Some seers (or prophets) (2 Chr. 33: 18-19, cf. 2 Kings 21: 10).

Huldah the prophetess (2 Chr. 34: 22)

Jeremiah (2 Chr. 35: 2 Chr. 25; 2 Chr. 36: 12, 21).

Messengers and prophets (2 Chr. 36: 15, 16); cf. Uriah the son of Shemaiah (Jer. 26: 20).

They inaugurated a new dispensation of God, become necessary when all was ruined, when the law had shown itself powerless to rule and keep in check the corrupt nature of man; when even combined with mercy (when the tables of the law were given to Moses a second time) it had in no way improved this condition. It was then that God sent His prophets. On certain occasions they announce only impending judgment, the last effort of divine mercy to save the people, through fire as it were; on other much more numerous occasions they are sent to exhort, to restore, to console, to strengthen, to call to repentance, while at the same time bringing out the judicial consequences for those who do not give heed. Thus the prophet simultaneously has a ministry of grace and of judgment: of grace because the Lord is a God of goodness, of judgment because the people are placed under law and prophecy does not abolish the law. On the contrary, it rests on the law while at the same time loudly proclaiming that at the least little returning to God, the sinner will find mercy. It is no doubt an easing of the law: God grants the sinner all that is compatible with His holiness, but, on the other hand, He cannot deny His own character in face of man's responsibility. Prophecy does not abolish one iota of the law, but rather it accentuates, more than God had ever done up till now, the great fact that He loves mercy and forgiveness and takes account of the least indication of return towards Himself. “When the prophets come on the scene,” a brother has said, “grace begins to shine anew.” The very fact of their testimony was already grace toward a people who had violated the law. If they came looking for fruit and found nothing but sour grapes, nonetheless they announced God's promises in grace to the elect — grace as a reparation of the things which the people had spoiled. The gospel, which came afterwards, speaks of new creation, of a new life, and not of a reparation. In Isaiah 58: 13-14 we see the different character of the law and of prophecy in the way in which they present the Sabbath: “If thou...” says the prophet, “call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of Jehovah, honorable; and thou honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking idle words; then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah.”

Thus a special characteristic of God is expressed by the prophets. It is not the law, given at Sinai, still less is it the grace revealed in the gospel. It is rather a God who, while He shows His indignation against sin, takes no pleasure in judgment and whose true character of grace will always triumph in the end; a God who says: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people” when they have “received...double for all [their] sins.” Under pure law judgment triumphs over iniquity; under prophecy, grace and mercy triumph when judgment has been executed; and finally under the gospel, grace is exalted over judgment because love and righteousness have kissed each other at the cross. The judgment executed on Christ has caused grace to triumph. Judgment fell on Him instead of on us — grace in its fullness, love, God Himself has been for us.

The entire role of prophecy is expressed in the passage from the prophet Micah cited above (Micah 7: 18-19). It is impossible, and this is what the prophet announces here, for God to deny Himself, whether with regard to His judgments, or whether with regard to His promises of grace.

Such is the role of the prophets in Chronicles. If at first they appear singly, as in the Judges and then under the reign of Saul, of David, and of Solomon, they then multiply in the measure in which iniquity grows in the kingdom. This is what the Lord expresses in Matthew 21: 34-36. After the few servants at the beginning, of whom the husbandmen beat one, killed another, and stoned a third, the householder sent other servants, more than the first, and the husbandmen treated them in the same way. At last He sent His Son.

2 Chronicles 10-12

Rehoboam

Here we reach the dividing line in Chronicles separating the reign of David and Solomon from those of their successors. As we have said above, the subject we will take up will no longer present us the counsels of God regarding the kingdom, but rather the work of grace to maintain it until the appearance of the Messiah, in whom these counsels will be realized. Thus we have here the history — ordinarily distressing, sometimes comforting — of the kings of Judah, for the kings of Israel are not mentioned except in relation to Judah and Jerusalem. This is exactly the counterpart of the account in Kings.

It is a remarkable fact--and one confirming everything we have said particularly concerning David and Solomon, types of royalty according to God's counsels--that here the Word not only omits Solomon's sins at the end of his career, but it even omits their consequences, as it did earlier in the first book of Chronicles with the chastening that came on David because of Uriah: evident proof that David and Solomon occupy a special place in these books. The accession of Jeroboam to the throne and the division of the kingdom are here presented as the consequence of Rehoboam's sin, and not that of his father; likewise, Ahijah's prophecy to Jeroboam is fulfilled, not because Solomon sinned, but because “[Rehoboam] hearkened not to the people” (2 Chr. 10: 15). Moreover, we see in this same passage referred to in 1 Kings 11: 31-33, that God does not intend to hide Solomon's faults, but that rather the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to omit them.

The establishment of Jeroboam the son of Nebat on the throne of Israel is also passed over in silence, which is important, for the history here is uniquely that of Judah, and not that of Israel (cf. 1 Kings 12: 20). For the same reason our account omits Jeroboam's establishment of idolatry, the story of the old prophet, the illness of Abijah the son of Jeroboam, and Ahijah's prophecy on this occasion (1 Kings 12: 25 to 14: 20).

Rehoboam's history spans chapters 10 to 12, whereas Kings summarizes it in a few verses (1 Kings 14: 21-31); but — the detail is characteristic — this latter passage presents the darkest picture of the condition of the people, whereas our chapters record the good which grace produces in the king's heart, though it is said of him (2 Chr. 12: 14): “And he did evil, for he applied not his heart to seek Jehovah.” 2 Chronicles 11 tells us two important facts: Rehoboam had thought to bring the ten tribes back under the yoke of obedience, but in doing so he would have been opposing God's governmental dealings with Judah. The prophet Shemaiah turns him from a decision which would have led to his ruin and would have had the most serious consequences for the tribe of Judah, on which the eyes of the Lord were still resting, despite His judgments. Grace acts in the hearts of the people; he listens to the exhortation and does not follow through on his dangerous plan. From henceforth Rehoboam's only task was to build a system of defense against the enemies from without, enemies who were his own people and who had formerly been under his governing authority. Rehoboam surrounds the territory of Judah and Benjamin with fortresses (2 Chr. 11: 5-12). His only duty was to preserve that which was left to him, but how could he do so when evil was already present within and ravaging the kingdom? However his responsibility to guard the people was in no way diminished by evil which was already irreparable. This principle is of great importance for us. Christendom's state of irremediable ruin in no way changes our obligation to defend souls against the harmful principles which are at work. We have the sad task of raising up strongholds against a world similar to the ten tribes, which called on the name of the Lord while giving themselves over to idolatry — against a world which decks itself out with the name of Christ while abandoning itself to its lusts. We are to make Christendom understand and feel that there is a separation between true Christians and mere professors whom God ranks with His enemies. This hostility brought on the conflict between Judah and Israel, and was bound up with the idolatrous worship which Jeroboam established and imposed on the ten tribes. Public and official maintenance of the worship of God in Judah had very blessed consequences: “The priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their districts; for the Levites left their suburbs and their possessions, and came to Judah and Jerusalem...and after them, those out of all the tribes of Israel that set their heart to seek Jehovah the God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to Jehovah the God of their fathers” (2 Chr. 11: 13-16). All those who had an undivided heart for God, even though they had been caught up for the moment in the revolt of the ten tribes, understand that their place in not in the midst of these tribes and they leave this defiled ground in order to come to Judah and settle there. This is how faithful testimony, holy separation from the world, produces fruit in believers who have hitherto been detained by their circumstances in a sphere which the Lord no longer acknowledges, and how they are moved to join their brothers who gather around the Lord. If this gathering together soon lost its character, was it not because Judah and her kings abandoned the divine ground that they might themselves sacrifice to idols? Indeed, this testimony of separation from evil lasted only a short time: “For during three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon,” and during this period “they strengthened the kingdom of Judah” (v. 17). For three years! Why didn't they continue! This was the path of blessing for Judah and her king, and is it not likewise for us? Blessing might have been complete even amidst the ultimate humiliation inflicted on Israel. It proved to be only temporary.

This momentary blessing through which the kingdom of Judah was strengthened and Israel established itself became a snare for Rehoboam. The flesh uses even God's favors as an occasion to depart from Him. “And it came to pass when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established, and when he had become strong, that he forsook the law of Jehovah, and all Israel with him” (2 Chr. 12: 1). It is enough that one man, commissioned by the Lord to shepherd His people, turn aside: his example will be followed by all the rest. What a responsibility for him! Chastening soon follows: “And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, because they had transgressed against Jehovah, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen...and he took the fortified cities that belonged to Judah, and came to Jerusalem” (2 Chr. 12: 2-4). Judah did not fall prey to their brother Israel, against whose religion they rightfully defended themselves; they fell, a much deeper downfall, into the hands of a world from which God had once redeemed them by a strong hand and stretched-forth arm — and, as of old, they were brought under subjection to the king of Egypt.

God's purpose in chastening them is proclaimed in the prophecy of Shemaiah, the prophet: “That they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries” (v. 8). They could henceforth compare their three years of liberty and free blessing with the bondage of Egypt. As a result of the words of Shemaiah, the prophet: “Ye have forsaken Me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak,” there was a real work of conscience in the heart of the king and his princes, for they “humbled themselves; and they said, Jehovah is righteous,” and this humbling of themselves preserved Judah from complete destruction. “And when Jehovah saw that they humbled themselves, the word of Jehovah came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves: I will not destroy them, but I will grant them a little deliverance; and My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants” (v. 7). This is grace, but, I repeat, Judah is obliged to suffer the consequences of having abandoned the word of God. All this work of repentance, the fruit of grace, is lacking — and with just cause — in 1 Kings 14. We shall see this same thing constantly repeated in the course of this book.

What shame for Rehoboam! Solomon's beautiful temple has existed but thirty years when it is stripped of its ornaments and all its treasures. Their worship has lost the splendor of its past; Shishak, we are told, took all. All! but nevertheless one thing still remains: the altar is there, God is there. For faith, amid desolation and humiliation this was much more than all the gold taken away by the king of Egypt. Is it not the same today? Christians are called upon to assess everything they are lacking as a result of the Church's unfaithfulness; and they must add, The Lord is righteous; but they may also say, God is a God of grace and has not turned aside from us. We find a very touching word for our hearts here: When Rehoboam “humbled himself, the anger of Jehovah turned away from him, that He would not destroy him altogether; and also in Judah there were good things” (v. 12). Few things, perhaps — and this is exactly what this term gives us to understand — but in the final analysis, something that God could acknowledge. Final judgment was deferred because of these few favorable little things that were pleasing to God. Let us apply ourselves, each one individually, to maintain these good things before Him. May those around us notice some measure of devotion to Christ, some measure of love for Him, some measure of fear in the presence of His holiness, some measure of activity in His service. We may be sure that He will take it into account and that as long as it continues He will not remove the lamp from its place.

How fair our God is in His judgments, even in the presence of a state of which He says: “He did evil, for he applied not his heart to seek the Lord” (v. 14). It is marvelous grace indeed that while not tolerating any evil at all, is pleased to acknowledge that which is good, and that discerns it when man's eye is incapable of seeing it, whether within or without himself. Think of this with regard to 1 Kings 14: 22-24: “Judah did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed more than all that their fathers had done. And they also built for themselves high places, and columns, and Asherahs on every high hill and under every green tree; and there were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.” Reading these words, we marvel all the more at God's infinite goodness which, on account of a few righteous persons, was not willing entirely to destroy this people as He had once destroyed Sodom.

Let us mention yet one more detail before closing these chapters. The great number of Rehoboam's wives and concubines is an imitation of Solomon's sin which led to the ruin of his kingdom. It would seem that the relationship between the conduct of son and father ought to be mentioned. But nothing is said. In 2 Chronicles, Solomon, as we have often said, is looked at as being without fault, and judgment is directed toward Rehoboam alone. Nevertheless, even amidst this disorder and when Rehoboam raises the daughter of Absalom, the rebel, and Abijah, this woman's son, to the first place, God is pleased to acknowledge that Rehoboam “dealt wisely” in dispersing his sons throughout all the lands of Judah in order to avoid discord in the kingdom (2 Chr. 11: 18-23). This is similar to the praise of “the unrighteous steward because he had done prudently” (Luke 16: 8).

2 Chronicles 13

Abijah

The events related in this chapter are passed over in silence in 1 Kings 15. The latter limits itself to mentioning that there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life and that the same thing was so between Abijah and Jeroboam. It adds that Abijah “walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as the heart of David his father. But for David's sake Jehovah his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem; because David did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, and turned not aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (1 Kings 15: 3-5). In this passage, it is on account of David that God gives a godly successor to Abijah in the person of Asa, his son, and also on account of Jerusalem which God had chosen as the city of His Anointed. Here, there is nothing of the kind. As always, in this part of Chronicles it is grace ruling in spite of everything. At most, Abijah's conduct is characterized in verse 21 as that in which he imitated King Solomon's walk as the book of Kings reveals it to us: “But Abijah...took fourteen wives, and begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.”

The battle between Abijah and Jeroboam, omitted in the book of Kings, gives us serious, solemn instruction as to Abijah's moral condition. Jeroboam, twice as strong as Abijah, had 800,000 chosen men against Judah's 400,000. We find the same proportion in Luke 14: 31: “Or what king, going on his way to engage in war with another king, does not, sitting down first, take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him coming against him with twenty thousand?” Only Abijah does not sit down here to calculate. He counts on his religion which is the true one to resist Jeroboam with his false religion. His speech on Mount Zemaraim, for he had already invaded the territory of the ten tribes, proves it. The argument with which he opposes Jeroboam (vv. 5-12) is composed of five points in which Judah was perfectly justified:

1. The Lord's covenant with Judah, through David, was for ever. God's counsels concerning the royal line could never be reversed. Abijah was right to claim the unchangeable counsels of God against his enemy.

2. The ten tribes through their king were in open rebellion against the seed of David, the Lord's Anointed: “But Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord. And vain men, sons of Belial, gathered to him and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and Rehoboam was young and faint-hearted, and did not show himself strong against them” (vv. 6-7).

3. Moreover, they were idolaters and were counting on their false gods to gain the victory: “And now ye think to show yourselves strong against the kingdom of Jehovah in the hand of the sons of David; and ye are a great multitude, and ye have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods.” (v. 8).

4. And furthermore, they had completely abandoned the worship of Jehovah; they had driven away the priests, and had established new ones according to their liking. “But as for us,” Abijah adds, “Jehovah is our God, and we have not forsaken Him.” All this condemned Israel and her king; all this was true.

5. Judah, for her part, had God at her head, and His priests, and His trumpets which were used to assemble the people; and in fact, what Jeroboam was doing was making war against God. Once again, all this was true. What was Judah lacking? Only this: Judah had the true religion, but without realizing her sin and disgrace. What she lacked was an awakened conscience.

Is it not the same in our day? One may, for example, be a Protestant, have God's Word, have knowledge of the true God, understand perfectly what is lacking in Catholicism, that semi-idolatrous religion, be able to refute its errors victoriously, possess all the truths that make up Christianity — and nevertheless be very far from God, without strength to withstand the twenty thousand. One has not first sat down to deliberate upon his own forces. Everything that Abijah brought forth was insufficient and could not give him the victory. He lacked something: an affected conscience; the realization of his own guilt, not in comparison to others and their errors, but rather by himself having to do with God.

The rest of this account bears this out. Jeroboam's 800,000 men are able to completely surround Abijah's 400,000 men. The result is that Judah is lost; it had to begin there. “And Judah looked back, and behold, they had the battle in front and behind; and they cried to Jehovah, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. And the men of Judah gave a shout” (vv. 14-15). It is only from this point: I am lost, that the loud-sounding trumpets can sound against the enemy (v. 12). Instead of confiding in his trumpets against the adversaries it is necessary to cry out to God for himself, and it is only then that the trumpets can resound, that is to say, that the testimony can be effective. Salvation can only come from Him and not from even the most orthodox forms of religion. We must always begin with our own condition, not with that of others; we then find that the cross is our only resource and, having found this for ourselves, we can apply it to all those who have as urgent a need of it as we. “Out of the depths do I call upon Thee, Jehovah,” says the Psalmist. “Lord, hear my voice; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If Thou, Jah, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared...” and only then does he cry: “Let Israel hope in Jehovah...He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Ps. 130).

If this is so for the testimony, it is the same for the combat. From the moment we realize our lost condition and cry to the Lord, victory is ours. Judging others can not save ourselves; the secret of victory is in the conviction that sin robs us of all strength and makes us incapable of withstanding the enemy. This victory is not due to any effort on our part, since we are incapable; it can only come from God Himself: “God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. And the children of Israel fled before Judah; and God delivered them into their hand” (vv. 15-16). From this moment on, the children of Judah no longer relied on their religion: “[They] were strengthened, because they relied upon Jehovah the God of their fathers” (v. 18). From that moment on all Jeroboam's strength dwindled, “and Jehovah smote him, and he died” (v. 20).

The realization of their complete lack of power brings Abijah and his people something even more important than victory: they recover Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron — but especially Bethel, the place where the faithful God had given promises to Jacob. Indeed, the way to acquire God's promises is to begin by recognizing one's self to be lost and crying out to the Lord. Our unfaithfulness has separated us from the place of promises, but if we acknowledge ourselves as lost and cry out to God, we will recover them all, for Christ has secured them for us, He, the Yea and Amen of all the promises of God. Without Bethel, Judah was morally decapitated, as it were. Moreover, Bethel was the place where one could not present himself before God without having buried his false gods (Gen. 35: 2-4). It was therefore a momentary restoration of this poor people and their poor king — a very partial restoration, for Abijah still continued to follow a path (v. 21) which had brought on the division of the kingdom.

2 Chronicles 14-16

Asa

2 Chronicles 14

Rest and Strength

We come to the account of Asa's happy reign, introduced by the pure grace of God, as it is said in 1 Kings 15: 4: “But for David's sake Jehovah his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem” in the person of Asa. All is blessing for Asa in the first part of his reign — and we shall see the cause for this — but in 2 Chronicles 16 we shall also find the cause of his decline.

We find much piety in Asa. He removes every trace of idolatry from Judah, including the high places which the kings who preceded him and even Solomon had tolerated — although it is not the purpose of Chronicles to mention the fault of the latter. In 2 Chronicles 15 we shall see that Asa did not maintain this energetic attitude to the end. But in Judah he was the first king who, at the beginning of his reign, passed judgment on the high places and broke them down, whereas Jeroboam had made them a religious institution for the ten tribes, and had even established a special priesthood there (2 Chr. 11: 15) in opposition to the worship of the Lord at Jerusalem. This is always the consequence of abandoning God who has revealed Himself in His Word. Man can not live without religion: if he does not have the religion of the true God, he will invent a false religion to satisfy his conscience and answer to his instincts. Atheism itself is a religion which delivers man, bound hand and foot, to superstition, that is to say, to the worship of demons and to anarchy. When man's own will becomes his god, Satan masters him and triumphs. What trouble, what agitation, what despair, what fatal sorrow gets hold of the fool who has said in his heart, “There is no God!” And, on the other hand, what rest there is in separation from evil and in the worship of the holy God, the true God! The Word insists on this point here: “In his days the land was quiet ten years” (v. 1). “The kingdom was quiet before him” (v. 5). “The land had rest...Jehovah had given him rest” (v. 6). “Jehovah...has given us rest on every side” (v. 7).

How did Asa make use of this rest? He did not act like David who thought of resting while his own were in the field; on the contrary, he availed himself of this quiet which God granted him to defend himself against the enemy from without: “He said to Judah, Let us build these cities, and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars, while the land is yet before us; for we have sought Jehovah our God, we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side. And they built and prospered” (vv. 6-7).

What instruction Asa's attitude gives us! When God gives us rest, it is so that we may concentrate all our activities to forearm ourselves against the attacks of the enemy. The latter will not be slow to return. Our means of defense and our fortresses are the Word and nothing but the Word. Let us use the time when we are not assailed by storms to ground ourselves in the Word and draw from it our strength to withstand. However, the fortified cities — entry to which is forbidden the enemy — are not enough; Asa possesses an army inured to war. “And Asa had an army that bore targets and spears: out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew the bow, two hundred and eighty thousand: all these, mighty men of valor” (v. 8). To avoid defeat in battle it is necessary to bear arms on the right hand and on the left, and above all to know how to use the two-edged sword which is the Word of God. It is only thus that we may, after having overcome all, stand firm when conflict arises.

Then comes the attack of Zerah the Ethiopian, passed over in silence in the first book of Kings. What will Asa do? He is in the same situation as his father was in relation to Jeroboam (2 Chr. 13); with 580,000 men he must fight Zerah who has a million at his command. But instead of relying like Abijah on the merits of his religion to win the battle, Asa first of all sits down and deliberates whether he with 10,000 men can withstand him who is coming against him with 20,000. The result of his deliberation leaves him no doubt; he goes out against the enemy. What, then, is the source of his confidence? His being right? His religion, giving him the assurance, as it gave his father Abijah, that God must be with him? That is not where Asa's secret lies. Asa is a man of faith, who has learned in God's presence that he can have no confidence in the flesh, but that there is strength outside himself to which he may ever resort. His daily connection with the temple of God at Jerusalem caused him to know this; before his eyes at the entrance of the sanctuary he had the column of Boaz which means: “In Him is strength!” And so with what assurance, when it came to combat, he addresses Jehovah: “Jehovah, it maketh no difference to Thee to help, whether there be much or no power: help us, O Jehovah our God, for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name have we come against this multitude. Jehovah, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee” (v. 11). It is in this spirit that Asa undertakes the struggle; he recognizes great strength in the enemy, none in himself, but he goes forth in the name of the Lord, depending on Him, and in no way disturbed by his own weakness, because therein the strength of God is displayed. This entire passage is the lesson of our strength; the most powerful enemy has no strength against God, and it requires only faith to make this experience. Satan himself was obliged to acknowledge this when his hatred attacked Christ: at the cross where he thought he was at last rid of Him, he met God's power in the weakness of God.

The Ethiopians flee; “they could not revive.” This was because Israel was not Asa's army but God's army: “They were crushed before Jehovah and before His army” (v. 13). This victory of Asa's involved not only the defeat of the enemy, but also the positive conquest of cities, spoil, flocks, and riches (vv. 14-15). So for us every victory over the Enemy, based on self-judgment, is the source of new, precious acquisitions, drawn out of the treasure of the unfathomable riches of Christ.

After the victory, Asa and his people “returned to Jerusalem.” There, in the city of God, close to Jehovah's temple, in fellowship with Him, they go on to renew their strength.

Secular history tells us nothing of this memorable combat. Zerah and his one million men are but a fable in the eyes of unbelievers. The monuments, so they tell us, do not mention this extraordinary combat. For the believer, this silence is very simple. Asa cannot claim his own victory over the Ethiopian; it is up to God, whose victory it is, to record it; therefore we cannot find this document save in the written Word. And do you think that Zerah would proclaim his defeat? Have you ever found an inscription of Egypt, Syria, Moab, or Assyria where their kings recorded a defeat? On their part there is absolute silence. Later the king of Moab will proclaim his victories (on the Moabite stone), but not the defeat that preceded them. Such is the confidence that we can place in the authenticity of history written by man.

2 Chronicles 15

Strength and Purification

At this period of Asa's history, the prophet Azariah the son of Oded comes to encourage and exhort the king. The prophets of Judah, compared to those of Israel, are distinguished by their great number. Even Hosea and Amos, prophets of Israel, have a special mission for Judah. It is true that Elijah and Elisha, those great prophets, were sent exclusively to Israel, but their ministry was a very special one. When the prophets of Baal and the false prophets were multiplying, they performed miracles in the midst of an apostate people fallen into idolatry. Their miracles were given for unbelievers and not for those who worshipped the true God. We have remarked elsewhere that we rarely see a prophet of Judah performing a miracle such as, for example, that of Ahaz's sundial. The first prophets of Judah speak; their successors write their prophecies. Under Rehoboam, the prophet Shemaiah, under Abijah the prophet Iddo, under Asa other prophets are not yet writing; it is only beginning with the reign of Uzziah that the major and minor prophets with their writings appear. In Israel, Elijah is a prophet of judgment; Elisha brings grace in the midst of a scene that is judged; the prophets of Judah announce judgments, but exhort the king and the people to repentance so that they may find mercy, for they persist in grace. Only in their written prophecies do they predict a future day when the counsels of God concerning the kingdom will be accomplished; oral prophecy does not go so far, announcing events near at hand, whereas written prophecy has another range: “The scope of no prophecy of Scripture is had from its own particular interpretation” (2 Peter 1: 20).

Here the prophecy of Azariah, or rather that of Oded his father whose messenger he is (v. 8), bears the character of all spoken prophecy. It addresses the king first of all, then the two faithful tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Azariah presents the conditions of the covenant of law: “Jehovah is with you, while ye are with Him; and if ye seek Him He will be found of you, but if ye forsake Him He will forsake you” (v. 2). It was necessary that this covenant be observed by both sides; on Jehovah's side it is always observed, for He is faithful, whereas Israel, if they were to be unfaithful, would of necessity fall under the judgment of God who must forsake them. Azariah then recalls the former days when all the people had been unfaithful; alluding particularly to the time of the Judges, when through Israel's disobedience the most complete disorder had reigned: “Now for a long while Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law, but in their trouble they turned to Jehovah the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found of them. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great disturbances were amongst all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was broken against nation, and city against city; for God disturbed them with all manner of distress” (vv. 3-6). God, the priesthood, and the law had disappeared, so to speak; every man had been a law to himself. It was the reign of iniquity. Then how many times the people in their anguish had cried out to the Lord and returned to Him! And each time they had found God to be a Deliverer. There is “no peace” in forsaking God — no rest, no peace for the wicked, says Isaiah — but trouble upon trouble; on the contrary, from the moment the king returns again, as Asa did, there was peace and rest (cf. 2 Chr. 14: 1).

Azariah does not speak of the ten tribes; he considers Judah and Benjamin the people of God; Israel is already conclusively given up as a testimony of the Lord, although centuries must yet pass before her final rejection.

After the exhortation we find encouragement: “But as for you, be firm and let not your hands be weak: for there is a reward for your deeds” (v. 7). Do not we also, though we are under the regime of grace, need to pay heed to this exhortation? According to God's government, now hidden, but which exists no less in all its reality, there is a present reward, not only a future one, for our acts. This reward is peace, rest, and strength. This is what Asa had experienced, but the continuation of his history will show us just how much he needed to be exhorted — and all we together with him.

As soon as Asa had heard the words of this prophecy, “he took courage.” Here we find a new characteristic of strength, which does not consist, as previously, of victory over the Ethiopians, but rather in practical purification. Asa “put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities that he had taken from mount Ephraim” (v. 8). So it must be for us too: Everything that is abominable in the sight of God, every defilement, must be resolutely banished from our lives so that we may enjoy unmingled fellowship with Him. This can only take place through the strength and energy of faith, that energy which the apostle Peter calls “virtue.” The Christian life does not allow letting things go. The prophet tells us, “Be firm.” We have at our disposal the strength, the power of the Spirit of God, based on His Word. We lack nothing; therefore let us make profitable use of our strength.

Asa does not confine himself, as he had done previously (2 Chr. 14: 3-5), to purifying the cities of Judah: he also put away the abominations “out of the cities that he had taken from mount Ephraim.” After the king's victory God had enlarged his sphere of activity (2 Chr. 14: 14), and he was now responsible that the same principles of holiness be adopted there as in the territory of Judah. But that was not sufficient: Asa “renewed the altar of Jehovah” (v. 8). I have no doubt that here it is a matter, as in many other passages, of renewing the sacrifices regularly offered on the altar according to the law. This altar, built by Solomon, was still whole and did not need to be renewed, as when ungodly Ahaz substituted another altar in its place (2 Kings 16). In brief, Jehovah's worship according to the prescriptions of the Word — this worship, already neglected under the preceding reigns — was re-established according to God's mind. Wherever we find true and energetic separation from the defilement of the world, it does not take long for the worship of God's children to resume its honored place.

Another result of Asa's faithfulness was the regathering of Israel: “And he assembled all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon; for they fell away to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him” (v. 9). Worship having been re-established, Israel's unity is realized in the feeble measure befitting a time of division and ruin: the sight of God's favor manifested toward His faithful people acted upon the consciences of those who up till now had formed part of the ten tribes and who from their origin were found associated with Jeroboam's idolatry.

“And they assembled themselves at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. And they sacrificed to Jehovah in that day, of the spoil that they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep” (vv. 10-11). The results of the victory are here consecrated to the Lord, and so it should always be. If our successes lead us to depend on ourselves, to be self-satisfied, to increase our own well-being, victory will become a snare for us and will turn us aside from God instead of bringing us closer to Him.

The renewal of the covenant following the revival brought on by the prophetic word is accompanied by great joy, for they “sought [Jehovah] with all their heart; and He was found of them” (v. 15). Every renewal of the covenant accompanies a true work of conscience in the people. They had broken the covenant, they acknowledge it and humble themselves, they return to it and feel the blessing immediately. It was likewise under Hezekiah, Joash, Ezra, and Nehemiah — however we must add that the covenant was violated anew each time, for the man who still does not know himself must learn what he is on the basis of responsibility. Be that as it may, joy is the result of every restoration, even of one that is partial and temporary. Jehovah “was found of them,” and never, even in the darkest moments of man's history, has He hidden Himself from those who seek Him. To find the Lord! What a treasure! Why should they not rejoice! What rest when He is found! “Jehovah gave them rest round about.” In the preceding chapter we saw the strength that follows rest; in our present chapter we see the rest that follows strength, and so it is that in a faithful life, strength and rest are continually renewed, the one by the other.

Asa does not content himself with repelling evil publicly; he purifies his own house. These two things must be accomplished together, otherwise our Christian life will be only an empty show. “And also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol for the Asherah; and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burned it in the valley Kidron” (v. 16). Actually Maacah was Asa's grandmother who had probably been called to be regent with the title of queen at the time of Abijah's death. With what energy Asa passes over natural ties, making no allowance for them when the honor of his God is involved! Nothing stops him; he takes away all hope of Maacah's exercising any influence whatever over God's people, and in the sight of all treats her as an enemy of Jehovah. May we imitate him! We are altogether too apt to treat Satan cautiously when it is a matter of sin in our own families, and this often obliges us to do the same when it is a matter of the family of God. We excuse evil while at the same time blaming it; we try to avoid spreading it about in order, so we think, not to produce scandal; we put up with doctrines contrary to God's Word and Christ's honor to avoid offending those who are circulating them and who perhaps are close to us, and thus evil spreads and defiles many. If the people had seen Asa tolerating idolatry in his own house while condemning it everywhere else, would they not have been led to follow his example, or at least not to deal too carefully with it?

All these decisions were to Asa's credit, yet nevertheless he failed in one detail which seemed insignificant. The Word tells us (2 Chr. 14: 5) that “he removed out of all the cities of Judah the high places,” but we learn in 2 Chronicles 15: 17 that they “were not removed from Israel,” that is to say, I would believe, from the cities of Israel which he had conquered (v. 8). This seemed to be of little importance, for he had removed all the abominations from these same cities. But when it is a matter of separation from evil, nothing is unimportant. Beyond doubt Asa's heart is depicted as being “perfect all his days” (v. 17), a heart that was intelligent concerning what was befitting the Lord's holiness, but he failed to fully realize this in practice. This toleration of the high places was a grain of sand, compared to his overall activity, but a grain of sand can stop even the best constructed of machines; a flaw in an iron beam will cause the most solid bridge to break; and Judah's full security was based on Asa's scrupulous faithfulness to His God. From this moment on, after ten years of rest and prosperity, we notice decline in this man of God. Up till now Asa's faithful conduct had been the magnet attracting not only Judah to the Lord, but also to a certain degree, Israel, at a time when without this conduct Ephraim's loose ways would have brought a corrupting element into the midst of the two tribes. In his zeal Asa had not been a pleasant man according to the flesh; his attitude toward his grandmother proves this, for he might have been content with removing her idol, without publicly proclaiming its fall. This was an honorable deed of Asa's; he knew that worldly amiability never wins hearts to God and that it only smiles at hearts that are carnal. Love is quite different from amiability; it comes from God and shines out from Him onto all men, passing through the heart of the one who loves Him. Amiability is a pleasant characteristic of the natural heart, has no divine source, and never produces anything for God.

What we have seen up to this point was the effect of grace in the king's heart. God had prepared him long ago so that he might be an instrument of blessing, a lamp at Jerusalem for David's sake. The following chapter will show us how this lamp loses its brightness.

2 Chronicles 16

Asa's Decline

Up to this point, as we have seen, Asa's heart had been “perfect” in two directions. In presence of the enemy he had acknowledged that he was without strength, and he had relied on the Lord to find strength in Him. In presence of idolatry he had given proof of real energy to purify the land and re-establish the worship of the Lord in every place. In one point only, no doubt yielding to some political notion, he had dealt in a somewhat compromising way with the cities he had acquired in Israel and perhaps also with the Israelites who had joined Judah: “The high places were not removed from Israel.” Cautions like this never have the results the Christian was hoping for.

Our chapter immediately mentions the measures Baasha took against Judah in the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign. Note: This date may be a simple copyist's error. Baasha, deprived of several of his cities, built Ramah in order to prevent any contact from that time forth, “in order to let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah” (v. 1). Unable to attack Asa without exposing himself to danger, he wanted in future to prevent his subjects from leaving him and joining God's testimony, and to prevent Asa from carrying out among his people what he considered to be a campaign of propaganda directed against himself and his influence. This principle occurs again and again: those who, like Baasha, still maintain a profession of true religion, though mixed with deadly errors, cannot tolerate near them a testimony which attracts souls. Alas! through a certain toleration of evil Asa presented an occasion for this hostility. Could not Baasha have thought: Asa claims to be closer to God than we are and yet he does the same things we do when they favor his ambitious views! Asa fears Baasha; since he has given way on one point, he can no longer esteem the world as a system with which he can make no compromise and from whom he can ask no aid. He is well aware of his lack of strength, as at the time of the Ethiopian's attack, but he no longer has the same assurance that all his strength is in God. The speck of dust in the machinery had done its work and, however insignificant it might appear, it had weakened Asa's confidence in Jehovah alone as the source of his strength. He turns to the king of Syria; he calls a power to his assistance that is allied with Ephraim and, consequently, his own enemy. This is diplomacy and, no doubt from the human point of view, good politics, just as maintaining the high places had been. So it has been time and again; one tries to break an alliance and win one of the adversaries to one's own side. When faith has grown weak, it seems easier to depend on man than simply to trust in the One who is our pillar “Boaz.” What foolishness — especially for one who had once experienced this miraculous strength!

At first Asa's unfaithfulness seems to bear excellent fruit. Ben-hadad accepts silver and gold brought out of the house of the Lord as tribute, breaks his alliance with Baasha and takes advantage of the occasion to smite the cities of Ephraim and make himself master of the store cities of Naphtali. Baasha leaves off building Ramah; Asa and his people carry its stones away to build fortresses against Israel. The king seems to have escaped a great disaster by following this path, but all the blessing of a walk of faith is lost to him, and he is going to make sad proof of this. Oh! how much happier he was when he felt himself to be without strength and yet withstood the innumerable army of Zerah!

Then Hanani the prophet is sent to Asa (vv. 7-10). Later Jehu, the son of this same Hanani, will be sent to Baasha to announce judgment without mercy (1 Kings 16: 1-4). Here too Hanani announces judgment but, mourning and full of deep pity, he has to recognize that Asa's heart is no longer perfect before God. Judgment must begin at the house of God and with His people, for it is above all to those who serve Him that He shows He is a holy God.

The principal accusation that Hanani brings is that Asa had not relied on the Lord: “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on Jehovah thy God, therefore has the army of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army, with very many chariots and horsemen? but when thou didst rely on Jehovah, He delivered them into thy hand. For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro through the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him” (vv. 7-9).

Asa had behaved foolishly in this; “From henceforth,” the prophet adds, “thou shalt have wars.” He had lost his strength; now he loses his rest, the two great blessings at the beginning of his reign. But instead of humbling himself at the word of God conveyed by the prophet, Asa becomes angry and puts Hanani in prison. Alas! Together with him, he was imprisoning his own conscience. The king's heart was no longer perfect; it had been with respect to idols, but not with respect to the world. One cannot hope for blessing when, even while maintaining one of the great principles of Christian holiness, one abandons the other. Joy, peace, and strength are lost. And much more: in seeking the help and friendship of the world, Asa became an enemy of the word of God in the person of the one who was its bearer. He sinks lower still: “Asa oppressed some of the people,” no doubt those who were attached to the prophet and deplored the ways of this king who had been so faithful to the Lord till now. Oh! how true it is that one quickly goes downhill when the heart is no longer perfect before God!

But God has not said everything yet. Precisely because he is dear to Him, Asa personally becomes the object of His discipline. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign for two years he was “diseased in his feet, until his disease was extremely great.” Sad to say, this discipline did not produce fruit! Having lost communion with God, having rejected His word, angered against the prophet and those who are faithful to him, he falls into moral hardening: “Yet in his disease he did not seek Jehovah, but the physicians.” That which had been inflicted on him to bring his heart closer to God is used as a pretext to depart even further. When it is a matter of his own health, he confides in weak, fallible instruments. The grace of God no longer speaks to his heart; There is no more place for repentance or humiliation, the fruit of grace. What a sad end — but this occurs more commonly than we would think — for a believer who was once so faithful!

“And they buried him in his own sepulchre, which he had excavated for himself in the city of David, and laid him in a bed filled with spices, a mixture of divers kinds prepared by the perfumer's art; and they made a very great burning for him” (v. 14). In his death, although much incense was lavished on him, there was nothing of sweet-smelling savor for God. Spices serve to cover or to delay the putrefaction of a cadaver and the world's incense cannot take the place of God's favor. Is this not often so with Christians who have sought the favor of men? Men praise them after their death in proportion to the confidence they have placed in men and refused to God. Eulogies which would never be expressed around the casket of one who is faithful abound in proportion to the unfaithfulness mixed into his career. Such incense is only testimony given to a believer's weaknesses; and if the world appreciates these eulogies because they tend to vindicate it in its own opinion, nevertheless God rejects all this incense as a foul odor before Him!

2 Chronicles 17-20

JEHOSHAPHAT

2 Chronicles 17

The Teaching of the Law

The reign of Jehoshaphat offers many instructive details. First, like his predecessors, he “strengthened himself against Israel.” The true means of being at peace with the adversary is by organizing resistance against him in an efficient way. From that moment on, Satan leaves us in peace, but we must never treat him as anything other than an adversary. Jehoshaphat's subsequent history teaches us that he did not always retain this attitude, and this was very detrimental to him. To be at peace with the king of Israel while yet defending one's self against him is quite different from seeking an alliance with him, as Jehoshaphat later did to his own confusion. At the beginning of his reign all was according to the mind of God: “And Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat, for he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto the Baals; but he sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. And Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave gifts to Jehoshaphat; and he had riches and honor in abundance. And he took courage in the ways of Jehovah; moreover, he removed the high places and Asherahs out of Judah” (vv. 3-6).

The first book of Kings (1 Kings 22: 43) seems to say the opposite: “Only, the high places were not removed: the people offered and burned incense still on the high places.” This passage, which seems to be contradictory, appears to be confirmed even in our book which says: “Only the high places were not removed; and as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers” (2 Chr. 20: 33). This only proves that at the beginning of his reign Jehoshaphat undertook to abolish them and maintained this personally; but that the people, whose consciences had not been reached, quickly fell back into these idolatrous practices against which Jehoshaphat, weakened by his alliance with the king of Israel, was unable to exercise his authority so as to lead the people in the right way. So it had been with Asa, too: In 2 Chronicles 14: 5 we have seen that he “removed out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images”; then, in 2 Chronicles 15: 17 that “the high places were not removed from Israel.” Elsewhere again, he “put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities that he had taken from mount Ephraim” (2 Chr. 15: 8); then, in the first book of Kings (1 Kings 22: 46) we learn that there were sodomites remaining in the days of Asa, and that Jehoshaphat “put [them] away from out of the land.” All this can easily be explained. Let us remember that God never contradicts Himself. Under the reign of these kings, purification had been only partial and temporary; evil sprang up again everywhere because the conscience of the people had never really been reached.

But these verses 3 to 6 teach us yet another truth, in harmony with the character of Chronicles. This book which emphasizes grace as the only means of maintaining the royal line of descent, at the time of the complete decline of the kingdom always highlights the good which grace has produced, even if it be only for a moment, and shows that grace covers a multitude of sins. It is different when it is a matter of responsibility, as in the book of Kings. Then God reveals the evil in its full extent and shows us why it was necessary to execute judgment.

Here then, Jehoshaphat's faithfulness is especially noted and God brings it out, not only to exalt His own grace, but also in order to show us the consequences of faithfulness and of returning to God. Strength and rest had been the outcome at the beginning of Asa's reign; the establishment of the kingdom, peace, riches, and honor were the consequences of Jehoshaphat's faithfulness (v. 5).

But Jehoshaphat does not stop at separating himself from evil; he has at heart the establishment of that which is good, and this can only be through understanding the mind of God. It was necessary that the law, the Word of God, should be taught in every place and that the people should become familiar with it. Princes, Levites, and priests busied themselves in this with great zeal everywhere (vv. 7-9). Israel, with its mixed religion, does not seem to have been won over by the understanding of the law which they saw in Judah, and in fact, the same thing takes place all the time. It is more difficult to convince those of the truth who, in the midst of their error, have preserved a few scraps of truth, for this understanding, mixed up though it be, maintains their illusion that they possess the truth. The nations, on the other hand, who had no ties or relationship with the people of God, are convinced by the power which the Word possesses, and submit themselves to him. They acknowledge the people of God; there were even Philistines who hastened to declare themselves tributary to the king of Judah (vv. 10-11). Likewise, when the Corinthians prophesied, unbelievers could be seen falling upon their faces and acknowledging that God was truly in the midst of the assembly (1 Cor. 14: 25). Faithfulness to the Word of God brought about the establishment of Jehoshaphat's kingdom. Besides all his prosperity, he possessed an immense army compared to that of Asa, his father. One of its leaders, Amasiah, “willingly offered himself to Jehovah” (v. 16), and God testifies about him of this. This was no doubt one of the fruits of the teaching of the law in Judah. The need to dedicate one's self to the Lord springs up in the heart when one has tasted how good He is, and the revelation of this goodness is given us in the Word (1 Peter 2: 2-3). Then one acknowledges His authority and knows that He has the right to expect the full consecration of our hearts.

2 Chronicles 18

The Covenant with Ahab

We have little to say about this chapter which is the exact reproduction of 1 Kings 22, already meditated upon elsewhere.

Jehoshaphat's prosperity is a snare to him; for possessing earthly goods, even when given by God, easily orients our natural hearts towards the world and its alliances. Then, when our conscience reproves us of this unfaithfulness we try to quiet it by the thought that, after all, this world, like the ten tribes of old, has not denied the religious forms which it originally had. Thus Jehoshaphat allies himself by marriage to Ahab, the wicked king of Israel; no doubt, not that he contracts this union himself, but he allows it and perhaps causes his son Jehoram to contract it (2 Chr. 21: 6). Such alliances profoundly mar our spiritual vision: we begin by excusing those who are, in fact, the enemies of God and of His people; then we act in concert with them! Jehoshaphat suffers the consequences of his unfaithfulness; his disguise causes him to be mistaken for the king of Israel by the archers; they pursue him relentlessly; Jehoshaphat cries out; we see here to whom he cries out — a detail omitted in Kings; “Jehoshaphat cried out, and Jehovah helped him; and God diverted them from him” (v. 31). This detail is characteristic of Chronicles. Jehoshaphat cries out to Jehovah as Abijah had done before him (2 Chr. 13: 14-15), for he realizes that God is his only resource. At this moment everything, absolutely everything — alliances, political motives, diplomacy, interests to which he has sacrificed that which was most precious, that is, fellowship with his God — all this loses its value and gives way before the prospect of death. His soul again finds the Lord whom he should never have forgotten in order to obtain worldly advantage. The “depths” swallow up Jehoshaphat; he cries out to his God. Ah! If He should mark iniquities, should He not deliver him up to death? Then the Lord, the ever-faithful God who cannot deny Himself, hears the cry of His servant. He stops the impetuous onrush of his enemies; without their becoming aware of it He changes the direction of their thoughts, doing this at the very moment when the royal garments Jehoshaphat is wearing draw every eye to him.

What are we to think of Ahab's egoism, exposing his ally to every danger in order to protect himself? If we seek the world's friendship, we will never reap anything other than egoism, for the world can only have its “I” as the center of its thoughts. It will never give us that which is contrary to its own interests. How could Jehoshaphat have been so foolish as to seek something other than that which God had given him freely: peace, riches, and honor? Weren't these gifts enough for him? Poor carnal heart of the believer, led to its ruin by vain imaginations, when in the presence of divine blessings it ought to have been crying out: “I lack nothing!” Nonetheless, as always in Chronicles, grace triumphs, even using Jehoshaphat's unfaithfulness. He had to come to this extremity to learn to know the love and deliverance and infinite resources of his God. Ahab, hidden from men's eyes under his borrowed clothing, does not escape God's eye or His judgment. An archer drawing a bow at a venture hits him. To the world it was chance, but that chance was God!

2 Chronicles 19

Jehoshaphat and Jehu the Prophet

The scenes described in chapters 19 and 20 are completely absent from the book of Kings, which takes up the thread of its narrative again at verses of 2 Chronicles 20: 35-37 (1 Kings 22: 49-50). Furthermore, it is important to note that Chronicles omits Jehoshaphat's second major act of unfaithfulness when, after having made an alliance with Ahab against the king of Syria, he again fell into the same sin, allying himself with Jehoram, the son of Ahab, against Moab (2 Kings 3). Thus, as usual in Chronicles, God omits as much as possible the sins of the kings of Judah which are stigmatized in the book of Kings.

The words of verse 1 of our chapter: “And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem,” historically come after the war against Moab, not mentioned here, but the Spirit of God in Chronicles connects them with the alliance with Ahab against the king of Syria.

After the great deliverance accorded to Jehoshaphat, he apparently enjoys a peace which his unfaithfulness certainly did not merit; yet God is a holy God and the moment comes when the king finds himself before His judgment seat and is obliged to acknowledge God's judgment on ways that offend His holiness. The prophet Jehu who comes out to meet him is the son of that Hanani who had prophesied to Asa, Jehoshaphat's father, when he had called Syria to his aid in resisting Baasha. Now the situation had changed and Jehoshaphat had relied on Israel to conquer Syria. Pure politics, ever opposed to God's thoughts! Be it this way or that, one relies on man according to the interests of the moment; and without hesitation one changes his alliance in order to fight his former allies. God is nowhere considered in these schemes. At best we see a faithful heart, like Jehoshaphat's, consulting Him after getting involved in a path of self-will. But at last the moment comes when God through the prophet's mouth expresses His disapproval of such a walk and the motives for it.

Jehu accuses Jehoshaphat of two things: “Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate Jehovah?”

The second phrase is even more serious than the first. Loving the world involves associating one's self with it, becoming jointly liable with it in its enmity against God. “Adulteresses,” says James, “know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (James 4: 4). “No servant can serve two masters,” says Jesus, “for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will cleave to the one, and despise the other” (Luke 16: 13). In spite of all our explanations and excuses, this is in fact how God considers things. Let us carefully hold on to this truth; may it prevent us from linking ourselves with the world under any pretext whatever, for whatever work, however attractive it may appear to be. If we pay no attention to these things, how shall we escape the judgment that will fall on the world? Grace, no doubt, can and will save us, but do we want to share the fate of Lot who was saved “but so as through the fire”? If it were only a question of our responsibility in the day of judgment, we would be lying among the dead; yet come what may, grace is pleased to see in the believer embarked on a wrong path anything that corresponds to its holiness and righteousness, and grace always takes account of this. This is the consoling thought continually recurring in Chronicles. Let us hear what the prophet says: “Therefore is wrath upon thee from Jehovah. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee; for thou hast put away the Asherahs out of the land, and hast directed thy heart to seek God” (vv. 2-3). The Spirit of God had already presented this same truth in regard to Rehoboam (2 Chr. 12: 12). In seeking alliance with Ahab, Jehoshaphat had feared the Lord and had insisted on seeking Him, but this in no way excused him (2 Chr. 18: 6). It was only one point answering to God's thoughts and He takes account of it. Must we not say, What a God is ours!

Jehoshaphat says nothing in reply to the prophet; he accepts the judgment, yet not without having learned his lesson. Instead of answering, he acts. He again takes up the task begun in Judah of teaching the people the law (2 Chr. 17: 7-9), a task so wretchedly interrupted by his relations with Ahab in 2 Chronicles 18. Now he applies himself to producing an awakening among the people and in all classes of the nation so that they may serve God and return to Him: “And Jehoshaphat dwelt in Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people from Beer-sheba to mount Ephraim, and brought them back to Jehovah the God of their fathers” (v. 4). In order to maintain the character of a holy people consecrated to Jehovah (for his predominant thought is interest in God's people) he establishes judges in Judah, city by city. “And he said to the judges, Take heed what ye do; for ye judge not for man, but for Jehovah, who will be with you in the matter of judgment. And now, let the terror of Jehovah be upon you; be careful what ye do, for there is no iniquity with Jehovah, nor respect of persons, nor taking of presents” (vv. 6-7). He who had so sadly walked in the ways of man (2 Chr. 18: 3), puts the judges under obligation to judge for Jehovah, not for man: proof that his conscience had been reached by the divine reproof. He to whom God had said, “Therefore is wrath upon thee,” says to the judges, “Let the terror of Jehovah be upon you!” because he himself had experienced it. Nothing is more powerful in exhorting our brethren than to have had dealings ourselves with God's discipline, and to have learned our lesson to the end, that is, until there is full deliverance. So it was that the apostle Peter, who had only a short while previously denied his Savior, could say: “Ye denied the holy and righteous One.”

Often there is no need to express in words the fact that we have learned our lesson of God — deeds speak more forcefully than words to show our repentance. If “there is no iniquity with Jehovah, nor respect of persons,” can there be such with us? Thanks be to God, Jehoshaphat is now far from the alliance with Ahab or with Jehoram!

The priests and the elders are engaged in this work of righteous government of the people: “And moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set some of the Levites and priests, and of the chief fathers of Israel, for the judgment of Jehovah and for causes. — And they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of Jehovah faithfully and with a perfect heart. And what cause soever comes to you of your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and ordinances, ye shall even warn them that they trespass not against Jehovah, and so wrath come upon you and upon your brethren: this do and ye shall not trespass...Be strong and do it, and Jehovah will be with the good” (vv. 8-11).

How beautiful are the king's words which we have italicized! There had been wrath upon Jehoshaphat; he does not want it to be upon his people. Without murmuring he accepts God's displeasure upon him so that Judah may be spared. This reminds us of David's words at Ornan's threshing floor (1 Chr. 21: 17). Such also was Christ's character, only the Lord took the judgment upon Himself, having merited only His Father's “good pleasure.” Jehoshaphat took the judgment upon himself, as having merited God's wrath, and as having been the cause of the evil from which he wished to spare the people.

In verse 11 the king introduces order into the government of the people: the chief priest for the matters of Jehovah; a prince of Judah for all the king's matters; the Levites over the people's matters. God is a God of order and is concerned that order be maintained in His house. This important truth is developed in the first epistle to the Corinthians. Disorder is contrary to our God's nature and we must carefully be on guard against it. Wherever we see it rising up among God's people we are responsible to intervene so that we can rightly lay claim to the character of the One to whom we belong. This order demands that every class of servants have its own place and function, recognized by all.

What the prophet said to Jehoshaphat found an echo in his conscience and in his heart. Notwithstanding the announcement of judgment, he was comforted by the Lord's encouragements: “There are good things found in thee...thou...hast directed thy heart to seek God.” Now he can exhort his people to a vigorous, faithful walk, for he knows that “Jehovah will be with the good” (v. 11).

2 Chronicles 20

War Again

In considering Jehoshaphat's reign as it has been presented to us up to this point, we see it characterized at first by special blessings as a consequence of the king's obedience. After having abolished the idols and the high places, he felt the need of instructing the people, and his faithfulness was rewarded by the submission of all the neighboring nations. But from the time of his unfaithfulness in forming an alliance with Ahab to make war on the king of Syria, the wrath of God must overtake him, and the prophet Jehu announces this to him. Jehoshaphat humbles himself under this judgment and by his deeds shows that he not only acknowledges its righteousness, but also that he desires to substitute God's order for the disorder in the life of the people. We do not have to wait long for the consequence of his return to God. It is not peace, but war. We may be sure we will expose ourselves to this when we return from a wrong path, for repentance — which makes us recover fellowship with God — cannot suit Satan whose desire is to separate us from Him. When Jehoshaphat's spiritual state had been prosperous, the enemy, reduced to silence, had been humbled; but he patiently waited, lying in wait until the moment when having committed an irreparable error, the king would incur Jehovah's anger and be lost. As always, Satan did not take account of God's grace which had found good things in Jehoshaphat, nor of the work which grace had produced in the king's conscience; he could not understand that God would make use of the inevitable judgment, unleashed by war, to establish his servant and break the snares of the enemy. So it has ever been. During the first centuries of the Church when, having left her first love, she was threatened with judgment that would remove her lamp from its place, she was thrown into a furnace and underwent tribulation for ten days. God permitted this in order to restore His Assembly; along with Philadelphia, Smyrna became the only church where the Lord had no need to pronounce further warnings. The situation is the same here: war breaks out, judgment is let loose, wrath runs its course, but we witness a completely different scene: that which grace produces in favor of the people and their king.

Let us look at the elements composing the enemy army. First, there was Moab. When we turn to 2 Kings 3 we learn the reason for Moab's hatred. Jehoshaphat had gone up against Moab with Jehoram, the king of Israel, and even though it seems that actually it was Israel alone that fought against Moab, Moab held a particular grudge against Judah. This is often the case; an alliance with the professing world becomes a disadvantage in particular to believers. Moab takes vengeance for the humiliation she has undergone, by attacking--not Israel--but Judah, comparatively so weak. But let us remember the primary reason for this hostility: Judah represented the true God and He it was who proud Moab, instigated by Satan, was targeting.

Moab's allies are the children of Ammon, whom David had once so humiliated and defeated, and a portion of Edom,* the very same Edom which had briefly become the ally of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat against Moab (2 Kings 3: 9), and which was now Moab's ally against Jehoshaphat.

Note: The Meunim or Maonites belonged to the territory of Edom, i.e. to mount Seir (v. 10). Today there still exists a city called Maan to the east of the Wadi-el-Arabah in this region. At the time of Chronicles, besides, Edom was no longer a compact kingdom (1 Kings 22: 47).

As we have said, the attack of this confederation was the consequence of the king's error, an error which he had acknowledged by his actions, but whose inevitable result was God's judgment. We are also told (v. 3): Jehoshaphat feared. But this godly king cannot stop there, although he had indeed merited God's judgment. He does the only thing possible: “[He] feared, and set himself to seek Jehovah.” In seeking Jehovah, will he meet with wrath? In no way; he meets with grace, the main subject of this entire portion of our book. Meanwhile, while seeking the Lord, he “proclaimed a fast throughout Judah” (v. 3); this is humiliation and brokenness in spirit, recognizing the righteousness of the blow which has been dealt to both him and his people but counting on a God who is rich in compassion. Judah gathers together in the same spirit “to ask help of Jehovah: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek Jehovah” (v. 4). The spirit animating the king spreads, and the people follow his example. Then Jehoshaphat is able to present himself on behalf of them all before God in His temple.

He reminds the Lord that He is the God of their fathers, God in the heavens, whose power none can withstand, who rules over the nations and who had dispossessed them in order to give their kingdoms to His people. He returns to God's character as it was at the beginning — and God cannot change; this was Israel's security. Back then He had acknowledged their father Abraham as His friend. In the beginning they themselves had taken Him as their God, building Him a sanctuary. There God had accepted Solomon's supplication; considering, not Jehoshaphat, but the intercession of the king according to His counsels--the one He could not fail to hear. In times past in obedience to God they had spared Edom, mount Seir, but Seir in a time of declension had taken advantage of Judah's low condition to avenge themselves and return evil for good to them. Would God stand for this? Would He not judge them? Doubtless, if He were to take into account their present condition, it would be themselves, Judah, whom He ought to judge; but would He count all His past grace for nothing? Never! Nevertheless, it was in order for them to take the place before Him that their humiliation which was so right called for, as did also their faith. Jehoshaphat does not say as before (2 Chr. 19: 11): “Be strong and do it,” but rather: “We have no might in presence of this great company which cometh against us, neither know we what to do.” He reasons like his father Asa in the days when he was faithful (2 Chr. 14: 11), but he also knows, as did his father, that no force can withstand the Lord. His one and only resource thus is: “Our eyes are upon Thee!” Is this not the thought expressed in Psalm 123? “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are directed to Jehovah our God, until He be gracious unto us!”

All Judah, as later in Nehemiah's time, is present at this scene. “With their little ones, their wives, and their sons,” they all associate themselves with Jehoshaphat's supplication. Then they receive the Spirit of God's wonderful answer through Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah: “Be attentive, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat! Thus saith Jehovah unto you: Fear not, nor be dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go down against them: behold, they come up by the ascent of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not have to fight on this occasion: set yourselves, stand and see the salvation of Jehovah who is with you! Judah and Jerusalem, fear not nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, and Jehovah will be with you” (vv. 15-17).

Isn't it remarkable that we find no reproach here, not even a remote allusion to the unfaithfulness of the people and their king? All is grace. Sin has been swallowed up, as it were, by grace. Ah! this reassuring word, twice repeated: “Fear not, nor be dismayed,” is breathed by the Spirit of Jesus. How often in the Gospels in the presence of sinful man, He would say, “Fear not.” He would have us trust in His power and goodness. His goodness is His glory, as He said to Moses and as we see in Psalm 63. Three times He encourages them with these words: “Go down, set yourselves, go out against them,” and twice He tells them, “Jehovah will be with you!”

God requires only one thing of His people: faith in His word. This must be evidenced before they receive what this word promises them. Faith must anticipate victory, for it is the confirmation of things not yet seen; it must count entirely on God without any confidence in man; faith must understand that this battle is not theirs, but the Lord's, that the battle is against Satan who would thwart God's counsels concerning His people. They had only to stand there to see the salvation of Jehovah, the very same expression which Moses had spoken to the people when they went out of Egypt (Ex. 14: 13).

As soon as the promise of salvation is given, it is a sure thing for faith although it has not yet been obtained. “He will swallow up death in victory,” says the prophet, and the apostle adds: “But thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then the king and the people fall on their faces before Jehovah to worship Him and the Levites stand up to praise Him (vv. 18-19).

After this thanksgiving for anticipated blessing the people go out toward the wilderness of Tekoa. Jehoshaphat stands before the people and says: “Believe in Jehovah your God, and ye shall be established; believe His prophets, and ye shall prosper!” The only thing necessary is faith; faith in God, faith in His Word, represented by the prophets. As of old, so it is today and so it ever shall be in a time of ruin: the Word is the supreme resource; it is to the Word that the people are always referred.

In the face of fully equipped enemy troops, praise resounds a second time: “Give thanks to Jehovah; for His loving-kindness endureth for ever!” No other song recurs more frequently than this one in the Old Testament. Usually it is the proclamation of grace which alone can introduce the reign of glory, but here it is the song of triumph before the victory is won, because to faith this victory is sure.

This triumph is from a source entirely divine: “Jehovah set liers-in-wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir.” Man has no part in it, whereas on other occasions he is called on to act and to fight. Just as at the beginning of their history, God today wants to cause His people to realize their own powerlessness and the power that fights for them.

The enemies destroy one another and Judah sees their defeat from on high, just as we do when we enter the sanctuary of our mighty God; only in our chapter we see a conclusive victory, whereas faith alone realizes it today while we wait for the God of peace to bruise Satan under our feet.

The “song of triumph” anticipated victory (v. 22); now victory has come, and Judah celebrates it in the valley of Berachah, which means “blessing,” a picture of the place where God will be praised forever for the victory He has won for us. All this scene is in figure the accomplishment of God's counsels toward His people by the judgment of their enemies. After this the people return to Jerusalem with joy, Jehoshaphat at their head. All the instruments of praise, as in Psalm 150, celebrate Jehovah's triumph (v. 28). This is the prelude to the rest that remains for the people of God: “And the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet; and his God gave him rest round about” (v. 30). “And the terror of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands, when they had heard that Jehovah fought against the enemies of Israel” (v. 29).

In all these details it is impossible not to recognize the portrayal of Christ's future millennial reign and the events by which it will be introduced. Israel's humiliation, being reduced to a feeble remnant, their return to God, the Lord's direct intervention in their favor, the conclusive victory won by the Lord Himself over the enemy of the end times, the reign of peace this will introduce, the king of Israel himself leading his people to Jerusalem, the uninterrupted chords of joyful praise before God, and the kingdom's final rest. Solomon's reign sets us right into the midst of full millennial blessing; the end of Jehoshaphat's reign describes the manner in which it will be established.

Let us note yet that we find the very same expressions at the beginning and at the end of Jehoshaphat's reign: “And the terror of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands” (2 Chr. 17: 10; 2 Chr. 20: 29). In the beginning this terror was the fruit of the king's faithfulness, fruit which could not endure; at the end it is the fruit of God's faithfulness when everything on man's side has failed, and this fruit endures forever. This entire scene, a type of the accomplishment of God's counsels, because it is this, has no place in the book of Kings.

In verses 31-37 we find, by contrast, a brief picture and a sort of summary of Jehoshaphat's reign from the aspect of his responsibility, a picture differing from the usual perspective of Chronicles. This aspect seems to have the aim of introducing us to the terrible reigns of Jehoram and of Ahaziah where only their responsibility comes before us without the possibility of grace intervening, except to spare them an offshoot. And this is not on their account, but on account of the promises made to David and in view of the future reign of Christ. This passage turns back so as briefly to describe the events that took place under the reign of Ahaziah, king of Israel, and which preceded the victory over Moab described in our chapter. It corresponds to 1 Kings 22: 42-44, 48. Under the regime of responsibility, Jehoshaphat failed to abolish the high places (v. 33), whereas in 2 Chronicles 17: 6 where he is presented under the regime of grace acting in his heart, the high places are removed. We have already explained this fancied contradiction. One more detail is added here: the state of Judah itself did not measure up to God's thoughts: “The people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers” (v. 33).

Lastly, our passage records a commercial alliance between Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah, but without the correlative statement which the first book of Kings (1 Kings 22: 49) supplies. In this latter passage we see indeed that after the destruction of his fleet at Ezion-geber, Jehoshaphat, having understood the warning Jehovah gave him, refused to renew the enterprise with Ahaziah. Here, there is nothing of the kind. Only God's judgment upon Jehoshaphat on the first occasion is recounted. If it were here a matter of the results of grace in the king's heart, the special characteristic of Chronicles, Jehoshaphat's refusal to enter into a new partnership could never have been omitted. The prophet Eliezer the son of Dodavah's intervention, omitted in Kings, confirms the point we are seeking to bring out: that is, that this brief passage speaks only of responsibility and departs from the usual character of this book. Indeed, Eliezer pronounces judgment without the softening which we have observed in Jehu's prophecy (2 Chr. 19: 3). He says: “Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, Jehovah has broken thy works,” and the ships were broken, and could not go to Tarshish.

In all this Jehoshaphat was indeed very guilty. What need did he have of riches acquired at the price of alliance with the leader of a people whose judgment was already decreed, and concerning whom he knew God's mind through his own experience? Had not the Lord given him abundance of riches at the faithful beginning of his career (2 Chr. 17: 5; 2 Chr. 18: 1)? Why did he want to draw from another source? Poor Jehoshaphat! poor in God's sight since he neither appreciated nor valued the riches that God gives and found himself poor enough to covet the riches that God did not give!

All this is very instructive for us. If we have realized that we cannot associate with the world to fight God's enemy, are we any more authorized to seek such association to better our temporal situation? We will certainly fail to find what we are looking for. We cannot love God and “the mammon of unrighteousness” at the same time, for that would be serving two masters. It is not possible to love the one without hating the other; therefore we must choose and refuse resolutely any offer the world makes to this end, as Jehoshaphat did on this occasion in the book of Kings. We must understand that to seek for gain together with the world is no better than to attempt to fight evil at its side. This spirit is only too common among God's children. If they have any intelligence at all, they cannot think that they can cause the gospel to triumph by fighting against Satan together with his own slaves. But perhaps they do not view association with the world in order to satisfy their need of riches in the same way. May God preserve us from both these dangers! And if He judges it well to give riches to His servants, may they come from Him alone, so that they may not be used for themselves but be administered in the service of the Master to whom they belong.

2 Chronicles 21

Jehoram

The account of Jehoram's reign contained in 2 Kings 8: 16-24 corresponds in substance to that which is said to us in verses 5 to 10 of this chapter, but except for these few verses all we are told about Jehoram here is new. We have spoken in Meditations on 2 Kings about the chronological difficulties raised with regard to this reign; these difficulties disappear before the fact that Jehoram was made regent during the lifetime of his father Jehoshaphat just as the latter, allying himself with Ahab, was seeking to reconquer Ramoth-Gilead, occupied by the king of Syria. This explains the expression in 2 Kings 8: 16: “And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, began to reign.” It was during his regency that Jehoram exterminated his six brothers whom Jehoshaphat had established in the fortified cities of Judah (v. 3). The date is confirmed by what is said in verse 4: “Jehoram established himself” (or rose up) over the kingdom of his father and strengthened himself”; it is confirmed again by the fact that the writing of Elijah, who had not yet been taken up to heaven, mentions the murder of Jehoram's brothers (v. 13). These details confirm the perfect accuracy of the biblical account.

We have said above that the reigns of Jehoram and of Ahaziah, his son, offer not a single feature which does not call for final judgment on Judah. Nevertheless the Lord remains faithful to His promises and does not destroy “the house of David, because of the covenant that He had made with David, and as He had promised to give to him always a lamp, and to his sons” (v. 7). The revolt of Libnah, a priestly city (v. 10), seems to indicate that at least the priesthood in Judah protested against the king's abominations. The reason for this revolt is given us: Jehoram “had forsaken Jehovah the God of his fathers.” The royal house was spared only in view of the future heir who was to descend from it.

However, we do not have to wait long for the consequences of Jehoram's revolting conduct. Edom, until then tributary to Judah and which had no king but rather a governor (1 Kings 22: 47), revolts, “and they set a king over themselves” (v. 8). Jehoram fights them successfully, but his victory is fruitless, for “unto this day” Edom has remained free from Judah's yoke.

“Moreover, he made high places on the mountains of Judah”; this was far worse than failing to destroy the existing high places, as several of his predecessors had done: Jehoram creates and establishes them, something no king of Judah had ever done before him. Much more, he promoted fornication at Jerusalem and “compelled Judah thereto” (v. 11). What a scene! This was voluntarily forsaking God for idolatry; in a word, this was apostasy and completely forgetting God's holiness, to which Jehoram preferred corruption and defilement.

Up until now we have seen the role of the prophets of Judah in rebuking, exhorting, encouraging, and filling hearts with fear at the imminent judgments of Jehovah. Now these precious helpers are not there. Only “a writing...from Elijah,” prophet of Israel and prophet of judgment, reaches king Jehoram. Elijah had watched the first acts of this reign of violence and had written against the king. This writing, preserved after the prophet's rapture, gets to Jehoram. “Thus saith Jehovah, the God of David thy father: Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, like the fornications of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren, thy father's house who were better than thyself: behold, Jehovah will smite with a great stroke thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance, and thyself with sore sicknesses, with a disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day” (vv. 12-15).

The three facts enumerated by Elijah to justify God's judgment are: abandoning Jehovah, corruption, and violence — all that characterizes man's sin on account of which God had once destroyed the world by the flood. But God is patient toward His people: He speaks only of personal judgment on the king. Jehoram is stricken in his bowels which fall out by reason of this terrible sickness, and he dies “in cruel sufferings.” Thus Elijah's prophecy is accomplished to the letter. Jehoram had chosen “the way of the kings of Israel”; he is condemned by a prophet of Israel, the only public witness who remained in the midst of the idolatry of the ten tribes and their king.

Defections continue. Not only Edom, but also the Philistines and the Arabians rise up against Judah; these nations overrun her territory as well as Jerusalem, plundering the king's treasure, carrying away his sons and his wives, and massacring the former, just as he himself had massacred his brothers. All that is left of his family is a single offshoot, Jehoahaz, otherwise known as Ahaziah, for the Lord wanted to preserve a lamp for David and his sons. Jehoram died “without being regretted”; no aromatic spices are burned for him as had been done for Asa. Although he is buried in the city of David, the honor of sharing the sepulchers of the kings is refused him at his burial.

What will become of the lamp which God is yet preserving for David?

2 Chronicles 22

Ahaziah

Most of the details of this chapter are also found in 2 Kings 8: 25-29; 2 Kings 9: 27-28; 2 Kings 10: 13-14; 2 Kings 11: 1-3.

Jehoram was the eldest of Jehoshaphat's sons; up to this point the kingly line, so to say, followed the normal path, but no descendant was left to Jehoram except his youngest son, Ahaziah. The inhabitants of Jerusalem make him king; thus divine order is encroached upon on every side. The lamp is about to go out, but God who had spoken through the prophets cannot lie. Did He not say, in speaking of Jerusalem: “There will I cause the horn of David to bud forth; I have ordained a lamp for Mine anointed” (Ps. 132: 17). Alas! what a lamp was this offshoot of kings! Spared amidst a scene of murder and carnage, witness of God's terrible judgments on his father, should he not have lifted up his eyes to Jehovah and re-established contact with the God of Israel? Instead of this, he yields to all the bad influences surrounding him, without heeding the warnings from on high; he confides in his mother, Athaliah, daughter of Omri, an ambitious and cruel woman. “[She] was his counselor to do wickedly” (v. 3); as counselors he takes those of the house of Ahab who lead him “to his destruction.” On their advice he forms an alliance with Joram, the son of Ahab. Ramoth-Gilead, a possession of Israel, had remained under the power of the king of Syria ever since Ahab's vain undertaking to recover it, in company of Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah's grandfather. Ahaziah does not hesitate to help the wicked (cf. 2 Chr. 19: 2), so estranged is his heart from the fear of the Lord.

But, if for Jehoshaphat it was a mistake, extenuated by the zeal he otherwise demonstrated for the Lord, this sin, shamelessly repeated despite the condemnation pronounced on Jehoshaphat by the prophet, here no longer has any extenuating circumstances. Joram, the king of Israel, wounded by the Syrians withdraws to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds. Ahaziah comes there to visit him and there he meets his end: “But his coming to Joram was from God the complete ruin of Ahaziah.” He goes out with him “against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.” Joram dies, the sons of the brothers of Ahaziah and the princes of Judah are massacred by Jehu; Ahaziah flees to Samaria in an attempt to hide himself. He is discovered, chased, and wounded; he escapes to Megiddo, where he is once again discovered, brought to Jehu, and put to death (v. 9; cf. 2 Kings 9: 27-28). His servants convey his body to Jerusalem where he was buried in the sepulchers of the kings, his fathers, for they said: “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Jehovah with all his heart” (v. 9). The only testimony that can be accorded him, the only reason Jehovah refrains from delivering him up to the dogs like Ahab, is that God remembers his grandfather. It is on his account that grace is granted to this unworthy descendant, even though that grace is shown in his death, for his life had come to an end under God's judgment.

And now still another terrible scene of murder unfolds. Jehoram had massacred his brothers; Judah's enemies massacred all of Jehoram's sons but Ahaziah; Jehu kills Ahaziah and massacres all the sons of his brothers; finally Athaliah exterminates all the royal seed in order that she alone might rule. And despite it all, the lamp of the Lord's Anointed is not extinguished. In the midst of this scene of murder God preserves a feeble nursling who in the first part of his reign is a type of the expected Messiah. Preserved, as Jesus later would be at the time of the massacre of the infants at Bethlehem; hidden from every eye, as Jesus at the time of the flight to Egypt — thus Joash is presented to us. He arises in the purity of his childhood out of a condemned race, the only offshoot upon whose shoulder is laid the key of David, a root out of a dry ground; brought up from his youth under the eye of God in His temple, he appears to us like the One who said: “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business?” Thus Joash begins his career.

But let us note, he is at the same time the type of the Lord taking in His hands the reins of government of His kingdom. In the seventh year, the sabbatical year, the year of rest for the earth, he appears before the eyes of all. Until that moment Joash had been hidden for six years in the house of God, just as the Lord is hidden before His future manifestation. When the doors of the temple open, when He comes forth out of heaven which until then contains Him, He will be at once avenged on those who conspired against Him and universally proclaimed the true King of His people, the only One with the right to wear the crown.

2 Chronicles 23-24

JOASH

2 Chronicles 23

The Accession of Joash to the Throne

No other reign affords a more absolute contrast between its beginning and its end than that of Joash in Chronicles. One particular detail, contrasting with all we have noticed up to this point, is that in the history of Joash the evil is mentioned more often than the good, whereas the second book of Kings omits a portion of it. The explanation of this fact is simple: The beginning of the reign of Joash is presented to us as an attempt to accomplish God's counsels as to the kingdom. Will he prove himself worthy of the divine favor resting upon him? If so, the king according to God's counsels will be called Joash. As we shall learn, this was not the case, but the beginnings of this reign were so favored that they seemed close to fulfilling the thoughts of God.

Another point is brought to light in our chapter. The proclamation of the kingdom does not take place without the Levitical priesthood being re-established in all its functions (vv. 1-9), for it is inseparable from the kingdom according to God's counsels and is subordinated to it. Moreover, the high priesthood in the person of Jehoiada is intimately associated with the kingdom and this association is one of the remarkable features of Chronicles, although the kingdom and the priesthood are not here invested in the same person as they will be when Christ “shall be a priest upon His throne” (Zech. 6: 13). Here the entire Levitical priesthood is present at the anointing and coronation of the king (v. 8). All the captains also unite at this solemn ceremony; and all the people are present, too. Every man bears David's weapons (v. 9) and thus the reign of Joash is directly related to that of David, who was rejected in former days.

“And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And [Jehoiada] said to them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as Jehovah has said of the sons of David” (v. 3). After this the entire priestly service is reinstated (vv. 18-19), and the king, who has been given the crown and the testimony-the king, whose reign of righteousness accomplishes all that is written in the law-sits on the throne of his kingdom. He reigns “as Jehovah has said of the sons of David”; he is “the king's son”; he is the Anointed, acclaimed by all with the cry: Long live the king! He is really in type the Prince of life!

This glorious scene is established only through vengeance. Athaliah, that idolatrous usurper of the kingdom who had thought to put an end to David's family forever, falls before the revived kingdom together with all the idolatry she had instituted. In the same way, the Antichrist, a murderer, persecutor and idolater, will fall along with all his power before the revived kingdom at the refreshing dawn of the miraculous reign of the Son of David. Rejoicing and singing are the happy accompaniment of this scene.

2 Chronicles 24

The Reign of Joash

“For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had devastated the house of God; and also all the hallowed things of the house of Jehovah had they employed for the Baals” (v. 7). Joash's first concern was to restore the temple, and he sent the priests and the Levites through the cities of Judah in order to collect the money necessary for this work. The tribute ordained by Moses in the wilderness for the building of the tabernacle (Ex. 30: 11-16; Ex. 35: 4-9, 20-29) was to be employed for the restoration of the temple, but the Levites did not hasten the matter; the breaches were not repaired, and the gifts no doubt were used to support the priesthood.

In all this, Joash adhered to the Word alone. Circumstances had changed since the years in the wilderness. Moses had ordained a tribute for the construction of the tabernacle; the tabernacle had disappeared and had given place to a temple. Was it necessary to adhere to the original ordinance that had been given in quite different circumstances? Moreover, the temple had been defiled, despoiled of all its treasures, and partially destroyed. Was it really necessary to go to so much trouble to repair it? Couldn't Moses' tribute be used to support the Levites? Doubtless Joash was surrounded by people who reasoned in this way, but all this was not according to God, even though a godly high priest did not oppose it. His opinion had no value for Joash; and the young king rebuked the old high priest, for the Word of God was of greater authority for him than the thoughts of the most eminent of men. That which the Word commands must be used the way the Word designates; it is not possible--without becoming unfaithful--to make any change in divine regulations. The natural heart's unbelief would term these ordinances outdated, but that they are not, for the Word is unchangeable and eternal. Work on the house is not the same thing as helping the servants who labor for the Lord and who are worthy of their wages; there was the tithe for the Levites, but each has its place, and for Joash the most urgent thing was to repair the breaches in the house. He proved himself here to be more of a true Levite than the Levites themselves; he followed the steps of the One who said: “The zeal of Thy house hath devoured Me.”

Is there no voice for us in these things? Should not our time, our resources, and our efforts be employed to cement those bonds, today destroyed, that join together the precious materials of God's building, His Assembly? Is it of no importance to God whether the place of habitation where He dwells on earth through the Spirit be to the honor or dishonor of its divine Host? It is our responsibility to repair the breaches, to exert our zeal and energy so that God may be honored by the union cemented between His children, the only remedy for complete ruin. There is only one house of God: everything being built besides it has no value for Him. What resources are being expended uselessly on what are merely human houses. Likewise, the gifts collected by the Levites were of no use to Jehovah and were being expended in vain.

Henceforth it was necessary that the tribute of Moses be used entirely for repairs to the house of God. The king (not Jehoiada, as in the book of Kings) commands that a chest be set at the door of the house of Jehovah to collect the offerings. When all the work is completed, what remains is used to make utensils of gold and silver for the temple (v. 14). This passage does not contradict 2 Kings 12: 13 which simply tells us that while the work was in progress silver was not used for anything else.

All is beautiful, all is pure at the beginning of this reign. As is customary in Chronicles, the high places, spared by Joash (2 Kings 12: 3), are passed over in silence. As long as the kingdom represents that of the promised Messiah, as it were, this book views it as pure and without reproach; but all changes: a scene of grief and horror is about to open before our eyes.

The entire passage between verses 15 and 22 is lacking in the book of Kings.

Jehoiada dies and is buried “in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house” (v. 16) — fresh proof of the intimate connection between the kingdom and the priesthood in Chronicles.

After this death, everything changes. Joash demonstrates himself unworthy of answering to God's thoughts concerning the kingdom. His safety and his strength had been in his connection with the priesthood, and when it disappeared, everything collapsed. Henceforth “the princes of Judah” became the king's counselors through flattery: “[they] made obeisance to the king: then the king hearkened to them” (v. 17). In gaining control of the spirit of Joash they had in view only the re-establishment of idolatry in Judah. Two paths lay open before Joash: to remain faithful to the house of God where he had spent the years of his youth, and associate himself with the servants of Jehovah, or to take the world's side and seek the friendship of those who govern it. He abandons the first course and chooses the second; the natural heart is always inclined toward those who flatter it, and the princes of this world are Satan's instruments to lead men astray to idols. And so the people “forsook the house of Jehovah the God of their fathers, and served the Asherahs and idols.”

And now we see prophets again appearing. What proof of God's longsuffering as long as there remains a glimmer of hope for the people! “And He sent prophets among them to bring them again to Jehovah, and they testified against them; but they would not give ear. And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood up above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God: Wherefore do ye transgress the commandments of Jehovah? And ye cannot prosper; for ye have forsaken Jehovah, and He hath forsaken you” (v. 19-20).

Joash has forgotten everything: his deep affection and respect for the memory of the high priest; the love he owed the son of such a servant, and so much the more as this son was the bearer of God's word to turn the people and their king from their evil ways. What dreadful havoc unfaithfulness can bring about in just a few moments in a heart that has opened its door to it! Would there be anything astonishing about the great men and the people conspiring against the priesthood they take umbrage at and against the prophet who exhorts them? — but no, Zechariah the son of Jehoiada is stoned “at the command of the king in the court of the house of Jehovah.” Our hearts revolt at such ingratitude and cruelty. “And king Joash remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son” (v. 22).

One wonders how such a thing could be possible on part of a king whose beginnings announced a righteous, irreproachable reign. We have given several reasons in our study of 2 Kings, but here these reasons are not given. This reign foundered in crime and violence. Blinded by Satan, the king's heart falls prey to this terrible enemy as soon as he turns his back on the priesthood and the house of Jehovah.

In taking control of Joash, Satan thought to bring God's counsels to naught. In this despite all his efforts he has been, is, and will continue to be fooled, for God has Christ in view, and the fall of a Joash does not destroy His counsels. Still, judgment must be executed against evil. The cry of vengeance out of the mouth of the dying prophet: “Jehovah see and require it!” (v. 22) is the cry of the violated law. Christ and His blood speak better things than Abel or Zechariah: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” On the cross He intercedes for transgressors and His blood says: Grace! grace! Stephen, who suffers the same fate as Zechariah, cries: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”; but here, I repeat, we find ourselves under the rule of the law, even though the ministry of the prophets had modified its character.

The fact that Zechariah is slain in the court “between the temple and the altar” makes the king's sin infinitely worse. God on His throne between the cherubim is witness to this scene, whereas at the beginning of this reign, Athaliah, that wicked woman, had been forcibly removed from the temple court so as to be put to death in the king's house. Joab, smitten when he took hold of the horns of the altar, was not before the ark which David had brought to Zion.

Verses 23-27. The attack of Hazael, whose motive is not given in 2 Kings, is here the answer to Zechariah's cry for vengeance. All the princes of the people who had conspired against the prophet to put him to death receive the just chastisement of their iniquity (v. 23). These verses correspond, though with many differences, to 2 Kings 12: 17-21. Thus we find here that the army of the Syrians came to Jerusalem “with a small company of men” to the shame of the “very great army” of Joash (v. 24). They take everything and send the spoil to Damascus. In 2 Kings Joash tries to escape from the enemy by giving Hazael all the holy things and the gold of the temple and that of the king's house. Our passage does not mention this fact except with these words: “the greatness of the burdens laid upon him” (v. 27). After the tribute is paid, Hazael withdraws from Jerusalem. In our passage he re-enters it and “executed judgment upon Joash” (v. 24). It is probable that between these two events, Joash had rebelled against the king of Syria, for here there is no mention of spoil, but rather of vengeance executed against the princes of the people and the king. Joash is left by the enemy “in great diseases,” the consequences, no doubt, of all his distresses, but above all of God's judgment which pursues him. And moreover, his own servants conspire against this one who had allied himself with conspirators. The avenging sword of a holy God strikes him: a Moabite and an Ammonite, two idolators, are the murderers of this king who had re-established the worship of idols. The blood of the righteous is avenged; Joash does not even have the honor of being buried in the sepulchres of the kings — similar in this respect to ungodly Jehoram who suffered the same fate (2 Chr. 21: 20); solemn example of a judgment executed even in death, for the Lord shows men that He wants to be feared!

2 Chronicles 25

Amaziah

Amaziah succeeds Joash his father. God in His patience would, so to say, ever begin to test the kingdom anew. Will this reign turn out better than the preceding one? No, the very same history repeats itself. At first there is faithfulness and the fear of God, but then there is a resounding fall. Amaziah “did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not with a perfect heart” (v. 2). Something was lacking in his piety and 2 Kings 14: 3-4 informs us about this. He did not abolish the high places although he did not himself sacrifice there, but the people sacrificed there; and this revealed a sinful indifference in Amaziah with regard to the condition of the nation for which he was responsible. Let us repeat here that in Chronicles God in His grace mentions as little as possible the fact that the high places were tolerated. It is as though He had resolved to occupy us only with the things produced in the heart by grace, and not to insist upon a weakness in the godly kings which often stemmed from a lack of moral authority and energy to repress the idolatrous tendencies of their people.

One other thing by contrast is found to be to the praise of Amaziah; he follows the example given by Joash, his father, in the days of his youth and prosperity. The Word, represented at that time by “the book of Moses,” is binding upon him and this is what directs his decisions. If he does away with his father's murderers as Solomon had once done with David's enemies, he does not put their sons to death, for he did “according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, wherein Jehovah commanded saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, nor shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin” (v. 4; cf. Deut. 24: 16).

But this was not the entire Word, and to produce a faithful walk the entire Word is necessary. The same Moses had said in Numbers 33: 52: “All their high places shall ye lay waste.” How often the lack of submission to certain parts of the divine word spoils and corrupts the testimony in an otherwise faithful Christian life. Who can tell us that this tolerance of one of the practices of idolatry--perhaps the least hateful of them — did not have something to do with the shocking defection exemplified in Amaziah's career?

For the moment his life had not yet sunk into evil; but we find in Amaziah a conscience little exercised about association with Israel, already given over to judgment. Doubtless finding his army small in number (and there was indeed an immense difference between his military strength and that of Jehoshaphat: 2 Chr. 17: 12-19), he hires 100,000 volunteers from Israel as paid mercenaries for one hundred talents of silver. There was no longer a positive direction, an express Scripture passage, which should have governed the king's conduct as to this, but rather the communion of thoughts with God and the example of blessings linked with faith. Should he not have known that the Lord could “save by many or by few”? Had not Asa, with the same sized army as Amaziah had, destroyed Zerah's million men? (2 Chr. 14: 8-9). To sum things up, our faults in such cases always come from a lack of confidence in God and a blind confidence in human resources. Amaziah had neglected to consult Jehovah, but He does not leave him without exhortations. A prophet, a man of God, comes to him to warn him. Whereas the ten tribes are left to themselves, God reveals His thoughts by His prophets there where a people which still acknowledges Him is found. He exhorts, warns, and announces judgments for disobedience, but all this is mingled with grace. The prophet does not abolish the law in any way, but on the contrary, depends on it; the law and prophecy are presented as having equal authority. Indeed, Amaziah depends on the law of Moses in verse 4 and in verse 10 it is at the prophet's word that he changes his conduct. Had he hardened himself, the system of law not having been abolished, he would have incurred judgment without mercy; but the prophet's word of reproof is full of grace and gentleness: “O king, let not the host of Israel go with thee; for Jehovah is not with Israel, with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it; be strong for the battle: God will make thee fall before the enemy, for there is with God power to help and to cast down” (vv. 7-8). Amaziah listens to the prophet, but so that he may remember this serious warning, God wishes that his act of self-will bear certain bitter fruits. First of all the question is raised: “But what is to be done for the hundred talents which I have given to the troop of Israel?” This act of obedience would involve a loss of money, but this was a loss which he would have avoided if he had not without consulting the Lord committed himself to a path that dishonored Him. How much material or moral sorrow the simple path of faith will spare us! No doubt, certain difficulties will always be met in this path, but these trials are not mingled with any bitterness, as we see in the epistle to the Philippians — what am I saying? — no bitterness? They are the occasion of unmingled joy. Certainly the apostle had met with nothing but difficulties along his pathway, and the epistle to the Philippians enumerates a great number of these: his chains, his material needs, the hatred of those who sought to add affliction to his bonds, the lack of harmony among the dear children of God, the enemies of the cross of Christ walking in the Christian pathway, each seeking his own interest, and many other things; but he was sustained above all his trials, for they were fellowship in the sufferings of Christ and not the chastening of his conduct.

What shall we do? asks Amaziah. The prophet answers: “Jehovah is able to give thee much more than this.” The king has nothing to do but to believe that God is willing to give to him, but his faith will of necessity be put to the test. Will his faith emerge victorious? He puts up with being obliged to renounce the “hundred talents which [he had] given to the troop of Israel” without gaining any profit from them. He sees the anger of the men of Ephraim flaring up against Judah, for they regarded their dismissal as an offense (v. 10). He passes through still other trials: “But those of the troop that Amaziah had sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah from Samaria as far as Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil” (v. 13). If Amaziah's faith wins a signal victory over the Edomites, as the prophet had told him, nevertheless he must as discipline be beaten in another quarter by these very men in whom he had placed his confidence. Has Amaziah learned his lesson? Has he humbled himself before God in on the one hand winning a victory, the fruit of God's free grace, and in on the other hand suffering a defeat, the fruit of his independence? The continuation of his history shows us that in reality humiliation was foreign to him. The victory puffs him up; he credits himself with the defeat of the Edomites and forgets God. Shame on him! He forgets God so completely “that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed himself down before them, and burned incense to them” (v. 14). He worships the very same gods who had not delivered their people from his hand! This time the wrath of God is kindled against him decidedly, yet still He sends a prophet to him to endeavor one more time to bring him to repentance. “Why dost thou seek after the gods of a people who have not delivered their own people out of thy hand?” Is not this “why” touching? Will Amaziah perhaps humble himself and acknowledge his guilt? This “why” is opening a door of repentance to him. This effort to restore him is very much a part of the prophet's merciful calling! Amaziah had listened to the first prophet, but without a deep conviction of the evil path in which he was involved; what will he now respond to the second prophet? Instead of taking account of God's wrath against himself, his own wrath is kindled against the man of God. “Hast thou been made the king's counsellor?” How do you dare speak to me? “Forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten?” Pride speaks through the mouth of the king. His victory over Edom has only nursed the high opinion he has of himself. Certainly, he can do without the prophet and his questions — he who could do without the Lord! Indeed, the man of God withdraws, but not without pronouncing these solemn words: “I know that God has determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened to my counsel.”

This sentence does not stop Amaziah; there are times when a heart, hardened of its own accord, is left to itself — when a man is delivered over to Satan who uses him as a plaything. Pride at having conquered Edom and bitter resentment against Ephraim which had pillaged the cities of Judah gives birth in Amaziah's heart to a plan to provoke the king of Israel and to avenge himself against him. He completely rejects the idea of discipline on part of God toward himself, for a spirit of vengeance is never consistent with a humble heart. Joash, the king of Israel, responds to this challenge with a fable, illustrating the fact that once already Jehu had trodden Judah under foot — Judah which had sought alliances through marriage with the family of the king at Samaria. Amaziah “would not hear”; this hardening came from God, as was once the case with Pharaoh. He is smitten, taken prisoner, and brought to Jerusalem. The wall of Jerusalem is destroyed between the gate of Ephraim and the corner gate; the city itself, the temple treasures, and the treasures of the king are taken as spoil. Amaziah lives for fifteen more years after the death of Joash, but without any evidence of a return to God.

And what a solemn occurrence! From the time that he turned aside from following the Lord, a conspiracy hatched against him simmers for many years until one day it breaks out. In the face of this conspiracy the king flees to Lachish. Why did he not seek refuge with the One whom he had offended? Such a decision could still have suspended judgment, for this was the only refuge where judgment had no access, and even the best fortified city could not prevent God's wrath from reaching the king.

Up until this point, except for two absolutely perverse reigns, the kings begin with God, whose grace is present to encourage them to persevere in this path; but their end is unlike their beginning: it leads to shipwreck. We have not yet reached the period of the revivals when we will find the more comforting picture of kings who learn to count exclusively on grace.

2 Chronicles 26

Uzziah

The second book of Kings mentions the contents of this chapter only very briefly. See 2 Kings 14: 21-22 and 2 Kings 15: 1-7.

We find the same principle at work in the reign of Uzziah (Azariah) as in the reigns of Joash and Amaziah: the grace of God establishes a new king, blesses him abundantly at the beginning of his reign, and then for one reason or another this reign ends in moral disaster and the judgment that is its consequence. As usual, Chronicles presents the beginning of this reign without mentioning the blot of the high places.

Uzziah built Eloth (or Elath), a city situated near Ezion-Geber on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, which had once belonged to Solomon (2 Chr. 8: 17) and which had then passed into the hands of Edom. The beginning of this reign was excellent in every aspect. “He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and in the days that he sought Jehovah, God made him to prosper” (v. 5). This Zechariah does not appear in any other passage; it is certain that he was of the priestly line; moreover, he had understanding in the visions of God; he was therefore a prophet and moreover a seer — not all prophets necessarily having this character. Often they sought the truth in their own writings, studying them and gaining understanding, but they were not necessarily able to explain the visions of God. Joseph had this gift, and Daniel was in the same position as Zechariah; he had “understanding in all visions and dreams” (Dan. 1: 17), and moreover, in line with the example of other prophets, he understood God's thoughts through studying their writings (Dan. 9: 2).

Understanding in the visions of God enables us to teach and exhort others. Prophecy is not necessarily a revelation of new things; this is certainly not its character in our days when the Holy Scriptures give us the complete revelation of God's mind; nevertheless today's prophet possesses an understanding in the mysteries of God (the things which were hidden but are hidden no longer, being now revealed in the Word). This understanding makes him capable of edifying, comforting, and exhorting (1 Cor. 14: 3). This was precisely what was needed by the kings of Judah who passed through times of ruin, such as we today pass through also. This is what Zechariah did. Under his ministry Uzziah sought the Lord and prospered. Like him, we must pay careful attention to the Word of God and to the mysteries it reveals to us. If we diligently seek to understand them, like Uzziah, we will enter upon an era of spiritual prosperity. Only, let us not forget that this prosperity itself brings us into conflict with the enemy. The most desperate enemies were those at the gates of Judah. In those difficult times the Philistines had taken possession of part of Israel's territory and stood their ground there. We can compare this enemy to nominal Christendom, established without right within the confines of the people of God. What are we to do about them? The same thing that Uzziah did when he broke down the walls of the Philistines and built cities in their midst. In the interests of the people of God we ought likewise to prove the emptiness of Christendom's pretensions and lift high the divine principles of the Word as the only way of withstanding it.

After this, Uzziah is able to carry on the war beyond his borders. “God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gur-Baal, and the Maonites [Edomites]. And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad to the entrance of Egypt; for he became exceedingly strong” (vv. 7-8)! Applying this to the gospel's conquests, we usually find the same pattern. It begins like Gideon and so many others within a restricted circle, often the circle of the family, and then spreads beyond. Andrew first of all brought his brother Simon to Jesus; the delivered demoniac tells his own house what great things God had done for him; the apostles preach at Jerusalem; from there, the Gospel spreads to Samaria, then to Caesarea among the Gentile proselytes, and finally, through Paul, to the nations. If after having been converted we are faithful in our immediate circle, we may be certain that the Lord will extend our limits.

“And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the angle, and fortified them” (v. 9). Towers are built to defend the gates. Two of these towers face the valley of Hinnom, where Joash, king of Israel, had broken down the wall after having conquered Amaziah (2 Chr. 25: 23). Uzziah also fortified the “corner gate,” a weak and exposed part of Jerusalem's fortifications by which one might gain access to the temple and capture it. In other words, Uzziah was not content simply to rebuild that which the enemy had destroyed but sought to secure God's temple from any attack. All this demanded very earnest labor; let us apply ourselves to do the same. It is not enough to fight the enemy without; we must care for the Assembly of God.

“And he built towers in the desert and digged many cisterns; for he had much cattle, both in the lowland and on the plateau, husbandmen also and vinedressers on the mountains and in Carmel; for he loved husbandry” (v. 10). Besides having to fight enemies from without and within and make Jehovah's city secure, he also had to face many other dangers. The watchtowers in the wilderness were used not only to alert against wild animals, but more importantly, to signal the presence of those who would pillage the flocks. One of the king's functions was to fill the office of shepherd and protect the sheep. This solicitude for the flocks confided to his care is shown in yet another manner: Uzziah dug many wells in order to provide drinking water for his men and his cattle. The patriarchs had done likewise, in particular Isaac, that great digger of wells and great seeker of living water. He knew that without this living water, neither man nor beast could survive — a striking image of the Word of God which the enemy always seeks to steal from us (proved by all the attacks which he directs against it), as in former days the Philistines blocked up the wells dug by Abraham and filled them with earth (Gen. 26: 15).

We are also told — a very rare thing in Scripture — that Uzziah “loved husbandry.” He showed an interest in the flocks and their pasturelands, in the laborers toiling to harvest “the precious fruit of the earth,” the wheat which gives food and strength, and in the vinedressers laboring to bring joy to the heart of man overwhelmed with troubles.

All this activity in no way hindered the king's constant concern for his army, for perfecting offensive weaponry, and at Jerusalem, machinery for defense (vv. 11-15).

Such solicitude for all branches of government and administration, such expertise in organization we find but little in the history of the kings, except in that of Solomon. Thus, despite the painful contrast between the kingdom's present and past, despite its division and humiliation, despite its enemies without and within, the Lord was pleased to sketch anew the history of the king according to His counsels in order to show that the ruin would not prevent him from growing up “before Him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground” (Isa. 53: 2). The Lord was with Uzziah: “His name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he became strong” (v. 15).

Up to this point not a single defect, not a single weakness is pointed out in this king's life (the book of Kings, which has an entirely different object, does mention some). If he had continued thus, Israel's Deliverer would have been found at last! Alas! the hour of shipwreck is striking! “But when he became strong, his heart was lifted up to his downfall” (v. 16). Uzziah's pride was feeding on the blessings he had received and he lifts himself up against the very One to whom he owed his exaltation. Usurping the right of burning incense on the golden altar, a right belonging to the priests alone, he enters into Jehovah's temple into which only those who had been sanctified to exercise priestly functions were allowed to penetrate. When Korah rebelled (Num. 16: 36-40), the brazen censers of those who had conspired against Moses had been beaten into plates to cover the brazen altar: a figure indicating in a striking way that since the natural man's pretensions to make his offering acceptable to God have no other place than the altar for sin offering, they must be nailed to the cross of Christ. Only one offering and one intercession were valid in themselves without need of atonement: only one was acknowledged as being effective: that of Aaron with his censer (Num. 16: 47). The priests — and we ourselves — could not be consecrated to God and fulfil their role of intercessors except by virtue of the sacrifice and the blood put on the mercy seat (Lev. 8: 24-28). Our High Priest intercedes by virtue of His personal perfection, and yet He did not assume this priestly office until after His death and resurrection. As it was with intercession, so also with praise: it was the privilege of the priests alone and the high priest was their leader. This applies to us Christians, too. By virtue of redemption we are a priestly family and no one outside this family, not even a King Uzziah, can take our place in the worship rendered to God. All this seems to have been without importance to the king blinded by his pride. Had he perhaps imbibed the idea for his profane act from that which his father did when he burned incense to the gods of Edom? (2 Chr. 25: 14).

The priests could do nothing other than to set themselves against such an act. They had been sanctified, placed under the sprinkling of the blood which had been poured out at the brazen altar, anointed with the anointing oil so that they might present themselves before God as worshippers and intercessors. Is it not the same for us Christians? Purified from all sin by the blood of the cross, anointed by the Holy Spirit of promise, set apart for God, we can present ourselves in the sanctuary to worship, having our golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of saints.

Uzziah, rebuked by the priests, is enraged. In considering him carefully, we find with him and with his predecessors and their counselors a certain jealousy against the priesthood according to God — the source of all kinds of evil actions (see 2 Chr. 24: 17-22; 2 Chr. 25: 14). It cannot suit the man in the flesh to be excluded from God's presence and from His worship and to be unable to form some kind of link in a chain that can connect God with the fallen creature. This is the reason for the religious world's animosity against the children of God who cannot share in nor acknowledge what it calls its worship.

On account of this transgression immediate judgment falls on Uzziah. Like Miriam, Aaron's sister, who being a prophetess, had wished to make herself equal to him who was king in Jeshurun and a prophet as no other ever was — like Gehazi who, despising God's glory and that of His prophet, was stricken with the defilement from which a Gentile had been healed — like Joab, outraging Jehovah by the murder of Abner and seeing leprosy afflict his family forever (Num. 12: 10; 2 Kings 5: 27; 2 Sam. 3: 29): so the king is stricken with leprosy for having disregarded God's holiness. He himself with vain remorse at his act and conscious of his uncleanness hastens to go out from the presence of Jehovah under the chastisement which has been inflicted upon him. There is no remission for him, as there had been for Miriam; the king, chosen to accomplish God's counsels, is declared unclean forever, banished from His presence, excluded from His house, separated from the people over whom he had been consecrated king, isolated in a separate house, incapable of governing, a living dead man, obliged to confer the government upon his son Jotham (v. 21).

The divine curse rests on this man who at the beginning of his reign had done that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and had sought Him until the day when he lifted himself up. He is even deprived of the tomb of the kings, his fathers; he is buried in their burial ground, but not in their sepulcher. Sovereign expression of God's displeasure: even at their death these kings, like Jehoram, like Joash, are deprived of the honors of burial.

In the year that king Uzziah died, Isaiah the prophet had a vision. In the presence of the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up, His train filling the temple, this man of God said: “Woe unto me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts” (Isa. 6: 5). It was not only Uzziah who was unclean and defiled in the presence of the Lord; so also was the prophet. Isaiah saw the glory of Christ (John 12: 41), the true, the only King according to God's counsels who was never touched by defilement, the only One whose presence judges every defilement: in His presence the prophet accepts judgment, and even more, pronounces it upon himself. Moreover, he condemns the condition of the people, of this people of unclean lips in the midst of whom he was dwelling. Thus everything was lost on part of the kingdom, the people, and the prophet. The seventh woe (see the first six woes in Isa. 5), the fullness of the curse, was pronounced! What was left?

There remains that which the entire account of Chronicles aims to bring out. Firstly, the King, the true King, Jehovah of hosts, who sums up in Himself all the perfections of the future kingdom and in whom all the counsels of God are accomplished — and then grace; grace based upon the sacrifice of the Victim consumed on the altar of God. Thus the prophet's iniquity was removed and his sin was purged (Isa. 6: 7). It seems that in the history of Uzziah this great truth is particularly brought to light: Grace based on sacrifice is the only resource of the best of kings and of the greatest of prophets.

The statement of this truth leads us to remark that the judgments pronounced on the kings in this book do not necessarily imply their future eternal lot. What is shown us in Chronicles is God's government with regard to the earth and His counsels with regard to the earthly kingdom, but not His counsels with regard to Christ's heavenly glory and the eternal blessings which are the portion of the elect. A king stricken with leprosy, driven out from the presence of God, excluded from the sepulchers of the kings, has lost every right to the privileges of the kingdom upon earth, but God's grace with regard to heaven is not frustrated by these judgments. We find many similar examples, beginning with that of Solomon so as the book of Kings presents him. This remark is important in order to keep our thoughts within the limits which the Word assigns them and to prevent them from pitting one truth against another: truths which taken out of their context would cease to be truths. It is perfectly true that such an idolatrous and murderous king can be lost eternally, but it is just as true that another king, faithful at the beginning but then become a transgressor and judged severely on earth, may be saved as through the fire. In everything we are called upon to avoid confusing the truths which the Word of God presents, and this is doubly necessary when we are dealing with the Old Testament which presents man's responsibility and the results of God's government here below.

2 Chronicles 27

Jotham

In this chapter Jotham personally is without reproach: “He did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father Uzziah had done; only he entered not into the temple of Jehovah” (v. 2). The Word compares his reign at its beginning to that of Uzziah who was so “marvelously helped”; his reign differs from it in that he does not imitate the pride of his father who wanted to usurp the holy priesthood's place in the temple. Uzziah had begun his career by taking heed to the prophetic word and he had prospered, but he had forsaken the Word when in his prosperity he had put his confidence in himself and had become puffed up. Jotham was well aware of the consequences of his father's behavior and took care not to follow the same path. It is a great blessing to have eyes and ears attentive to the Lord's ways. “The fear of God” properly consists of this, and we can say that this fear characterized Jotham's life. Through Zechariah, his father might perhaps have had more understanding in the visions of God had he entered into the knowledge of divine revelation sooner. Yet, precious as this knowledge was, it had not prevented Uzziah from a very serious fall. It is all-important for us to remember this truth. Jotham carefully avoided that which had caused his father's ruin, that is, disobedience to the Word of God which he nevertheless knew so well; he “prepared his ways before Jehovah his God”; he walked uprightly according to the word of the prophet Micah who began to prophesy under his reign: “Is Jehovah impatient? are these His doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?” (Micah 2: 7). We are also told that “Jotham became strong.” Uzziah, likewise, at the beginning of his reign “became exceeding strong” (2 Chr. 26: 8). Strength always accompanies obedience; but it becomes a snare when we consider it as our strength. This is what happened to Uzziah: “He was marvelously helped, till he became strong” (2 Chr. 26: 15). In contrast to Uzziah, Jotham saw his strength fully maintained, because he “prepared his ways before Jehovah his God.” Psalm 50 tells us: “To him that ordereth his way will I show the salvation of God.” To prepare one's way is to fashion it after an unchangeable model, just as one sets a clock according to a regulator. Jotham prepared his way according to the thoughts God had expressed concerning His Anointed; he sought to be like this God-given model and he succeeded.

As usual, that which was lacking in him with regard to the Lord's service is not given us in Chronicles, but the book of Kings tells us: “Only, the high places were not removed: the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places” (2 Kings 15: 35). Doubtless Jotham, who prepared his ways, had no fellowship with the high places, but he lacked the necessary authority to forbid them to the people. Here we clearly see that if the king's moral condition was good, that of the people was bad: “The people still acted corruptly” (2 Chr. 27: 2). We see the same thing in 2 Kings 15: “The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.” Thus it was primarily the condition of the people that provoked the Lord's displeasure and necessitated His discipline. The book of Micah as well as Psalm 50 already quoted, expose this throughout. The state of the people is in question in the prophet, not that of the king. Micah began to prophesy under Jotham and tells us of the people, of their leaders — chief men and princes — of their prophets, without even mentioning the king. Read Micah 1: 9; Micah 2: 2, 3, 8-10; Micah 3: 1-2, 5-12; Micah 6: 2-5; Micah 7: 2, 3, 18; everywhere you will find the state of the people presented as the principal cause of judgment. This will be what characterizes prophecy from this point onward until the end. Prophecy will address itself to the people and lay bare their condition. Up to this point the numerous prophets mentioned in Chronicles address themselves to the king; but when prophecy, proclaimed under the kings, is written rather than spoken, it presents the condition of the people themselves and the powers that constitute the people. In that day the people were no longer excusable. In presence of Jotham's godliness and faithful walk, should not their conscience have spoken to them? The opposite took place.

Jotham's godliness is shown in a very interesting way in the defense of the house of God. Uzziah (2 Chr. 26: 9) had built towers to protect the city; Jotham built towers to protect the temple. “He...built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah, and on the wall of Ophel he built much” (v. 3). Ophel, situated in the southwest of Jerusalem, connected the king's gardens, etc. with the temple. Jotham completed the defensive works Uzziah had neglected: “He built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers” (v. 4). Lastly, he made war against the king of the children of Ammon who doubtless (cf. 2 Chr. 26: 8), were refusing to recognize Judah's suzerainty. During the three years following Jotham's victory they paid him a heavy tribute. His strength had its source in his godliness, and godliness was precious enough to him to keep him from exalting himself.

Chronicles intentionally omits a fact reported in 2 Kings 15: 37: “In those days Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.” This fact is connected with Judah's sin; it is against Judah that God sends these enemies, and not against Jotham; but in Chronicles the beauty of this reign would have been weakened if the aggression of Israel and Syria could have been interpreted as being due to some unfaithfulness in the king. In the midst of the ruins of the kingdom in Judah our hearts are made glad at Jotham's example. Let us imitate him and prepare our ways before our God!

2 Chronicles 28

Ahaz

As far as his relations with the Lord are concerned, Ahaz's reign is particularly bad — and let us not forget that these relations are the essential question, really the only question of every good reign in Judah. One cannot insist enough on the fact that Israel, in this regard quite different from other nations, had no destiny or reason for existence apart from the worship of the true God. This explains why the role of the religious and priestly element weighs so heavily in the history of the kingdom as Chronicles presents it. When the king, the responsible representative of the people before God, was faithful, what characterized his reign above all else was the temple, the priesthood, the observance of worship and feasts; when he did not uphold the worship of the Lord but fell into idolatry, he was responsible for the national decadence which was its consequence and for God's judgments on the people.

Yet we have also seen that, under the reign of Jotham, the people, despite the king's faithfulness, corrupted themselves more and more, justifying the sentence pronounced against them and their leaders by all the prophets who succeeded one another from that time on.

The re-establishment of worship in Judah was therefore of capital importance — as was the forsaking of worship. Forsaken, it would bring Judah back down to the level of the idolatrous nations and bring upon her the same judgments; re-established, worship would draw God's favor down anew on this poor people even as they were advancing so quickly toward ruin.

From the beginning, Israel's kings had forsaken the worship of the true God in favor of establishing national idols, and so God's judgments which had come upon them from the beginning were about to become conclusive. Would Judah suffer the same fate? Without any doubt whatsoever, for God does not have a double system of weights and measures. But one fact yet remained in Judah's favor: God had purposes for Judah; He loved Jerusalem and had chosen it to become the seat of the kingdom, and He had chosen a son of David to fulfill this. Now, this was naught but grace, without which, as we have often said, nothing could subsist, but also God could not cease to exercise grace without denying Himself. This alone allows us to understand the alternatives that characterize the time of the end: judgment, where everything seems to be lost; restoration, where everything seems to have been found anew. The history of Ahaz gives us a solemn example of the former.

His history differs significantly from that in Second Kings, except for the fact that the role of Ahaz is loathsome in both accounts. Far from mitigating his idolatry, Chronicles presents an even more serious matter, telling us: He “even made molten images for the Baals; and he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom” (vv. 2-3). The abominable worship of Moloch which demanded human sacrifices and the fact that he himself sacrificed on the high places, serve as prelude to this wicked reign.

The passage: 2 Chr. 28: 5 to 15, differs from the account in 2 Kings 16. In the latter, Jerusalem, attacked by Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, is preserved from the entry of these allied princes. Chronicles is silent about this deliverance, as well as about Rezin's capture of Elath, a city once recovered by Amaziah (2 Chr. 26: 2) and very important for Judah's naval power. The account in Chronicles teaches us, by contrast, that a great number of captives of Judah fell into the hands of Rezin who led them away to Damascus. From this time on we are told no more concerning these captives, but we can conclude from the words of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 29: 9) that Tilgath-pilneser, the king of Assyria, after having taken Damascus, did not surrender them to Ahaz when Ahaz went down to Damascus to see him. Tilgath-pilneser “troubled him”, verse 20 informs us.

The defeat which Pekah, the king of Israel, inflicted on Judah was serious in quite a different way. In one day Pekah killed 120,000 men of Judah, all valiant men, “because they had forsaken Jehovah the God of their fathers.” God's judgment is therefore not only, as we have said, the consequence of the king's unfaithfulness, but also that of the people's unfaithfulness during the reign of faithful Jotham. A king's son and a prince destined for the regency of the kingdom are taken and massacred; 200,000 captives, both men and women, are carried away by Israel together with much spoil. The kingdom of Judah, so tried, stricken by so many blows, seems to collapse finally. Nevertheless, in spite of all God does not allow the son of Tabeal to be substituted for the true posterity of David, as the allied princes had intended (see Isa. 7: 6), for God cannot be unfaithful to His own promises.

But now we see a prophet rise up in Israel, something very rare since Elisha's time, and particularly rare in the days when the ten tribes had already been given up by God. At the moment when the prophets who so often lift up their voices to address the kings of Judah fall silent the voice of Oded is heard in Israel (v. 9). The Lord had not yet decreed the overthrow of the kingdom in Judah, and for the moment still wanted to preserve a part of the guilty people. When He can no longer cause the voice of prophets to be heard in Judah, He sends one on behalf of Judah to Israel. What grace for this people whose state ought to have called down heavenly vengeance!

Oded shows His people that their victory is only the result of God's wrath against Judah, but that Israel had slain “in a rage that reaches up to heaven”; and now Israel was wanting “to subjugate the children of Judah and Jerusalem as [their] bondmen and bondwomen”! Oded proclaims before all that the divine center of government is in Judah and claims that this tribe is chosen by Jehovah. If a prophet of Israel said these things, what must have been the humiliation of the ten tribes! “Are there not with you,” he says to them, “even with you, trespasses against Jehovah your God?” (v. 10). Indeed, in these things Ephraim had a portion of guilt that concerned only him. On account of his sins “the fierce wrath of Jehovah [was] upon [him]”; he should have taken heed to this. If the people of Israel were God's rod to punish their brethren, were they any less guilty because their brethren had merited this judgment?

Oded's appeal is very timely for us too. When conflicts and divisions arise among Christians, the humiliating consequence of their sin, the strife blazing in their midst is a severe judgment that strikes them. But is it any less severe for the defeated party than for the party winning? Does the latter as winner have God's approval any more than his adversary? In no wise. The wrath of God rested equally on victors and vanquished in this conflict. “Are there not with you, even with you, trespasses against Jehovah your God?”

“And now hear me,” adds Oded: “and send back the captives again, whom ye have taken captive of your brethren” (v. 11). Let us bear in mind that it would not be proper for this victory to be of any profit to Israel. Men, women, and all the spoil must be sent back. The people must not even entertain the thought that if they were victorious, their cause was just. If they had been Jehovah's sword against Judah, and if He had wielded His sword in His wrath, they must remember that this same sword was now being directed against themselves.

Four of the heads of Ephraim accept the words of the prophet by faith. His words act upon their consciences and make them capable of speaking to the people with full conviction, for they acknowledge their part in the sin, the wrong, the transgression of all the people. They rise up against those who are coming from the army and tell them: “Ye shall not bring in the captives hither; because, for our guilt before Jehovah, ye think to increase our sins and our trespasses: for our trespass is great, and fierce wrath is upon Israel” (v. 13). Oded's words, “The fierce wrath of Jehovah is upon you,” produce such an impression on the consciences of these four faithful men that they repeat: “Fierce wrath is upon Israel.” God speaks through their mouth, because the Word has first of all exerted its authority on their consciences, and it possesses a power of conviction that brings souls into subjection. However powerless in appearance the four instruments used by the Word might seem to be, God has the upper hand. The men are heeded: the people leave this multitude of captives alone — without resources, weakened, and who had lost all their possessions.

But the energy of faith of the four men who had exhorted their brethren does not stop there. They alone complete the task, they alone are honored by the full result of their work. The Word insists on this: “The men that have been expressed by name rose up.” They take the captives, give clothing to all those who were naked, use the spoil for their benefit, provide them with shoes, give them to eat and drink, and anoint them with oil. What kind solicitude! Who could have made these four men ready for such a task? The change was wrought in their hearts by the word of God! In them, three things follow one another in a wonderful way: faith in the Word, repentance which the Word produces, and lastly, love — inseparable from the work of God in the heart: love for the guilty, love for our brethren. Thus they accomplish the work of grace toward others. If we ask ourselves whether at that time such faith, such devotion, such energy could be found in Judah, we can without hesitation answer in the negative. Israel was already given up to final judgment and, at this last moment the word of God was resounding in the midst of this flock about to be led to the slaughter. Four men give heed; four righteous men are found, far less than Abraham's eyes had discerned in Sodom, and their faith saves Israel from the immediate destruction already decreed against this people by God's wrath!

The work of these men is not finished; they must still bring back all these poor people to their own land for their safety. Jericho — once the city of the curse, now the city of palm trees, the city of peaceful protection, Jericho, whose foul waters had once been healed by the prophet — becomes their refuge. Only after having brought them back under the protection of their God do these four men leave them and return to Samaria. Only then is their mission accomplished.

May we follow the example of these men and by faith walk in the same path, in self-judgment, not fearing to announce to the religious world surrounding us the fate that is reserved for it. May we be tirelessly and unreservedly devoted to those in misery, filled with this energy of love which is not satisfied until it has brought souls under the Savior's protection, in the happy security of the children of God!

About this time and before the invasion of Judah by Rezin and Pekah, Ahaz appeals to Assyria, which leads him to hypocritically refuse Isaiah's proposal to ask a sign of Jehovah (Isa. 7: 10-12). His choice was made, his plan was prepared; actually he had confidence in man and no confidence whatsoever in God. Poor Ahaz! he might well enrich the Assyrian in an attempt to gain his good will with all the treasures of the king, of his chief men, and of the house of Jehovah; impoverishing himself in order to gain the protection of Tilgath-pilneser: he gained nothing. The latter “came to him, and troubled him, and did not support him”; “he was of no help to him” (vv. 20-21).

If you seek the help and support of the world instead of trusting in God, you who boast of bearing the name of Christ and whom He has enriched with so many privileges, you will find what Ahaz found. And this poor man, not content with seeking such a support, substitutes the gods of Syria for the true God, saying: “Since the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me” (v. 23). He forsook the humble altar of God, the altar of atonement, to replace it by the splendid altar of the gods of Damascus. He despised the vessels of the sanctuary, broke them to pieces and destroyed them. Finally — a thing unheard of — he closed the doors of the house of Jehovah as one closes the doors of an uninhabited house or of a house for rent, with the same stroke abolishing the worship and the priesthood and depriving the people of access to God. Ahaz's conduct is called apostasy, the most complete forsaking of the God of Israel.

God cuts him off; he dies, “but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel” (v. 27). It seems, and we will return to this, that this is the ultimate sentence, even in death itself, by which God shows his final reprobation.

2 Chronicles 29-32

HEZEKIAH

2 Chronicles 29

Purification

This chapter and those that follow bring out the character of Chronicles, compared to that of the book of Kings. Indeed, Kings does not speak of the re-establishment of the worship, of the purification of the temple, or of the reorganization of the levitical priesthood; Chronicles, by contrast, presents these measures as the only condition by which the kingdom of the son of David, and Judah itself, as a people, could subsist. Also, in Chronicles judgment is stayed or suspended each time the worship is re-established, even after the reign of Ahaz appeared to have deprived grace of any possibility of going on with its ways toward Judah and the house of David.

We do not find a single word in the book of Kings concerning that which is contained between 2 Chronicles 29: 3 and 2 Chronicles 31: 19. Kings elaborates much more than Chronicles on the king of Assyria's attacks, which in Kings have a significant bearing from the prophetic point of view. An even more impressive feature is that Chronicles does not say a single word about the capture of Samaria by Shalmaneser or the transportation of the ten tribes to Halah; in a word, it does not mention the final rejection of Ephraim. Indeed, what could be said about it here? From its beginning the history of the ten tribes had been characterized by their abandoning their relationship with God and His worship and substituting idols for it; according to the principle of Chronicles this state of things was from its origin condemned unremittingly. Not for one moment could God have said of Israel what He said of Judah: “There were good things found in Judah.”

Thus the reign of Hezekiah is not contrasted with the state of the kingdom of Israel here, so much the more since during the reign of Ahaz, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, more faith and obedience was found in Israel than in Judah. Here God brings out the contrast between Hezekiah's reign and that of Ahaz. If God's grace had not had in view His promises and their fulfillment in the future, Judah would have been undone at that very moment. The fact that the worship of Jehovah had been abolished and that the doors of the temple had been closed took away from Judah any reason for subsisting as the people of God. Hezekiah is raised up: immediately everything changes. Deep darkness is suddenly followed by light radiating from the sanctuary through its opened doors: “[Hezekiah], in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Jehovah, and repaired them” (v. 3). Then he assembled the priests and the Levites, and he whose father had committed these abominations, without breaking the commandment “Honor thy father,” openly confesses the sin committed: “Our fathers have transgressed, and done evil in the sight of Jehovah our God, and have forsaken Him and turned away their faces from the habitation of Jehovah, and have turned their backs” (v. 6). This denial of God had had as a consequence wrath, destruction, the sword, and captivity (vv. 8-9), but how terrible must have been the condition which called for such judgments! “They have shut up the doors of the porch”: no more entrance into God's presence to worship Him! “[They have] put out the lamps”: deepest night there where the Spirit's seven lamps ought to have shed their full light. “[They] have not burned incense”: no more intercession before the golden altar or before the mercy seat. “[They have not] offered up burnt-offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel”: no more offering on the brazen altar to make the one approaching God acceptable. In a word, it was the abolition of all worship in Israel!

And there was yet more: The sanctuary itself, God's dwelling place in the midst of His people, was defiled (vv. 15-17). Thus, the Lord who was still waiting patiently before His glory should leave all these abominations had dwelt in the midst of this defilement! Oh! how cleverly Satan had succeeded in his plans! To banish God from before the eyes of the people — to suppress the people from before the eyes of God, who could not tolerate an unclean, idolatrous nation — to remove the altar of atonement: the only means of renewing relations with Jehovah — to take away His glory as the Son of David from the future Messiah — the enemy seemed to have conclusively achieved all this. But the enemy is fooled once again in his expectations, as he always will be. The Creator of all things shows that He can also create hearts for His glory. His grace goes to work and produces Hezekiah. What zeal the Holy Spirit kindles in the heart of this man of God! Without losing a single day he undertakes the work of purification and finishes it on the sixteenth day of the month. The first condition of this work was to sanctify themselves. This is what the Levites, the priests, and those engaged in the service of the sanctuary did. Indeed, how could they purify anything at all if they were defiled themselves? This work demanded meticulous care: no uncleanness, not even the least, could be tolerated: the priests must be able to say: “We have cleansed all the house of Jehovah.” All the vessels must be in proper condition, and everything which Ahaz had profaned during his guilty reign must be sanctified and placed before the altar, for water was not sufficient, although it was inseparable from the blood of the victim; that is, purification was inseparable from expiation.

After the purification of the sanctuary we find the sin offering (vv. 20-30). It is offered: 1) for the kingdom; 2) for the sanctuary; 3) for Judah. The essence of this purification was the sprinkling of blood, and it is the same for us: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This sprinkling is done on the brazen altar, the only place where God and the sinner meet, where God can in the same stroke judge and abolish sin. According to the desire and mind of the king, the work of purification extends far beyond the limits of Judah, “because for all Israel, said the king, is the burnt-offering and the sin-offering” (v. 24). Hezekiah was the first king since the division of the kingdom who desired that all Israel, purified, should come up to Jerusalem to worship there. If the deportation of the ten tribes had taken place at that moment, their poor remnant would have drawn out the same sympathy from Hezekiah's heart. He desired to see Israel reformed and united around the sanctuary so that they might come and worship God at Jerusalem; and in this he represents the character of the future King according to God's counsels.

After propitiation is accomplished it is possible to offer praise to the Lord. It is rendered “according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and of Nathan the prophet”; only there is added that “the commandment was of Jehovah through His prophets” (v. 25). Always in this period of Israel's history prophecy takes the first place in directing the people. Then “the instruments of David” are employed and the “trumpets of the priests,” announcing a new era, resound from the moment the burnt offering begins. The burnt offering was the offering whose sweet savor rendered one acceptable and well-pleasing before God. How could the instruments of praise refrain from ringing out all together at that very moment? The king and those with him bow themselves, full of joy, and command the Levites “to sing praise to Jehovah with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer.” In every detail we see a strict returning to the inspired Word of God.

The sanctuary, the kingdom, the priesthood, Judah, and all Israel having been cleansed by the blood of the sacrifice, and henceforth consecrated to Jehovah (v. 31; cf. Ex. 28: 41), Hezekiah invites them to draw near. We are almost present at a scene approaching the one described in Hebrews 10: 19-22: a scene which is the happy consummation of the whole Epistle. All the worshippers are accepted by God according to the value of the burnt offering; only here one sees how this service was defective and defective exactly in that aspect where one had a right to expect completion. The priests were too few and the Levites had to replace them in order to flay the burnt offerings, “for the Levites were more upright in heart to hallow themselves than the priests” (v. 34). Exactly the opposite occurred in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; there, there were too few Levites. In any case, that which both the one and the other did was a great evil which can easily apply to present day Christianity. Either the worshippers — the priests — are too few, resulting in the ministers — the Levites — occupying their place and carrying out functions which properly do not belong to them; or on the other hand, when there is some intelligence in worship worshippers are numerous, whereas ministers show much indifference about discharging their task.

“And the service of the house of Jehovah was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people; for the thing was done suddenly” (v. 36). Thus, according to the precious teaching of Chronicles, grace alone, by the powerful action of the Holy Spirit, had prepared the king and acted in the heart of the people to produce this restoration.

2 Chronicles 30

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Godliness always gives intelligence. The soul that drinks at the fountain and enjoys communion with the Lord cannot be at a loss to know what is appropriate to Him and what conduct will glorify Him. All this appears clearly in Hezekiah's situation. It would seem very difficult amid the circumstances of that period to discern the path to follow: the kingdom was divided; Ephraim was idolatrous, and the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan had descended to the same level; the ten tribes had in fact been carried away into captivity; some poor vine-gleanings remained in Israel; Judah had only yesterday been cleansed from Ahaz's abominable idolatry.

Would it be necessary to get accustomed to this state of things and adapt one's conduct and that of the people to the miserable condition in which they were found? No; by virtue of the cleansing that had taken place the people could return to the things they had known and practiced at the beginning. What was the very first of these things? The Passover, prelude to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Commemorating the redeeming sacrifice was the first step in returning to the old ways. “Since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had not been the like in Jerusalem” (v. 26). Here we have proof that one can enjoy the most complete blessings in days of ruin and that this is possible even though, since the time of Solomon when there had still been relative prosperity, these blessings were gone.

Hezekiah understood this, but he also understood that it was the entire people's portion to be present for the celebration of the Passover, for the people were one and the Passover was offered for one people alone. The unity of the people of God no longer existed before the eyes of men and this truth had been completely buried for nearly 250 years. Hezekiah was the first since Solomon to understand that despite all appearance to the contrary this unity existed and that it was possible to realize it. Let us ask the same question: Is the unity of the Church without importance because it is no longer visible in its entirety as a testimony before the world? On the contrary, when everything is absolutely ruined, it is all the more important to bring to light the truths which were from the beginning. The unity of the people of God is one of these truths; it even forms a part of the counsels of God, according to which the Assembly forms one body with the glorified Christ in heaven. Therefore we understand the importance of the Passover in Hezekiah's eyes. It was not only the memorial of the work which had sheltered the people from God's judgment and had redeemed them out of Egypt, but it was also the witness that this work had been done for the entire people. It was also — and our chapter especially insists on this — the point of departure for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, symbol of the life of practical holiness which is associated with redemption. All these blessings were recovered in the celebration of the Passover under Hezekiah through the fact that he returned to the things instituted from the beginning.

Did this state continue? Doubtless not, and this was due to the fact that the people, linked to the Lord through the covenant of the law, showed themselves to be ever incapable of keeping the terms of this contract. The pressing appeal addressed to the people by the king was heeded but for an instant. A new covenant, based upon the faithfulness of God alone, is necessary so that these things might be realized forever. The account we have before us still belongs to the old covenant, a bilateral contract but one in which, as we have seen all through Chronicles, God loves to display His character of grace and mercy, never turning away from the one returning to Him. The exhortation of verses 6 to 9 is based on this legal covenant, although not without mercy. Here Hezekiah exercises a prophetic ministry which we have seen at work since the time of Solomon, a ministry containing a partial revelation of the grace of God, suited to touch the heart and reach the conscience of the people: “Ye children of Israel, return to Jehovah the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not like your fathers and like your brethren, who transgressed against Jehovah the God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now harden not your necks, as your fathers; yield yourselves to Jehovah, and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified for ever; and serve Jehovah your God, that the fierceness of His anger may turn away from you. For if ye return to Jehovah, your brethren and your children shall find compassion with those that have carried them captive, so that they shall come again unto this land; for Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if ye return to Him” (vv. 6-9).

How touching were all these appeals in these days when the fire of judgment had already broken out on the people on all sides. There remained yet one resource which was pointed out to them: Would they lay hold of it?

Let us note in passing that in professing Christendom the Gospel preached to the world barely goes beyond the appeal that we have just quoted and which I would call : the gospel of the prophets. A Christian of this category said in my presence to one who was dying: “Salvation is the hand of man taking hold of the hand of Jesus Christ” (cf. v. 8). The great majority of the “Revival Hymns” do not go beyond this limit.

All that was left of Ephraim was only a despised remnant left in the land by the king of Assyria, but there were still some gleanings to harvest in the vine of Israel, and these few, united to the remnant of Judah, sufficed to represent the unity of the people and the privileges associated with that unity. Alas! their state was far from satisfactory! Had they dreamed of hallowing themselves in order to celebrate the Passover? Even many of the priests had neglected to do that and “a multitude of the people, many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves” (v. 18). The priests could not offer the memorial under these conditions; the Feast of Unleavened Bread, figure of a life of practical holiness, having the blood of the passover lamb (from which it was inseparable) as its starting point, could not be celebrated by those who were still defiled. Thus, this ceremony was affected by these failures; it was not celebrated until the second month, according to Numbers 9: 11. God had made provision in His Word beforehand for just such a miserable condition as this, thus granting the priesthood time to sanctify themselves. As for the defilement of the people celebrating the feast, Hezekiah interceded and God gave heed to his prayer. Isn't this deeply touching? This act of disobedience had resulted in the beginning of a plague, somewhat like the disobedience of the Corinthians who ate and drank judgment to themselves (1 Cor. 11: 29-30), but “Hezekiah prayed for them saying, Jehovah, who is good, forgive every one that has directed his heart to seek God, Jehovah the God of his fathers, though not according to the purification of the sanctuary. And Jehovah hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.” (vv. 18-20).

In spite of this incomplete purification, Hezekiah's pressing appeal was heard. “Certain of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem” (v. 11), yet in a general way, when “the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun...they laughed them to scorn and mocked them” (v. 10).

Is it any different in the present day when judgment, much more terrible than Israel's judgment, is about to descend on Christendom? Write as did Hezekiah, and send it everywhere, saying: God's people is one people; let them hasten to gather together to worship. Let them bear witness at the Lord's table of this unity formed by the Holy Spirit; let them purify themselves from every association with a defiled world, and, however great the humiliation, they may recover the blessings of the beginning! Do you think you will find many attentive souls, or will your appeal rather meet with indifference, mockery, and disdain?

This was not a reason for Hezekiah to become discouraged. He had the joy of seeing many Levites, moved with shame, hallowing themselves and taking the place they should never have allowed to be taken away from themselves “according to the law of Moses the man of God” (v. 16). Thus God's Word as it was revealed at that time, became their rule for the service of the Lord.

But what did they think in Israel of these dreamers who, in their Utopias wanted to reconstruct the unity of the people? Wasn't it more reasonable simply to accept things as they were and be content? Doubtless no one went so far as to try to present ruin, captivity, idolatry, and disorder as a development of their fathers' religion. This monstrous pretension was reserved for the final stage of Christendom which terms all the evil it has caused “good” and “spiritual development”: an excellent reason which Satan provides the religious world for not humbling itself. Today it seems good and desirable that the escapees of Israel should group themselves under the banner of the calves of Bethel and that the remnant of Judah should group themselves under the banner of Hezekiah. If these escapees, so satisfied with their state, had come to the Passover, they would certainly have found something quite different from that. The night that the Passover was slain in Egypt the people had but one banner, the banner of the Lord, to lead them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and into Canaan by way of the wilderness. Hezekiah had no other thought than to reunite God's people under the banner of Jehovah.

The blessed result of his obedience and faithfulness was not long in waiting: “The children of Israel, that were present at Jerusalem, held the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness” (v. 21). “And the whole congregation took counsel to observe other seven days; and they observed the seven days with gladness” (v. 23). “And there was great joy in Jerusalem” (v. 26). Everyone's heart was full and overflowing, for true joy needs to be shared with others. Thus the psalmist said in the Song of the Beloved: “My heart is welling forth with a good matter: I say what I have composed touching the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer” (Ps. 45: 1).

For one who is redeemed there are thousands of reasons to rejoice: see, for example, John 15: 11; John 16: 24, 22; John 17: 13, but the greatest joy of all is found in contemplation of Christ and His work and in fellowship with Him (1 John 1: 4; John 16: 22). Whether we see Him as a little child in a manger (Luke 2: 10); or contemplate Him as the Lamb of God, the Word become flesh, or as the Bridegroom, associating His bride with Himself (John 3: 29); or resurrected and taking His place in the midst of the gathered saints (John 20: 20); or ascending to heaven (Luke 24: 52); or, symbol of a future scene, entering Jerusalem as king (Luke 19: 37); or about to be revealed to His own (1 Peter 1: 8) — joy always overflows in hearts occupied with Him. It is clear that this joy is rarely unmingled (I do not mean to say that it is not “full”) as long as we are in this body of weakness and in an environment which so easily distracts our gaze from Him as our sole object; yet nevertheless how great is this joy! But, how His own joy differs from ours! It is manifested in the salvation of the lost, whereas our joy flows from the possession of a perfect Object. His is the joy of the good Shepherd who has found His lost sheep, the joy of the Holy Spirit, the same joy as that of the Father falling on the neck of the prodigal son. When God presents the joy of this labor of love, He does not mention our own joy; it is surely too incomplete and poor to be compared to divine joy! The joy of the prodigal son disappears in the presence of the joy of the Father who embraces him. He rejoices to open His house to His child, to clothe him with the first-born son's robe, and to feed him at His table, but can we imagine the Father's future joy, and that of the Son when He will have all His own around Himself as the fruit of the travail of His soul, and when He will be fully satisfied? “He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will exult over thee with singing!” (Zeph. 3: 17).

Peace is perhaps even deeper than joy. It is the quiet enjoyment of the presence of God, between whom and us there is no more barrier, nor obstacle, nor veil, nor any question whatsoever to be settled. Peace does not use many words or make many speeches. It is “rest in... love,” as our passage in Zephaniah expresses it, whereas joy must unbosom itself, must communicate. Nonetheless joy, in its highest expression, is not the exuberant manifestation of happiness which bursts like a shower of quickly fading fireworks. When a newly converted soul finds salvation, we often see a joy which is delightful to contemplate but which does not last, because the soul, still immature, needs to get to know itself. For joy to be lasting, something greater is needed than to have found salvation; it is necessary to find the Savior, a Person who satisfies all our needs and answers to all the desires of our soul. This is the joy that the apostle recommended to the Philippians, sure that it could never be shaken: “Rejoice in the Lord always!”

Judah and Israel's joy prompted them to prolong the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which they were celebrating, as we have seen, for twice seven days. There is no means more powerful for prolonging a life of practical holiness than joy in the Lord's presence, and on the other hand, nothing sustains this joy like a holy life, separated from all that the world loves and seeks.

At the end of this chapter we find Jehovah's blessed answer to this priestly intercession. “The priests the Levites arose and blessed the people; and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to His holy habitation, to the heavens” (v. 27). In the midst of ruin the people, no doubt few in number, had regained the order proper to God's house, but had also found the joy of the presence of the Lord in a measure hitherto unknown. And who is to tell us, my brethren in Christ, that our obedience to the Word and the joy that these blessings promised to the faithful have brought us, will not win other souls and will not cause them to desire to be joined to the testimony of the Lord?

2 Chronicles 31

The Order of the House of God

The abolition of idolatry, which here is not attributed to Hezekiah himself (cf. 2 Kings 18: 4), is produced in the people following the king's faithfulness. Let us note that the overthrow of idols in the midst of Judah and Israel does not take place until God's temple had been opened and purified, and the worship re-established as at the beginning (vv. 1-4).

This fact is very important: It is useless to undertake the overthrow of error if one has not begun by establishing the truth based upon the Word of God. Moreover, the power to overthrow evil will never be entirely effective if that which has been built is not unadulterated truth, as the Word teaches us. If our enemies can prove to us that in many points we ourselves are not on the ground of the Word which we are defending, we have lost all authority in the contest. When the people, gathered at Jerusalem, had tasted the great joy accompanying the blessings recovered, they understood that it was impossible to allow a foreign religion to co-exist alongside the worship of the true God.

In saying these things, let us not forget that before celebrating the Passover the people had already removed “the altars that were in Jerusalem; and...all the altars for incense” and had thrown them into the brook Kidron (2 Chr. 30: 14). This does not in any way weaken what we have just said. It is evident that was impossible to associate the celebration of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread with idolatrous practices. The place where the Passover was celebrated and where God dwelt in the assembly of His people had to be completely purified from every foreign element before the feast could be celebrated. It is the same today in respect to the Lord's table: it cannot be associated with the world's religion, and should this happen, it will never be a powerful motive for holy conduct, as represented by the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Purification from all idolatry was all the more serious because the people had already experienced its benefits at Jerusalem; now purification must be complete, absolute. Ephraim and Manasseh, however few in number, having joined themselves to Judah for the Passover, were responsible to make the same arrangements at home as were taken in Judah. If they had acted otherwise, they would have associated their past idolatry with the worship of Jehovah, which would have been monstrous. Thus, “all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the columns, and hewed down the Asherahs, and demolished the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all” (2 Chr. 31: 1). The unity of the people which had just been realized in the primordial feast of the Passover was now put into practice through common action against that which dishonored the Lord.

After these things Hezekiah establishes the order of the priesthood, pays personally out of his own possessions for the sacrifices and solemn feasts, and commands that those employed in the service of the sanctuary be not neglected. Today, as then, it is necessary to observe the order befitting the house of God, but in no way is this an order established by man; the Word alone must determine and regulate this order. In this, as in all things, it is necessary to adhere to “the law of the Lord” (v. 4). In order to know the order and plan of the house of God, let us not consult our own thoughts, but rather the Scriptures such as the First Epistle to the Corinthians and the First Epistle to Timothy. There we will find this plan in its entirety as the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us. In no way can we dispense with the what the Word teaches us as to assembly order nor as to any other matter; nor can we substitute our own organizational plan.

At the king's command, the people abundantly brought in the tithes for the benefit of the priests and Levites, “that,” says Hezekiah, “they might be encouraged in the law of Jehovah” (v. 4). The servants of God need to be encouraged in their work by the interest and cooperation of God's people. When true piety accompanies restoration according to God love is always active toward the Lord's laborers, and the faithful do not allow these dear servants, their brothers, to lack in anything. This activity of love is totally different from a fixed salary for services rendered, a salary given for certain functions with which the laborer is charged. The object of the tithe was to encourage the Levites in the law of Jehovah, not to give them a means of earning their living. Even at a time when they were given by law and consequently were not the fruit of grace, how different were such principles from what professing Christendom today thinks about the ministry!

The people take the king's command to heart; the tithe is brought in liberally and goes far beyond what was enjoined by the law of Moses. (See Deut. 14: 26-29; Deut. 18: 3-7; Deut. 26: 12; Num. 18: 12-19.) Hezekiah and the princes, witnesses of this liberality, bless the Lord and His people Israel. Likewise the apostle Paul when considering the work of grace in the hearts of the brethren, whether at Philippi, or at Thessalonica, gave thanks to God, acknowledging all the good produced by the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and also blessed those who had been the instruments of this liberality. This zeal brings abundance; each one eats and is satisfied, and plenty is left over. The situation was the same when the Lord multiplied the loaves. Here Hezekiah is a weak type of the king according to God's counsels, of whom it is said: “[He] will satisfy her needy ones with bread.” Divine service is considerably augmented by this prosperity, fruit of God's grace in the heart. It is quite otherwise when the world enriches the servants of God. Here order rules in the distribution (vv. 14-19) and many are occupied with this. A ministry consisting exclusively in caring for material needs is not an unimportant function. Such occupations are modest, no doubt, and do not stand out, but without them the order of God's house would suffer. In Nehemiah 13: 10-14 we see the consequences that neglecting the tithes had on the entire service and worship of God.

All these organizational details completed, Jehovah delights to bear witness to Hezekiah and tell us that he had His approval. Would He be able to say the same of us? “Thus did Hezekiah throughout Judah, and wrought what was good and right and true before Jehovah his God” (v. 20). What an adornment for the believer are these three things: goodness, uprightness, and truth! This was Christ's adornment as man; it made the psalmist's lips overflow with praise when he saw Him who was “fairer than the sons of men” adorned with “truth and meekness and righteousness” (Ps. 45: 4). We are also told (v. 21), that Hezekiah's every work was undertaken “to seek his God” and that he “did it with all his heart.” What a beautiful testimony is rendered to this man of God! An undivided heart, a simple eye, occupied with seeking his God: this was the secret of his spiritual life, and the Word adds: “[He] prospered.”

This portrait of Hezekiah concludes the first division of his history, a division completely omitted in the book of Kings, and one which presents his moral history in its relation with the service of Jehovah. The following chapter will occupy us with his attitude in relation to a world hostile to God.

2 Chronicles 32

Hezekiah's Three Trials

The account in this chapter differs considerably from that of Kings, the latter reproducing nearly word for word the account of Isaiah (Isa. 36-39), except for the “prayer of Hezekiah,” omitted altogether in both Chronicles and Kings, concerning which we have already spoken. Note: See Meditations on the Second Book of Kings.

“After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to break into them” (v. 1). How precious it is to hear God acknowledging the faithfulness of His servant here! In this regard Hezekiah had been irreproachable and had already reaped an abundance of joy and prosperity in this world. But if his religious life had God's approval, would he manifest the same faithfulness in relation to the world? Notice that the Assyrian's attack is presented here as a test and in no way as a judgment of God in which the Assyrian would have been an instrument against Hezekiah. All the past history of the kings and people of Judah which we have just perused called for this judgment, but not at the moment when Hezekiah had manifested an upright heart toward God was this chastisement to fall on him and on his people. The situation was quite different with the ten tribes whose history had terminated in final captivity at the very time when God yet saw “good things” in Judah. The latter had returned to Jehovah and had destroyed their idols, although in fact their heart was not changed, as we see in Isaiah 22. Nor was it a case of Hezekiah being punished for having done wrongly in rebelling against the king of Assyria (2 Kings 18: 7), an incident about which, moreover, Chronicles is silent. In the entire chapter before us Hezekiah is not chastened, but put to the test, precisely because until then he had been faithful to his God.

The first of these tests thus is the assault of the Assyrian who thought to break into the fortified cities and take Jerusalem. What was Hezekiah to do in face of this attack? God's grace suggests the solution to him: “And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was minded to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the fountains of waters that were outside the city; and they helped him. And there was gathered together much people, and they stopped all the fountains, and the torrent that flows through the midst of the land, (Note: Properly: “The torrent that overflows” in the valley of Kidron.) saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?” (vv. 2-4). Hezekiah was determined not to leave the fountains that fed the city, whether on the east or on the west, to the hands of the enemy. Had the Assyrian taken possession of them, they would have furnished a valuable resource for continuing the siege of Jerusalem at the very time the people of the city would have been reduced to dying of thirst. Sennacherib was ignorant of the vast labor which Hezekiah and his people had undertaken to ward off this danger. While Jerusalem was abundantly provided with living water, Sennacherib through his servants says to the people: “Does not Hezekiah persuade you, to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst?” (v. 11). God bears witness to the king concerning all the zeal he expended in this respect: “And he, Hezekiah, stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David” (v. 30). The works, impressive for that time, have been found by means of which the fountain of Gihon and the overflowing fountain were brought inside Jerusalem's walls. All this showed great foresight in face of this dangerous trial.

We can draw a serious lesson from this fact ourselves. In Psalm 87: 7 the inhabitants of Jerusalem say: “All my springs are in Thee.” It is the same for us; all the springs from which we drink are in Christ. He Himself is the spring of living water and can say: “If any one thirst, let him come to Me and drink.” Our springs are the knowledge of Christ and fellowship with Him. This is what the world, the enemy of our souls, will ever seek to take away from us. The world knows only too well that a Christianity that does not drink at the fountain, that does not feed on Christ, will not sustain our life. The world's whole effort therefore consists in separating the Christian from Christ. It has a thousand means of occupying our hearts and our thoughts with anything but Him. Moreover, the world pretends to possess that which is exclusively ours. Let us not allow it to rob us of our springs, neither let us take the world's word that it possesses them. When we deal with the world, let us clearly prove to it the vanity of its pretensions. This is the greatest service which we can render to it; it can only discover Christ in the city of God by becoming part of the people of God. If we “stop the fountains,” we can prove to the world that it does not possess them and show it that the only way to possess them is to be, not on the side of the enemies of Christ, but of His friends. Our activity must not be limited to guarding ourselves from being plundered by the world; we must expend all the energy possible to set Christ within the reach of all His redeemed, so that they may constantly drink of the living water and the unsearchable riches of Christ. We do not need a commonplace Christ, a Christ who is the world's property as well as ours; we need a Christ who has nothing in common with the image the world has made of Him — the world which fashions Him, so to say, for its own use. These waters which flow in the midst of the land must become like the waters of Gihon for us, hidden deeply under the surface of the ground and reaching to the very heart of the city of God.

This was Hezekiah's first care, but on the other hand he neglected nothing for Jerusalem's defense. He who had stopped the fountains also turns his attention to the walls: “And he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside, and fortified the Millo of the city of David” (v. 5). It is not that Hezekiah trusts in his own resources and strength to resist the king of Assyria: quite to the contrary, when the king of Assyria presents himself, he cries out: “There is not strength to bring forth” (Isa. 37: 3), knowing that help can be found in dependence on God alone; but all this in no way excludes constant vigilance in relation to the enemy. If through negligence we have let breaches be made through which the enemy may mount an attack, we must diligently repair them instead of allowing them to become larger. Moreover, Hezekiah made “darts and shields in abundance.” In anticipation of an attack, weapons were necessary for all. This necessity still exists today. To fight the enemy victoriously it is not enough that one or two eminent persons among God's people be provided with the necessary weapons. These weapons, as we see in Ephesians 6, are not only the Word of God, but also a state of soul in conformity with the knowledge of God. Without doubt, when the enemy presents himself, it is God who fights for His people, as Hezekiah says here: “Be strong and courageous...for there are more with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles.” But that is in no way to hinder us from putting on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6: 11). God desires on the one hand, the confidence and dependence among His own that so remarkably characterized Hezekiah's career; but on the other hand He also desires the energy of faith that contends, withstands, and stands firm with the arms of the Spirit so that the Lord may be glorified in our warfare, just as He is to be glorified in our walk.

How humiliating that this deliverance which the Lord brought about could only be momentary! Even if the Assyrian could not seize Jerusalem, later on Babylon succeeded in doing so, because not only was the king's heart lifted up, but above all, the people's heart had not changed. “Ye have not had regard,” says Isaiah, alluding to the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, “unto the Maker thereof, neither have ye looked unto Him that fashioned it long ago” (Isa. 22: 11). And so the historic judgment through Babylon came upon this people before the prophetic judgment that will come through the Assyrian in the last days. We find a very interesting description of this latter judgment in  Isaiah 22, which alludes to the historical events we are considering in order to make known what will take place at the time of the end. Firstly, in verses 1 to 6 we find an obvious allusion to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, as it is described in 2 Kings 25: 4-5; then, in verses 7 to 11, an allusion that is just as striking to the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib under Hezekiah; but this siege reveals the moral condition of the people (v. 11), resulting not in their deliverance, but in their judgment, for their iniquity is not forgiven (v. 14). This whole scene ends with the destruction of Shebna, the unfaithful administrator, (the Antichrist); and with the establishment of Eliakim, (Christ), who will in righteousness bear the whole administration of the kingdom of David (vv. 15-25). The first siege of Jerusalem in the last days corresponds to the two events in this chapter, whereas the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib under Hezekiah is in fact a picture of the second prophetic siege in which Jerusalem will be spared and her last enemy, the Assyrian, will be destroyed by the Lord's appearing. Note: For fuller details concerning the prophetical bearing of the two sieges of Jerusalem, see: The Prophetic History of the Last Days and the Song of Degrees by H. L. Rossier.

In verses 9 to 15 of our chapter Sennacherib sends his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah and all those of Judah who were in Jerusalem. Here we see the enemy's delusion. He says: “On what do ye rely that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem?” (v. 10). He considers the people to be besieged even before he has begun the siege. He little suspects that he, Sennacherib, will be the one besieged by God, and he does not know that his power and all the great army with which he is covering the land, conquering all its fortified cities, will not stand for one day before a handful of weak, distressed people whose confidence, however, is in the Lord. “If God be for us, who against us?” Sennacherib says: “Does not Hezekiah persuade you, to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst?” (v. 11), and he is unaware that Jerusalem already possesses for herself alone all the hidden fountains of water and will soon be channeling them away in view of future aggression! Where do such delusions on part of the enemy come from? From knowing neither God nor His power. Sennacherib's pride causes him to esteem his own power much higher than that of the God of Israel, whom he likens to the idols of the nations. He confounds the false gods with the true God. To him, it is foolish to want only one God, only one altar. Are such thoughts foreign to the present-day world? True, the world has not yet “reproached the living God” like Sennacherib, but does it have any more esteem for God than for its own idols, and in the objects of its lusts is it not seeking something to put its conscience to sleep with regard to the judgment which is rapidly approaching?

In our book Sennacherib particularly emphasizes these words: “How much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand!” (v. 15). What a terrible awakening this proud, ungodly man will have: the destruction of his army, shame, and his own children becoming his murderers!

Sennacherib despises and blasphemes the Lord, and likens Him to idols (see vv. 14, 15, 16, 17, 19), and this stands out in our account whose brevity contrasts with those of Kings and Isaiah. His servants speak “against Jehovah, the true God, and against His servant Hezekiah.” What a privilege for this godly king! The enemy in his hatred points him out as a companion of the sovereign God! Indeed, Hezekiah, following the example of Christ, could say: “The reproaches of them that reproach Thee have fallen upon me,” and, again, “He that rejects me, rejects Him that sent me” (Ps. 69: 9; Luke 10: 16).

The enemy sought to frighten the people of Jerusalem and “to trouble them, that they might take the city” (v. 18). It is the same in all ages. When Satan fails to seduces us he seeks to frighten us in order to rob us of our possessions, spoil us of our joy, and replace the security and peace that we enjoy under our God's protection with agitation, distress, and grief. Let us be firm, like Hezekiah, and we shall see the enemy's defeat: “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” and nothing will stop this judgment. The angel of Jehovah annihilates Sennacherib's army; he himself falls beneath the blows of those “that came forth of his own bowels” in the presence of a powerless god whose protection he was seeking and whom he opposed to the living God; whereas Hezekiah is delivered, protected on every hand, overwhelmed with goods, and magnified in the sight of all the nations (vv. 22-23).

Thus ends the first trial of Hezekiah, to the glory of the God whom he served.

In verse 24 we find the second trial. The accounts of 2 Kings 20: 1-11 and Isaiah 38: 1-22 are quite different. Our account here consists of but few words: “In those days” — in the days when Hezekiah was grappling with the Assyrian — ”Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to Jehovah; and He spoke to him and gave him a sign” (v. 24). We will limit ourselves to what is told us here, having treated this subject in detail elsewhere.

Death by sickness, the usual end of all men, here threatens the faithful king. What is even more poignant is that he, God's instrument for the salvation of the people, is about to be brusquely cut off at the very moment when Judah needs him more than ever. Hezekiah's only resource is to commit himself to God in humble dependence on Him: “He prayed to Jehovah”; he had recourse to the One who had raised him up and guided him up to that very point. And Jehovah “spoke to him.” Wasn't that worth more than anything else? For such a result, was the trial too great? When the believer can say, “The Lord spoke to me in the trial,” would he desire, however it may be, to have escaped the suffering? “And [God] gave him a sign”; He worked a miracle in his favor. How precious Hezekiah was to God! In the trial he not only experienced divine communications, but he obtained certainty of the immense interest God bore toward him. Hezekiah was reduced to the most complete nothingness here; after having been without strength in the presence of the enemy he found himself without resource in the presence of death; yet nevertheless his position was infinitely elevated, since he had God for him, identifying Himself with all his interests and all his being! Thus, in this second trial Hezekiah acquires new blessings.

There remains yet a third trial for him. Job had had the same number and the same kind of trials: first enemies (Job 1: 13-22), then sickness (Job 2: 7-10), and lastly friends (2: 11-13). Such also was Hezekiah's third trial. Would he come through victoriously when, facing the same trial, Job had sinned in words and had fallen?

In verse 31 we read: “However in the matter of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” Such was Hezekiah's trial and also the occasion of his fall. Berodach-baladan seeks his friendship and compliments him on his recovery. At this moment the Lord leaves Hezekiah to himself to prove him. This was necessary; this man of God had to learn to know his own heart. God could have kept him from falling just as on the first two occasions, but then he would not have experienced the root of evil that was within himself. Here was a matter much more important than certain partial failings, or certain acts of sin, of which Hezekiah's career, considered in the three accounts we have of it, offers more than one example; this was a trial which, as in Job's case, exposed the evil hidden in the depths of his heart and caused the patriarch to say: “I abhor myself!”

Verse 25 shows us what this trial by which Hezekiah was worsted consisted of: “Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was lifted up; and there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.” When Jehovah Himself had magnified him in the sight of all nations (v. 23), Hezekiah's heart was lifted up. Instead of continuing in the humble attitude that characterized him at the time of the first two trials, he used divine blessings to feed his pride, that pride which ever since Adam is at the very bottom of sinful man's heart.

We will not lay stress on the details of Hezekiah's fall, related elsewhere; it seems to us that even to mention them would be to spoil the impression the Word of God would give us here. Our account is so well suited to the divine plan of Chronicles that any other addition would detract. Chronicles brings out grace, not responsibility. But here it shows us a believer's heart left to his own responsibility only one time, without grace intervening. The only time in Hezekiah's history where this took place his fall is complete and deep, even irremediable, since its consequence was the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of Judah. But now our book insists on one thing that the other two accounts scarcely mention: At the moment when everything is irremediably ruined grace intervenes to set Hezekiah's conscience before God, in a condition which He can fully approve. If sin has abounded, grace much more abounds; grace triumphs and delivers Hezekiah and his people (momentarily, no doubt, for here it is not a matter of the counsels of God, but rather of His ways) from a judgment which would have utterly destroyed them. “Hezekiah,” we are told, “humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah” (v. 26). The king humbled himself with regard to the pride that he had nourished in his heart and manifested outwardly. Having learned his lesson, he again takes his only proper place in the presence of God, and in the words of another, says like Job: “Behold, I am nought: what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth” (Job 40: 4). Like Job, Hezekiah added: “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42: 6).

What a precious thing it is that Hezekiah's humiliation produces fruit in those around him; “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” humbled themselves with him. Once again the eyes of the Lord could discover “good things” in Judah; it is interesting to see that God attentively looks for any manifestation of conscience that may give Him an occasion to continue in patience toward His people. “The Lord...is longsuffering towards you,” the apostle Peter tells us. Now the trial is over; the lesson has been learned. God can give to His beloved king which He will give in another measure altogether to Christ, the king according to His counsels, because He has always walked — that which Hezekiah failed to do — in the path of humility and meekness, yet at the same time in the path of truth and righteousness (Ps. 45: 4).

“Hezekiah had very much riches and honor: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant vessels; storehouses also for the increase of corn and new wine and oil, and stalls for all manner of beasts, and he procured flocks for the stalls. And he provided for himself cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God gave him very much substance” (vv. 27-29).

The friendship of the world is the greatest danger we can run up against. In this trial Hezekiah was worsted, but the God of grace did not abandon him; He restored him, and, after this restoration, bore testimony to him. Even in his death God gives him a place of honor that no other son of David ever had! “They buried him in the highest place of the sepulchers of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death” (v. 33).

What a God is ours! He it is who gives grace and glory. If man is to be reckoned with at all, it will only show that he does not merit grace nor would ever attain to glory!

2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh, Amon

Manasseh's history as it is recounted here has considerable importance as an example of the future relations of Jehovah with His people. In Hezekiah's history we have seen that God had announced to him Judah's captivity in Babylon as the consequence of the sin of pride which he had committed. Hezekiah and his people humbled themselves before this sentence and God postponed the execution of judgment to a future time. After Hezekiah's death unfaithfulness came to such a point, idolatry took on such proportions that nothing remained but to execute the judgment announced. Manasseh was led captive to Babylon, which in those days was under the power of the Assyrian. Thus, the fate of this king was the prelude and the anticipation in type of the future captivity of Judah, but more importantly, it was also the picture of the state of anguish and humiliation that will precede the final restoration of this people under the reign of the Messiah.

Properly speaking, the symbolic history as Chronicles presents it to us is closed with Manasseh's restoration. Amon succeeds him, beginning anew, so to say, the account of Judah's ruin from the historical point of view. The reign of Josiah which follows is, as it were, the last effort of the Spirit of God again to bring the king according to His counsels onto the scene, an effort without result, on account of the imperfection of the best human instrument whom God could have used, and followed by the lamentable picture of the kingdom coming to its end in Judah.

Let us examine the reign of Manasseh more closely, so different in Chronicles from this same reign in the book of Kings. Its beginning is described to us (vv. 1-9) as the most awful imaginable from the religious point of view; all the more awful in that it followed the days of faithful Hezekiah who was crowned with favor and prosperity on account of this very faithfulness. Manasseh's perversity drives quite an abyss between his reign and that of his father: “He wrought evil beyond measure in the sight of Jehovah” (v. 6). In everything he acted according to the abominations of the Canaanites whom the Lord had dispossessed before Israel when their iniquity was full. He rebuilds the high places demolished by Hezekiah, rears up altars to Baal, re-establishes the worship of Astarte, the worship of the stars, sacrifices his children to Molech, practices occult sciences, enchantments, and magic, profanes Jerusalem and the house of God by building altars there to false gods, and sets an abominable idol in the temple, as the Antichrist will do at the time of the end. He defies God Himself who had said: “In this house, and in Jerusalem...will I put My name for ever” (v. 7). And this faithful God had added: “Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land that I have appointed to your fathers; if they will only take heed to do all that I commanded them through Moses, according to all the law and the statutes and the ordinances” (v. 8). The people needed only to have obeyed; in every instance where they had shown themselves to be obedient to the law and the commandments God had kept His promise, and now...what more could be done? Manasseh's example was followed by his people. He himself was responsible for this ruin, but the people did not repent any more than did their king. When God spoke to both by His servants the prophets, they paid no attention (v. 10). Then “Jehovah brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with fetters, and bound him with chains of brass, and carried him to Babylon” (v. 11). That which Jehovah had done in figure to the Assyrian He did in reality to Manasseh: “I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips” (2 Kings 19: 28). Note: “The fetters” seem to have about the same signification as the nose ring, an iron ring or hook with which the nose or the lips of captives were pierced.

And now with judgment having been consummated, we see the inexhaustible, marvelous, worship-inspiring grace of God appear. Distress has produced its effects in Manasseh's heart: he becomes a striking type of the remnant of Israel in the last days. “When he was in affliction, he besought Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him. And He was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah, he was God” (vv. 12-13).

He cried from the bottom of the pit and humbled himself before the God of his fathers: this is repentance. He prayed: this is dependence and the renewal of his relations with Jehovah. he was reinstated in his kingdom and he proclaimed the sovereignty of the God whom he had denied. Grace caused him to acknowledge God in His judgments and grace restored him. From this moment on, Manasseh was a new man.

His reign of 55 years is divided into three periods: idolatry, captivity, return, or: apostasy, judgment, restoration. The latter is complete, because it is the fruit of grace.

From this time onward we see Manasseh at work for Jerusalem and for God. On the north he built the entire outer wall which had offered a weak point to the attacks of the Assyrian; on the southwest he surrounds Ophel with the high wall that was later totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and that was not even rebuilt at the time of Nehemiah. He places the fortified cities of Judah under the supervision of captains of war. As far as worship is concerned, he entirely destroys that of the false gods which he had instituted everywhere; he removes the abominable idol from the house of God where he had set it up and casts all the unclean things out of the city. But the work would have been only half done if Manasseh had not re-established the worship of Jehovah and commanded Judah to serve Him. The high places, it is true, were not entirely suppressed, but at least they were not intended for use for anything but the worship of Jehovah.

We have already noticed that even in death God expresses His approval or His dissatisfaction with the conduct of the kings. If a great number of them, and not always the best, were buried in the city of David and among the sepulchers of the kings (besides, even these cases offer some slight differences), others were deprived of this burial. Thus Joash was buried “in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the sepulchers of the kings,” the righteous consequence of the murder of Zechariah (2 Chr. 24: 22). Uzziah was buried “in the burial-ground of the kings” (which is different from their sepulchers) because he was leprous, a judgment on his act of profanity (2 Chr. 26: 23); godless Ahaz was “buried...in the city, in Jerusalem; but they brought him not into the sepulchers of the kings of Israel” (2 Chr. 28: 27); Manasseh was buried in his own house (v. 20) or, as it is expressed in the book of Kings, “in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza” (2 Kings 21: 18). Only Manasseh after his repentance seems to me to have personally chosen the place of his burial, feeling himself unworthy of the royal sepulchers. If this is so, it adds a touching feature to his humiliation.

Amon (vv. 21-25) returns to the traditions of Manasseh's reign at its beginning. He re-establishes the idolatrous worship of his father, and “did not humble himself before Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; for he, Amon, multiplied trespass” (v. 23). He was slain in his own house and Chronicles does not tell us where he was buried, but 2 Kings 21: 26 informs us that like his father he was buried “in his sepulcher, in the garden of Uzza.” Manasseh acknowledged his crime by this choice; Amon's crime is declared by God Himself. Later Josiah, greatly honored for his godliness, is buried “in the sepulchers of his fathers” (2 Chr. 35: 24). Lastly, of the last four kings, three (Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah) die in Egypt or Babylon, whereas Jehoiakim is overtaken by the judgment pronounced in Jeremiah 36: 30: “His dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.”

2 Chronicles 34-35

JOSIAH

2 Chronicles 34

The Word of God Recovered

At last we come to the reign of Josiah, the final light cast by a candle-end about to flicker out, followed by a deep night until the time when day breaks anew with the appearance of the true King according to God's counsels. Yet by grace this lamp of David shines with an outstanding burst of light before disappearing, making us anticipate future blessings. The Word tells us: Josiah “did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left” (v. 2). “The ways of David his father” — this same thing had been said of his two great predecessors, Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah (2 Chr. 17: 3; 2 Chr. 29: 2). God's Word is not bountiful in its use of this praise which relates the ways of faithful kings back to the glorious beginnings of the kingdom of Israel. But even if this was so with the king, the people did not merit the same praise. Under the kings in a general way the nation corrupted itself more and more, awakening momentarily under the influence of an energetic and faithful king, but after him falling back quickly into the idolatry which, in fact, they had never abandoned since they came out of Egypt. Jeremiah, who began to prophesy in the days of Josiah, says, precisely in reference to this reign: “Treacherous...Judah hath not returned unto Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jehovah” (Jer. 3: 10). This quotation, among many others, suffices to reveal Judah's moral state, even in the best days of the kingdom.

Verses 3 to 7 of our chapter describe Josiah's activity of cleansing Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry, and this dated from the beginning of his kingdom when he was still a young boy. Second Kings (2 Kings 23: 4-20, 24-27) describes Josiah's activity of cleansing the temple after he had reigned eighteen years. These two accounts give us two equally interesting instructions. The account in Kings connects the cleansing of the temple and of the city (and afterward the destruction of the altar at Bethel) to the discovery of the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign (2 Kings 22: 3). The reading of the “book of the covenant” (2 Kings 23: 2) incited the king to undertake this work (Jer. 11: 1-8). The account in Chronicles has a bearing different from this. In accord with the account in Kings, the book of the law was found in the temple in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign; in accord with this same account the discovery of the book of the law led to the renewing of the covenant between the king and all his people with God. Only, following this covenant, Chronicles does not mention the abolition of idolatry in the temple and at Jerusalem, but rather, the celebration of the Passover. This latter is mentioned only in passing in 2 Kings 23: 21-23, whereas it occupies all of 2 Chronicles 35.

Thus an incident common to both accounts, the discovery of the book of the law, in Kings resulted in the complete rejection of idolatry, beginning at the temple and its surroundings, and in Chronicles, in the solemnity of the Passover. This difference is simple when we consider the character of the book we are studying. Everything that treats of worship and the priesthood is inseparable, as we have already often noted, from the institution of the kingdom according to God's counsels. For the last time God gives an example in Judah and shows, as we shall see in the next chapter, what blessings are associated with the celebration of the Passover.

But the fact is that discovering and bringing to light the Scriptures, buried in the dust of a sanctuary abandoned for so long, brings with it these two capital features of the testimony in Israel: the rejection of idolatry and the feast of redemption. So likewise in our days for the Christian testimony it brings separation from the world and from evil, and the gathering of God's children around their passover, Christ, and around the memorial of His work.

As we have seen (vv. 3-7), devotion to the Lord had begun at a very early age in Josiah: between his sixteenth and twentieth years. He was still very ignorant of God's thoughts and the consequences of the people's guilt, but he had an ardent desire to see Jehovah's land and city cleansed from so much uncleanness. The blessings granted to his ancestors' faith and the restoration of his grandfather Manasseh doubtless served as powerful motivations for him to walk in their ways. Added to this were the horror caused by the wretched example of his father Amon and the terrible fate which he had consequently suffered.

God blesses Josiah's zeal, causing him to discover His Word. If, as we see here, having Israel's cleansing at heart, he had limited himself to that alone, without feeling the need to repair the breaches of the house of God and giving it back its importance, the discovery of the book of the law would never have taken place. In our times the same thing has happened over and over again to Christians, full of zeal against the idolatrous practices of the Roman Church. Their efforts have not been crowned with success, however, because they did not have at heart the Church, the true Assembly of Christ.

The reading of this book works powerfully upon Josiah's conscience: “And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the law, that he rent his garments” (v. 19). He immediately feels the need to consult the Lord, for he recognizes his own guilt and that of “them that are left in Israel and in Judah.” He declares that the evil goes back to “our fathers [who] have not kept the word of Jehovah.” It is the confession of the complete ruin of all, the fruit of a common disobedience. Does any hope remain? When the prophetess Huldah is consulted, she gives the final answer: All the curses pronounced by the law cannot be revoked. Jehovah's wrath will overtake Jerusalem like an unquenchable fire, but as for the king, he will be the object of grace, for — the prophetess insists on this twice — he humbled himself before God (v. 27), rent his garments as a sign of mourning and distress, and wept tears of repentance. Because of this, he would be taken away before the evil, as it is said in Isaiah: “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from before the evil. He entereth into peace: they rest in their beds, each one that hath walked in his uprightness” (Isa. 57: 1-2).

It might seem in the face of this explicit declaration on God's part that Josiah had nothing to do but to wait for deliverance without troubling himself about what would follow. Exactly the opposite effect is produced in this man of God. The understanding that he had received through the Word, “knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,” impels him to shield the people while there is still time. He makes a covenant with Jehovah and “caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it” (v. 32), the only means of returning to God under the law as long as a new covenant involving God alone had not yet been established. Josiah “made to serve, all that were found in Israel — to serve Jehovah their God” (v. 33). It was zeal for these souls, fear of the coming judgment for them, that made him act in this way. Josiah carried out the word spoken by the master to his bondservant: “Compel [them] to come in” (Luke 14: 23). What impelled him to this activity was the knowledge of grace for himself, announced by the word of the prophetess, and the revelation of the judgments which, while sparing the king, would overtake the people. Why should there not also be grace for others, he might ask himself — he who had realized through the reading of the book of the law that this judgment ought to have overtaken him as well?

2 Chronicles 35

The Passover and Worship

As we have already noticed, we have one of the great results of the recovered Word here: the celebration of the Passover united with worship, the highest expression of divine life in the believer. The Passover was the foundation of worship, and thus the description of this feast is given in much greater detail than at the time of Hezekiah's Passover (2 Chr. 30: 15-27), for it is accompanied by all the implements of the service of worship. In fact, in Hezekiah's times as we have already noticed, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, symbol of a holy life entirely consecrated to Jehovah, following the sacrifice of the pascal lamb, is emphasized much more than the worship itself.

Let us examine in detail the contents of this interesting chapter. It has been remarked, firstly, that worship is based on the revelation the Word of God had given about it to the people. No detail whatever is left to man's discretion or good pleasure. The books of Moses had been found again in the temple; they regulated the institution of the Passover and also of all the sacrifices that were offered on the occasion of this solemn feast. The Levites, having no further need now to bear the ark on their shoulders, were once again to put it in the most holy place, from which Amon had probably cast it out. This modified their service: Now they were to serve Jehovah their God and His people Israel (v. 3). Taking their place henceforth in the holy place, they were to slaughter the Passover and prepare it for their brethren. Moreover, they were at the service of the priests. They set apart the burnt offerings, roasted the passover with fire, and boiled the sacrifices of peace offerings in pots for the people; they prepared their own portions and those of the sons of Aaron. Their service was regulated according to the king's commandment (vv. 10,16), but this commandment itself was “according to the word of Jehovah through Moses...as it is written in the book of Moses...according to the ordinance” (vv. 6, 12, 13). Here we also see that the Word of God contained all the inspired writings given up to the time of Josiah. All was to be prepared and ordered “according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son” (v. 4), and lastly, “according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer.” Thus no portion of the Word was neglected where it was a matter of worship and the order appropriate to the house of God.

How necessary this is in our day as well! It is exactly in these things that Christians, often even the most godly of them, fail completely. Being ignorant of what worship is — the collective adoration of God's children, joined together around the Lord's table — they also do not know what the service of the Levites (corresponding to present day ministries) consists of, confusing this service with that of the priests. They are just as completely ignorant that the Word alone has the right to regulate the order and organization in the house of God when it is a matter of the Assembly's service, just as in former days when it was a matter of the service of the temple. For us Christians the First Epistle to the Corinthians determines this order, just as the First Epistle to Timothy regulates the manner in which one is to conduct himself in the house of God. At the time of the celebration of Josiah's Passover we see order and conduct re-established according to the Word. Not only did the priests and the Levites occupy the places assigned to them, but also the singers, according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun; and also the doorkeepers, who did not have to depart from their service, for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. Thus each part of this organism was at its appointed place, each one faithfully fulfilling his functions. That which bound all together into one common activity was the levitical service, coming down from its original high duties (carrying the ark), from now on no longer needed, to the most humble duties for the benefit of their brethren.

The functioning of the Assembly, the Church, the body of Christ, presents these same characteristics, when God's Word is directing it. Read, for example, Romans 12: 4-8, 1 Corinthians 12 (the whole chapter), as well as 1 Corinthians 14: there you will find the same principles and the same truths that are presented in our chapter.

Josiah's Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month, not in the second month like Hezekiah's Passover, because the priests and the Levites had hallowed themselves and consecrated themselves to the Lord. This date corresponds to the year of the restoration of the temple, that is, the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign. As long as God's dwelling in the midst of His people was not an acknowledged fact, established once again, it was impossible to celebrate this feast. There cannot be any worship as long as the Lord's promise to be present in the midst of His own is not realized. A memorial to His death can be found everywhere, but how incomplete the memorial of the Passover would have been under Josiah, without the whole sphere of blessings associated with the priesthood and the worship of Jehovah. To celebrate the Passover as a simple memorial there would have been no need of all the service of worship with which Josiah surrounded it. Each Israelite family could have taken it in their own home. But though this memorial was the basis of worship, it was not worship itself. When the Passover was celebrated on the night of the departure from Egypt, or when on the night in which He was delivered up the memorial of the Savior's death was entrusted by Him to His disciples, this was not worship, properly speaking. Worship was not understood and realized until after deliverance, and it will keep this character eternally when it will be celebrated around the Lamb who was slain, His expiatory work being its basis and its center.

Thus we find three inseparable things in this chapter. They make up the greatness of this ceremony, of which it is said: “There was no passover like to that holden in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel hold such a passover as Josiah held, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (v. 18). The year of the restoration of the temple and of setting the ark in its place — the year of the discovery of the book of the law — that year the Passover was celebrated and worship was recovered. So it is in our days, too. When the Assembly of the Living God, the dwelling place of God through the Spirit, is known; when the Word of God, the whole Word and nothing but the Word, is discovered and brought to light as the one and only rule for the Christian; then worship can take place in an intelligent manner around the memorial of the death and to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The realization of these things is of necessity accompanied by great liberty and great joy. Never yet under the dispensation of the prophets had such a Passover been seen. Compare the voluntary offerings of the king, the princes, the priests, and the Levites (vv. 7-9) with those that were offered under the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 30: 24), and you will easily ascertain the difference between these two Passovers.

Alas! this scene of joy is followed by a disaster. Josiah shows that he is not the king according to God's counsels. As so often happens, he fails in precisely that area in which, being his strongest point, he seemed to have the least need to be on guard. He does not acknowledge the word of God when it is addressed to him — he whose ears until then had always been prompt to hear. “He hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God” (v. 22). What business did he have to enter into the conflict of the nations when it did not concern the people of God? Should he not have considered these events as directed by Jehovah and refrained from interfering? To engage in men's conflicts, to seek to anticipate their plans in order to thwart them, to participate in their politics, is to run headlong to certain defeat. Let us never forget that God has the upper hand over all that happens in the world. Man takes credit for directing these events, but he is only, like Pharaoh Necho, an instrument that God is using to attain the purpose which He — not man — proposes.

Thus, mortally wounded in combat, Josiah ends his career. There is a general mourning; the prophet Jeremiah writes his Lamentations about his death. As a prophet he understands that the last hope of a reign according to God has disappeared with this godly king; that is why these Lamentations are established as “an ordinance for Israel.” But in presence of this mourning the eyes of Jeremiah turn to Another than Josiah: to Him who could say: “I am the Man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath” (Lam. 3: 1) — to Him who “sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because He hath laid it upon Him. He putteth His mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth His cheek to him that smiteth Him; He is filled full with reproach (Lam. 3: 28-30) — to Him who says: “Waters streamed over My head; I said, I am cut off: (Lam. 3: 54) — but who through His very sufferings will bring an end to Israel's judgment: “The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; He will no more carry thee away into captivity” (Lam. 4: 22) — to Him finally who will establish His throne forever there where faithful Josiah's throne sank down and disappeared: “Thou, Jehovah, dwellest for ever; Thy throne is from generation to generation” (Lam. 5: 19).

2 Chronicles 36

The Last Kings

This chapter is only a summary, intentionally very brief, of the account contained in the last chapters of the book of Kings (2 Kings 23: 31-25). The collapse of the kingdom is complete and final under the kings who succeeded Josiah. It hardly seems necessary to the inspired author to record these last convulsions. They have no more real importance in the book of Chronicles except to count, as far as history follows them, the links of the chain which will end with the Lord's Anointed. This is also why the Spirit of God in a remarkable way links the end of Chronicles to the book of Ezra, literally repeating in verses 22 and 23 of our chapter the words with which the following book begins. Indeed, Zerubbabel, in the book of Ezra, is still a weak offshoot of Judah's royalty. Then come the revivals of Ezra and Nehemiah, revivals produced in the midst of a remnant returned from Babylon to await the promised Messiah; but these revivals also are without lasting result, and when at last the true King of Israel appears, His people crucify Him. Nevertheless God's counsels are fulfilled: the sufferings of Christ open the door to the establishment of His glorious throne on earth.

All the last kings “did evil in the sight of Jehovah.” Jehoahaz (vv. 1-4) is bound with chains by Pharaoh Necho whom Josiah had the temerity to fight. Thus this pious king's only fault resulted in hastening the kingdom's decline. Carried away to Egypt, Jehoahaz dies there after having reigned for three months at Jerusalem.

Jehoiakim (vv. 5-7) commits abominations; bound with chains of brass, he is led away by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon where he dies the death of an evil-doer (Jer. 36: 30). His mother's name is lacking in Chronicles, as is the case for all the evil kings after Hezekiah.

Jehoichin, his son, is carried away to Babylon. His restoration at the court of Evil-merodach, after 37 years of captivity, is not mentioned here (see 2 Kings 25: 27-30), for here it is only a matter of accentuating the complete and final ruin of the kingdom in Judah.

The enumeration ends with Zedekiah. We have spoken elsewhere (2 Kings) of his reign in relation to that which is told us in the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Verses 12 and 13 summarize all of his sad history: he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God. When the word of Jehovah is addressed to him by the prophet Jeremiah, he does not humble himself. He rebels against the power established over him as a chastisement from God; much more, he breaks an oath made in the name of Jehovah. What could be more odious than this act towards idolatrous nations and in the eyes of God whose holy name had been desecrated by perjury and cast into the mud? Finally, he stiffens his neck and hardens his heart, refusing to return to the Lord. An irrevocable decision is taken against Him, for Zedekiah refused God.

Thus the history of the kingdom ends. The priests' end and that of the people was no better (vv. 14-21). “They defiled the house of Jehovah.” And still, right to the end God shows them His grace, the characteristic that is so remarkable in Chronicles: “Jehovah the God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending; because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place” (v. 15). They answered Him by mocking, despising, and scoffing at the prophets. Finally wrath came upon them for the final time: The king of the Chaldeans came up against Jerusalem. From the account in Kings and the prophet Jeremiah we know what Zedekiah's fate was. Here without any other detail he is, as it were, engulfed in the general judgment. God had “had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place” up to that final moment, but the hour came when He “spared not young man nor maiden, old man nor him of hoary head: He gave them all” into the hand of the king of the Chaldeans (v. 17). The Chaldeans “burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire, and all the precious vessels thereof were given up to destruction. And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they became servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia; to fulfill the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years” (vv. 19-21).

By his fall the first Adam had brought God's counsels with regard to him to naught; God has answered by the Second Adam. The kingdom of Israel had done the same; God will answer by anointing His King in Zion, the mountain of His holiness! (Ps. 2: 6).

Ezra

Ezra

Meditations on the Book of Ezra

H. L. Rossier.

Contents

Introduction

Ezra 1 and 2, First exodus

Ezra 3, The altar and the foundations of the temple

Ezra 4, The work interrupted

Ezra 5 and 6, Revival and the construction of the temple

Ezra 7, Ezra

Ezra 8, The second exodus

Ezra 9 and 10, Purification of the people

Introduction

n the third or fourth year* of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, this same Nebuchadnezzar went up against Jerusalem, laid siege to it (Dan. 1: 1), took Jehoiakim captive and bound him with chains of brass to carry him away to Babylon. (2 Chr. 36: 6)  At this time, he carried away part of the vessels of the house of the Lord in order to adorn the temple of his god. (2 Chr. 36: 7; Ezra 1: 7; Dan. 1: 2)  He also carried away to Babylon a certain number of young people, who belonged either to the royal family or to the nobility. (Dan 1: 3)

*See Dan. 1:1; Jer. 25: 1.  The Old Testament frequently presents these differences in calculation, as a fragment of a year was often counted as an entire year.

The Chaldean monarch then seems to have changed his  disposition toward the captive king, for we see Jehoiakim re-established on his throne at Jerusalem where he reigned for eleven years. (2 Chr. 36: 5; 2 Kings 23: 36)  But three years after he had been re-integrated in his kingdom, Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.  Nebuchadnezzar, who was occupied elsewhere, did not go up against him personally, but, until the end of his reign, at the instigation of the king of Babylon, Jehoiakim was harassed by enemy bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites.  According to Jeremiah's prophecy, Jehoiakim died a violent death, and his body, which  was drawn and cast out beyond the walls of Jerusalem where it was exposed to the heat by day and to the frost by night,  was "buried with the burial of an ass." (Jer. 22: 19; Jer. 36: 30)  Nevertheless it is said that he "slept with his fathers" (2 Kings 24: 6), an expression which seems to imply that at first he was placed in the sepulchers of the kings.

Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah, 1 Chr. 3: 16) succeeded his father Jehoiakim, but reigned for only three months at Jerusalem.  It was against Jehoiachin and his people that Nebuchadnezzar vented the wrath accumulated in his heart by the false, disloyal conduct of Jehoiakim.   The servants of the king of Babylon "came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.  And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, while his servants were besieging it.  And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his chamberlains; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.  And he brought out thence all the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Jehovah, as Jehovah had said.  And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained but the poorest sort of the people of the land.  And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon…" (2 Kings 24: 10-15)  Later, Evil-merodach, Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, in the first year of his reign, lifted Jehoiachin out of prison, set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him at Babylon, and provided for him at his court all the days of his life. (2 Kings 25: 27-30)

After Jehoiachin was taken away captive, Nebuchadnezzar established Zedekiah, his uncle, and made him "take oath by God" (2 Chr. 36: 13) to remain faithful to him.  But Zedekiah profaned the name of the Lord by breaking his oath and rebelled against the king of Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar then came against Jerusalem with his entire army and captured the city after a terrible siege lasting two years which reduced the inhabitants of the city to famine.  Zedekiah was taken, his sons were slain before his eyes, his eyes were put out, and he was taken away to Babylon, burdened with chains of brass.  Priests, temple guards, and men of war were massacred; the temple, the king's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem were burned; and the walls of the city were broken down.  All the gold, silver and brass of the house of the Lord was carried away.  "And Nebuzaradan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.  But the captain of the body-guard left of the poor of the land for vinedressers and husbandmen." (2 Kings 25: 11-12)

The history which we have just delineated, according to the Biblical accounts, proves that the Babylonian captivity took place at three different epochs: the first; at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign; the second: during the short period of Jehoiachin's (or Jeconiah's) reign; and finally, the third: in the eleventh year of Zedekiah.  The last two epochs were the most terrible, but the seventy years of captivity predicted by the prophet Jeremiah date from the first epoch (2 Chr. 36: 21; Dan. 9: 12; Jer. 25: 1, 11, 12; Jer. 29: 10, where 70 years are "accomplished for Babylon", that is to say, from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign; cf. Jer. 25: 1)

This first captivity had a particular character: unlike the second and the third captivities which were marked by devastation and the great number of men carried away, the first captivity was marked by the spoiling of the house of the Lord, which was deprived of precious objects used for the service of worship (Dan. 1: 1, 2; Ezra 1: 7; 2 Chr. 36: 7)  At the time of Judah's restoration, all these objects, numbering 5400 (Ezra 1: 9-11), were returned, and this was even the most characteristic feature of this exodus which was to bring the remnant of the people back to their land.   The dominant feature at the beginning of these 70 years, is that the glory of the temple, the glory of the service of the worship of the Lord, was itself taken away captive.  A few years later, when Jehoiachin was a prisoner, Ezekiel saw moreover the glory of God leave, regretfully as it were, this house, which He had desired to make His dwelling place forever, and yet a few more years after this event, the temple, spoiled of its last ornaments, was burned and reduced to a heap of ruins.

Thus the captivity dates from this first period.   God had been dishonored by the idolatry of the people and their kings: was there any great difference whether the precious vessels remained in His temple or were placed in the temple of idols at Babylon?  And it is in this event that we find the essential character of the beginning of the captivity.  Nothing of this kind had ever taken place previously.  At the time of his rebellion against Sennacherib, Hezekiah had no doubt given him all the silver found in the temple, and in order to pay the tribute imposed on him, he had stripped the doors and pillars of the gold which covered them (2 Kings 18: 15, 16), but he did not touch the vessels destined for the service of worship.  Under Jehoiachin,  Nebuchadnezzar plundered, in a much greater measure, all the treasures of the house of God and smashed the vessels which Solomon had made, according to the commandment of the Lord, but, I repeat, this was an unprecedented profanation: the ornamentation of a temple of idols with the vessels designed for the worship service of the true God, took place only under Jehoiachin.  When wicked Belshazzar, with his lords, his wives and his concubines, drank wine in sacred vessels, in praise of his idols, he intended by this means to celebrate the triumph of false gods over the true God, and to oppose them to the Lord publicly.  In that same night, God answered him by judgment and death.  Daniel, carried away from Jerusalem with his companions, at the beginning of the seventy years of captivity, was the prophet of this judgment (Dan. 5).  In the first year of Darius, the Mede, he understood, through reading Jeremiah, that the end of the captivity was near.  Daniel then humiliated himself on behalf of the people and witnessed the restoration of Judah in the first year of Cyrus, for he was still in Babylon in the third year of this king (Ezra 1: 1; Dan. 10: 1).

Ezra

1 and Ezra

First exodus

The first year of Cyrus marks the end of the captivity, just as the first year of Nebuchadnezzar had marked its beginning.   Cyrus undertakes the restoration of the people and the temple; his first care is to return to the Jews the utensils for worship, which Nebuchadnezzar had formerly placed in the house of his god.  The Persian king was aware of his mission and he knew what God had announced beforehand concerning himself through the prophets.  Daniel was capable of instructing him concerning these things; Isaiah had said: "[He is] my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid"  (Isa. 44: 28).  Cyrus alludes to this passage when he says: "All the kingdoms of the earth has Jehovah the God of the heavens given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah" (Ezra 1: 2).  He could read these words in the prophets, which were written long before his birth: "Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him — and I will loose the loins of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors; and the gates shall not be shut: I will go before thee, and make the elevated places plain; I will break in pieces the brazen doors, and cut asunder the bars of iron; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places; that thou mayest know that I, Jehovah, who call thee by name, [am] the God of Israel.  For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name:  I surnamed thee, though thou didst not know me; I [am] Jehovah, and there is none else; there is no God beside me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me…" (Isa. 45: 1-5).

Cyrus, like the kings of Persia who succeeded him, detested idols.  Acknowledging the God of Israel as "the God of the heavens", he particularly insists here on the fact that "he is God" (v. 3).  In like manner Artaxerxes, king of Persia, later openly declares that the Lord God of Israel is "the God of the heavens" (Ezra 7: 21, 23).

But all this: these intellectual convictions (which might have nothing to do with a work of conscience or a living faith) and even the assurance of being an instrument chosen to accomplish the designs of God (v. 2), did not suffice to bring about the restoration of the captives.  God intended to show that it was He Himself and no other who fulfilled His Word; this is why it is said: "Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia" (v. 1).   He also stirred up the spirit of the chief fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the spirit of the priests and of Levites (v. 5).  It was only then that they returned to their land, but in the midst of what impoverishment!  They had no cloud, no ark, and no Urim or Thummim! (Ezra 2: 63)

The book of Ezra has great significance for us.  In the second book of Kings*, we have seen how the beginning of Judah's decline was momentarily interrupted by the two periods of Revival which characterized the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah.  Then, the lamp of testimony, which was then about to go out, suddenly threw off rays of brightness and, had the people taken heed, their final judgment might have been yet prevented or delayed; but this was not the case, for after these blessed and prosperous interludes,  the evil, which had been repressed for a moment, once again gained the upper hand with growing intensity, so that judgment was its obligatory conclusion.  The ruin was total.

*Meditations on the second book of Kings, by H. R.

Now, it was out of this ruin that, in the book of Ezra, God calls a Remnant.  Not that these "children of the captivity" were in reality or collectively the true remnant of Israel; the true remnant was taken out from their midst and was separated from them, as the prophet Malachi teaches us.  Thus, the true remnant was composed of those who feared the Lord and spoke to one another (Mal. 3: 16).  When the Messiah appeared, those believers were living in Judea and were waiting for the deliverance of Israel; and when the public ministry of Jesus began, this same remnant, in the person of the twelve disciples and those who had received the word of Christ, surrounded the Savior.  And moreover, at the end of the times spoken of in prophecy, this same remnant will wait for the appearance of the Messiah in glory, in the midst of the open apostasy of the people.

Nevertheless, even though this remnant of Judah, who returned to Jerusalem under Cyrus, in order to wait for the Messiah and to welcome Him, are not the true remnant, the Holy Spirit presents them as exemplifying the characteristics which a believing remnant should assume in a time of ruin: they are a most salutary example for us, Christians, who presently find ourselves in the midst of the ruins of Christendom: an example through which we learn how we may be witnesses of God in difficult circumstances.  This is the important subject which the first Ezra of our book will present to us.

There were 24,144 people (Ezra 2: 1-35)* who returned from the captivity under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua (or Joshua), the high priest, assisted by nine chief men.  From verse 3 to verse 20 of chapter 2, they are listed according to  the name of their fathers, and from verse 21 to verse 34 according to the name of their cities.  Those listed according to their cities went to inhabit and re-people their cities of origin, once they had returned to Palestine.  The entire people was registered according to their genealogies, as Nehemiah 7: 5 tells us.

*Translator's note: Is Senaah (v. 35) a place or person?  (References: Ezra 2; 35, Nehemiah 7: 38: context suggests place; cf. also "Hossenah" Nehemiah 3: 3 where the contexts suggests a person)  If it is a place, it would seem to make more sense to say "v. 35" instead of "v. 34" as the text says.

The priests, belonging to four families of the sons of Aaron, proved themselves zealous to resume their place and functions in the house of God which was about to be built.  They numbered 4289 (Ezra 2: 36-39), whereas, out of the three families of the Levites, only one family was represented, and even this family was represented by a number which was quite insufficient.

Don't these facts have something to say to us at the present time?  As all Christians are priests whose suited function is to worship God, many of them (although it goes without saying that even this number is too few) feel the need to fill their functions as worshippers in the Assembly of the living God.  But how the absence of Levites, whose functions correspond to ministries in the Christian Assembly, is cruelly felt!  It is not that there was any lack of people, as we shall see in Ezra 8, but on their part there was indifference, spiritual laziness, love of their own comfort, no doubt, and thus only seventy-four individuals present themselves to escort the priests, the people, and their chiefs!  This is certainly one of the characteristic features of the present time just as it was in those days.  Those who have received gifts of the Lord for evangelizing, teaching, and feeding the flock of Christ, fear to go forward with the strength which is given them, and exercise their ministry as the Lord has confided it to them.  Instead of feeling their responsibility, they transfer it to others and prefer to give them place, rather than to themselves "keep [their] charge".  Even if it is not the only motive for the clergy's usurpation in the Church, at least this spiritual laziness favors it to a high degree.  Later we shall see what difficulty Ezra had to assemble a few Levites to go up to Jerusalem with him.

The singers, the sons of Asaph, were more numerous than the sons of Levi: the Word mentions 128 of them (Ezra 2: 41).  What a precious function it is to sing the praises of God; but do we not often see, in the assemblies of the saints, the role of the "children of Asaph" largely represented in order to dispense with a service which is more exacting and which calls for greater responsibility?

The porters numbered 139; the Nethinim, or subordinate servants of the sanctuary, together with Solomon's servants numbered 392 (v. 58).  These modest functions are very valuable in the eyes of the Lord.  See how, from verse 43 to verse 57, God complacently registers all the names of their fathers.  Likewise today, whether it is a matter of serving tables, of passing the bread and the cup, of taking care of the "upper room", none of this is forgotten by the Lord; the names of those who have kept the charge of this service are registered just as deservedly as others, and we shall see, in more than one case, that the one among the children of God who took the last place, forgetting himself in order to serve others, will occupy a place of honor, whereas a certain remarkable gift, which tended to glorify man rather than Christ, will sit down with confusion in the last place.

In all, the priests, Levites, singers and servants numbered 5022 souls.

Thus the number of people registered was 29,166 (Ezra 2: 1-35; 36-58) but the whole congregation together consisted of 42,360 persons (v. 64).  Among them, 652 (v. 60) of the children of Israel could not prove that they were really part of the people.  Moreover, a great number of priests "sought their genealogical register, but they were not found; therefore were they, as polluted, removed from the priesthood.  And [Zerubbabel] the Tirshatha (a Persian word: the name given in Ezra and Nehemiah to the governor of Jerusalem under Persian kings), said to them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim" (vv. 62, 63).

Here we find the first feature which ought to characterize a remnant.  In normal times, one was not held accountable to present his genealogy, for it was self-evident, to all, that a priest could not pretend to a place which did not belong to him.  The situation was identical in the early days of the Church: no one dared to join himself to the Christian assembly (Acts 5: 13), because the power of the Holy Spirit presented a considerable barrier to the invasion of the world.  In a time of ruin, it is quite different: when foreign elements have broken out in the house of God, the faithful and obliged to keep close watch in order to oppose any mixture with the world.  In Ezra it is a matter of rebuilding the temple of the Lord, and the service of the house could not be associated with foreign elements.  Thus we shall later see the remnant entirely repudiate any alliance with the world, in view of a common work; only here, it is not a question of repulsing elements from without, but of examining those persons who claim to belong to the people of God, in order to know if they can give proof of their origin.  The case is the same today: the greatest vigilance is necessary, in order to assure that the life of God is really united to the Christian profession.  Those who could not be acknowledged by the assembly of Israel, even although they might indeed be part of the people, ought not to blame anyone but themselves if they were not admitted to the service of the temple.  They might well indeed be members of Israel, despite appearances, but why were they not prepared to prove their line of descent?  Was this the fault of those who did not recognize them?  Ought they not, rather, to blame their own indifference in keeping the proof of their origin?

The priests were doubly guilty.  There remained only one resource for them: the coming of a priest with the Urim and Thummim, by means of which he consulted the Lord (Num. 27: 21; 1 Sam. 28: 6).  Only God, who knows those who are His, could make manifest those who were really of the priestly family.  Until that moment, they must wait and could not "eat of the most holy things".  This example also indicates to us the course which the Christian assembly should follow in doubtful cases.  Let us wait until we can consult the Lord, before admitting to the Lord's table those who cannot prove their divine origin in the sight of all.  A Remnant according to the mind of God will never receive to the supper those who merely make a profession of Christianity, but rather, will receive those who are born of God and are His children by right.

In contrast to verse 43, which speaks of the servants of the sanctuary,  verses 64 to 67 tell us of the servants and maid-servants of the people, for God does not forget them either.   In one way or another, they fulfill their service. Whether it is a matter of washing the feet of the saints, of filling the most humble functions toward those who belong to the Lord, of giving but a cup of water to one of these little ones, God is mindful of it and records it.  There were also, among this company, 200 singing men and singing women (v. 65).  This singing involves something other than the praise of the holy place, which the sons of Asaph celebrated; the purpose of this singing was also in order to maintain, outside of the context of the set service of worship, the mutual communion of the people of God (Eph. 5: 19; Col. 3: 16).

Lastly, that nothing might be forgotten, God even takes account of the animals (vv. 66, 67), of everything which is useful to His people, and which is helpful to them.  These are also carefully counted, without overlooking a single one.  What care this numbering speaks to us of!  All along the voyage which was to bring them to the house of God, God Himself had watched over His people, had prepared the necessary relief for their fatigue, and had made preparation beforehand for the needs of the weak, the women and the little children.  What a God is ours!  Shall we seek for a better guide, a better guardian?  Is not our Father the Creator and Keeper of all things?

The first characteristic of the remnant, as we have seen, was minute care to avoid receiving any doubtful element into the priesthood, in order to maintain the service of the temple free of defilement.  In verses 68 and 69, we find a second characteristic: zeal for the erection of the house of God, the devotion which sacrifices its own interests for the work of the Lord.  The chief fathers voluntarily give a sum which could be evaluated at two and a half million in our currency (i.e., French francs, therefore convert to American currency; N.B. one dram = £1.1s or $4.97).  This was little indeed, compared to what the chief fathers had formerly offered for the construction of the temple of Solomon (1 Chr. 29: 6-9), but in a time of extreme poverty, this gift had a great value in the eyes of the Lord of the temple and He, the possessor of all the treasures of the universe,  appreciated it, according to the zeal which prompted them to offer it, just as later He esteemed the widow's mite more than the surplus of the rich.

To summarize, the characteristics of the remnant, in these two chapters, are the following:

The faithful accept the condition of humiliation and slavery into which their sins has placed them, and they seek neither to improve this state of things, nor to escape from it.  Above all, they desire to preserve those who are part of the house of God free from any profane mixture.  Not having the Urim and Thummim, they wait until God reveals His mind to them concerning many matters.  They do not pretend to replace divine revelations, which are not granted to them for the moment, by some human arrangement of their own invention.  They realize that the extent of their intelligence is indeed small.  If the carelessness of some prevents the others from acknowledging them, and if the faithfulness of these others obliges them to exclude the careless ones from priestly service, it is no less true that the Lord knows those that are His, and that the moment will come when He will reveal them so faithfully that not one will be found missing.

In the meanwhile, these faithful ones must walk in the narrow path, without any pretension to the power which they did not possess, and with the feeble resources which the God of mercy had left a their disposition.

But this poverty does not in anyway exclude devotion.  The house of God is the great object of the thoughts of the remnant and, from the time of their arrival in the land of promise, they subordinate everything to it.  What follows will show us whether this zeal succeeded in maintaining itself.

Ezra 3

The altar and the foundations of the temple.

Our chapter points out a great many other characteristics of the remnant, in addition to the two features mentioned above.

"And when the seventh month* came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.  Then stood up Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt-offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.  And they set the altar on its base; for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries.  And they offered up burnt-offerings on it to Jehovah, the morning and evening burnt-offerings" (vv. 1-3).

*The month of Ethanim (1 Ki. 8: 2), the month of the dedication of Solomon's temple.

During the seventy years of captivity, this poor people, stricken by the judgment of God, had been deprived of the worship service of the Lord.  The temple had been destroyed and all its treasures spoiled; the brazen altar itself had been broken.  But as soon as the remnant return to their land, the altar, the primary symbol of worship, and the one item of furniture absolutely essential for the existence of the service of worship, is rebuilt.

This is a striking type, designed to instruct us.  In Haran, Abraham had no altar; when he crossed the border of Canaan, the altar appeared.  When the patriarch went down to Egypt, he lost his altar; when he returned from Egypt, he recovered it.  Thus the altar is intimately related to dwelling in the land of promise.  One must belong to the heavenly Canaan in order for worship to be a reality; moreover, one must be practically dwelling there, have taken possession of one's inheritance, and have realized that one is delivered from the power of darkness and transported into a new kingdom, the kingdom of the Son of the Father's love — nothing less than these things is necessary — in order to worship God acceptably.  The Church of Christ, unfaithful as she is, has lost these things from sight; but in these final days, have we not been re-awakened so that we might truly serve the Lord and give Him worship?  If one asks Christians what this word "worship" means, the greater part show, by their answers, that they have but a feeble idea of its significance.  But we will not linger over this subject; let us rather see what worship consisted of for this poor remnant.

In the first place, they were not left to themselves to determine this, for they had the law of Moses and the commandments of God.  And it is said in verses 2 (translator's note: the text says v. 3, but it is actually v. 2) and 4: "as it is written" and "according to the ordinance".  The divine Word instructed them concerning worship according to the law, just as it instructs us today concerning worship according to the Spirit.  It is very important to note the role which the Word plays in all this.  For the people, the question was not, to know what other were accustomed to do, but rather, what the law of Moses revealed to them about this subject.  For this remnant, the Scriptures had recovered their place and importance.

In the second place, the remnant understood that worship was linked to the altar.  The altar was the center of worship, just as the table of the Lord forms the center of worship for the Christian.  The sacrifice was placed on the altar and it was in virtue of this sacrifice that the people worshipped God, because it was through this sacrifice that one might be reconciled and brought into relationship with the Lord.

They built the altar on its base [translator's note: v. 3; "base" is mâkôwn in Hebrew, a fixture, i.e. a basis; generally, a place, especially an abode].  Finding that everything had been destroyed and overthrown at Jerusalem, they might have been satisfied with any place whatsoever for building their altar.  And is this not the spectacle which Christendom offers today?  Everyone chooses his own base for setting up his altar, under the pretext that since the true temple has been destroyed, we are free to choose the place which suits us best.  This was not the case of these faithful souls.  They knew the place of the temple, of the court, of the altar, and it was at that place and none other that they built the altar, thus determining the center of gathering and worship for the people of God.  They wanted no other place, and they knew of no other place than that one, in days of ruin just as in Israel's most prosperous days.  Ornan's threshing floor, on mount Moriah, remained the unique place where worship might be offered up.

Thirdly, please note that this remnant, so poor and feeble in appearance, is not satisfied with an agreement or mutual deference to build the altar on its place.   They show forth the unity of the people, represented visibly by the alter, in a practical way.  Their entire attitude witnesses to this unity; the people gather themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.  The distance of their cities does not in any way prevent them from coming to the altar at Jerusalem, and no where else, to demonstrate this unity.

It is the same today at the Lord's table: it is, like the altar of the remnant, the manifestation of the unity of the people of God, finding expression in "one loaf" in which all participate.  Little did it matter whether the Jews were few in number; little does it matter if we are only two or three in number: the unity of all the people, whether they had returned from captivity or were scattered along the banks of the rivers of Babylon, or in unknown cities of Persia and Media, was expressed there by the altar set up in the midst of the court.  For them, the question was not whether others would follow their example; they had the will of God, proclaimed by Moses, as the basis for their action.  The Word bound them; their gathering was an act of obedience.  They obeyed before setting to work on the house, which would come later.  For the moment, worship, a greater thing than the holy place, the ark, or the throne between the cherubim, was re-established.  Is not the situation the same with the gathering of the saints around the memorial of the cross of Christ, the blessed place where the Lamb of God was offered up: the Lamb that was slain, whom we worship, as such, in glory?

But in the establishment of the altar there was more than an act of obedience.  This remnant was weakness itself; the hostile nations of these lands surrounded them and were quite capable of inspiring the remnant with fear.  "They set the altar on its base; for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries" (v. 3).  Where could they go to find safety and protection from their enemies?  Nowhere else but before the God whom they had come to seek at His altar.  Thus, by faith, they realized the presence of the Lord in His house which they were about to build.  God could dwell there where the altar was found.  From that moment on, what did they have to fear?  They might say: "For in the day of evil he will hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tent will he keep me concealed: he will set me high upon a rock.  And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: and will I offer in his tent sacrifices of shouts of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing psalms unto Jehovah" (Ps. 27: 5, 6).

There is yet another circumstance worth noting: it was during the seventh month that all the people gathered together from all their cities to Jerusalem (v. 1).  The feast of the new moon, inaugurated by the blowing of trumpets (Lev. 23: 23; Num. 10: 10; Ps. 81: 3) took place on the first day of this seventh month.  This day was remarkably appropriate for the condition of the people returned from captivity and for grace which God had shown them.  Israel had lost divine blessing through their own fault; the light of the glory of the Lord which the people ought to have reflected, just as the moon reflects the sun, had disappeared; but now the new moon, an image of the restored people, had begun to reappear.  The full splendor of this luminary was not yet visible, but this first quarter moon presaged the future manifestation of the glory of the people of God.  What more characteristic feast could have been chosen?  This feast was a day of rest and jubilation (Lev. 23: 23-24).  No sorrow was to spoil its beauty, and nevertheless the fear of the surrounding nations was on them!  From the first day of this seventh month, the altar was built and the morning and evening burnt sacrifice was offered on it (vv. 3, 6);  not the sacrifice for sin, but the burnt offering, the true image of worship; and the people were to continue to offer it, without any interruption, until the temple was completed.

Should it not be the same today, when there are such striking analogies to the book of Ezra?  Should not the people of God have their altar today also, and on that altar should they not offer up a continual sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips which confess His name; and should they not do these things until the "holy temple in the Lord" is completed at His coming? (Heb. 13: 10, 15; Eph. 2: 21; 1 Cor. 11: 26).

Note another remarkable point: the tenth day of the seventh month, the great day of atonement when the people were to afflict their souls (Lev. 23: 26-32), is not mentioned here.  In a time yet to come for the Jewish people, in Zechariah 12: 10-14, this day will not be omitted.  Then there will be a great mourning at Jerusalem, "as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon, in the valley of Megiddon".  It will then be time for this same people, whom the book of Ezra depicts returned to their land, to receive again, as the king of glory, the Messiah, whom they had rejected and crucified.  The remnant of the future, will be unable to celebrate the feast of tabernacles (Zech 14: 16) until after this great day of atonement.

But this was not the case in the book of Ezra.  The people had been partially restored, in view of receiving the Messiah when He should present Himself to Israel.  The question of His rejection had not yet arisen, rather, it was a matter of receiving Him as the Lord's anointed.  Consequently, it was not yet a matter of national humiliation, as expressed by the great day of atonement, but simply of welcoming Him when He should come.  In view of this moment, should there have been anything but joy in the hearts of this people in the book of Ezra?  Here we are not speaking of the mission of John the Baptist, the baptism of repentance, which was to immediately precede the Messiah's coming to Israel and which did not correspond to the great day of atonement.

Therefore, in Ezra, the feast of tabernacles (v. 4), the feast of the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Lev. 23: 33), immediately follows the feast of the new moon.  On this feast there was unalloyed rejoicing (Deut. 16: 13-15).  This feast was to take place at the time of entering Canaan, after deliverance from Egypt and after passing  through the wilderness.   It was celebrated as a memorial of this passage, but no longer under tents set up beneath the sun's intense heat in the midst of the desert sand; the rest of the promised land had come; the fresh foliage of the attractive trees of this good land henceforth formed the tents beneath which a joyful people recalled the ups and downs of former days.  Here, in Ezra, with the feast of tabernacles, we witness, so to speak, a recovered Canaan, while waiting for the appearance of the promised Messiah, and it was as if the people had never before entered the promised land.  We shall see, in Nehemiah 8: 9-15, when we take up this book, the people celebrate this same feast in a complete way for the first time, whereas, in Ezra, we find, rather, the place which the feast of tabernacles occupied in the restoration of the people.

For believers in our day, whom one might call the Remnant of the Christian dispensation, this feast corresponds to the joy of the heavenly position of the people of God, realized as a completely new thing, and discovered in the Word, after centuries of spiritual captivity during which this position had either been forgotten or lost sight of.  As in Ezra 3, it could be brought back to light only with the construction of the altar, that is to say, with the realization of worship.  With worship, the heavenly position of the Church must necessarily be understood.  Believers do not have an earthly religion, like the Jewish people.  Worship introduces them into heaven, even when everything is in ruin around them and the Church, like the temple at the beginning of Ezra, is no more than a heap of debris.  Thus Ezra is careful to tell us: "But the foundation of the temple of Jehovah was not [yet] laid" (v. 6)

A third blessing yet awaits this poor remnant.  In the second year of their arrival at the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, in the second month (v. 8), the Levites (who, as we have seen, represent the ministry for us) are established according to the mind of God, in order to oversee the construction of the temple.  Here, as in building the altar, the people show themselves to be united, by standing up "as one [man]" (v.9).  There is no discord among them concerning the establishment of ministry according to the Word.  This is also a recovered blessing.  The epistle to the Ephesians which brings to light our position in Christ in the heavenlies, also reveals the role and character of the gifts of Christ to His Church (Eph. 4).

After these three things:  the altar or worship, the feast of tabernacles or the enjoyment of the heavenly position, and the establishment of the Levites or ministry, the remnant turn their attention to the foundation of the house.

Indeed, the re-establishing of worship was not everything to this poor people: they must recommence the work of building the house of God.  Whatever destruction this house may have suffered, however apparently thorough that destruction may have been (as the destruction which Nebuchadnezzar executed), it is always considered in the Word as the house.  It has but one history, one existence in the eyes of God, through its various phases of construction or overthrow.   Rebuilt, it is not a new temple, in God's eyes, but rather the same temple with different glories.  This is why it is said in Haggai (Hag. 2: 9), concerning the temple, rebuilt by the remnant in the time of Zerubbabel: "The latter glory of this house" (an allusion to the millennial temple which the Lord will fill with His glory) "shall be greater than the former" (an allusion to the temple of Solomon).

This remark is very important for the present time.  In the midst of the ruins of Christendom (which ought to have been the Church of Christ, but which abandoned the testimony and united itself to the world), Christians who consider this state and humble themselves concerning it, are nevertheless called on to work at the construction of the house of God.  It is not that God calls on them to raise up a new house, for there will never be but one house of God, one Church of Christ.   Christians convinced of this truth will recoil at the pretension to build churches, which Christ will never approve of or recognize.   Christ has one Church, one body, one Bride whom He loved and for whom He gave Himself; He has a house here on earth, and it is on Himself, the chief cornerstone, that the whole building grows to be a holy temple in the Lord, an habitation of God through the Spirit.

All this is His work, but He has also entrusted this work to the responsibility of His people for He does not add materials, living stones, by Himself alone, but we are also counted upon to bring material appropriate to the holiness of this building.  These materials have been, in the course of time, mixed with wood, hay and stubble (destructive doctrines or persons who are strangers to the house of God), whereas the materials should have been only gold, silver and precious stones (1 Cor. 3), and the building has been ruined,  like its antitype, the temple at Jerusalem; but that does not in any way prevent this construction from continuing to be entrusted to the people of God.  They are responsible to complete it, but they have failed, and nevertheless, they are called on to work as though everything was in its normal condition.

In Zerubbabel's time, the very foundation of the temple had been destroyed and must be laid once again (vv. 6 and 10).  Could this foundation differ from the foundation of Solomon's temple?  In no way: the Levites appointed to "superintend the work of the house" and "the workmen in the house of God" (vv. 8, 9), assisted by the priests, were to do everything according to the directions given by David, king of Israel, at the beginning (v. 10).  Likewise today, whoever the workmen may be, no other foundation can be laid but Jesus Christ.  On this rock, the Lord said, I will build my Church; and, on his side, the apostle Paul, as a wise master builder, performed this task, laying the same foundation (1 Cor. 3: 10), so that no one has the right to do otherwise.

In the time of the book of Ezra, as at the present day, the foundation could not be new, but after centuries of abandonment, it was re-discovered and laid, as the only one capable of supporting the house, the Assembly of God.

Here we must also remark, that the re-building of the house of God was inseparable from the testimony given to its ruin and to the ruin of the people of God.  Everything which the remnant accomplished, they did "according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia" (v. 7).  They were subjected to the nations because of their sins, and were to be continually conscious of their state, until the glorious restoration of the people through the promised Messiah.  This is what the Maccabees so little understood at a later time, and this is what irritated the proud spirit of the people in the times of Jesus, so that they dared say to Him: "we… have never been under bondage to any one!" (John 8: 33).  The consciousness of our ruin should characterize us today, as it characterized the people in the times of Ezra.  We cannot and should not deny it or shrug the burden of it off our shoulders, but rather, we must bear the humiliation of this ruin, all the while we replace the house of God on its only real foundation, Christ, with the apostles and prophets who gave witness to Him.

The priests and all the people celebrate a feast of praise at the moment when the foundations of the temple are laid once again (vv. 10-13), and this fact, in addition to the establishment of the altar, is of every importance for us.  In the midst of the most complete ruin, two things remain unchanged, the work of Christ and His person, Christ the altar and Christ the foundation, Christ our salvation and Christ, the One upon whom we are built forever, Christ the object of worship and of the unceasing praise of His own.  In the dark times which we pass through, in humiliation and deserved reproach which are our lot, we can nevertheless sing the hymn of the future, for He has not changed.  Here we see a remnant sing the song of millennial glory in the midst of the desolation of their history and among the ruins of Jerusalem: "They sang alternately together in praising and  giving thanks to Jehovah: For he is good; for his loving-kindness [endureth] for ever toward Israel" (v. 11).  He is the same, His love never changes, and it will be fully manifested when He introduces His loved people into His own glory.

Nevertheless, in the midst of this joy, sorrow and pain could not be wanting; and this is another common characteristic of the remnant of that time and the remnant today.  The temple which they built could not be compared to Solomon's temple; the present day Church can not be set parallel to the Church as she was when she was formed, by the power of the Holy spirit, as a witness to Christ gone up in glory.  Joy could well be unalloyed in those who were still young and who could not remember the past.  They were present at a sort of resurrection of the people, and they saw the marvelous intervention of the grace of God in this.  Who would want to hinder them from rejoicing?  But the priests, the Levites, and the chief fathers wept, because, being in closer communion with God, they were more conscious of the dishonor brought upon His name, and the old men wept, because they had experienced better times.

This mixture of joy and "[weeping] with a loud voice" rose up before God, so intermixed, so to speak, that one could not distinguish one from the other, and "the noise was heard afar off".  Likewise, those today who have at heart building the house of God and laying its destroyed foundations, should make known, through their attitude, that a true humiliation over their state cannot be separated from the joy they experience at celebrating together the work and person of Christ as the only foundation of present and future blessing.

Ezra 4

The work interrupted.

Up to this point the people had shown themselves to be faithful in their witness, and the Lord had helped them and encouraged them.   But this did not suit the enemy; he cannot stand to see the work of God prosper in this world, and immediately seeks to spoil it.  He has more than one means to attain this goal.  Here God characterizes the instruments of Satan with this word: "the adversaries of Judah" (v. 1).   They belonged to the nations which the kings of Assyria, according to their custom, had transported to other countries after subjecting them.  Esar-haddon, the son of Sennacherib, following the politic of Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17: 3), had replaced the unsubdued tribes of Israel, who were lead into captivity, by people from widely different lands, whom he made to dwell in the cities of Samaria and in the land located west of the Euphrates (v. 10, see footnote for "river" JND].  The second book of Kings (2 Kings 17: 33) informs us about the religious condition of these nations.  They kept their gods, at the same time they acknowledged the God of Israel and, according to the language of the Bible, "these nations feared Jehovah, and served their graven images" (2 Kings 17: 41).

This mixture, which could not be likened to pure idolatry, makes us think of the amalgam which is called Christendom, in whatever form it may present itself, from the time of Roman and Greek Mariolatry, to the much more subtle forms of Protestant Christendom, where the worship of the true God is associated with the moral darkness of the world, and where profession has no relationship to that which ought to characterize the people of God.

These people, descended from an idolatrous mixture, offer to build together with the people, but what materials could they bring to the house of God?  Certainly, their work could not be accepted by the people, if they would remain faithful.  They come near and say: "We would build with you; for we seek your God, as ye; and we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up hither" (v. 2).  Doesn't this have some analogy with that which we see in our own day, and are the present-day children of God as faithful as this remnant of former days?  Do they understand that the work of God cannot support, in those to whom it is entrusted, any mixture with the world?  It is not the affair of any but those whose genealogy can be proved and who are part of the Israel of God to build something for the Lord in this world.  Listen to the immediate response of the remnant: "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house to our God, but we alone will build to Jehovah the God of Israel, as king Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us" (v. 3).  In speaking this way, they show no spiritual pride, for they acknowledge their subjection to the king of the Gentiles, as the consequence of their unfaithfulness, but they have understood that they alone are called to this work, for they cannot, in any way, associate with the religious character of the people who surround them.  Although they live in the midst of them, honor their leaders and obey their king, nevertheless any association with these nations is prohibited; they are horrified at the religious corruption and repudiate it.

The enemy had presented himself as a friend; this called for special vigilance and caution.  But these men, who were rejected, very soon show their true character quite openly: "And the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building; and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia" (vv. 4, 5).   The people had been firm and had resisted wiles and trickery, attributes of the ancient serpent; but they become frightened when the adversary appears as a roaring lion, forgetting that their enemy is a defeated enemy, and that he would have departed from anyone who would stand up to him.

But the hatred of their enemies does not stop there.  They become the accusers of this poor, oppressed people.  Their letter to Artaxerxes proves this: "Be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from thee unto us have come to Jerusalem; they are building the rebellious and the bad city, and they complete the walls and join up the foundations.  Be it known therefore unto the king, that, if this city be built and the walls be completed, they will they not pay tribute, tax, and toll, and in the end it will bring damage to the kings.  Now, since we eat the salt of the palace, and it was not right for us to see the king's injury, therefore have we sent and informed the king, that search may be made in the book of the annals of thy fathers: so shalt thou find in the book of the annals and know that this city is a rebellious city, which has done damage to kings and provinces, and that they have raised sedition within the same of old time, for which cause this city was destroyed.  We inform the king that if this city be built and its walls be completed, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side of the river" (vv. 12-16).

Notice that they do not accuse the people of rebuilding the temple and do not say even one word about it, but rather, they speak of the city.  One may easily discover their object.   They wished to prevent the remnant from gathering together, because such a gathering would deprive the enemy of any power over the people of God: "If this city be built and its walls be completed, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side of the river", whereas, scattered, they would easily become the prey of their adversaries.  Likewise, Satan opposes the gathering of the children of God today; and if he doesn't succeed in corrupting the sheep, he causes them to fall out, ravishes them, and scatters them.

The adversaries of those days present the king with political reasons for preventing the reuniting of the people.  Such motives had great weight with this crafty, usurping monarch and, in fact, were the only motives which might draw his concern.  The king notes that in former days Jerusalem once had powerful kings and that they would overshadow him if their throne was to be re-established, and he also notes that the city had always shown itself to be rebellious toward any foreign yoke.   This is enough to stir him to put a stop to the work.  As soon as they received his authorization, the adversaries of Israel "went up in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them cease by force and power" (v. 23).

And so, these four hostile forces reunite here in order to ruin the work of God: ruse, intimidation, accusation, and violence.  Only faith could have resisted them; but the people were totally lacking in faith, and the result was that the construction of the house suffered an interruption of fifteen years.

Ezra 5 and Ezra 6

Revival and the Construction of the temple

Ezra 5

In the preceding chapters, we have seen the activity of the remnant of Judah.  They were composed, in large part, of people who were able to prove their genealogy.  Those who were not able to do so were by that very fact excluded from the priesthood as being profane, but God recognized them nevertheless, as a whole so to speak, and, in the presence of their enemies, they bore certain features which distinguished them from the surrounding nations.

If we wish to look for an analogy with this state of things in the midst of Christendom, we would say that the Reformation offers a similar example.  The Protestant movement, which came out of an almost idolatrous context, shone at its beginning with the features which the presence of true believers impressed upon it, and, without pushing the comparison further, under the influence of the word of God, there were precious truths rediscovered and brought to light, which greatly influenced the life and behavior of the people of God.  But the wiles of the enemy and his violence seduced or intimidated the greater number of those involved in the movement, so that the edification of the house of God was hindered, and then brought to a stop.  The epistle to Sardis (Rev. 3: 1-6) describes the state into which the Church, come out from popery, fell following the divine work which had caused it to shine so brightly at the beginning.

In Ezra, we have seen, after the first burst of enthusiasm, when the people were as one man, they lack confidence in divine power and the work stops.  Fifteen years go by; only the foundations of the temple have been laid; construction has been absolutely interrupted.  During these long years, the people must necessarily do something, and when the Lord no longer has His place in the heart, what occupies a person if not his own personal interests?  This is what the prophet Haggai tells us.  The people built paneled houses for themselves, while the house of God was devastated (Hag. 1: 4).  But spiritual inactivity had yet more disastrous results: the people allied themselves with the nations to whom they had said: "Ye have nothing to do with us…" (Hag. 4: 3), and we will see the results of this in Ezra  9 and 10.

Nevertheless the grace which had delivered them was not paralyzed by their conduct, and in Ezra 5 we see a revival produced by the Spirit of God.  There had been revivals previously under Hezekiah and Josiah, as we have seen when meditating on the second book of Kings*, before the sentence of Lo-ammi, which was pronounced over Israel (Hosea 1: 9), was actually executed.  Actually these were revivals of the kings, the leaders of the people.  The people benefited from them, without their conscience being reached, as a whole.  But here, after the chastening of captivity and re-integration of the remnant of Judah, the revival takes on another character.  This is a revival of the people, and moreover, it is not a question, as it was previously, of separation from idols and purifying the temple, but of rebuilding the temple when it is nothing but a heap of ruins.

*Meditations on the second book of Kings, by H. R.

This is also the character of the present-day testimony in the midst of Christendom.  It is a question of bringing materials to the house of God.  God has brought back to light the truth that this house, the Church, the assembly of the living God, is of immense importance in the eyes of Christ.  Despite the ruin, He considers His Assembly such as He desires her to be, even though, through the unfaithfulness of the people of God, she has completely disappeared as a public testimony.  Her existence, and more than this, her unity, are just as real — not to the eyes of the world, but to the eyes of God — as when, like Solomon's temple, she was built and grew to be a holy temple in the Lord. It is the same house.  In Ezra also (Ezra 5), the remnant considers it from this point of view: "We… build the house that was built many years ago; and a great king of Israel built and completed it" (v. 11) they say.  And: "Nebuchadnezzar… destroyed this house" (v. 12); and: "Cyrus gave orders to build this house of God" (v. 13); and again: "Then came the same Sheshbazzar, [and] laid the foundation of the house of God which is at Jerusalem; and since that time even until now has it been in building, and it is not completed" (v. 16).

Building the house of God is also the character of the revival which the Lord has instigated in our days.  Already more than one hundred years have passed since this great task of the people of God has been brought back to light.  Has it stirred every heart of every believer?  It is in nowise a question, we repeat, of building a new Church, for she exists, built by God Himself, and grows to be a holy temple in the Lord; and, in order that she may be so, it is enough that God sees her.  But God expects His people to make her visible to all, by bringing materials suitable for her construction.  The evangelist, pastors and doctors are the agents used by the Holy Spirit to build the Assembly, but we would greatly illusion ourselves if we should think that only evangelizing adds souls to the building.  It is one of the principal instruments, but this work requires the cooperation of all the gifts; and much more, each witness of Christ is responsible to bring noble and living material to the house of God.  Our unfaithfulness has scattered these materials instead of gathering them, so that they are not visible except to the eyes of God.  Today it belongs to the faithful to discern these materials and to set them in their proper place, so that the house of God may once again become visible in the world, even if it only be by means of a few rows of stones which indicate what she ought to be.

This was the testimony to which the remnant of Judah was called.  How many times we hear that evangelizing is the testimony, and the result of this idea, which is fundamentally wrong, is that one believes he has put his hand to the house of God, when souls are converted, and then left helpless in the midst of human systems which are foreign to the Assembly of God.

Dear readers, think about these things.  In the days in which we live we have something to build, and this is not those broken-down buildings which are called churches, which God does not recognize, and for which the heart of Christ has no sympathy.  He loved the Assembly; by giving Himself for her, He has shown how precious she was to Him.   Is she as precious to us as she is to Him?  In that case, we will have a large heart which will  raise us above narrow, sectarian views, for a heart which burns with love cannot be satisfied except in seeing all the redeemed gathered in the unity of the body of Christ.  And, even though this task cannot be realized, as it was at the beginning of the Church's history, God will take account of His servants and their activity to proclaim and realize practically that there is only one House, one Assembly of the living God, recognized by Him in this world.

"Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem; in the name of the God of Israel" (Ezra 5: 1).  In order to produce this revival, two prophets are enough here.  They were the bearers and the representatives of the word of God for the people.  By their means, the Word, brought again to light according to the power of the Holy Spirit, reaches the conscience.  Later we shall see, when Ezra comes on the scene (Ezra 7 to 10), this same Word presented to souls without any signs of prophetic power.  Ezra who brings the word claims only to establish the faithful in the truths which Scripture presents, so that their walk may be conformed to it.  The two prophets on the one hand and Ezra on the other hand present two different activities of the word of God.  After re-awaking a soul, it establishes and nourishes the soul, and it is through the word that souls are sanctified so as to behave in a manner worthy of God.  A period of revival which is not followed by scriptural teaching will be short-lived and will be extinguished, without leaving any other impression of its occurrence except souls individually saved and brought to the knowledge of Christ.  This is an inestimable blessing, no doubt, but one which does not exhaust the treasures of Christian blessing.  And so we cannot insist enough on the importance of doctrine for the progress of revived souls.

The immediate result of the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah was that the leaders of the people, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, took their words to heart.  "[They] rose up, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God who helped them" (v. 2).  The leaders do not wait for a unanimous assent, nor do they try to provoke any common action, when it was a matter of building the house.  This will always be the case.  The only way of stirring up the activity of faith in others is to engage in this activity oneself, with a heart deeply impressed by that which is due the Lord and our responsibility toward Him.  We may be only two or three, walking with an undivided heart in the path of devotion for the Assembly of God, but we may be sure that our zeal will bear its fruit.  Only two or three? you will say.  Yes, Haggai and Zechariah, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, alone, represented the true Spirit of Christ at this moment.  In brief, in them we see royalty, the priesthood and the Spirit of prophecy at work for the blessing of all.  These two men, and with them the prophets of God, began to build.  Soon others would  associate themselves in building.  The people sided with their leaders against the enemy: "And they said to them after this manner: What are the names of the men that build this building?  But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews" (vv. 4, 5).

Since the time of the first opposition to the temple's erection, new men, Tatnai, Shethar-boznai  and their companions (v. 6), had replaced the ancient enemies of the people, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their companions (Ezra 4: 7).  In Nehemiah 6: 1 the individuals involved change again: here it is Sanballat, Tobijah and Geshem the Arabian, with their companions who oppose the work.  One group of men succeeds the other in their more or less violent hatred against the work of God, but the opposition remains, because the enemy who uses all these instruments has not changed.  Oh! If only faith would never allow itself to be stopped by the obstacles which the agents of Satan raise up!  If only we well understood that the work of God cannot be destroyed, because God remains over and above all!  He may allow our unbelief and laxity to slow down this work and interrupt it, and He may allow this in order to teach us to know ourselves, to judge ourselves and to humble ourselves, but nevertheless His work will be accomplished.  His house, even though it be destroyed, remains, and whereas hostile men follow one another in rapid succession, men like Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and their companions remain until they have finished the work to which they were called, and until new instruments, like Ezra and Nehemiah, have been raised up to impress a new character on the work.

But already the testimony belonging to this revival, which was provoked by the prophets, has not entirely the same character as that seen in Ezra 3 and Ezra 4.  In some measure, it could be compared to the evangelizing which accompanies Christianity.  Here the remnant no longer proclaims only, as in Ezra 4: 1, 3, "Jehovah the God of Israel", but "the God of the heavens and the earth" (Ezra 5: 11, 12); and the temple is not merely "the temple to Jehovah the God of Israel" (Ezra 4: 1), but "the house of God" (Ezra 5: 11, 13, 15, 16, 17).  These terms clearly speak of God, as He reveals Himself to the nations, and of Christ's millennial title.  The future temple at Jerusalem will not be established for the twelve tribes alone, for the Gentiles will have their part in it, and the nations with their kings will flow up to worship "the God of the heavens and the earth".  Here the people of the Lord set themselves over against the nations, as serving the God which the nations ought to serve, and, in the same way, in our day, we present our Father to the world, as "our Savior god, who desires that all men should be saved" (1 Tim. 2: 3,4).  In this sense, I would call the revival of Ezra 5, an evangelical revival.

If the people, thus taken to task by their enemies, openly confesses the name and character of their God, it is in no way with any feeling of superiority over those who surround them.  The people do not attempt to minimize their guilt, but rather, they recognize before the nations, that they are under God's judgment.  If the faithful are "servants of the God of the heavens" (v. 11), they confess that they have been justly punished for their transgressions: "But after that our fathers had provoked the God of the heavens to wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, and he destroyed this house, and carried the people away unto Babylon" (v. 12).  Their subjection to the nations was the chastisement of their iniquity (vv. 13-15).   Does not this attitude also suit the guilty Church, responsible for what was entrusted to her?  Today, as then, God asks of His servants that their testimony, in order that it may be effective, be above all the testimony of their ruin.

Here let us add a remark concerning the tactic used by the people's enemy.  Under Artaxerxes, the false Smerdis (Ezra 4), who had a major interest in avoiding revolts against his usurped power, the opponents invoke political motives for stopping the work of God.  This monarch would hardly have been moved by religious questions, but it was very important to him that the people be prevented from re-unifying themselves and from defending this re-unification in a fortified capital.  Therefore the enemies write to the king, saying that "the Jews… have come to Jerusalem; they are building the rebellious and the bad city, and they complete the walls and join up the foundations" (Ezra 4: 12).  Artaxerxes gives his orders in consequence of this message.

Under Darius, the Persian, their tactic has changed.  Darius, like other monarchs of Persian origin, detested Babylonian idolatry, but at the same time he granted the countries under his domination the right to each have their own special form of idolatry.  He acknowledged the true God, as we shall see in Ezra 6, and feared Him in a certain measure.  Therefore the accusers of the Jews believe that they will strike a responsive cord, by drawing attention to the construction of the temple and the religious interests of the kingdom.  Did Cyrus indeed allow this reconstruction as the Jews pretend?  The enemies hide their hostility under the appearance of indifference and almost of tolerance.  If the edict given by Cyrus did not exist, or could not be found, they could expect an order from the king to command the work to stop.  Their great pre-occupation is to stay on good terms with the power of the world, for the name of God has, in fact, no value to their hearts or consciences.  "Let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter", they say (v. 17).

Ezra 6

God particularly favors the revival which He has provoked, while at the same time He causes the remnant to become more and more aware of the ruin caused by their unfaithfulness.   Darius, the Persian, supports the Jews and pronounces a fair sentence,  which is moreover based on the fact that, according to "the law of the Medes and Persians…, that no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed" (Dan 6: 15).  In all this, we can see providence of God, watching over His people.  The edict of Cyrus is found at Achmetha, in the province of the Medes and not at Babylon (v. 2), which proves that, without divine intervention, even the most scrupulous research would have been in vain.  If Darius does not go so far as to proclaim, like the humbled Nebuchadnezzar, that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of men, nevertheless he does acknowledge the God of heaven, and he recognizes the temple at Jerusalem as the house of God (Ezra 6: 9, 10, 3, 7, 8).  He decrees dimensions which his own intelligence select, because they no longer correspond to the symbolical figures of the early temple (v. 3; 1 Kings 6: 2), and so more than one thought from the mind of God remains as though buried beneath the new figures.  Darius also recognizes that the prayers of these despised and humbled people are effective on behalf of the king and his sons (v. 10); he uses the authority entrusted to him to punish those who would oppose the will of God; and lastly, he solemnly calls on the God who dwells at Jerusalem to execute vengeance against those who oppose Him: "And the God that has caused his name to dwell there overthrow every  king and people that shall put forth their hand to alter [or] to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem" (v. 12).  The adversaries, who have no respect for the people of God, hasten to conform to the king's edict, for the fear of man fills their hearts, but God uses everything, even this fear, in order to carry out His plans of grace for the protection of His own.

The elders among the Jews build and prosper through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah.  They complete the temple, not only according to the commandment of the God of Israel, but also according to the commandment of the sovereign rulers of Persia (v. 14).  This is the special character of this revival produced in the midst of humiliation and in conditions of subjection to the Gentiles.  The work of the temple had been interrupted for fifteen years, from the time of the second year of Cyrus to the second year of Darius, the Persian (Ezra 4: 24; Hag. 1: 1).  Four years later the house of God was completed (v. 15).  How disastrous are the delays caused by the fear of man and lack of confidence in the Lord, which is the necessary outcome of the fear of man!

In the month of Adar, the twelfth month (which corresponds to our month of March), the dedication of the house takes place, but the house is no longer, as we have already pointed out, built according to its first dimensions, which were divine.  This dedication is celebrated in a very feeble way, compared to the dedication of Solomon, a glorious memory, but in spite of this, joy fills the hearts of the people, for once again, God causes "his name to dwell" (v. 12)  in this restored house in a publicly approved way.  Not that His glory returns to it, nor His throne between the cherubim, but His spiritual presence cannot be lacking when the center of gathering of His people is acknowledged.  Nineteen years previously, at the time when the altar was built, they had shown their unity; now, at the dedication of the temple, they realize this blessed truth: that the Lord is in their midst.  The people consecrate, so to speak, their unity by His presence, but here again their unity bears the marks of their sin and ruin.  They offer twelve he-goats as a sin offering, according to the number of tribes of Israel (v. 17).  No tribe is excluded from the public confession of sin expressed by the sacrifice.  We no longer find, as at the time of Elijah, an altar of twelve stones expressing the unity of the people, but rather, we find twelve he-goats offered on the altar for the expiation of a common sin.  Thus they acknowledge their solidarity and equality in sin.  The sin of Judah and Benjamin, to which tribes these transported people belong, is just as great in their eyes as the sin of the other ten tribes and it requires the same expiation.  In these circumstances, they have recourse only to the Word, to that which  "is written in the book of Moses" (v. 18) in order to organize their service.

Does not all this speak to us of the position of believers today?  It is our place to acknowledge the sin of the Church and to bear the responsibility for it before God, without thinking of casting it off onto others.  Our present-day privileges are: to seek the presence of God in the midst of His own who gather to His name, and not to pretend to completely restore what we have ruined; to hold to the word of God alone for the establishment and maintenance of order in the Assembly; to rejoice, in the midst of our great poverty, at having the Holy and True for us and with us in our humiliation.

In addition to these blessings, the remnant discover yet other fresh blessings.  The dedication had taken place in the twelfth month; in the following month, the month of Abib (April), the first month of the new year, the people celebrate the Passover. They again find the order of the feasts, as instituted by God, as soon as a complete order — the altar, the temple, the gathering and unity of the people, and the presence of the Lord in their midst — is recovered.  In Ezra 3, after having built the altar, they had celebrated the feast of Tabernacles with burnt offerings, and that was legitimate, because they had recovered their dwelling place in Canaan.  Here they keep the Passover.  The Passover was the memorial of the sacrifice in virtue of which Israel had been preserved from the judgment of God on the one hand and delivered from the bondage of Egypt on the other hand.  For us, Christians, this feast corresponds to the memorial of the death of Christ, of our deliverance and the blessings of the new covenant in His blood.  This memorial is celebrated on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection, which is "the beginning of months" (Ex. 12: 2).

The priests and Levites had purified themselves "as one [man]" (v. 20a); they were all pure (v. 20b), and so, in a proper condition to celebrate the Passover.  They realized that they could not bring impurity to this holy, commemorative meal, and, just as they had been unanimous in building the altar, and overseeing the work and laying the foundations of the temple,  so they are now unanimous in purifying themselves "and all such as had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek Jehovah the God of Israel" (v. 21).

This ought always to be the character of the testimony of the remnant in the midst of ruin.  They realize that defilement cannot be allowed at the Lord's table and that the world has no place there; they realize that the supper cannot take place without self-judgment: "Let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup" (1 Cor. 11: 28).

Lastly, they "kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; for Jehovah had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel" (v. 22).   This feast of unleavened bread is a type of complete, perpetual sanctification, followed for a period of seven days (the number of  fullness, the image of the entire course of our life, of a life devoted to the One who delivered us by His death and to the One to whom we belong)  This feast is a figure for the collective and individual sanctification, spoken of in 2 Corinthians 6: 17 to 7: 1.   The restored remnant celebrates this feast with joy, as they had done at the feast of tabernacles and at the dedication of the foundation and at the dedication of the house (Ezra 3: 13; Ezra 6: 16, 22).  In this respect, the feast differed from what was said of it in the law of Moses: "Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread with it, bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste" (Deut. 16: 3).  Here, in the midst of all these recovered blessings, there is no room for any sentiment but joy.

The remnant of the captivity were not the only ones who celebrated the feast.  Among the people, who had remained in the land during the captivity, "all such as had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek Jehovah the God of Israel" (v. 21) took part in this solemn feast.  Without forming part of the testimony, properly speaking, they came to associate themselves with true practical holiness.  And so they had part in the memorial and the feast.

This truth is of great importance for the present day.  All Christians separated from the world and from the lifeless profession which surrounds us, have the right to the Lord's table and are received with joy there by their brothers.

Despite so many blessings, the resources of the people, whether for offerings, or for service, were very much diminished (compare 1 Kings 8: 63), but this did not in any way hinder the order of service.  For this order, they had an infallible authority, to which they could always have recourse: that which "is written in the book of Moses"; in other words, the word of God (vv. 17, 18).

Ezra 7

Ezra

Here we enter on a new period in our history.  Forty-seven years have passed since the dedication of the temple, approximately sixty-eight years from the time of the decree given by Cyrus.  Ahasuerus (also known by the name of Xerxes), the monarch referred to in the book of Esther, the son of the Darius the Great (Hystaspis) mentioned in Ezra 5 and Ezra 6, had succeeded his father during this interval, and he had been followed on the throne by Artaxerxes his son (Artaxerxes Longimanus), who is spoken of in this chapter.

In Ezra 5, the revival had been characterized by the power of the prophetic word, producing a renewal of energy in the people, who had long since abandoned the work of the house of God.  Ezra 5 and Ezra 6 tell us of the results of this revival.

Now that the first work was completed, the people is called to taste its fruit in peace.  Will their spiritual level be maintained in these new circumstances?  No, times come when this level declines rapidly.  The world infiltrates; profane alliances, as we shall see at the end of this book, are tolerated and weaken the moral fiber.  Evil was still hidden in the times when Ezra was raised up, for it was his presence, with new uncontaminated elements, which revealed the evil present.

Where, then, can one find a resource against this spiritual decline and its results?  There is but one resource: the word of God.  God raises up Ezra to teach the people the law of Moses and to remind them of its importance.  It is not a question of new revelations here, as when Haggai and Zechariah spoke to the people, but simply of bringing the "statutes and ordinances" (v. 10)  contained in "the law of Jehovah" to light again and of applying them to the conscience.

Let us not forget that this is also our only safeguard in the present day, and our only means of restoration.  The Lord says, "To this man will I look, to the afflicted and contrite in spirit, and who trembleth at my word." (Isa. 66: 2).

Ezra was, in every respect, remarkable as chosen of God to fulfill this mission.  In the first place (vv. 1-5), we find his genealogy which presents no gap.  He was of the priestly race and through his ancestors and their virtues (the faithfulness of a Zadok, the zeal of a Phinehas), he had his origin in "Aaron the chief priest".

Should not the case be the same today for the ministers of the Word?  Their persons, their works, and their conduct should clearly show that their "all [their] springs are in [Christ]" (Ps. 87: 7), the true high priest.  It should be evident to the eyes of all who their Leader is and from whom they have received life.

Ezra was "a ready scribe of the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given" (v. 6).  God had prepared him beforehand, as a special gift, to be the leader of His people, but that did not suffice to qualify him to exercise his ministry: "Ezra had directed his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do it" (v. 10).  He prepared his heart to seek it first of all, and then to do it, for as far as he was concerned personally, he did not separate practice from knowledge.  He was not like those teachers of the law who, in the days of Jesus, laid upon "men burdens heavy to bear," and they themselves did not touch " the burdens with one of [their] fingers" (Luke 11: 46).  His practical life was impregnated with the precepts of the Word which he fed on.  And it was only after this that he set his heart "to teach in Israel statutes and the ordinance" (v. 10).  In a word, his life and his conduct were in complete agreement with his teaching.

The consequence of this entire consecration to the Word and to the work, was that "the good hand of his God [was] upon him", for, it is said (notice this "for") he had directed his heart.  We find this in every period of time: God's protection rests especially on those who, forgetting themselves to depend upon Him alone, consecrate themselves without reserve to His work.

In order to follow this path of obedience, without turning aside from it, Ezra needed special knowledge of the whole body of Scripture.  He was a ready scribe in the law of Moses (v. 6); he was "the scribe,  a scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah, and of his statutes to Israel" (v. 11).  Often nothing is more fatal to souls than a superficial and limited knowledge of the Word.  How many divisions and disputes would be avoided among the children of God, if they would consider the Scriptures in their various facets.  To separate one truth from other related truths, without taking these related truths into consideration, is generally a proof of ignorance and self-will, if not the fruit of proud self-satisfaction which desires to teach others, and refuses to be instructed of God.  Almost all false doctrines have the starting point in a truth taken out of context, and therefore poorly understood, which thus becomes the very root of error.

The decree of Artaxerxes, as well as the letter of Darius (Ezra 6), shows us the mental dispositions of the sovereign rulers of Persia.  They had a certain fear of God, but without quickening faith.  Like his grandfather Darius, Artaxerxes acknowledged the God of heaven.  Although he allowed, as history tells us, each people to keep their idols, he himself had none.  The doctrine of Zoroaster, the belief in a supreme God, the teachings of the wise men: all this mingled with philosophical views concerning the principal of good and evil, formed the religion of these sovereign rulers.  Without doubt, this disposed them to acknowledge the "God of the heavens", but, in his decree, Artaxerxes goes further: he acknowledges the God of Ezra (v. 14), the God of Israel (v. 15), and the God of Jerusalem (v. 19).  He also acknowledges his responsibility toward this God whose wrath is to be feared (v. 23).  Moreover, he shows great confidence in Ezra, a man of God, for he commits the establishment of magistrates and judges for the region beyond the river to the hand of Ezra (v. 25); he knows very well that godly Ezra will not choose any who rebel against the royal authority.  He desires this man to instruct the ignorant, and for him this is the guaranty of peace for his reign (v. 25).  Lastly, he orders severe measures against those who break the law of God and of the king, for, in his mind, he identifies these two laws one with the other (v. 26).

As for Ezra, he attributes everything to God, even the favor of the king: "Blessed be Jehovah the God of our fathers, who has put [such a thing] as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of Jehovah which is at Jerusalem; and has extended mercy to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes!" (vv.  27, 28).  Above all else, he lives in the presence of His God and proves that "the hand of Jehovah… [is] upon [him]" to answer his prayer (v. 6), protect him (v. 9), strengthen him (v. 28), and deliver him (8: 31).

Ezra 8

The second exodus.

In this new exodus, Ezra is accompanied by part of the people who had remained in the province of Babylon.  These people, like their leader, possess an exact genealogical record.  Scriptures mentions all of them according to their families and not, like part of those in Ezra 2, according to their cities.  In the first great movement of restoration, there had been relatively little doubt as to the rights of individuals to belong to the people of God, and this doubt was essentially in relation to the priesthood, but here it seems to be necessary to be even more strict than at the beginning.  This phenomenon is a frequent one.  The enthusiasm of first love may offer some mixture, because love and joy overflow and support the whole of the people.  Foreign elements may enter in and often, shortly after the beginning, the painful experience of this situation becomes evident, but the power of the Holy Spirit is there to discern these foreign elements and separate them when the occasion presents itself.  The history of the Church, at its inception, affords similar examples to us.  Lying enters with Ananias  and Sapphira; the flesh, which has only the outward appearance of conversion, enters with Simon the magician, but the Spirit of God watches, judges and discerns, and the house is momentarily preserved from damage.  Later the assembly is more vigilant against evil: "Thou hast tried them who say themselves [are] apostles and are not, and hast found them liars" (Rev. 2: 2).  It is not a sign, nor greater power, nor greater love, but rather this vigilance which becomes a necessity if one would preserve the purity of the testimony of God.

In the midst of this procession, the sons of Adonikam shine, most of whom had returned with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2: 13).  Now the last  children (v. 13) go up with Ezra; their names are not forgotten; thus, the entire family is complete and this special blessing is mentioned here in the book of God.  May we also see entire families, like the family of Adonikam, among those whom the Lord calls to testify of Him in these final days!

These men, including the priests, who are mentioned in first place, and the chief men, numbered 1502 (vv. 1-14) (translator's note: seems to be  1514).  But before setting out on their journey, Ezra makes a very afflicting observation: "I surveyed the people and the priests, and found none of the sons of Levi there" (v. 15).  Already they were very few in Ezra 2, as we have seen, and numbered only 74 persons.  Here, not a single Levite presents himself.  They remain in the cities of the nations, occupied with their own personal interests, without any thought of going up with their brothers to serve in the house of God.  Ezra is obliged to send them a special embassy of chief men and men of understanding, to induce them to join their brothers. At last 38 Levites come!  There are 220 Nethinim, or approximately six servants for each Levite!  Isn't a situation like this very humiliating, and can we not find instruction in it for ourselves as well?  Where are the ministers, among the people of God, for, as we have said more than once, the ministers today correspond to the Levites of those days?  Where are those who serve the house of God and who fill the functions which God has assigned to them?  Why is there this scarcity and poverty?  Those who remained among the nations might excuse themselves on account of their occupations and responsibilities in the midst of their fellow countrymen, but must the house of God remain without their cooperation?  Ought they not to sacrifice their own position and interests, in order to serve the Lord there where He desired to be served?

In spite of everything, we find this expression: "The good hand of our God [was] upon us" (v. 18), the only resource which Ezra could count on.  And if the help granted to them was insufficient, revealing the great areas of lack caused by the people's ruin, at least there was some help, and the Lord did not abandon His own.

Faced with this culpable insufficiency, what should Ezra and his companions do?  Should they attempt to remedy the situation by some human contrivance suggested by the circumstances?  In no way!  The house was built; the place of gathering the people together was set up; the name of the Lord dwelt there; and they must go there without delay.  But, in these conditions, one thing, only one thing was necessary: humiliation.  "And I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God" (v. 21).  No blessing was possible without this fasting and humiliation, demanded by the miserable state of this handful of men, about to go to Jerusalem.  How could they have found the "right way" for themselves, their children, and their possessions, in this state which was so poor and so incomplete?  Others would have been tempted to "require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help them against the enemy".  This thought does not even enter the heart of godly Ezra; he would have been ashamed to nourish such a thought and give it free reign.  Had he not said to the king: "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his anger is against all them that forsake him" (v. 22)?  Would he say: I trust in the Lord, and then give the lie to this same confession by adding: But that does not completely suffice me: I must also trust in man?  No, this weak remnant fast and humble themselves, and pray to God.  This, and nothing else, is exactly what was called for.  "We fasted, and besought our God for this; and he was entreated of us" (v. 23).

Circumstances like those of Ezra are have been found frequently and are still found in our day.  Sometimes difficulties are apparently inextricable.  The enemy lies in wait for us and sets himself between us and the accomplishment of a simple responsibility: the gathering together of the Lord's own and the service of the house of God.   We have no strength to resist the enemy.  The help of Levites, which we had looked to for some hope, fails us.  Satan would like to provoke us to meet him with the king's "band of soldiers and horsemen", with the arms of the flesh, knowing that we will be defeated if we use his own weapons against him.  What is to be done?  The same thing Ezra did: let us persevere in fasting, humiliation and prayer, and we may be certain that God will answer us.  "He was entreated of us", Ezra says.  In addition to these blessed arms, Ezra had the word of God with him and he was the representative of this word to the people.  Was he rich?  Was he strong?  In no way, but he possessed the resources of the One whose strength is made perfect in weakness.

In verses 24 to 30, the priests and Levites receive the deposit of the holy things, vessels, silver and gold, which had been voluntarily given for the house of God.  These gifts were sanctified by the name of the Lord and by the character of those who kept them.  "Ye are holy unto Jehovah; the vessels also are holy; and the silver and the gold is a voluntary offering to Jehovah the God of your fathers" (v. 28), Ezra tells them.  These gifts, coming in large part from the king, counselors and princes, were not defiled in any way.  Since the name of the Lord and his temple had been recognized by these men,  God could take pleasure in their offerings.  But it was necessary, even for these material gifts, whether silver or gold, that the priests watch over them and keep them carefully, for nothing must be lost.  The men entrusted with this deposit must show absolute faithfulness and integrity.  Under the dispensation of grace we see the apostle Paul take the same scrupulous care to watch over the deposit confided to him by the assemblies of Gentile believers for the saints at Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8: 20).

Verses 32-34 tell us of the great zeal of the priests and Levites to fulfill their mission: they carried out their task whole-heartedly.  Nothing was missing; we find the number and weight of all these objects recorded anew.  May we imitate them in the responsibilities, whether great or small, which the Lord entrusts to us: may we never consider anything which He gives into our hand as belonging to ourselves, but rather as something to be rendered again to Him after having been faithfully administrated for Him.  Most of the time the frauds, great or small, which Christians become guilty of, whether they are committed against authorities or against the world, have no other cause than this.  They consider as belonging to themselves personally something which the Lord has given them to administrate, and they often expose themselves to cruel chastening as a consequence of their unfaithfulness.  In contrast, the consequence of faithfulness is seen here.   God watches over His goods and He preserves those who carry these gifts all along the way.  The phrase, so often repeated in these chapters, reoccurs here: "And the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way" (v. 31).

After they arrived at Jerusalem,  this feeble troop of "the children of those that had been carried away, who had come out of the captivity, presented burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel".  They, also, take to heart the recognition and affirmation of the unity of the people.  Their testimony was based on this very principle, even in their low condition.  But let us note that they come to the recognition of this principle only in a condition of humiliation as regards themselves and with care to maintain the holiness of the Lord beyond any reproach.  Indeed, proclaiming principles, without a moral condition which corresponds to them, is nothing less than profaning them.  May we never speak of principles unless they are supported by our practical state.  It is odious in God's eyes to pretend to possess the truth while living in unrightousness (Rom 1: 18).  Ignorance of divine principles, accompanied by a godly walk, according to the knowledge one possesses, is better than understanding of these truths, without holiness in the walk.  In these poor souls escaped from captivity who go up to Jerusalem, we see a lovely example of the union of these two things: holiness or consecration to the Lord, and the maintenance of the unity of the people of God, in the midst of ruin.

Ezra 9 and 10

Purification of the people.

Up to this point, the restoration (for Ezra 7 to 10 deal with restoration, rather than with revival) had produced its effects on the company which went up with Ezra to Jerusalem.   Brought by humiliation, fasting and supplications to realize their poor condition and all that they lacked for the service of God, these men realize that only grace can guide and keep them.  They hold fast to the word of God.  Their leaders understand that practical holiness is obligatory for those who have the charge of holy things.  After they arrive at Jerusalem, they proclaim the solidarity of the people of God and recognize their unity, in spite of the ruin.

But the arrival of this new reinforcement will manifest the state of the people who had previously rebuilt the temple of the Lord; it is the means of revealing the hidden evil which consumes the people and hinders their spiritual development.  Ezra's companions come to him and tell him what they have seen: "The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands… they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons and have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands"; and moreover "the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this unfaithfulness" (vv.  1, 2).   The surrounding world had gradually invaded the assembly of Israel and, if they were not all contaminated, they were in great danger of being so, for their leaders had been the first to conclude profane alliances.  It is a sad thing to note that all revivals are ruined successively by alliance with the world and, in this matter, the leaders, through their example, are much more guilty.

Is there a means of remedying this state of things?  Ezra, the godly man, devoted to the Lord, immediately understands what is due from him: "And when I heard this thing, I rent my mantle and my garment, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down overwhelmed" (v. 3).   The first thing, then, is individual humiliation, while waiting for the people to recognize their fault and humble themselves in a general way.  This must always be so.  When faced with the revelation of the sin of the people of God, we are not called upon to take action first of all, but rather, to humble ourselves, and even if we should be alone,  like Daniel and other faithful men of former days, and like Ezra, at the time we are studying, let us not fail to assume this attitude before God.  He looks on the heart that is humbled and broken and He answers its cry.

"Then were assembled to me everyone that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the unfaithfulness of those that had been carried away" (v. 4).  The first effect of Ezra's humiliation is to group around himself those who tremble at the words of God.  No doubt, they are few in number the first day, but this humiliation will spread out to all the people of God.  As for them, they are characterized by what they have learned under Ezra's guidance.  Knowing the word of God through Ezra, they have discovered in it the character of God who can in no way associate Himself with impurity.  Has He not said: "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy" (Lev. 11: 44)?  And so in his prayer (vv. 10-12 Eng), Ezra refers to the word of God, which he knows so well: "For we have forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by they servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess [it], is an unclean land through the filthiness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, with which they have filled it from one end to another through their uncleanness.  Now, therefore, give not your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity for ever".

Ezra's individual humiliation consisted in bearing the sin of the people of God as his own,.  Communion with the mind of God always leads us to this.   We see examples in Dan.  9: 5; Jer. 10: 23; Neh. 9: 33, and here: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over [our] head, and our trespass is grown up to the heavens.  Since the days of our fathers we have been in a great trespass to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, our priests, have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, and to captivity, and to spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day" (vv. 6, 7).

How great was the guilt of this people, at the moment when the favor of the Lord began to shine upon them once again, in spite of their condition of bondage!  "And now for a little space there hath been favour from Jehovah our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.  For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us before the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the ruins thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem" (vv. 8, 9).

And had not the Lord made them promises, if they would separate themselves from any alliance with the nations?  Yes, for He had said: "that ye may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever" (v. 12).

To ally themselves with the nations was to abandon separation for Him: this holiness whose value Ezra's companions had appreciated and which had directed them to that day (8: 28).  Now, this was exactly what their predecessors had not observed.  Alliances — which, for us, correspond to worldliness — had overrun them, spreading like gangrene from the priests and leaders of the people to the common people themselves.  They had forgotten that along with separation they lost three significant things: strength, the enjoyment of the good things of the land of Canaan, and their permanent inheritance for themselves and their descendants (v. 12).

We, who are Christians, also make this same sad experience today.  Strength?  Note that it is not a matter of any outward force for Ezra's companions (nor is it for us), for they were only a handful of men, but the mighty hand of the Lord was with them, the enemy had been reduced to nothing and his ambushes had been dissipated.  But how could they now pretend to the two other blessings, to joy and the inheritance, when corruption was established in the midst of the people?

What were they to do?  Ezra humbles himself as always and as always he bows his head in the dust.  With sorrow he recalls the judgment of past faults, which were nevertheless much less severe than the people deserved.  "And after all that is come upon us… [thou] hast given us such deliverance as this," Ezra adds; and if we return to our wicked works, would Thou not have reason to consume us, "so that there should be no remnant nor any to escape?" (vv. 13, 14)

But, he adds, here we are: "we are a remnant that is escaped, as [it is] this day".  The testimony is now confided to the few persons of this second exodus, who are afflicted and repentant on behalf of all the others, and who say: "Behold, we are before thee in our trespasses; for there is no standing before thee because of this" (v. 15).

Is there restoration possible at this moment for these poor escaped souls?  Yes, restoration is found in the attitude which those souls take who, although they had not participated in this defilement, nevertheless assume responsibility for it so completely that they identify themselves with those who remain under God's judgment.  We shall see that this attitude, taken in all sincerity of heart before God, and that this thorough confession of evil, exercises its influence on those who had sinned, in order to bring about their restoration.

In the preceding chapter, we have seen that God answered the humiliation of a single man, Ezra, by gathering around him, in the same spirit of contrition, those of his companions who trembled at the words of the God of Israel.  Here, humiliation spreads to an even greater number: "And while Ezra prayed, and made confession, weeping and falling down before the house of God, there were gathered to him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; for the people wept very much" (Ezra 10: 1).

We cannot sufficiently stress how much the blessing of the people of God may depend on one or a few faithful individuals.  Ezra 5: 1 and 2 present a revival produced by two prophets which moved two leaders, and then the entire people to activity for the Lord.  Here, the humiliation of one man, to whom a few individuals then associate themselves, leads to a general humiliation.   And once again a single man steps forward to express it: "And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully toward our God, and have taken foreign wives of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.  And now let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of [my] lord, and of those who tremble at the commandments of our God; and let it be done according to the law" (vv. 2, 3).

But that is not all.  If individual humiliation, and then collective humiliation, is the first thing, neither the individual nor the people of God may remain there.  Action must follow humiliation.  "Arise", Shecaniah says to Ezra, "for this matter is incumbent on thee, and we will be with thee: be of good courage, and do [it]" (v. 4).  Humiliation is not yet separation from evil.  It is the path to this separation and prepares it; but, on the other hand, when it is a matter of remedying ruin, activity without humiliation, however zealous it may be, cannot lead to anything but further ruin.  The flesh, not having been judged in humiliation, throws off all restraint when it is a question of separation from evil.  Such was the zeal of Jehu.  This man certainly did not bear the sin of the people as his own before God, and so he was the first to return to the golden calves at Dan and Bethel once judgment had been executed — and executed in what a manner!

Thus humiliation is necessary, but the energy to purify oneself from evil is just as indispensable.  The Corinthians had understood this after the apostle exhorted them.  Sorrow according to God had worked in them repentance unto salvation, true humiliation; but what promptness, what fear, what ardent desire, what zeal, what vengeance this humiliation had produced!  In every respect, they had shown that they were pure in the matter (2 Cor. 7: 11)!

Shecaniah, the people's spokesman, here shows an energy and disinterestedness which ought to be an example to us.  His father, Jehiel, was among the transgressors (v. 26)!  It required the power of God, united to the zeal of Phinehas, to cause him to abandon all his own family interests and take up the cause of God single-handedly.  Nevertheless this energetic man does not seek to play a role in the work of restoration; he is of no importance in his own eyes.  He esteems that the thing rests on Ezra, the "ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given".  In his eyes, the bearer of the Word, let us say the Word itself, must play the principal role.

Ezra does not withdraw from the obligation set before him.  He immediately moves the leaders of the people to action.  "Then Ezra arose, and made the chiefs of priests, of the Levites, and of all Israel, to swear that they would do according to this word.  And they swore" (v. 5).  But, then even when the change had been produced in the hearts of the people, and they had decided to take action, Ezra does not abandon the expression of his humiliation.  A dishonor had been inflicted on the name of the Lord and still remained associated with it.  Until the purification was complete, mourning and fasting suited those who had resolved to separate themselves from evil: "And Ezra arose from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib; and when he came thither, he ate no bread and drank no water; for he mourned because of the unfaithfulness of them that had been carried away" (v. 6).

The energy of a few no longer tolerates any disobedience among the people.  All must submit themselves.  Those who do not want to do so are considered as "wicked" and are cut off from the assembly: "And they made proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem; and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should confiscated, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away" (vv. 7, 8).  The discipline which had been completely neglected and stopped by the moral slackening of the people, is now exercised according to God.

All the men of Judah and Benjamin gather at Jerusalem.  Ezra speaks to them.  He no longer says, as in Ezra 9: 7: "We have been in  great trespass", but: "Ye have acted unfaithfully, and have taken foreign wives… separate yourselves" (vv. 10, 11), for now it is a matter of reaching the conscience of those who have sinned.  To the sorrow over the faults they had committed was added the unfavorable season, "a time of pouring rain, and it [was] not possible to stand without" (v. 13).  Sometimes material difficulties oppose immediate purification.  This could not be "a work for one day or two", for the evil was wide-spread and, as everyone confessed, "[they were] many that [had] transgressed in this thing".  In this way God makes them understand that it is more difficult to repair the evil done than to commit it; but He is full of patience and mercy and takes account of the heart's decision; he knows that the guilty ones are not seeking loop-holes and that they truly desire to obey.

May we as well, in difficult circumstances, exercise the patience of Ezra, the patience of God, toward our brothers, lest they be discouraged.  It might have seemed to those who were "a remnant that [was] escaped" who had not participated in this iniquity, that an immediate separation, even an instantaneous separation, from evil was necessary in spite of "pouring rain".  Brotherly love does not calculate in this way; brotherly love knows that these words: "we are many that have transgressed in this thing", are not empty words.  Love endures all things, believes all things, and hopes all things just because it is love.

If only the sentiment which animated the people had been unanimous!  Unhappily, this was not so.  "Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them" (v. 15).  What motives could have turned them to this path of opposition?  None are given to us.  At the very most, we might think that one of them, if he is the same Meshullam as the Levite of verse 29, having taken part in the evil, had personal reasons for opposing the decision of the assembly.  Faced with this opposition, entirely contrary to the mind of God, what do those who have decided to purify themselves do?  They do not exclude their brothers, but rather, they bear with them, and the self-will of the dissident individuals needs no other judgment than the decisive action of the majority.  We have the joy of seeing, later, Shabbethai, the Levite, (more guilty than others on account of his functions, and then because he identifies himself with Meshullam,) being used to cause the people to understand the law, and then set up over the outward business of the house of God (Neh. 8: 7; Neh. 11: 16).   Indeed, the opposition of these men in no way influences the decision of the assembly; it is even a means by which God tests the resolution of heart of their brothers.  It does not stop the onward march of the whole company, for an assembly decision does not require absolute unanimity of the persons present, although this unanimity is desirable and may even be realized if hearts have to do with God in the same degree.  On the other hand, we do not see that the few persisted in imposing their views on their brothers, but they seem to have been quiet, without appealing to their conscience in order to condemn the conscience of others.

On the first day of the tenth month, Ezra and the chiefs of the fathers, men well-versed in the Word, wise and respected by the people, "sat down… to examine the matter".  The evil was evident: it was not a matter of knowing whether or not it existed, but each particular case deserved special discernment and judgment according to God.  Three full months sufficed to set this immense difficulty in order (vv. 16, 17).  Judgment was pronounced in love, without any being spared, nor was there any favoritism, beginning with the priests.  These, whose position made them more guilty than their brothers, "offered a ram of the flock, as trespass-offering for their guilt" (v. 19).  Having acknowledged their sin, they could offer no other sacrifice except a trespass offering, but it was important, because of their office, that they publicly express their humiliation by their offering.  Next the come the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, and lastly those "of Israel".  The list is a long one, but what grace! the restoration is effectuated without any new breach, through humiliation which becomes a source of decision and energy, and by means of the ministry of the Word.

This ministry, as we have seen, characterizes Ezra.  In him we find neither miraculous gift, nor prophetic gift, as in a Haggai or a Zechariah, nor an extraordinary display of divine power.  He has nothing which goes beyond the common measure and ordinary resources, but his heart is devoted to the honor of the lovely name of the Lord, and it is concerned for the prosperity of the people.  Above all, he is characterized by the understanding of the law of Moses, of the written Word.  The Word directs him in everything, and his faith rests on the Word.  He insists on the principles which the Word presents, he puts them into practice and does not suffer anyone to depart from them.  In this way he earns the confidence, even of the king, and this is also the only source of his authority.

The book of Ezra offers us precious teachings which apply to the present day position of the people of God, in the midst of the ruins of Christendom.  It teaches us the elements of the testimony, the characteristics of a revival, the conditions of restoration, when the witnesses have forgotten separation from the world.  May we, in these points, consider this precious portion of the Word with great attention!

Nehemiah

Meditations on the Book of Nehemiah

H. L. Rossier.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Nehemiah 1 Nehemiah's Mission

Nehemiah 2-7 Civil condition of the people

Nehemiah 2 Nehemiah leaves for Jerusalem

Nehemiah 3 The wall

Nehemiah 4 Obstacles from without

Nehemiah 5 Obstacles from within

Nehemiah 6 Personal attacks

Nehemiah 7 The order of the house

Nehemiah 8-10 Religious condition of the people

Nehemiah 8 The book of the law and the Feast of Tabernacles

Nehemiah 9 Humiliation, separation, and confession

Nehemiah 10 Renewal of the covenant

Nehemiah 11 Jerusalem re-populated

Nehemiah 12 The dedication of the wall

Nehemiah 13 Individual energy of faith

Introduction

The book of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah does not immediately follow the book of Ezra.  It begins in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Longimanus), that is to say thirteen years after the arrival of Ezra at Jerusalem (cf. Ezra 7: 7): an arrival which resulted in the events related in Ezra 7 to 10.  During these thirteen years, the "Jews that had escaped" had fallen into reproach and great misery.  It is true that the temple had been rebuilt, but, in a city with no defense, these poor Jews who had escaped were in constant danger of falling under the attacks of their enemies, and the house of God, which was the great object of their concern, was in danger of being plundered anew.

The account of Nehemiah embraces a period of about twelve years.  It treats another subject and consequently it has another bearing than the book of Ezra.  In the book of Ezra we see the altar re-established in its place, the foundations of the temple laid, the house itself built, and all this work followed by the purification of the people from their profane alliances.  Thus, the object of this book is the service of worship of the people of God and the moral state which must accompany it.  On the other hand, the book of Nehemiah speaks of the restoration of the walls, the gates and the dwelling places of Jerusalem.  Thus, while Ezra presents the restoration of Judah and Benjamin from the religious point of view, Nehemiah speaks from the civil point of view and in the course of these meditation we will consider the bearing of this restoration for ourselves.

Here we do not see, as in the book of Ezra, a Zerubbabel or a Jeshua, a governor of royal descent and a high priest, set at the head of the people in order to lead them, nor do we see prophets to re-awaken them, nor even a scribe of the priestly line, like Ezra, sent to remind them of the law of Moses and to purify them.  No doubt, this scribe himself, as invested by the king, has the upper hand over the civil power, but only because of the confidence which his moral character inspires (Ezra 7: 25); and if he has the right to exercise this authority, this is not what he seeks.  All his attention and all his zeal are directed toward the spiritual condition of the people, for whom the house of God has become their center.

Nehemiah is not a man of rank or authority; as we have just said, he was invested with his functions only because of the confidence with which he inspired the king, whom he serves as his  chief cup bearer.  In virtue of this confidence (but under the governing hand of God who directs all things, even human sentiments,) the king gives Nehemiah his mission and grants him the title of Tirshatha, that is to say, of governor.

As we have seen in the book of Ezra, the character of the people was that of a remnant according to God.  Then, after a period of discouragement, the revival occurred, and lastly their moral restoration by means of the Scriptures.  Nehemiah presents a different picture to us.  In every way, the condition of the people was very low, whether considered morally or outwardly; and so, faced with this misery, the opposition of the enemy is apparently insurmountable, and all the more so as his wiles are many and varied.   Only the grace of God could remedy these things, but the instruments which He would use must be armed with patience, perseverance and energy.  These are precisely the characteristics manifested by Nehemiah.

But let us turn to the study of this book, without further preamble.

Nehemiah

NEHEMIAH'S MISSION

Nehemiah was at Shushan, the court of that same Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who had protected Ezra, when he returned from Babylon to Jerusalem.  One of Nehemiah's brothers and several men who had come with him from Judah brought news to Nehemiah at Shushan concerning "the Jews that had escaped"  who settled in the "province" beyond the river (that is to say, in the land of Israel) with details about the miserable condition of the holy city.  He is deeply afflicted by what he learns concerning the misery and reproach of the people, and the ruins of the city with its broken walls.  After being restored, this weak remnant was continually threatened with becoming the prey of enemies conspiring to destroy them.  They had no yet, by their own fault, established anything lasting.  What had the men of Judah done during such a long lapse of years?  Once they had the energy to purify themselves from evil, but now they lacked the energy to preserve themselves.  What would become of them now?  Ezra had foreseen that the  reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem was necessarily the next step after the construction of the temple, if the people would continue in the spirit of the revival (Ezra 9: 9); but this had not been the case.  Long years had passed by without any event indicating activity or energy; there was nothing, except increasing affliction and reproach.

When Nehemiah hears these things, like Ezra and like all men of God in a day of ruin, he deeply humbles himself: "I sat and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of the heavens" (v. 4); although he did not do so on account of a positive sin as Ezra did (Ezra 9), but rather, on account of the misery the people had brought upon themselves through their lack of perseverance and trust in God.  Nehemiah begins by acknowledging the faithfulness of God toward those who obey Him, then he confesses the sins of Israel against God, without in any way excluding his own sins or the sins of his father's house, or their common disobedience to His Word (v. 5-7).  But although God had given warnings and had carried them out, according to what He had said to Moses (Deut. 28: 64), He also had given promises, in the event that the people should return to a condition of obedience, saying that He would gather them together and bring them back to the land.  This had actually occurred (Deut. 30: 1-6), and Nehemiah then pleads the cause of the restored people; they were now servants of the Lord.  Would the Lord disown them?  Impossible.  Nehemiah was a servant of the Lord also.  How could God fail to hear him?  Nehemiah identifies the people with himself in service, conscious that the he must continue the work; he ardently desires to do so, knowing that he is in communion with the will of God, from the moment when He had restored these escaped Jews from among His people.  But at the same time (and this is what we find in all men of faith — including Zerubbabel, Ezra, Daniel and others — in the midst of the ruin of the people), Nehemiah does not attempt to throw off the yoke of the nations, for this would mean failing to take the unfaithfulness of the people into account before God.  He merely asks God to "grant him mercy on the sight of this man" (v. 11).  This is how he calls the king when he speaks to God, for what else is he to the Sovereign God who directs the heart of the most exalted and powerful men, in order to cause them to carry out His plans?  When he stands before the king, Nehemiah changes his language and honors him as is becoming (2: 3), but, before God, he gives honor and power to Him alone.

Nehemiah 2-7

THE CIVIL STATE OF THE PEOPLE

Nehemiah 2

Nehemiah leaves for Jerusalem and inspects the grounds

In the month of Nisan (which was the first month, the same as the month of Abib when the Passover was celebrated, and which formed part, along with the ninth month of Chislev, of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes), Nehemiah give wine to the king, in the course of his duties as cup bearer.  His prayer (Nehemiah 1: 11) was answered, after he had "mourned for days", that is to say, about four months.  Fasting and sorrow had left their imprint on his face; now, it was not permitted to appear before the king with a sorrowful face (Dan. 1: 10, where the Hebrew word translated "worse liking" may also be translated "sad"); but God used this very thing in order to put words into the kings mouth which would afford an occasion for Nehemiah's request.  Such miracles, in answer to our prayers, are part of the daily circumstances of our Christian life, so completely that we hardly take notice of it.  Considering things carefully, everything is a miracle in God's ways toward us.  He diverts certain dangers, procures certain encounters, prevents others, gives us certain opportunities and closes certain paths to us: in a word, His hand is at work everywhere in order to carry out His ways of grace toward the believer or through him.  This was the case with Nehemiah: "This is nothing else but sadness of heart", the king says to him.  Nehemiah, trembling all over, perhaps not yet seeing the desired answer to his prayer, makes his request, but not without first mentally praying once again to the God of the heavens* that his request may correspond to God's mind,  Then he immediately mentions the subject of the ruin of the city and its gates: "Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lies waste, and its gates are consumed with fire?" (v. 3).  Then he asks to be sent to Judah in order to build Jerusalem.  "When wilt thou return?" the king asks him.  Nehemiah "set him a time", probably twelve years (see Nehemiah 2: 1 and Nehemiah 13: 6).

*"The God of the heavens" is the name of God, mentioned continually in Ezra and Nehemiah, as the One who had given dominion to the Gentiles.  He is no longer called the God of the earth, for, after He had given the land to His people in His character as God of the earth, and after His people had been declared Lo-ammi, on account of their unfaithfulness, God had abandoned this title which He will not take up again until later.  (See Ezra; Dan. 2: 18, 19, 28, 37, 44)

Notice an important difference between Ezra and Nehemiah, which nevertheless does not throw any blame on Nehemiah.  In Ezra, faith alone is active: "[He was] ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help [him] against the enemy in the way" (Ezra 8: 22).  On the contrary, Nehemiah recommends himself to the protection of the governors on the other side of the river and does not oppose the king's proposition that his army captains and horsemen should escort him there (Nehemiah 2: 7, 9).  He acknowledges the support of the protective power which he serves, not because of any lack of faith, but because, in these low times, faith does not manifest itself with the same simplicity.  When the temple was completed, Ezra had only to carry gifts to the house of the Lord.  The greater the treasure confided to him, the more necessary it was to show the world that faith turned to God to keep that which belonged to Him.  Nothing of this kind took place in the case of Nehemiah; here it was not a matter of gifts, or treasure, or even protecting a few believers confided to his responsibility.  Nehemiah was alone; his mission was not to begin until his arrival at Jerusalem.  Until that moment he must acknowledge and accept his dependence on the Gentile power.  Only on his arrival at Jerusalem, would he be called on to demonstrate his love for the work of God and his perseverance in pursuing it through all the difficulties occasioned by the extreme weakness of the people and the strength of their enemies.  From that moment on, we shall see these qualities manifested in him in the course of this account.

Having arrived in the province of Judah, Nehemiah finds himself in contact with leaders hostile to the people of God: Sanballat and Tobijah.  The names of the enemies have changed (cf. Ezra 5: 6), but the hostility remained.  Likewise today, the world still is the same world which crucified Christ twenty centuries ago, although the names have changed.  "It grieved [these enemies] exceedingly that there had come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel" (v. 10).

At Jerusalem, the end of his journey, Nehemiah considers it of primary importance to personally inspect the extent of the evil.  He had come to Judah with the captains and the horsemen of the king of Persia, but when the work was in question, he keeps only "the beast that [he] rode upon", that is to say his own resources and in no way does he depend on the resources which the world might offer him.  Here his faith manifests itself.  Jerusalem was defenseless against the enemy, and her ruin was such that, the city did not even afford a path where Nehemiah's mount could pass (vv. 13, 14).  It was indeed the place where faith was called on to demonstrate itself.  When God entrusts a work to us, we are to take counsel with Him alone, and like Nehemiah, we depend upon neither the world, nor even the priests, nobles or rulers (v. 16); this is a very important principle for all those whom the Lord sends.  Only after he has taken account of the evil in detail under the eye of God alone, can Nehemiah, who is convinced of his mission, exhort the people to activity in order to remedy the ruin.

In verses 17 and 18, he presents them with three motives to engage them to "come… and build up the wall of Jerusalem".  The first motive is the extreme ruin and misery in which they themselves and the city are found.  The second motive is the grace of God which had encouraged him: "the hand of [his] God… had been good upon [him]".  The third motive lies in the king's words and his assistance, which were themselves ordained of God, as it is said in v. 8: "According to the good hand of my God upon me".  In these words we see that Nehemiah was of the same spiritual stock as Ezra.  He counted on God who answered his confidence fully in grace (see Ezra 7: 6, 9, 28; Ezra 8: 22, 31). Like the Lord later, Nehemiah could "bear witness of that which [he had] seen" (John 3: 11).  But instead of meeting, as the Lord did, people who did not receive his testimony, he finds, to encourage him, hearts driven by their need and the realization of their humiliation, and he has the joy of hearing these words from their mouth: "Let us rise up and build".  And we are told "they strengthened their hands for the good [work]."  Thus, God had prepared everything: the instrument and the hearts to accept his encouragement and exhortations.

The enemies, Sanballat and Tobijah, and Geshem mock this insignificant remnant and despise them.  How could they, who did not know God, guess that fearful creatures without strength could accomplish a work judged impossible by the human spirit?  But they do not limit themselves to this and they seek to intimidate those who are now decided to resolutely go to work: "Will ye rebel against the king?" they cry; but nothing moves Nehemiah.  He answers: "The God of the heavens, he will prosper us, and we his servants will arise and build; but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem".  This is the same principle which characterizes the people in Ezra 4: 3.  Indeed, whether it is a matter of building the house, or of raising the walls of the city, this principle does not change.  The people of God can not in any way associate with the world for any aspect of the work of God.

One of the dominant characteristics of the book of Nehemiah is that separation from that which was not Jewish is carefully affirmed and maintained, in spite of the lax principles of a few.  Nehemiah's statement: "Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem", is confirmed by the subsequent conduct of the people, and even though their leaders lack conscience in this matter, they are reproved and put to shame before one and all (see Nehemiah 9: 2; Nehemiah 10: 30; Nehemiah 13: 1, 3, 28, 30).

Nehemiah 3

The wall

Before considering this chapter in detail, let us say a few words about what the building of the wall signifies for us, just as in the book of Ezra we have sought to set forth the typical meaning of the reconstruction of the temple.

It is a high calling for the Christian to work at the edification of the Assembly, to bring material to the house of God, and to build on the foundation which is Christ (1 Cor. 3; 10-16); but there is yet another responsibility: the rebuilding of the walls of the holy city.

At one and the same time, the walls serve as a separation from people without and a defense against the attacks of the enemy.  They surround and enclose the city and serve to mark it off as a unity.  Thus the walls form an administrative unity, having its own laws, customs, self-government, which is self-sufficient and separated from foreign elements, and shielded from any mixing.  At Jerusalem, these walls surrounded the people of God and at the same time they defended the sanctuary.

The walls are also a means of defense, as we have just said: they repel the assaults of the enemy and offer security to the inhabitants of the city and her citizens.  If we apply this description to the present circumstances, we easily see their importance.  The city of God, His habitation, the Assembly, is in ruin through our own fault, and has become invisible to the eyes of man.  Should we abandon this state of destruction?  In no way.  - If we have the understanding of a Nehemiah, we will understand that it is urgent to gather together the citizens of the heavenly city, to work toward their visible unity, even though we know perfectly well that this unity no longer exists except in the counsels of God.  If Nehemiah had waited until all the inhabitants of Jerusalem dispersed in Persia, Media and the province of Babylon, were re-integrated in their home, before he undertook the construction of the wall, his mission would have been in vain and he would never have set to work.  Once the city had been enclosed, God did not leave it deserted, as we shall see, and His Spirit re-awakened the zeal which in some feeble measure filled in the gap left by those still absent from Jerusalem.  -We will also see that faced with the world's assault, under the leadership of Satan, to prevent helpless believers from standing firm for Christ, we must rebuild the wall which preserves them.  This wall is Christ; it is God, it is His Word, the Word of salvation and praise (Zech. 2; 5; Jer. 15: 20; Isa. 60: 18; Isa. 26: 1), the only security we can offer the children of God.  And finally we will see that the duty of every servant of God is to separate the family of faith, fellow citizens of the saints, from all evil, in whatever form it may present itself: whether individual or collective, whether moral or doctrinal, whether religious or worldly, carnal and earthly, so that the family of faith may be visible to the eyes of the world and may be acknowledged by the world.

"Let us rise up and build", the people say.  Let us not speak of the impossibility of the task.  What is impossible to man is never impossible to God.  And even though we may be only two or three believers, occupied with "[repairing] over against [our own] house", God will approve us and His good hand will be upon us!

Nevertheless our work does not consist only in raising up the wall: we must also work on the gates.  The enemy knew very well what he was doing when he consumed the gates of Jerusalem with fire (Nehemiah 2: 3, 13, 17).  The gates of a city are just as important as the wall, and even more so.  They may be opened to allow the inhabitants of the city to go in and out freely, but they may also exclude any foreign, sinful, contagious, or criminal element which might seek to take up residence within the city.  The gates are closed at night to protect the citizens from leaving the city during the hour of danger, but also to prevent anything contrary to the laws of the city from entering in, and above all to prevent the infiltration of traitors who might open the gates to the enemy, taking advantage of any laxity in surveillance.

Likewise, the city according to God has gates through which the world and its lusts, lying doctrines and heresies, and false brothers may be introduced or repulsed, and which, on the other hand, are open wide to all that is of God, of Christ and of His Word.

Alas! when like Nehemiah, we go around the rubble, we do not find a single vestige of all this in the great house which bears the name of Christ.  But let us not become discouraged.  If we have the construction of the walls at heart, we will also apply ourselves to rebuilding the gates, and the good hand of our God will be upon us.  It is not time to rest: let us encourage one another in this work.  Our work will necessarily be feeble and incomplete, but let us not forget that God recognizes it and that one day He will substitute His own workmanship for ours in the new Jerusalem, "and its gates shall not be shut at all by day, for night shall not be there…  And nothing common, nor that maketh an abomination and a lie, shall at all enter into it; but those only who [are] written in the book of life of the Lamb" (Rev. 21: 25-27).  "Blessed [are] they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city.  Without [are] the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loves and makes a lie" (Rev. 22: 14, 15).

These preliminary remarks will help us in the detailed examination and application of the chapter presently before us.  This chapter is divided into two parts.  The first part treats the reconstruction of the wall which surrounded Jerusalem (vv. 1-15); the second part, treats this reconstruction in relation to the "city of David" and the temple.

Under the impetus of a man of faith, or rather under the energetic action of the Holy Spirit who spoke by means of this man, both great and small rise up and demonstrate their fervor to undertake the work.

Of course, the first person we meet is the spiritual leader of the people, Eliashib, the high priest, and his brothers the priests.  They rose up "and they built the sheep-gate.  They hallowed it, and set up its doors; and they hallowed it even to the tower of Meah, to the tower of Hananeel" (v. 1).  At first glance, the extent and execution of their work seems to leave nothing to be desired.  The sheep-gate was the gate closest to the temple, toward the north.  The portion of the wall rebuilt consisted of two towers: a work which was particularly important and difficult.  The sheep-gate itself was  provided with hinges, but it lacked locks and bars.  Thus, from the outset, this entrance to Jerusalem was not well guarded against those who might desire to infiltrate the city.  It is possible that Eliashib had a personal interest in this omission.  He was  allied to Tobijah the Ammonite, one of the three great enemies of the people of God, and he had even prepared a chamber in the court of the temple for this enemy! (Nehemiah 13: 5, 7).  A grandson of this same Eliashib was the son-in-law of the second great enemy of the Jews: Sanballat the Horonite.  Was Eliashib behaving dishonestly in this matter?  No one can say with certainty, but it is a constant principle that association with the world, through the fact that we accommodate it, always marks our work with a character of incompleteness, which the enemy takes advantage of when an opportune moment arrives.  This negligence is all the more serious when the worker has a high profile, as is the case here.  And nevertheless there was a work undertaken, even a very important work since it directly touched the house of God: it was a work which God took account of, but a work which would have left an open door to a prompt and irremediable ruin, were it not for the vigilance of Nehemiah.

The men of Jericho built next to the priests (v. 2).  They had come up from their city (cf. Ezra 2: 34, 70; Neh. 7: 36) in order to help their brothers at Jerusalem.  Their work does not appear significant: they do not build a gate or a tower, but they do contribute to the city's defense against evil from without.  Part of this task is entrusted to one man, Zaccur the son of Imri.  The instruments God uses are most varied, but each one is useful and none can be replaced, or chose his work himself.  Whether several are associated together, or whether a worker is alone, their sole responsibility is to work at that place which God assigns to each one.

After them, the sons of Senaah (v. 3) (perhaps Senaah is a city, or perhaps it is a district in the region of Jericho) distinguish themselves.  They built the fish gate; "they laid its beams, and set up its doors, its locks and its bars."  This gate, situated in the northern sector of Jerusalem, was, along with "the gate of the old [wall]", especially exposed to the attacks of the enemy.  It was from the north that the Assyrian armies approached the city in order to surround it and besiege it.  The sons of Senaah realized its importance; they did not leave off their work until the gate's locks and bars were in position.

In verses 4 and 5, we see first of all Meremoth the son of Urijah the priest, a faithful and respected man, to whom Ezra's companions had entrusted all the free-will offerings sent from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra 8: 33, 34).  His zeal goes beyond the restoration of just one portion of the wall.  He is the first (for afterwards others imitate his example) to repair "another piece" (this second portion was in connection with the city of David and the temple) in front of the house of Eliashib the high priest (v. 21).  His zeal leads him to defend the representative of the people before God.  The same thing took place in the days of the apostles, and the situation is the same for us today.  Faithfulness shown in a service of modest appearance, qualifies the laborer for an activity which relates directly to Christ, our high priest.

Meshullam, whom our chapter mentions after Meremoth, was a man of doubtful character, for he had allied himself to Tobijah, to whose son, named Johanan, he had given his daughter (Nehemiah 6: 18).  From all appearances, he was of the priestly race, and perhaps Eliashib had exercised an influence upon him by his own example.  In spite of this vexatious alliance, he shows zeal for the house of God, but not the same zeal as Meremoth.  Although he next works at the "city of David", his work is directed first of all at protecting his own living quarters (v. 30).  After him, Zadok is among those who do not fear to the work in isolation, at their own risk and peril.  Next to these three men the Tekoites repair.  They belong to a city of Judah, not far from Bethlehem (Amos 1: 1; 2 Sam. 14: 2).  "But their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord."  On the whole, this lack of zeal, this indifference of the nobles does not — and may it always be so —  occasion the consequences which are so frequent in similar cases.  On the contrary, since the Tekoites are not dependent upon their leaders, they redouble their zeal all the more.  In verse 27 we see them repair "a second piece" of the city of David "over against the great tower which lies out, as far as the wall of Ophel".  Ophel, where the dwellings of the Nethinim were located, was connected to one of the gates of the temple.  This place is also mentioned in Isaiah 32: 14: "[Ophel] and watchtower" (see footnote JND).

Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodiah (v. 6), two men with no other reputation in Scripture, repair "the gate of the old [wall]", a gate which was situated in the north west of the enclosure and which, surmising from its name, was no doubt one of the oldest gates of the city.  These two men associate themselves together for this important work, whereas, for a similar work, the cooperation of all the sons of Senaah had been required.  The mutual agreement of these two men produces a considerable result: a lesson which is most instructive for us.  The expression "next to them", so frequently used in this chapter, is lacking here, when their work is in question.  They occupy a distinctive place, being in no way dependent on their brothers, although they contribute to the common work.  Such men acquire a good degree.  Their work is very contentious; there is nothing missing in the gate they construct: neither beams, nor doors, nor locks, nor bars.  And so they serve as a model for others.

Indeed (v. 7), Malatiah, a Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, of Galilee, repair "next to them".  Although the origin of these two persons is obscure and despised in man's sight, it is not so in God's sight.

Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths, and Hananiah of the perfumers (v. 8), are not associated like their predecessors, although they work in concert.  Their functions which served the luxury of the world were not incompatible with the reconstruction of the city of God, for the Lord chooses His workers in all classes and all positions, and not where men would be tempted to look for them exclusively.*

*A certain obscurity in the text would lead to the thought that the Chaldeans had not completely destroyed this side of the wall (as well as the "broad wall": the side of which the "gate of Ephraim", (which is not mentioned here), formed part (see 8: 16).  The "open space" of the gate of Ephraim, formerly enclosed by the wall, appears not to have been included in the reconstruction (see schema).

This same remark applies to Rephaiah the son of Hur, "the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem" (v. 9).  The case is the same with Shallum, a respected man who fulfilled the same functions as Rephaiah; only, in speaking of him, the Word adds: "he and his daughters".  The work here is carried out by women, but as it is a matter of a work of public nature, they carry it out under the responsibility of their father and in dependence upon him.  But, how touching it is to see them, commit themselves to a work to which their sex was not called and for which their strength seemed insufficient, out of love for the city of God and in view of the restoration of His people.

Jedaiah (v. 10) repairs "over against his house".  His first care is to preserve his own family against the invasions of the enemy.  The case is the same for Benjamin, Hasshub and Azariah (v. 23), for the priests and Zadok (vv. 28, 29).  All these men take it to heart to begin by sheltering those of their own house; and how desirable and profitable is this exercise among the saints at all times.  How can one stand as a defender of the people of God, if one doesn't know how to protect his own home from evil?  This same zeal brought honor to Gideon, when he was called to judge Israel (Judges 6: 25-35).

In verse 11, the example of Jehoiada and Meshullam continues to bear fruit.  Two men Malchijah and Hasshub repair the tower of the furnaces which dominated the entire western wall, a work which was as important for signaling danger as for defense; but, the two of them also undertook "a second piece", proof of their untiring zeal.

Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah (v. 13) repaired the valley-gate southwest of the city, with the same care as the sons of Senaah; but in addition to this they repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the dung-gate in the south-east, that is to say, the entire portion of the wall facing directly south.  What zeal! and it would seem that Hanun (if it is the same Hanun) did not limit himself to this work, for it is said, in v. 30, that he repaired a second piece.

Malchijah the son of Rechab (v. 14), a recognized leader, repairs the dung-gate in the south-east.  He is the first to build a gate by himself alone.  And let mention be made of his Rechabite character which qualifies him for the perseverance of faith.

Shallun (v. 15), another respected leader, goes even further.  He single-handedly repairs the gate of the fountain in the east, restores it to a complete condition of defense, and he also repairs the "wall of the pool of Shelah [Siloam]", and continues to work along "the king's garden" to the stairs that go down from the city of David.  Happy Shallum!  And how he deserved the people's respect and appreciation!  The gate offering protection, the fountain offering refreshment and healing, and the shade affording rest: all fall within the circle of his activity.  Jerusalem owes the enjoyment of these inestimable blessings to him as the result of his efforts to procure the good of his brothers!

With v. 16, we come to the city of David, properly speaking.  We have begun at the north of this city, which was built, along with the temple, on mount Zion, and we have gone around the city to end at the south of the city of David, at the stairs which go down.  Thus nothing remains to be repaired but the last and most important part of the holy city, which was nevertheless preserved, in virtue of its position and elevation above the valley of Kidron, from any direct attack by the enemy.  The uncertain topography of this region makes some of the details difficult to understand, but since they have only a very secondary interest for us in these pages, they may easily be omitted.  Furthermore we notice, from v. 16 on, the words "next to him" are generally replaced by "after him", which seems to indicate that the work can be attacked from several sides simultaneously.

Nehemiah the son of Azbuk (v. 16) is unknown to us like many others, although here he occupies an eminent position.  Through his activity he opens the way for works of great importance.

Verses 17 to 21 speak of the work of the Levites.  Rehum had returned with Zerubbabel (Nehemiah 12: 3).  Later he is among those who signed the covenant (Nehemiah 10: 25), as was, likewise (Nehemiah 10: 12), Hashabiah who repaired "for his district", and who is also a chief Levite especially established to give praise (Nehemiah 12: 24).  In every way, these two men are qualified to work "next to" one another.  Bavvai (v. 18) has the same dignity and the same district as Hashabiah, but he is not mentioned later.  Ezer is found again when the choirs meet, on the occasion of the dedication of the wall (Nehemiah 12: 42).  Baruch (v. 20) seems to be the son of this same Zabbai who, in Ezra 10: 28, had taken a foreign wife.  Such a thing happening in his own family must have produced, in this godly man, a redoubling of vigilance to preserve the priesthood from profane contact.  He "earnestly" repaired from the angle to the entry of the house of Eliashib, the high priest, who had urgent need of this solicitude, as we have seen.  Meremoth (v. 21), already mentioned in v. 4, had been faithful from the beginning.  He feels, like Baruch, and even more deeply than he, the danger that threatens the high priest.  His "second portion" (see footnote: "another piece" is "a second piece" in Hebrew) of work is very precious: in complete accord with Baruch he repairs "from the door of the house of Eliashib as far as the end of the house of Eliashib".

From v. 22 on, we find the priests; the men of the plain do not seem to have had a special purpose in view.  Benjamin (v. 23) later took part in the dedication of the wall (Nehemiah 12: 33).  Hasshub signed the covenant (Nehemiah 10: 23).  Azariah who, like Benjamin and Hasshub sought to safeguard his own house, is very distinguished later: he explains the law to the people (Nehemiah 8: 7), seals the covenant (Nehemiah 10: 2), and takes part in the dedication of the wall (Nehemiah 12: 33).  Only the "second piece" of Binnui (v. 24) is mentioned,  which seems to indicate that he helped Azariah to protect his house.  This Binnui seals the covenant in Nehemiah 10: 9.  Palal repairs, turning his attention to the structures which were witnesses of royal authority and the judgment of the guilty (v. 25).  In this same verse we find Pedaiah the son of Parosh.  Several of his brothers had taken foreign wives (Ezra 10: 25).  Later he is present at the reading of the covenant (Nehemiah 8: 4), and served as one of the storekeepers over the storehouses of the Levites (Nehemiah 13: 13).  Here he seems to concern himself with the portion of the Nethinim, in Ophel (v. 26).  The priests (v. 28) have their own houses at heart, like so many others, but they do not seem to have concerned themselves with "the horse-gate".  Zadok the son of Immer (v. 29) is a different Zadok than the one mentioned in v. 4.  One or the other of these two men later signs the covenant (Nehemiah 10: 21) and is established over the storehouses (Nehemiah 13: 13).

Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah is the "keeper of the east gate", the main gate of the temple precincts.  His name is found later on all the principle occasions.  If Shechaniah, his father, had been the keeper of the gate, Jerusalem would have been in grave danger from Tobijah (Nehemiah 6: 18).  Hananiah and Hanun repair a second portion (v. 30, cf. v. 8 and 13).  Malchijah (v. 31) had taken a foreign wife (Ezra 10: 25 or 31) and had purified himself.  In v. 32 great number of goldsmiths and dealers put their hand to the work and rejoin the walls of the city of David to the sheep-gate, where the work had begun.

The greater part of these men acquire, as we have seen, "a good degree" (1 Tim. 3: 13) through their zeal to build the wall of the city of David.  Shouldn't we draw a lesson for ourselves from this?  Doesn't the silence and incapacity of so many children of God in the ministry stem in large part from the fact, that at the outset, when God placed some work before them to accomplish for Him — a work requiring effort, perseverance and the sacrifice of their time — they, like the nobles of the Tekoites, have not put their necks to the work of their Lord?

Nehemiah

Obstacles from without

Nehemiah 3 has given us a complete, uninterrupted overview of the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem; Nehemiah 4 tells us what happened during the course of this work.  "And it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry and very indignant, and mocked the Jews.  And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said,  What do these feeble Jews? shall they be permitted to go on?  Will they offer sacrifices?  Will they finish in a day?  Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?  And Tobijah the Ammonite was by him, and he said,  Even that which they build, if a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall." (vv. 1-3).

These implacable enemies of the Jews hated them so much the more as they themselves had some knowledge of the true God.  Sanballat was at the head of the forces of Samaria, where their idolatrous system of worship was not completely separated from the worship of Jehovah.  This is what we will always find.  The mixture of the true with the false, in the domain of religion, is much more hostile to the Christian testimony than simple paganism.  The world which has drawn its religion from the Bible and the gospels, and has made its credo from certain scriptural truths, is frequently at the head of this opposition.  It cannot endure those who build the wall and the gates of the city of God, for these defenses are against itself.  The world's hostility begins by mockery, which frightens the timid more than hatred does.  This was one of Sanballat's weapons (Nehemiah 2: 19; 4: 1).  We all easily feel the influence of mockery if our hearts have not broken former associations with the world.  In such a case we will fear ridicule and disdain and we will draw back from public communion with this humbled people, "these weak Jews", who claim to repair the breaches and help their brothers to rebuff the attacks of the enemy.

In vv. 4 and 5, Nehemiah calls the judgment of God down on these men who "have provoked the builders".  We cannot make a request like this to God, for our cry in His presence is not and cannot be anything other than the petition of grace: but we know this certainly: God feels the hostility of the world against the family of faith as an insult.  "[It is a] righteous thing with God to render tribulation to those that trouble you" (2 Thess. 1: 6).  And on the other hand we know that the opposition of the enemy cannot prevent the work of God from being accomplished.  We ourselves need only faith which confides in God and the Spirit which encourages our hearts for the work.  Nehemiah adds:  "But we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work" (v. 6).  Whether it is a matter of defending Jerusalem or of conquering it, these principles remain the same.  Tobijah says: "If a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall"; but Nehemiah says, "we built the wall".  The Jebusites said to David: "Thou shalt not come in hither, but the blind and the lame will drive thee back"; but "David took the stronghold of Zion" (2 Sam. 5: 6, 7).

We have just seen the opposition which the reconstruction of the first half of the walls of Jerusalem encountered  (v. 6); but when the breaches began to close, the enemy's wrath increases.  "they… conspired all of them together to come to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it" (v. 8).  What would become of this poor people, no longer faced with the opposition of isolated individuals, but now faced with a coalition animated by the same murderous design?  In v. 9 we learn that in such a case two things were necessary: "We prayed to our God, and set a watch against them day and night".  Just so, the first thing is confidence in God alone and dependence upon Him, expressed in prayer.  "We prayed to our God."  He is the great resource.  This conviction moves Nehemiah to say, a little later: "Be not afraid of them: remember the Lord who is great and terrible" (v. 14), and again, in v. 20: "our God will fight for us".  That is where our strength lies: it is in God and is always granted to us, when we take a position of dependence before Him.  - The second thing is vigilance: "Be sober therefore, and be watchful unto prayers" (1 Peter 4: 7).

Despite these words, discouragement grips Judah!  "And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens faileth, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build at the wall" (v. 10).  How many times when the task is crushing and the enemy is powerful, have we not seen this discouragement produced?  Or have we not experienced this discouragement ourselves?  The burden is too heavy and the rubbish is too great: we cannot build.  Certainly, those who reasoned in this way were not associated with Nehemiah's prayer or with setting the watchmen.  Instead of looking to God, they looked at themselves and the obstacles.

If Nehemiah had listened to these complaints, what would have become of Judah, for during this time the enemy took every advantage?  "They shall not know, neither see," the adversaries say, "till we come into the midst of them and kill them, and put an end to the work" (v. 11).

Another inopportune element adds to the confusion.  The Jews who "dwelt by [the adversaries]" came ten times to warn the workers at Jerusalem.  No doubt, these Jews had no bad intentions, but their relationship with the adversaries was not the element needed in order to strengthen the heart of the people.  In days of trouble, how many times have we heard warnings from that quarter: someone has a grudge against us; the enemy is powerful.  Be on your guard, if you persist you will provoke a general attack.  Notice that those who give advice had no remedy to propose, and thus they increased the anguish of those who were weak.  But the man of God, already convinced of the path to follow, draws fresh courage from their warnings, and strengthens himself.  Thanks to the energy which he finds in communion with his God, the scene changes, and those of the people who had been only laborers up to this point, become soldiers, ready to drive off the enemy.

We Christians ought also to bear these two characteristics in order to labor effectively at the work of God, during the difficult times in which we live: we must have perseverance and energy.  Here we find various categories of combatants.  At the first moment, when the attack is imminent, all, indistinctly, take up arms.  "I even set the people, according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows" (v. 13), says Nehemiah.  Thus everything was foreseen: the sword for hand to hand combat, the spear to keep the enemy at a distance, and the bow to strike at a distance.  For us, the word of God comprehends all these weapons simultaneously, whose purpose is "fight for [our] brethren, [our] sons and [our] daughters, [our] wives and [our] houses" (v. 14).

Then when this determined attitude had defeated the counsel of the enemy, "[they] returned all of [them] to the wall, every one to his work" (v. 15).  "And from that time forth the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held the spears, and the shields, and the bows, and the corselets", that is to say, both offensive and defensive weapons.  Those that bore burdens and those who loaded these burdens worked with one hand and they held a weapon in the other hand.  Lastly, each of the builders had their sword strapped by his side.

All these details carry instruction for us.  It is the duty of every one to defend the work of God in certain pressing dangers.  At other times, an attitude of defense exclusively may slow down the work.  At such times offensive and defensive weapons are entrusted to certain of our brothers.  But those who assist in the work, and even those who are fully given to it, must never slacken in their vigilance.  If they can not hold their weapon in one hand, let them gird their sword by their side.  No child of God should leave entirely to others the care of using the Word, that two-edged sword.  Some may be more qualified than others to apply it at any given moment and in any circumstance; but it is no less true that we must all bear it in every circumstance, and that every member of the family of God should be able to use it on occasion.

Obviously such an attitude can not suit the enemy.  When the workers girded their swords to their sides, the enemy could have said to them: Give your swords to others, more qualified than you for combat.  Take care of your work: don't attempt to do two things at once.  Don't concern yourself about the rest, and everything will be fine.  No, the worker replies, everything will not be fine, if I allow your words to lull me to sleep.  It is in invaluable privilege to allow the Lord to act, but am I not responsible to fight for Him?  To say: the Lord will intervene, when I myself abandon the sword of the Spirit, vigilance, prayer, and perseverance is to run after certain defeat.

But even this is not enough.  Nehemiah tells the nobles: "The work is great and extended, and we are scattered upon the wall, one far from another: in what place ye hear the sound of the trumpet, thither shall ye assemble to us; our God will fight for us" (vv. 19, 20).  To be effective, the work must be a combined effort.  When the enemy appears, believers must not be found scattered, and if there is no combined resistance at the point of attack, they are sure to succumb.  The adversary takes advantage of the scattered condition of the children of God, and their gathering together is what is most contrary to him, because he knows that this multiplies their strength.  And so his first concern, when he attacks them, is to sow discord and divisions among them.  That is the reason why this call of God: "Assemble to us",  still resounds on every side, as in the days of Nehemiah.  We have a center of gathering.  Let us gather together around our Head.  The trumpet has already resounded so as to be heard by one and all.  Let us make haste; let us not say: My work is enough for me.  No, our Head says, it is not enough, for if the enemy finds you isolated, he will destroy both you and your work.  The danger is threatening.  Let us gather together instead of scattering.  May we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies.  It is all very well to build in front of one's home, but it is the general interests of the people of God which claim all our energy in view of our brothers.  That is why the trumpet calls us together.  Soon, when the battle is over, the trumpet will gather us for the last time where there is no more question of building or of self-defense, but where we will enjoy eternal rest in peace!

Nehemiah 5

Obstacles from within

Nehemiah 4 has shown us the necessity of being armed to accomplish the Lord's work, for, at every instant, we may be called on to fight the enemy.

Nehemiah 5 reveals a very humiliating scene to us.  Although the outward testimony of the people was accompanied by praiseworthy activity, their inward testimony left much to be desired and was hindered by scandalous events.  What had the brotherly relationships among the members of the people of God come to?  Could devotion, pity, and sympathy for the poor be found; and did love manifest itself as it should have?  No; "There was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews" (v. 1).  A great cry! complaints, and recriminations, which were moreover perfectly justified!

The poor asked for corn so that they might live (v. 2).  Where was love?  When the rich, following the example of Christ, ought to have laid down their lives for their brothers, did they help them in the ordinary things of life?  "Whoso may have the world's substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him, how abides the love of God in him?" (1 John 3: 17), or, as it is said again: "Now if a brother or a sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one from amongst you say to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled; but give not to them the needful things for the body, what [is] the profit?  So also faith, if it have not works, is dead by itself" (James 2: 15-17).

Others said: "We have had to pledge our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses, that we might procure corn in the dearth" (v. 3).  Now, who had taken advantage of them when, in their hunger, they needed bread?  It was their brothers: and nevertheless the law of Moses prohibited them from doing this.  The Israelite was allowed to lend to the nations, but he was not permitted to charge his brother interest (Deut. 23: 19, 20; Ex. 22: 25).  Thus the love of money caused them to commit this great sin.

Others said: "We have borrowed money for the king's tribute upon our fields and vineyards; yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and behold we must be bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage [already]; neither is it in the power of our hand [to redeem them], for other men have our fields and our vineyards" (vv. 4, 5).  This king's tribute (Middah. Ezra 6: 8; Ezra 4: 20) was exacted of them.  Everyone had to borrow from his brother, pledging his fields and vineyards — and in this way, since they could not repay the debt, not only was the land no longer their own, but they also had to employ their children as slaves, without being able to redeem them, since the fields were in the hands of their brothers.  What a miserable predicament!  And how forcefully this demonstrates that a testimony which is outwardly in order is no security for us, and that it may even be a great snare to us in relation to our practical life, for the satisfaction of occupying a position of separation from the world may feed our spiritual pride, and cause us to pass lightly over our moral laxity in our relationships with our brothers.  Jeremiah also warned the people against this same danger: "Confide ye not in words of falsehood, saying, Jehovah's temple, Jehovah's temple, Jehovah's temple is this.  But if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye really do justice between a man and his neighbor, [if] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow… then will I cause you to dwell in this place" (Jer. 7: 4-7).

Faced with this disorder, Nehemiah was very irritated.  He did not go seek counsel from anyone concerning what he must do, any more than he had done on the night when he went around the walls of Jerusalem.  "I consulted with myself," he said.  He knew within himself what his responsibility was, whether concerning the public testimony, or whether concerning the moral life of the assembly.  He did not fear to unmask the chief men in the presence of a large congregation; human respect did not stop him when it was a matter of the truth.  Just so, Paul reproached Peter before everyone at Antioch and resisted him to the face, because he was to be blamed (Gal. 2: 11, 14).  Here, Nehemiah shows the nobles and rulers that their brothers, who dwelt among the nations, acted quite differently and much better than they did.  The dispersed had redeemed their brothers, who had been sold as slaves to the Gentiles,  whereas they, in the land, would sell their brothers into bondage!  And they would sell themselves to us!  What a shame!

Can we not find instruction for ourselves in this?  Brothers, who are still bound to the world in many ways, often conduct themselves much better, out of their devotion to their brothers, than others who strongly insist on outward separation.  If these two things do not go hand in hand, the Christian testimony has no real value.  But let us not forget that the world will be more impressed by a testimony given through brotherly love than by a testimony given through outward separation.  This is why Nehemiah said to the chief men, "Ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, so as not to be the reproach of the nations our enemies?" (v. 9).

His own position — unreserved devotion for his people and absolute renouncing of his personal interests — allowed Nehemiah to speak like this.  He had brought his private conduct and his public conduct into agreement .  He could say: "But I did not so, because of the fear of God.  Yea, also I applied myself to this work of the wall, and we bought no fields; and all my servants were gathered thither for the work" (vv. 15, 16).  He also had the rights of the governor, that is to say: to be fed at the people's expense, but he had completely renounced this right.  And the apostle Paul did likewise at Corinth.  He who serves at the altar has the right to eat of the altar, and this is the case of all ministering servants, but Paul had accepted nothing from the Corinthians, in order to serve as an example to this dear assembly, which was in danger from those who were spoiling it.  As for Nehemiah, he spent his own possessions in order to feed 150 Jews and rulers daily, without counting visiting guests.  Thus, he was qualified to exhort, and moreover to require, that this state of things should cease.

Thanks be to God, Nehemiah had the joy of receiving a positive response.  Did his exhortations deeply reach the consciences to those who had sinned?  We cannot say.  In any case, their words seem a little spiritless for people who are contrite and humbled: "We will restore [them], and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou hast said" (v. 12).  But however that may be, they obeyed, and this simple act of obedience produces joy in Israel: "And all the congregation said, Amen!  And they praised Jehovah" (v. 13).

Then Nehemiah turns to God, as he will often do hereafter: "Remember for me, my God, for good, all that I have done for this people!" (v. 19).  His simple heart is sure that God approves him; He can stand before God and men with a good conscience.  He has abandoned all his rights as Tirshatha for the sake of the service of the Lord and His people, and he has no doubt that God is pleased with himself.  But what gives such authority to his exhortations is the fact that he can say in all truth: "[Walk] thus as you have [me] for a model" (Phil. 3: 17).

* * *

Nehemiah 6

Personal attacks

We have noted above that Nehemiah 3 contained an overall description covering the entire period during which the wall was built.  Nehemiah 4 to 6 deal with the difficulties which the people met during this work.  Nehemiah 4 informed us of the effort of enemies to constrain the laborers to leave off their work.  This effort was thwarted through the energy of Nehemiah, who had directed the men of Judah to take up arms, without abandoning their character as laborers.  In Nehemiah 5 we have seen Satan's activity to stir up discontentment and disputes between brothers called to a common work.  The example of Nehemiah, who sacrificed his rights and his interests for the welfare of his brothers, powerfully served to tranquilize their spirits and to restore contentment and peace.  Nehemiah 6, which we will now consider, presents the attack of enemies in a new form.  Nehemiah was the instrument used of God in these difficult circumstances: the adversaries attempt to do away with him.  If their plan should succeed, the entire work would fall along with the servant to whom God had confided it.  This effort, the most dangerous of all, was foiled, as we shall see in the course of our chapter.  Nehemiah demonstrates rare qualities to resist the enemy's attack, but what is outstanding in him is his complete confidence in the Lord and absolute mistrust of himself.  His confidence is conveyed by this expression in verse 9: "Now therefore strengthen my hands!"  For he knows that he has no strength and he seeks the strength which is in God.

The attack directed against the person of Nehemiah presents two successive characteristics which it is well to pay attention to.  As always, the more dangerous attack comes last.  The enemy uses skillful gradation in this business, and it is only at the end that he sends out his best reserve troops against the man he would annihilate.  In verses 1 to 9, the attack comes from without; in verses 10 to 14, it is infinitely more dangerous, because it springs up from within the very precincts of Jerusalem.

(vv. 1-9) — The wall had been rebuilt, but the doors had not yet been set up in the gates.  In only a few days, the city would be protected against a surprise attack.  Before it should be too late, the enemy hastens to take advantage of this imperfection.  First of all, the leader of the people must be done away with.  Sanballat and his allies invite him to a conference "in the villages in the plain of Ono".  Nehemiah answers them with real prudence: "I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.  Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?" (v. 3).  He opposes the importance of the work to the proceeding by means of which they had sought to take him by surprise.  This is like the exhortation: "Be wholly in them", of 1 Tim. 4: 15.

This refusal does not repulse the enemy.  Indeed, it often occurs that we may oppose him with a non-receptive plea at the beginning and then, when we have grown only a little weary, we end by yielding to him.  After four unfruitful efforts, Sanballat makes a fifth attempt, with a most dangerous ruse.  He sends his servant with an open letter in his hand.  Everyone might know what that letter contained, and the enemy did not spare to communicate it, for the accusations and threats which it contained must reach the ears of the people in order to gain auxiliaries for Sanballat.

These accusations and threats pressed five charges.  Firstly, It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says that you and the Jews think to rebel.  Secondly, the construction of the wall has no other purpose than this rebellion.  Thirdly, there is a rumor spreading (how often souls are frightened by these words: "there is a rumor!") that you have ambitious designs.  You want to become their king and you will be accused of desiring to substitute yourself for the sovereign ruler's authority.  In the fourth place, you are attempting to carry out this design (as always, according to rumor) through prophets whom you have established to say: There is a king in Judah!  In the fifth place,  now these things will be reported to the king.

There was enough here to cause even the greatest courage to succumb.  There was suspicion cast upon the character and purpose of the Lord's servant and there was fear of seeing his conduct calumniated before the king who had put his confidence in him!  The conclusion of the letter was an invitation repeated for the fifth time: "Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together".

Nehemiah is not ignorant of the enemy's designs; he knows that the enemy must be resisted so that he will flee; he opposes the truth to the lies destined to frighten him: "And I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thy own heart" (v. 8).  Moreover, as was his custom, he accompanies his acts by prayer to God: "Now therefore strengthen my hands!" (v. 9).  Oh! how good it is to trust in God!  If the enemy comes to us, let us not fear him: at the opportune moment we will be delivered, if we persevere in prayer.

Satan's second effort, even more dangerous than the one just mentioned, arises within Jerusalem itself (vv. 10-14).  Shemaiah, who was perhaps of priestly origin, here assumes the role of prophet, addressing himself as such to Nehemiah: "He pronounced this prophecy against me" (v. 12).  "[He] had shut himself up", when Nehemiah came to his house, simulating fear, when there was nothing to fear.  This man was hired by Tobijah and Sanballat: the love of money had made him become a traitor.  He says: "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple; for they are coming to kill thee; even in the night are they coming to kill thee" (v. 10).  He pressures Nehemiah to one possibility or the other: either to flee, driven by fear, or else to hide himself in the temple, where only the priests had access, in order to escape his would-be assassins.  Now, if he had run away, he would have been accused of having a bad conscience, and if he had hidden himself in the temple, he would have been accused of profaning it by disobeying God's direct commandment.  In either way, Nehemiah would have embarked on a path of sin which would have given him a bad reputation and put him to shame (v. 12).

The answer of this man of God is an example both of dignity and humility.  He asserts his dignity before these men, his enemies: "Should such a man as I flee?"  Had he not engaged the people in the work?  Had he not courageously armed them?   Had he not intervened authoritatively when conflicts erupted between his brothers?  Did they think that he would deny his own character before these lying accusations?  But Nehemiah also speaks a word of humility, which is more important than the first expression: "And who is there, that, being as I am, could go into the temple, and live?" (v. 11).  Who is there, being as I am!  He uses the same phrase as in his first reply in order to humbly place himself in the presence of God.  In the first case, one might accuse him of pride; in the second case, he shows that pride is very far from his heart.  How could he go into the temple which God allowed only the priests to enter?  A king of Judah had dared to do this, thus setting himself, as king, above the priesthood; for this he had been punished by leprosy (2 Chr. 26: 16-21).  Did Nehemiah dream of renewing this profane act?  Did a man like him have some value before God, or some right to violate His commandments?  Through fear, the enemy attempted to provoke him to do so.  This proposition came from the ancient Serpent.  This is how Satan acted from the beginning, luring Adam into disobedience.

Having refused to enter this evil path, Nehemiah goes no further and leaves the matter in God's hands.  It is important to notice this.  This man of God could have stirred the people up against Shemaiah, he could have accused him of being a false prophet, he could have publicly proven that he was a traitor, and he could have revealed the ignominies of Sanballat and Tobijah.  But he did nothing of the kind!  He commits their judgment to God: "My God, remember Tobijah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who would have put me in fear!" (v. 14).  The names of the adversaries who were enemies of the people come first; the name of Shemaiah does not appear at all here.  What a lovely example of a heart which does abandon itself to personal resentments against one who had so seriously wronged him!  And what a lovely example of delicacy toward a brother whom he knew to be corrupted and bribed, to whom he might have said: Get behind me, Satan!  Noadiah appears only here: a true prophetess who had lent her hand to this intrigue with the other prophets.  This woman was inexcusable as were her companions, for iniquity hidden under the cloak of the prophets must be pointed out!

Thus Nehemiah resisted the attacks and ambushes of the adversary.  He had an inflexible object before his eyes and in order to attain it, to faith he added virtue, the moral courage which overcomes difficulties, by rejecting the sin which surrounds us so easily.

In spite of all this opposition, the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, the sixth month of the Jewish year which began with the month of Abib, when the ears of grain ripen: the month of the Passover and the exodus from Egypt.  Due to the intervention of divine power, it had taken only 52 days to carry out this immense work.  This was the proof to all the surrounding nations that "this work was wrought by our God"; and so it is not surprising that when they learned of these things, "[they] were afraid and were much cast down in their own eyes".  But at this point a last danger looms up, instigated by men of consideration among the people.  "In those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobijah, and those of Tobijah came to them.  For there were many in Judah sworn to him."  Why had they submitted to him and why had they accepted his authority?  This is a sad and common occurrence, alas!: this association was to their personal advantage.  As we have said above, Tobijah was the son-in-law to Shechaniah, the son of Arah, one of the most respected men among the people; and Johanan, the son of Tobijah, was himself the son-in-law of Meshullam the son of Berechiah, who was of the priestly race.  These nobles of Judah were double-hearted: they attempted to win over Nehemiah, by speaking to him of Tobijah's "good deeds."  No doubt they said that he was a likable man who had sought an alliance with the people of God.  How many times have we not heard the personal qualities of an adversary vaunted in order to attenuate his hostility and to solicit souls to receive him as an associate!  Now these same intriguing men brought the words of Nehemiah back to Tobijah.  The purpose of this written correspondence was certainly not to win over the enemy, but to frighten the leader of the people (vv. 16-19).

In this way the adversary sent all his reserve troops out to attack a solitary man.  But God was present, and He strengthened the hands of His servant.  As He had previously said to Jeremiah, He could now say to this new witness: "I will make thee unto this people a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, to save this and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah; yea, I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible" (Jer. 15: 20, 21).

* * *

Nehemiah 7

The order of the house, the government of the city

and the genealogical register

The wall was built; the doors and their bars were set up; the enemy was disappointed in all his attempts to foil this project and finally gave up his ventures.  Now, Nehemiah's first concern is the organization of the service of the Lord.  The doorkeepers, the guardians of the house, the singers who led praises, and the Levites to whom is confided the ministry of the word (cf. Nehemiah 8: 7) — for the Levites no longer had the charge of bearing the sacred objects of the tabernacle, as had been the case in the wilderness — all these men are established in their functions.

But it is still necessary to entrust surveillance of all this to leaders who have the right to make themselves heard.  Nehemiah, through the authority which God confided to him, chooses two men for this purpose.  Similarly, we later see Paul choose Timothy and Titus, in virtue of his apostolic authority.  The Church no longer possesses this delegated authority, and it were outright presumption to pretend otherwise; but, in spite of ruin, God does not leave His Church without resources, and His Spirit affords the help needed.  The activity of the Spirit will never fail the Church.

Nehemiah proceeds to make this choice with wisdom which is given him from above.  His brother Hanani had been the first to bring him news of the miserable conditions at Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1: 2).  Therefore it was suitable that he who had borne in his heart the shame of the holy city and who had undertaken the long voyage to Babylon for the purpose of rebuilding the ruins should occupy a place of honor and authority among the people.

The second of these men was Hananiah, the ruler of the citadel; he had served his apprenticeship in the restricted charge which he had occupied in the "city of David" properly speaking.  But he had yet other qualifications in addition to this one: "he was a faithful man and feared God above many" (v. 2).  The service of God can be confided only to faithful men.  If they are not faithful, how can they qualified as leaders?  Thus Paul, like Nehemiah, surrounded himself with servants of Christ, who had been proven and found faithful (1 Cor. 4: 17; Eph. 6: 21; Col. 4; 7, 9; 1 Tim. 1: 12.  See also 1 Peter 5: 12; Rev. 2: 13).  Even today, without the apostolic institution, leaders must have this characteristic.  Local churches, taken as a whole, are very rarely called faithful, even in the days of the apostles.  In fact, this term is applied to them only twice: in Ephesians 1: 1 and in Colossians 1: 2.  Would to God that the case were otherwise, there where the unity of the body of Christ is realized by the gathering together of the children of God, but how rare this is at any time!  Of course it is impossible where there is the pretension to form "churches" through the alliance of Christians with the world.  In any case, in the Word we do not find overall faithfulness except when the heavenly position in Christ is known and realized, as in the assembly at Ephesus; or when, as at Colossus, the worth of the person of Christ, the Head of His body, is appreciated, despite the efforts of the enemy cause the loss of the enjoyment of this.

Moreover, it is said of Hananiah that he "feared God above many".  The fear of God is always accompanied by humility: no one can attribute importance to himself when he stands in God's presence, and this is one of the real sources of the authority of leaders.  Someone who thinks that he is something is not living in the fear of God, and his ministry will not be profitable to the saints.  Sooner or later, God will be obliged to humble him, if He would employ him, so as to render that person useful.

Let us take notice of what the functions of these two men consisted of.  They were responsible to scrupulously survey the gates (v. 3).  Nothing was to enter the holy city without being carefully controlled.  Nehemiah was so fearful of foreign elements being introduced into the city under the cover of night, or even dusk, that he ordered that the sun must be already well risen before opening the gates.  In this way, no one could slip into Jerusalem unperceived.  Likewise today, except for the fact that we have to do with spiritual enemies, we must watch that doctrines which are subversive to Christianity do not creep into the city of God.  These are not necessarily heresies.  We often must confront doctrines which are true in a certain measure, but which are displaced in relation to other truths and which, being falsified by this displacement, are all the more dangerous.  At all times, leaders worthy of this name must watch that such elements do not take up residence among the children of God during the night or twilight.

The two leaders charged with the government of Jerusalem were responsible to personally watch over the closing of the gates.  They were not to delegate this concern to others, because any negligence in this service would have been fatal, and they needed to be perpetually on guard.

But, on their side, the inhabitants of Jerusalem also had their responsibilities: "There should be appointed watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every one in his watch, and every one over against his house".  Today, watchfulness against evil is also the responsibility of everyone, without distinction.  Everyone must stand "over against his house".  If we allow the enemy to enter our houses, he will ruin the people of God just as effectively as if he should succeed in entering through the gates.  We must be vigilant against every form of evil, whether it be evil doctrines or worldliness.  Worldliness is even more contagious than evil doctrines, and is so appealing to the tendencies of our natural hearts, that we can not be sufficiently on our guard to repulse it.

Yet another difficulty arises.  The city, which was surrounded by walls, was spacious and large, but the people in its midst were few in number, and "no houses were built"; not that there were no houses, for all the existing houses had not been destroyed, and at the time of the people's return under the leadership of Zerubbabel, many families were able to recover their former dwelling places and had even occupied themselves to decorate and panel them (Hag. 1: 4), when the work on the house of God had been interrupted.  Thus, we have seen many of them reconstruct the wall in front of their house.  Our passage means only that the houses which had been torn down had not been rebuilt; no doubt there existed great spaces which were entirely empty in Jerusalem.  Daniel alludes to this work which began in the days of Nehemiah.  He distinguishes the first seven weeks (of years) of the sixty-nine weeks elapsed before the Messiah's coming and he adds that during these forty-nine years "the street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times" (Dan. 9: 25).  The street is the place where the activity of the city is concentrated, the meeting place which is the first to be furnished with houses; the moat is a supplementary defense destined to protect the city.  It seems to me, that "the street" in Daniel refers to the open place which was situated in front of the water-gate (Neh. 8: 1) in the city of David, in Ophel, and which was not included in the enclosure during the reconstruction of the wall.   The word of God does not take us historically to the troublous times spoken of by the prophet Daniel — a period concerning which even the testimony of history is not very explicit.

From verses 5 to 73, we find the repetition of the genealogies contained in Ezra 2.  Rationalists have not failed to attack this passage.  Eighteen of the figures indicated in Ezra offer variations here: sometimes being a lower figure, but ordinarily being a higher figure.  The people, priests, servants of the sanctuary, etc. number 29,818 in Ezra, with a total of 42,360 persons, including those not enrolled.  Among this same total of 42,360 persons, Nehemiah indicates 31,089 enrolled persons.  Leaving aside the conjecture of errors made by copyists, a conjecture as easy to be made as it is unlikely, we observe firstly, that the enumeration of the leaders of the people contains a name, Nahamani (v. 7), in Nehemiah which is not mentioned in Ezra 2.  Secondly, we see that the genealogical registers drawn up by Zorobabel were brought up to date during a longer or shorter period of time (see Nehemiah 12: 23).  Thirdly, a rather remarkable fact is that, if we add to the genealogy of Ezra the 1396 persons who came to dwell at Jerusalem in Nehemiah (Neh. 11), we obtain the number of 25, 540 for the people: a number which corresponds almost exactly to the number of 25, 406 in Nehemiah 7.

We could add other details, but whatever assumptions we may make, we learn here, as always, to mistrust our own reason, even when material details of the word of God are concerned, and to wait on Him to explain them, if He judges it well to give us necessary enlightening at the appropriate moment.  No reader who is submitted to the Word has failed to happily experience this time and again.

* * *

Nehemiah 8-10

RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE

Nehemiah 8

The book of the law and the Feast of Tabernacles

Nehemiah 8 to 10 concern the religious condition of the people and form a sort of parenthesis, with Nehemiah 11 directly relating back to Nehemiah 7.

Relative order had been established, the wall had been completed, and men from among the people dwelt each in his own city.  And now we see them gather together "as one man" (in Ezra 3 they had previously done this when the altar was set up) to the open place that was before the water-gate, in the immediate vicinity of the temple, with no other desire than to hear the word of God.  This though had arisen in their own hearts, and had not been suggested to them by others: "They spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Jehovah had commanded Israel" (v. 1).  Now, this occurred in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, corresponding to the feast of the new moon, otherwise called the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23: 23-25; Num. 10: 3-10: Ps. 81: 3), a figure of the renewal of Israel's light, which had disappeared for a time.  In Ezra 3, at the time of this same feast, the altar (worship) had been re-established; and now, on this same date, the entire people realize the need to receive instruction from the Scriptures.  These two things, worship and interest in the Word, will always characterize an enduring revival according to God, I am sure.  The need to be established on the books of Moses fills all these chapters of Nehemiah (see Neh. 8: 1, 14, 18; Neh. 9: 3; Neh. 10: 34; Neh. 13: 1).  As soon as the Word is in question, we see Ezra reappear, for his gift and his mission were to teach and thus to contribute to the religious development of the people.  Although Nehemiah was clothed with the high dignity of his position as Thirshatha, he immediately gives place to Ezra.  How good it is to see gifts exercised in mutual communion, without any jealousy, and without some attempting to infringe on the domain of others!  Nehemiah exercises government on behalf of God; Ezra, on his side, teaches and applies the law of Moses.

The whole congregation gathers together to hear the reading of the law: both men and women, and even those with intelligence, that is to say, children capable of understanding what was read.  Thus God made provision, in a touching way, so that even young children might profit from His Word.

As Josiah had done previously (2 Kings 23: 3), Ezra stood on an elevated platform, with the elders, or chief fathers at his right and at his left.  With a solemn gesture he opens the book in the sight of all the people and above their heads, thus giving the law the place of authority which belonged to it.  Then he blesses Jehovah, the great God.  Certainly, it was in this book that God had revealed Himself and laid claim to obedience.  All the people add their amen to Ezra's prayer;  they lift up their hands, bowing their heads and worshipping.

The Levites, who were no longer responsible to carry the sacred vessels (1 Chr. 23: 26), fill the functions of servants of the Word by causing the people to understand the law, and we see with what care they do this (v. 8).  They read distinctly; this is not without importance.  How many times do we not see the Lord's laborers read the Word with a low voice or too quickly, or nonchalantly: and then hasten to speak of themselves, as though it were not more important to hear the word of God than their own word.  Here, on the contrary, in the first place it is a matter of bringing the people into direct relation with the law, then of giving its meaning, and lastly of causing the people to understand it (v. 8).  Here the Levites play the role of school teachers, and this is all the more striking because children take part in this instruction, a feature which should never be forgotten.  A good teacher does not rest until all his students have understood what he wants to explain to them.

The day when Ezra made this gesture and the consequence which followed from it, may rightly be called, as someone has said, "the day of the open Bible".  The Bible addressed both the conscience and the heart of the people, and it is touching to see the result.  All the people are afflicted and weep when they hear the words of the law, but Ezra tells them: "this day is holy to Jehovah your God: mourn not nor weep!"  And again: "Be not grieved, for the joy of Jehovah is your strength" (vv. 9, 10).

May we never forget this wonderful expression!  Humiliation, however precious and necessary it may be, does not give us strength.  When we must face difficulties, we find this strength by occupying ourselves with the Lord, revealed in His Word.  This meditation is a source of unspeakable joy for our souls, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.  Wasn't this what the apostle, although afflicted and besieged with troubles, recommended to the Philippians, as the fruit of his own experience?  "Rejoice in [the] Lord always!" (Phil. 4: 4).

In another passage (Isa. 30: 15), we find a second truth: "In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength".  How often have we not experienced this?  Leaving the enemy to agitate himself and redouble his attacks, the Christian rests in the full consciousness that all the activity of man will only weaken the work of God, and with complete assurance that God can act without him.

In Nehemiah, the people obey the word addressed to them; they cease to mourn and weep, and they make great rejoicing: They had understood!  May this be our portion as well!

As in Ezra 3 (we have noted the reason for this in the study of this book), Nehemiah omits the mention of the great day of atonement, which took place on the tenth day of the seventh month.  But the chief fathers, the Levites and the priests had gathered together to Ezra on the second day of the month "to gain wisdom as to the words of the law" (v. 13).  They who had just been involved in teaching the people, gathered together to be taught of God themselves.  This should always be the case for the Lord's laborers; it is not enough for them to instruct others.  They themselves are weak and know only in part;  therefore they need to find new illumination in the Word for their personal use, in order to "gain wisdom".  This is what we see happen here; they learn, by seeking instruction in the Scriptures, something which they had not known before: "They found written in the law which Jehovah had commanded through Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month, and that they should publish and proclaim through all their cities, and at Jerusalem, saying, Go forth to the mount, and fetch olive-branches, and wild olive-branches, and myrtle-branches, and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written." (vv. 14, 15; cf. Lev. 23: 33-44).

Once they have learned these things, they communicate them to the people who hasten to do them.  Now everyone knows how the feast of tabernacles ought to be celebrated.  The roofs, the courts of the houses, the temple courts, the open space of the water-gate and the open space of the gate of Ephraim which was outside the city walls, are covered with tabernacles (v. 16).  This feast had not been celebrated in this way since the days of Joshua, when the people had entered Canaan (v. 17).  The feast itself had been celebrated in Ezra 3, but not according to the details of the ordinance.  Thus it signified only that the land had been once again opened up to the people, following the time when the captivity had closed access to it.  In the book of Nehemiah, this feast is celebrated according to the prescriptions of the law, and this fact is the happy consequence of everyone's ardent zeal to receive instruction from the Word.

It might seem extraordinary that a passage so clear and so explicit had up to that moment escaped the priests and Levites, but this is a phenomenon which occurs at all times in the history of the people of God.  Truths which are even more important, as, for example, the coming of the Lord, have been hidden for eighteen centuries, although the New Testament is full of them.  This is because the activity of the Spirit of God is necessary in order to discover these things, and the most extraordinary human intelligence is incapable of discerning them.

In Nehemiah and in Ezra we find the feast of tabernacles as an anticipation of the national resurrection to come.  This same feast was also sketched out, as it were,  with the branches and palms when Jesus entered Jerusalem, in Matthew 21: 8; Mark 11: 8 and John  12: 12, when the crowds acknowledged Him as the son of David and as king of Israel.  In Luke 19, we find neither palms nor branches: no doubt the disciples bless the king who is come in the name of the Lord, but they say " Peace in heaven", and not: "On earth peace" (cf. Luke 2: 14), and in Luke we see Jesus weep over Jerusalem (v. 41).  The true feast of tabernacles, the final feast, will not be celebrated until a time yet future, according to Zechariah 14: 16, but at that time this feast will be preceded by the great day of atonement (Zech. 12: 10-14), which we do not find in Ezra or in Nehemiah or in the gospels.

In a sense, we, who are Christians, can celebrate the feast of tabernacles as being the anticipated joy of glory, a "very great gladness" (v. 17), or, as the apostle Peter says: "joy unspeakable and filled with [the] glory" (1 Peter 1: 8).

From the first to the last day of the feast (v. 18), the word of the Lord was read to the people; only the word was able to sustain the joy in everyone's heart.

* * *

Nehemiah 9

Humiliation, Separation, and Confession

The last feast in the series of Jewish feasts was the feast of tabernacles (Lev. 23).  Now, the chapter before us has nothing to do with the Levitical ordinances.  It was not until the twenty-fourth day — that is to say after the great day of the feast of tabernacles which finished on the twenty-third day — that the children of Israel gathered together in affliction and humiliation (v. 1).  Nor did this act have anything to do with the great day of atonement which was to take place on the tenth day of the month, and which Ezra and Nehemiah omitted with reason, as we have seen.

This Nehemiah 9 is a sort of complement to Ezra 10, where the people were separated from alliances contracted by marriage with the nations: alliances which made the family of Israel jointly liable with the enemies of the Lord and of His people.  But the purification effected under Ezra was not enough.  The people were held responsible to judge a more subtle evil, and if this evil were not confessed, those who had returned from captivity would necessarily fall back into the profane alliances which they had just abandoned.  We wish to speak of the mixing that they had favored by allowing the nations to participate in the life of the people.  In order to be truly freed from this mixing with the world, more was needed than separation from this or that scandalous sin, such as the profane alliances of the past; there needed to be real judgment of the condition of heart which had lead up to it, and it is this judgment which we witness in Nehemiah 9.

These events are deeply instructive for us, who are Christians.  We must judge, not only this or that fault which we have committed, but also the worldliness which we have harbored amongst ourselves and which is the cause of our faults.  We need real separation from the world, for this alone will preserve us from the blatant sins which are the sad consequence of this mixing.

Humiliation and confession were necessary so that the people might effectuate this separation.  In our day, how seldom do we find these things in either individuals or assemblies which have committed faults!  When we are called upon to judge an evident evil, we will consent rather easily to humiliate ourselves collectively, as long as this act does not oblige each of us individually to confess our sins and the wrongs we have committed.  We will accept any comprise rather than that.  Oh! how true it is that the people of God are a stiff-necked people, who refuse to bow the neck and abase themselves in God's presence!

In this chapter, this is not the case: the people truly humble themselves, and they all fast, in sackcloth and with earth on their heads (v. 1).  There is mourning, grief, and repentance.  But their humiliation is seen not only in these outward signs: it is expressed by their acts: They "separated themselves from all foreigners" (v. 2).

Where did they find the strength to do this?  At the same source to which they had previously had recourse.  During the feast of tabernacles, the people came to realize that "the joy of Jehovah [was their] strength".  With the strength which they had thus acquired, they could humble themselves, separate themselves from evil without any procrastinating, and confess their state.  True humiliation and true confession do not admit delay; action accompanies words.  "And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers." (v. 2).

We find yet another powerful agent of blessing in verse 3: "And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Jehovah their God a fourth part of the day; and a fourth part they confessed, and worshipped Jehovah their God." (v. 3).  No confession can be complete without the Word, for it is only through the Word that we learn to know what God is, what is incompatible with His character, and what we ourselves have been.  Moreover we see that the confession of the people was in direct proportion to what the Word revealed to them: One fourth of the day was devoted to the reading of the law and one fourth of the day was devoted to confession.  They had come to know the source of their strength in the book of the law (Nehemiah 8: 3, 12) and in this same book they now learn to judge their condition so that they might unreservedly confessing it.

The Levites play a valuable role in all this.  They had taught the people (Nehemiah 8: 8), then, after they had faithfully fulfilled their service, they gained intelligence as to the details of the law (Nehemiah 8: 13),  thus entering into a more exact understanding of things already revealed; here we see them stand up on a platform and "[cry] with a loud voice to Jehovah their God" (v. 4).  Their faithfulness and their fellowship with God qualify them to become the mouth of the assembly publicly when it is a matter of acknowledging their sin.

This confession, which fills Nehemiah 9: 5 to 38, as quite remarkable.  The Levites begin by blessing.  It is not possible to be truly in the presence of God, as belonging to Him, without recognizing the patient, merciful character of the God whom we have dishonored.  "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared" (Ps. 130: 4).  This was also David's sentiment when he said: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned" (Ps. 51: 4).

The blessings addressed to God consist in this:  In verses 5 to 7, the people bless God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, who is the Same, Jehovah.  In verses 7 and 8, they acknowledge Him as the God of the promises who called and chose Abraham.  In verses 9 to 11, he celebrates him as God, the Redeemer and Victor over the enemy: the One who saved His people from Egypt.

In verses 12 to 15, they mention their responsibility.  God had given them  the law, which they were responsible to obey, after He had lead them by His grace to the foot of mount Sinai; but, even after Sinai, He had lavished His resources (v. 15) on them to feed them and give them drink in the wilderness, and had solicited them to take possession of Canaan.

In verses 16 to 21, they recognize the way in which they had answered to all these graces: "But they, our fathers, dealt proudly, and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of thy wonders which thou hadst done among them."  Further: they had abandoned God, their guide, in order to choose a leader who would bring them back to Egypt.  Lastly, they had crowned they disdain for the Lord with the golden calf, and had "wrought great provocation" against God.  Then they were condemned to forty years in the wilderness; and in spite of that, God had shown Himself to be a God of mercy toward them, in the measure in which His holy law allowed Him to manifest this character (v. 17).  Their rebellion had put a stop to all the ways of grace of God toward them, and nevertheless (v. 21) the Lord had watched over them.

(vv. 22-27) — At last they took possession of the promised land through pure grace, as we see in the last chapters of Numbers, and, through the great mercy of God, they "delighted themselves" (v. 25).  Nevertheless, hardly had they entered the land,  but they rebelled, and inspite of all the previous judgments, they once again "wrought great provocations" against the Lord (v. 26).  Then He delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, and notwithstanding that, He still partially delivered them through the judges.

(vv. 28-31) — Rebellions were renewed under the kingdom form of government.  The prophets warned them without any result produced; and nevertheless God "[did] not make a full end of them" (v. 31).

Lastly, (vv. 32-38), they recognize the perfection of all the ways of God toward them and toward all the people, from the greatest to the least: "Thou art just in all that has come upon us; for thou hast acted according to truth, and we have done wickedly".  They do not attempt to justify themselves or to escape the consequences of their sins: "Behold, we are servants this day, and the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are bondmen in it.  And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: and they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure; and we are in great distress." (vv. 36, 37).

Such is the nature of this confession: simple, thorough, true, without excuse and without evasion.  This confession acknowledges the faults of one and all starting from the beginning, it approves the judgment which is the consequence of these faults, but it also proclaims the inexhaustible grace and mercy of God, who had lead them hitherto.

Let us add a remark which is important at all times for the people of God, when they have sinned.  Three things are needed: humiliation, separation from evil, and confession; and they are needed in the order indicated to us at the beginning of this chapter.  Humiliation without separation and without confession is an act which has no value.  Separation without humiliation and without confession is an act of spiritual pride, and denotes nothing other than a sectarian spirit.  Unrestricted public confession necessarily includes these two other elements; and that is why it is often the thing to which our proud and desperately wicked hearts have the most difficulty in consenting to.  If confession does not take place, then separation lacks reality, and will be followed within a short time by backsliding, whether it is a case of individuals or of assemblies.  Therefore may we take this poor, humiliated people, who "cried with a loud voice" (Nehemiah 4: 4) to Jehovah their God, as an example!

In verse 38, we see the people, as a people under the law, renew the covenant: "And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, [and] our priests are at the sealing."  We know that, as a people in the flesh, under the law, they were unable to maintain it.  Nevertheless, we may also learn a serious lesson for ourselves from this renewal of the covenant.  After confessing our sin, our walk must recommence on a new basis: separation, which is much more real and effective, from the world which has drawn us into evil, and in the midst of which we must henceforth walk as strangers who seek another country.

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Nehemiah 10

Renewal of the Covenant

After confession, we find, as we have just seen, the renewal of the covenant, as had taken place previously under king Josiah (2 Kings 23: 3).  This covenant was based on the law: that is why it was violated as rapidly as the covenant of Sinai, and as any other covenant made in the same conditions.  But these covenants are an occasion for man to experience in depth what the flesh is, and this is why the law, as an obligation, is necessary.

Naturally we cannot apply this chapter to ourselves in the same way, since our relations with God are those of grace; but here we can see the renewal of relations of fellowship with God, when our unfaithfulness has caused an eclipse to fall on them.  Here we find a very important fact: that is, when confession of faults has been real and thorough, we not only recover communion with God, but also communion with one another.

The leaders of the people, the governor, the priests, the Levites, and the chief fathers set their seal to the covenant: 84 persons in all who represent over 40,000.  But then we read: "And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the doorkeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all they that had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons and their daughters, every one having knowledge [and] having understanding, joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in the law of God, which had been given by Moses the servant of God, and to keep and to do all the commandments of Jehovah our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes" (vv. 28, 29).  Here we find the consequence of true humiliation, true separation and true confession.  There is no divergence, but, rather, one sentiment;  all, young and old, sons and daughters, women and children, priests, singers, Levites, Nethinim "joined with their brethren", accepting what their leaders, these 84 men, had done; there was no opposition from any side; among this numerous people, we do not see one pulling to the right and another pulling to the left; nor do we see a special circle making an independent decision to the exclusion of others.  The women and young girls have their place in this universal consent.  Isn't this very instructive?  God allows divergence and dissension among the children of God when confession of faults is lacking or incomplete, whether it be found in individuals or in assemblies.  From the moment that this confession is real and complete, no one having the thought to justify himself or excuse himself, communion with one another is restored.

The covenant includes three points: firstly, the refusal of profane marriages, as in Ezra 10 (v. 30).  Secondly, complete sanctification of the Sabbath, which was the sign of the covenant, and the celebration of which had the character of absolute separation from the nations (v. 31).  Thirdly, the sabbatical year which, perhaps, had never been strictly kept from the time of the giving of the law.  - Through these prescriptions we see how all were familiar with the positive teachings of Scripture; but they do not stop there.  In verses 32 to 34, they themselves impose commandments, which give proof of real intelligence of the mind of God.  They did not have formal texts to act on, but it was "written in the law" that sacrifices were to be offered; and that was enough to inspire each one to impose the expense for this upon himself according to his means.  And so it was for the wood to be brought to the house of God.  No where did the law command to furnish it, but they were sure of answering to the mind of God by participating in this task, without which sacrifices could not be offered.

Concerning the first-fruits and tithes, they needed only to conform themselves to what was explicitly "written in the law".  In all this they acted with one accord: everything appears to be simple and easy when communion exists between brothers, and moreover, when their only motive for action is the service of the house of God (v. 39).

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Nehemiah 11

JERUSALEM RE-POPULATED

We have already remarked that this chapter is directly related to Nehemiah 7.  The altar, the foundations, the temple, and the wall had been rebuilt, but "the city was large and great; but the people in it were few, and no houses were built." (Neh. 7: 4)  The question which is now raised is this:  Had the city been rebuilt only to remain deserted and void of inhabitants?  What was the use of defending it if no one gathered together there?  Now God had prepared His people for this gathering, firstly through His Word (Nehemiah 8), and then by separating His people from the Gentiles (Nehemiah 9).  Now the faithful understand that they must realize this gathering together, and not merely proclaim it as a principle.  Jerusalem must be re-populated, even if it be by only one Jew out of ten (v. 1).  This assembling in the holy city required much self-forgetfulness and devotion.  The pious Israelite must abandon the very heritage which he valued above all else; he must leave those close to him, his vine and his fig tree; he must voluntarily exile himself from the things he had every reason to hold to, since God had given them to him, — and he must do so with no other purpose than to re-populate Jerusalem;  but he was encouraged by the very high motive for this self denial.  He had understood that Zion was "the holy city" (v. 1, 18),  the city of God's free choice, the city which He loved more than any of the dwellings of Jacob, and this motive was enough to cause the godly Israelite to cherish it more than his own dwelling place.

Nevertheless Jerusalem was diminished, cast down, lacking in constructed houses, and its own state witnessed that it was not what God desired her to be (see Ps. 27: 13; Ps. 87: 5-7; Isa. 33: 20; 60).  But in these times of ruin, even before the wall was reconstructed, Zechariah had prophesied about the city: "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein" (Zech 2: 4).  Jerusalem, in the midst of her present ruin, could have no attraction for the people of God unless she was considered with the eyes of faith, from the view point of her future glory.  In order to go to Jerusalem, leaving all else, a decision was required which faith alone could give and which hope alone could sustain.  This could be nothing other than an act of love and of voluntary devotion for the city of the great King; an abnegation which was not the portion of everyone and which God did not require of them.  Nevertheless, the people, morally restored, as we have seen, were in full communion with those who took up this responsibility: "The people blessed all the men that willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem" (v. 2).  Such sentiments had God's approval.

Do not these events speak to us of the responsibility and mission of the redeemed in the present day?  Like the Jerusalem of Nehemiah, the Church today is in ruins.  Nevertheless, the principles upon which she is built, the altar: — the cross of Christ; the foundation: — a resurrected Christ; the temple: — Christ's habitation in the midst of His own; the wall: — the holiness  which suits such a dwelling: all this has been brought to light once again through the Word.  Now it is a matter for believers of leaving their own dwellings for the purpose of coming to occupy this desolated city, with a heart which is full of affection for her and which shares the sentiments of God's heart for her.  Faith alone can produce this devotion.

Can we say today that the people of God bless those who voluntarily offer themselves for this task?  Is it not rather true that they oppose them and despise them?  But they must be content to have the Lord's approval.  They are registered in the same way as those who returned with Zorobabel at the beginning (vv. 3-19); and we have some reason to suppose that their names were added to those of the first list.  Remark again that inspite of the devastation of Jerusalem, everyone who came to inhabit it finds a place there to occupy.  Here we have those who "did the work of the house" (v. 12), those who were "over the outward work of the house of God" (v. 16), those who sing thanksgiving in prayer (v. 17), those who keep watch at the gates (v. 19), and the singers (v. 22).  In a word, each one of them fulfills his functions as though everything were in order and, on His side, God takes account of this.  All this takes place, without doubt, in a time of wretchedness and ruin, but is it a small thing in God's eyes that they should recognize the order He had instituted, and that they should realize this order, despite the ruin, in view of a time of perfection yet future?  This poor remnant of Jerusalem has the noble and valuable mission of linking the time of the passed glory of Solomon with the time of the Messiah's coming glory, and this they do during days of humiliation and shame!

Verses 25 to 36 enumerate the cities of Judah and Benjamin inhabited by those who returned from Babylon.  There again the order is not perfect; Judah even goes out a little distance from their limits at Beer-sheba.  But these defects are accompanied by a real desire on the part of each one to occupy the place assigned to him by God.  Thus, the Nethinim inhabit Ophel, in part of the city of David which was situated without the new wall, but close by the temple which they reached by way of the water-gate.

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Nehemiah 12

THE DEDICATION OF THE WALL

This chapter begins by recapitulating the names of the priests and Levites who returned to the land with Zorobabel.  In verses 10 and 11 we find the enumeration of the high priests, beginning with Jeshua of the book of Ezra.  Joiakim, his son, had succeeded him.  Eliashib, the son of Joiakim, who had served as a priest during the days of Nehemiah, is the last high priest whom the Old Testament shows exercising his functions.  Nehemiah 13 will go on to depict this man in colors that make him an object of disapproval.  Joiada succeeds Eliashib, his father, who according to Nehemiah 13: 6 and 7, was still priest after the year 443 B.C.; no details are given us about him.  Jonathan or Johanan (vv. 11, 23), the son of Joiada and grandson of Eliashib, is called, in verse 23, as also in Ezra 10: 6, Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, according to the custom of the Jews which occurs so frequently.  He lived without exercising the office of priesthood, when Ezra came to Jerusalem.  Jaddua is the last priest named in the Old Testament.  He exercised his functions under the reign of Darius, the Persian (336-330 B. C.), and, if we depend upon history, he was still high priest at the time of Alexander the Great's invasion of Palestine.  As is frequently the case in the historical and prophetical books, this passage, inspired like all others, was added later to the book of Nehemiah, in order to complete the information given by the sacred writer.

In verses 27 to 43, we find the dedication of the wall.  Similar feasts took place at various periods during Israel's history: Firstly, when David brought back the ark from the house of Obed-Edom (2 Sam. 6: 12).  Secondly, at the time of the dedication  of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 8: 12-66).  Thirdly, when the foundations of the temple were laid (Ezra 3: 10-13).  In the fourth place, at the time of the dedication of the house (Ezra 6: 16-18); and finally, in the fifth place, in our passage.  These feasts which, with one exception, express only pure joy, were spontaneous and were not part of the ordinances of the law.  The joy manifested in them was always related to the house of God.  We may draw the consoling conclusion that sensibility to decline must not in any way weaken our joy, for the blessings which the Lord lavishes on His Assembly today have as much value as in the more prosperous times of the Church's history.  "Rejoice in [the] Lord always", we are told, and that in days when ruin was increasingly accentuated.

At the time of the dedication of the wall, the Levites whose character, in these books, sometimes bordered on indifference, seem once again to display little eagerness to hasten to the celebration: "They sought the Levites out of all their places" (v. 27).  The singers gather together spontaneously for this great feast.  No doubt in expectation of their service in the house of God, they had "built themselves hamlets round about Jerusalem" (v. 29).

Before the feast, it was necessary for the priests and Levites to purify themselves, a feature which was very characteristic of the dispensation of law, in contrast to the dispensation of grace (Heb. 7: 27); without this, they could not purify the people, the gates and the wall.  The feast itself and the procession lea up to the house of God.  The sanctification of Jerusalem and of the people had no other purpose than to glorify Him who had chosen to dwell there.

(Vv. 31-37) — Nehemiah sets the two choirs on the wall at the dung-gate.*  From that starting point, the first choir, proceeding along the wall eastward, reached the water-gate which enclosed the precincts of the temple to the south, by means of the "stairs of the city of David".  In this part of the procession which was the most important, Nehemiah gives the first place to "Ezra the scribe" (v. 36).  Ezra walked at the front of the procession; it is very touching to see, in this book, Nehemiah efface himself and make himself nothing in the presence of spiritual authority superior to his own.  By distinguishing Ezra, in effect Nehemiah gives to the word of God all its rightful place, which Ezra represented.  As for himself, the Tirshatha, (who certainly had the right to take the first place in the second choir), — he takes the last place: "And the second choir went in the opposite direction upon the wall, and I after them" (v. 38).  This choir stopped at the "prison-gate", north of the temple.  The two processions met again at last in the courts of the house of God (v. 40), to offer up sacrifices and celebrate His name.  "And [they] rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and also the women and children rejoiced; and the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off" (v. 43).  All this fell far short, no doubt, of the glory of the days of David and Solomon, but their joy was just as great, for it was the joy of a holy people, consecrated to the Lord, approved by Him, and who had the word of God to direct them.

In verses 44 to 47, we see the effects of the consecration of the people of God, despite the humiliation in which they were found.  Many things were lacking: "For of old,  in the days of David and Asaph, there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God" (v. 46).  Nevertheless, order was not lacking, firstly because the people had recourse to what had been established at the beginning by David and Solomon (v. 45); and then, because the zeal which always accompanies great joy, helped to supply what was missing (vv. 44, 47).  Here we see, although it be only for a moment, a consequence of their common joy, the practical realization of first love.

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Nehemiah 13

INDIVIDUAL ENERGY OF FAITH

As we have seen, in various circumstances the people had shown their interest and respect for the word of God; the beginning of our chapter once again presents them paying close attention to the reading of the book of Moses.  On that day, they realized that they had neglected a requirement in this book, for "there was found written in it that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever; because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, and had hired Balaam against them, to curse them; but our God turned the curse into blessing.  And it came to pass, when they heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude" (vv. 1-3).

It is not surprising that the people did not think of separation from Ammon and Moab at the beginning.  These two nations were brothers of Israel according to the flesh, and inspite of their detestable origin, were descended from "righteous Lot", considered as Abraham's brother, and, in a sense, as closely related to Israel as profane Esau.

The children of the captivity had already separated themselves from all foreigners (Nehemiah 9: 2) and the peoples of the lands (Nehemiah 10: 28), but until that day they had not taken account of this mixed multitude, whose presence was familiar to them.  But now they realized that the word of God named them specifically, and they had not paid attention to this!  Indeed, Deuteronomy 23: 3-6 said: "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not come into the congregation of Jehovah; even their tenth generation shall not come into the congregation of Jehovah for ever; because they met you not with bread and with water on the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor, of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.  But Jehovah thy God would not listen to Balaam; and Jehovah thy God turned the curse into blessing unto thee, because Jehovah thy God loved thee.  Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever".

These events had taken place approximately one thousand years previously, and it is very important to remark that the time elapsed in the meanwhile in absolutely no way diminished the guilt of Ammon and Moab.  God's sentence against them remained standing, because God does not change, and because a thousand years are as one day to Him.  We often think that, as in human affairs, that a sin committed in the past against Christ and against the people of God, is simply dismissed.  Why recall these things we ask?  They happened so long ago, that no one remembers them.  Therefore, can we still take account of them?  Such reasoning always finds approval from what is pleasing in our sinful nature.  The idea of wiping over the evil with a damp sponge seems very recommendable to us at first view; but we forget that the question must be considered from God's point of view.  What does He think of the injury made against Himself and His people?  The fact is that, from the beginning, He had pronounced a final sentence against "the mixed multitude" and, in this case, Israel was not to consider what seemed suitable to them, but rather what God thought of the dishonor inflicted against His Name.  Time had not changed the sin of Moab and Ammon, nor the obligation to separate from them.  As for the foreigners and the people of the land, and all who inhabited Canaan at the time of conquest, Deuteronomy had ordered, not only to destroy them entirely, to make no alliance with them, to show them no grace, but beyond that to refrain from joining them through the ties of marriage, lest they lead the people into idolatry (Deut. 7: 1-4).  Now such was not the case here concerning Ammon and Moab, and as for profane marriages, the people had already condemned them in Ezra 10 and had purified themselves from them.  It was rather a case of not considering these two peoples as forming part of the congregation of the Lord.

Therefore as soon as the people heard these words concerning Ammon and Moab, they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.  But before that, Eliashib, the high priest, had himself given an example of unfaithfulness, and his privileged position, as well as his authority, made this departure from the law all the more dangerous.  Eliashib was allied to Tobijah, the Ammonite.  Tobijah was held in great favor by the nobles of Judah who had sworn an oath to him.  As we have seen more than once, he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Johanan was himself the son-in-law of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, a man of the priestly race (Nehemiah 6: 18), perhaps the same who, in Ezra 10: 15, had opposed sending away the foreign wives.  Moreover we see, in verse 28, that a grandson of Eliashib was the son-in-law of Sanballat, the Horonite, a Moabite.  Thus, on both sides the spiritual leader of the people had violated the commandment of Moses, whether by political alliance with Ammon (for we are not told that he was allied to Tobijah by marriage), or whether by matrimonial alliance with Moab.

The alliance with Tobijah had prompted Eliashib to give him not only a place in the congregation of Israel, but also a dwelling place in the house of God!  He had prepared the chamber where the tithes were kept for him: "where formerly they laid the oblations, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine and the oil, which was commanded for the Levites and the singers and the doorkeepers, and the heave-offerings of the priests" (v. 5).

Even though at first he may have acted through ignorance, like the people, (something which was already inexcusable for a high priest), Eliashib had not, however, followed the example of the congregation which, on hearing the law, had immediately separated the mixed multitude from Israel.  What shame for the spiritual leader of the people!  He alone had placed himself above the law of God, above the written Word, by continuing to give an example in this scandal, and the people had tolerated it!

Nehemiah's return was required in order to put an end to this sacrilegious abuse.  While these things were going on, he was with the king at Shushan, because his leave of absence had expired (v. 6; cf. Nehemiah 2: 6).  But when he returned, a situation like this could not escape him.  Although everyone else tolerated it, Nehemiah could not.  This man of God admitted no excuse for evil; he did not consider the position of the one who had committed it and did not spare him;  he immediately purified the house of God, the chambers defiled by the presence of this Ammonite, and restored them to their original purpose, after having thrown out all of Tobijah's household stuff.

But what consequences the sin of Eliashib, a single prominent man, had brought to all that was connected with the sanctuary!  The tithes had been neglected since there was no more place to store them, and since the Levites and the singers therefore lacked the things necessary for their subsistence, each one had fled to his own field.  Because the Levites were lacking, the service of the house of God had suffered from this, and this single sin had brought on incalculable consequences for what was the very center of the religious life of the people.

In regard to this disorder, Nehemiah did not hesitate any more than he had for Tobijah's chamber.  The house of God had been abandoned; there must be no delay.  One initial energetic act of should call for another.  Nehemiah gathers together the rulers and makes them stay at their posts (v. 11).  He confides the division of the tithes to men among the priests, the scribes and the Levites, that is to say, among those whose functions put them into immediate relationship with the house of God, and alongside them men "esteemed faithful".

Yet other things had been the consequence of unfaithfulness committed in high places, at least we may think that the fact related, from verse 15 to verse 18, must necessarily follow the negligence of worship.  The Sabbath was no longer observed.  If on the one hand the people had quickly abandoned, as regards the Levites, what in happier days, when moved by first love, they had done toward them (Nehemiah 12: 47), on the other hand they had forgotten, in relation to the Sabbath, something even more serious: which they had solemnly engaged themselves to keep at the time of renewing the alliance! (Nehemiah 10: 31).

The Sabbath was the essential ordinance of the law.  It was the only commandment among the ten words which was not based on a moral question.  It was simply the expression of the will of God and His Word, who had instituted this commandment.  It served as a "sign between [God] and the children of Israel" throughout [their] generations.  Observing it was a question of simple obedience, without be able to call on reasons based on conscience, and its capital importance consisted in precisely this feature.

Now what did Nehemiah see?  "In those days I saw in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading them on asses; as also wine, grapes and figs, and all manner of burdens; and they brought them into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; and I protested in the day on which they sold victuals.  Men of Tyre also dwelt therein, who brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold it on the sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem" (vv. 15, 16).

The care of personal affairs and the concern for profit had turned the Jews aside from this great commandment, and, consequently, they tolerated foreigners, men of Tyre, to do the same.  Their well-being and the amenities of life accommodated these transgressions.  They reached the point where they themselves profaned the sabbath, and in view of their own profit, they allowed the men of Tyre to profane it.

Nehemiah confronts the leaders, and he acts toward them as he had first done toward the chief man of the priesthood.  "And I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, What evil thing is this which ye do, profaning the sabbath day?  Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city?  And ye will bring more wrath against Israel by profaning the sabbath" (vv. 17, 18).  But he does not stop at this reproof; he closes the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath (v. 19).  What was the use of the gates which he had re-established at the expense of so much perseverance, if they remained open to evil and transgression?  He deals with the evil in a straightforward way, and this is how the authority of God proceeds when we allow it to direct us.  It does not compromise when it is a question of maintaining respect for the Word.

In verses 23 to 28,  we encounter a new result of Eliashib's unfaithfulness.  Whereas the majority of the people had purified themselves, a certain number among them had remained obstinate.  The eyes of the zealous servant, which nothing escaped, discovered this quickly.  Although the Ammonite and Moabite were no longer tolerated in the congregation, individuals, who were encouraged by the example of Eliashib's family (v. 28), had not broken matrimonial alliances with Ammon and Moab.  They had children, already grown, who did not know the language of the Jews and who spoke in the language of Asdod — for, to these two nations a third was added: the Philistines,  to whose territory Asdod belonged.  Thus, these three constant enemies of the people of God (without mentioning Edom) were received into their families and begot sons in their own image; for alliance with the world is never profits the people of God, and we do not see here that the children of the Asdodians learned the language of the Jews.

Nehemiah shows no pity toward these men who, on the day following a solemn alliance, could behave in such a way: "I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair, and adjured them by God [saying], Ye shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves!" (v. 25).  He shows them to what such alliances had led Solomon, the greatest of the kings of Israel.  It was precisely, first of all, among the Moabites and Ammonites that he had sought wives and it was toward their gods that he had turned aside (1 Kings 11: 1-8).

What more was there to do?  Chase the son of Joiada, Eliashib's grandson,  out of his presence!  "Remember them", says Nehemiah, "my God, for they are polluters of the priesthood, and of the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites" (v. 29).

And so the people were "purified… from all foreigners" (v. 30) at that time.

Nehemiah knew that this faithfulness should be rewarded.  He did not do these things in order to obtain the reward, but he knew that the Lord was faithful and would remember His servant.  No doubt, he had no right to anything from the Lord, but he knew that the Lord takes account of the faithfulness of His own and that He loves to tell them, when the moment of retribution is come: "Well, good and faithful bondman, thou wast faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things". (Acts 25: 21)  In the same spirit Paul could say: "I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day." (2 Tim. 4: 7-8)

May we also say, at the end of our career, like faithful Nehemiah: "Remember me!" (vv. 14, 22, 31).

Did the condition of purification related in this chapter last for long?  How humiliating it is to be obliged to recognize that it lasted for only a brief time.  Malachi who prophesied, no doubt, after (but not long after) these events recorded by Nehemiah, shows us that in addition to the indifference of the priesthood toward God was added, on a large scale, disdain for God's institution of marriage, a disdain which provoked Nehemiah's indignation.  All this presents a very serious lesson to us: The greatest danger which can threaten the Assembly of God, in this world, is precisely tolerance concerning the "mixed multitude" and, in fact, it is the principal cause of the Church's ruin.  It is relatively easy to separate "all foreigners", from the world properly speaking, and the danger of following them is not so great as the danger of walking with those who have the same profession and, in appearance, the same origin, without having faith.  Such persons claim the right to labor together at God's work, and, under cover of Christian profession, they seduce true believers through alliances which seem to be very advantageous.

May the Lord preserve us from this spirit and deliver us from these associations!  They always result in spiritual weakening which goes beyond the limit of the family where they are contracted, and necessarily extend to the life of the Assembly, and reach the glory of God and the purity of His house in this world.

The book of Nehemiah teaches us what the believer ought to be in these difficult days when decline is irremediable and when it is a matter of glorifying God in a setting which ruin has made quite different from what it was at the beginning, but where nevertheless, and this is a characteristic feature, the authority of the word of God is recognized and proclaimed.  Indeed, from the time of the arrival of Ezra, the scribe, at Jerusalem, we see the word of God play a major role on every occasion: it is listened to and appreciated.

In the book of Nehemiah, the people have recourse to the word of God and they submit themselves to it. The expression: "As it is written in the law" plays a major role in these books.  The desire to "gain wisdom as to the words of the law" moves the leaders to listen to it.  The people themselves request the reading of the law and they pay attention to it; Ezra and the Levites read it in the presence of all.  Ezra, the representative of the written Word, leads, as we have seen, the first choir at the dedication of the wall.  Lastly, in the chapter which we have been considering, the people learn their responsibility through the book of the law.

Thus the "opened Scriptures" are one of the great characteristics of the book of Nehemiah and they help all the activity of this man of God, but his activity itself does not consist precisely in this, for this domain rather proceeds from Ezra's office.  Ezra could be called the man of humiliation, humiliation which in no way excludes the firm purpose to lead  the people to separate themselves from evil.  Ezra is, moreover, the man by whom the word of God is once again set in honor, and this role of the Scriptures continues, whether by his means, or whether by means of the people's spontaneous acceptance, through the entire book of Nehemiah.

As for the person of Nehemiah, from the beginning we see him expend incessant activity in order to restore and defend this poor people.  The immense work of rebuilding the walls depends entirely on his initiative,  But his zeal is just as ardent against evil as it is in favor of what is good.  He contends with the nobles and chief men who pressure their brothers and he himself sets an example of abnegation, for zeal without self-self denial is of little value.  He is at the head of the list of those who sign the alliance, and faithfully submits himself to it.  At the dedication, he takes the last place, giving the first place to Ezra.  Lastly, he demonstrates uncompromising energy, when he sees evil slip into the congregation, under the auspices of the high priest himself.  He casts out everything that belongs to Tobijah, without hesitation or any regard for Eliashib.  He contends with the chief men concerning their treatment of the Levites, just as he had already contended with them previously concerning the way in which they treated their brothers.  He protests touching the sabbath and contends with the nobles of Judah; he admonishes the merchants who come on that day to bring their wares to Jerusalem.  He contends, he curses, and even beats those who, in spite of their oath, do not divorce their foreign wives.  We can say of Nehemiah what was said of one greater than he, whose sandal he is not worthy to unloose: "The zeal of thy house devours me."  (John 2: 17)  He also, in His character as the divine master, knows how to make a scourge of cords in order to chase out of the temple the sellers and those who had profaned the sabbath.

Such zeal is necessary in the times in which we live.  How often we hear: bear with evil, don't judge it, and wait for God to judge it.  These are words which are as dangerous as they are plausible!  What would have become of the congregation if Nehemiah had adhered to such principles?  Let us take him as an example, but, above all, lets us follow in the steps of Christ.  The energy of the Spirit is just as necessary as love and grace.  One ought not to give place to the other; both are equally useful for the prosperity of the people of God.  These qualities are rather disassociated in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, because men of God generally demonstrate one or the other of these characteristics in a pre-eminent way; such, for example, is the energy of a Peter and the gentleness of a John; such also, in modern times, as lesser examples, is the courage of a Luther and the moderation of a Melancthon.

In Christ alone, all the qualities of the servant of God were indissolubly united and perfectly balanced.  His soul was, as one has said, a keyboard whose every key resounded at a given moment in such a way as to form a perfect harmony in response to the fingers of the sovereign Master who drew forth chords which were both marvelous and divine!

Esther

Esther

Meditations on the Book of Esther

by H. L. Rossier.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Esther 1 Ahasuerus and Vashti

Esther 2 Esther, wife and queen

Esther 3 Haman

Esther 4 The great tribulation

Esther 5 Esther is received in grace. Haman betrays himself.

Esther 6 The secret ways of Providence

Esther 7 Esther reveals her origin

Esther 8 Mordecai administers the kingdom

Esther 9 Full deliverance

Esther 10 Conclusion

Summary

Introduction

The events which the book of Esther narrate to us, take place between the sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra, that is to say, between the reign of Darius (the son of Hystaspis) and the reign of Artaxerxes (surnamed "Longimanus").  The gap which separates these two reigns if filled by the reign of Ahasuerus (otherwise known as Xerxes. 485-465 B. C.), the son of Darius and the father of Artaxerxes.  Thus, the events recorded in this inspired account take place under Ahasuerus (Xerxes).

Every school boy knows about the power and wealth of Xerxes, the role he played in his struggle against Greece during the Median wars, and how, in the sixth year of his reign, after he was defeated at Salamis by the fleet of his adversaries, he fled and returned to his own land.  But it is useful to remind ourselves that, in order to understand the Word, even this elementary information is not necessary.  One passage in Daniel (Dan. 10: 20 - 11: 2) is enough to familiarize us with all we need to know on the subject.  On the contrary, it is important to remember at this point, that the events which fill the history of the world with their commotion, scarcely count for anything in the inspired book.  God does not mention them except when they intervene in one way or another in the history of His people, or when they prefigure prophetic events, or disputes between peoples, of which Israel will be the object. (Dan. 11)  It is even the case that the Word does not record the powerful collisions of nations except for one purpose: to have us witness the deliverance of just one individual among those whom He loves. (Gen. 14)  This truth has a great importance for us.  The conflicts among nations in our own day often preoccupy us to such a high degree, that our souls lose communion with the Lord.  Let us take the Word in order to measure the value of these conflicts and let us weigh the facts in the scale of the sanctuary; how small they will seem to us in the light of our God's eternal counsels!  The greatest overturnings of the greatest empires which seem to shake the world on its foundations, weigh no more than a speck in God's scales, unless His people are in question, whether it be a matter of judgment upon themselves, or of vengeance against their adversaries. (Deut. 32: 8)  We see an example of this in the New Testament: the tremendous task of taking the census of the entire inhabited earth, by the greatest of the Caesars, had no other result than to bring about the birth of a little Child at Bethlehem: and at the time of the end, the gigantic struggles of the greatest captains and their innumerable armies, disappear like vapor at the appearance of a single Man.  In the Old Testament, the overthrowing of the world by the Assyrian and all his victories, have no importance except as God's rod against unfaithful Israel.  Likewise, the victory of Babylon over Assyria has no importance except in so far as it accomplishes the same designs of God in regard to Judah.

The book of Esther confirms the principle we have just presented.  The Median wars which shook, for so many years, the world of that time, are quite simply passed over in silence.  In this book it is no more a question, of the victory of Greece (Javan), than it is of the defeat of the Persians.  Such far distant events prepared the ground for the ruin of Persia, the second universal empire (which did not administrate what God entrusted to its care any better than Babylon, the first empire, had done), but they do not concern the people of God.

There is one very unique feature of the book of Esther which escapes no one's notice.  The name of God is absent in it. The reason for this omission is incomprehensible for the Jews, for a partial hardening has come upon them, and they do not understand the mind of God in their own Scriptures.  We shall see that this suppression is the absolute condemnation of this people, and this is precisely what they do not want to acknowledge.   Even though the book of Esther has still today a capital importance among the holy books, for the Jews, and although it is still solemnly read at the feast of Purim, the sentiments of the listeners during this reading are revealed by curses against Haman, his wife and his sons, but have in no way the character of self-judgment.  So little do they understand the omission of the name of God, that the Greek version of the Septuagint, made by Alexandrian Jews, seems to have had in the past the purpose of  remedying what they considered to be an oversight, through numerous apocryphal additions, where the name of God is very often mentioned.

In order to explain this singular omission, let us first look at the circumstances in which the Jews found themselves in the book of Esther.

At the time of the decree issued by Cyrus, which came at the end of 60 years of captivity, a considerable number of Jews, who saw in this decree the fulfillment of the word of God, returned to the land, under the leadership of Zerubbabel.  Ezra lead others back at a later time.  This emigration included 42,360 persons.  No doubt, more than once, individuals returned to Jerusalem from Babylon or other areas of the empire, in order to worship, or to bring gifts (see, for example, Zechariah 6: 9-10).  But, in a general way, whether out of indifference for Jerusalem and the temple, or whether out of love for comfort, self-interest, or any other reason, a great part of Judah and Benjamin remained in the Persian provinces where they had established themselves.  The emigrants answered to the mind of God by returning to Jerusalem, but the others did not seem to appreciate the humiliation of their servile condition, and remained there where they were.  It goes without saying that we exempt from this category of personalities those like Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Mordecai, whose official functions retained them under direct dependence on the Persian monarchy.  Those who returned, without being acknowledged by God as a nation (for the sentence which had declared them to be Lo-Ammi* had not been recalled) had relations with the Lord individually and even collectively, despite the complete absence of national relations with Him.  And it pleased Him to support them, bringing them into the understanding of His thoughts through their leaders, teachers and prophets, so as to maintain their faith and encourage them.  God's purpose was to prepare them to receive the Messiah, and, if they would receive Him, to re-establish them as a nation and once again call them my people.  We know how all these plans of grace toward Israel were interrupted by the rejection of Christ.  We know how, after this rejection, the Church was formed by the Holy Spirit and how finally the restoration of Israel was postponed to a time yet future, as described by the prophets.  Despite everything, the beginnings of the restoration of Judah and Benjamin were particularly blessed, as Ezra, Nehemiah, and the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi testify.

*Meaning "not my people".

The condition of the people who had preferred to remain in the land of their captivity, was, on the contrary, was most unfortunate.  Although they enjoyed an outward prosperity, they were not only Lo-Ammi, like their brothers restored to the land of Palestine, but they were deprived of any communication whatsoever between themselves and God. God was hidden from them; He had turned His face away from them.  A heavy veil of sorrow and abandon weighed upon this people.  They had neither the energy of faith (since that energy had not manifested itself at the time of the decree issued by Cyrus), nor even the enjoyment of individual relationships with God.  Israel's sun had set.  There was no longer even a lamp to guide their feet in the night which had enveloped them.  Whereas other had gone up toward the light, or rather had drawn near the light by returning to Jerusalem, these people had remained seated in the darkness of the shadow of death.  Not a single ray of light from the face of God came to pierce through the darkness at this moment.  This explains why, religiously, in the book of Esther, everything is plunged into a mysterious shadow.  Daily life continues, but the spring of this life is weakened, and more than that: it is destroyed.

But what else do we see in this people?  The Scriptures, which played such an important role in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, are completely absent.  Neither were there any of the feasts, instituted by the law of Moses (whose celebration was habitual among the remnant returned to Jerusalem) - there were none of these feasts, we repeat, except the feast of Purim (an entirely new solemnity instituted when the people in Babylon had been delivered.)  The sacrifices, the priesthood, the service of God: everything had disappeared, or at least, had completely ceased to be mentioned, for we know that a large number of priests and Levites had not returned to Jerusalem, either at the time of the decree of Cyrus or on other occasions.  If communication from God to the people was completely lacking, communication from the people to God was just as absent.  Prayer is not mentioned even once.  In their deepest moment of distress, they wear sack cloth and sprinkle ashes upon their heads, and fasting is ordained, but their is never a word of prayer or supplication.  I am not saying, note carefully, that these things could not have taken place among believers, but they are never reported.  All we see in these believers is solicitude for the nation and, as the final blow approaches, distress and supreme anguish, with a feeble thought, prompted by faith, that help might come "from another place." (Esther 4: 14)  Thus their position may be summarized as follows: Heaven was closed to them, there was no national or individual relationship with God, quite different in this respect from the people under Ezra or Nehemiah.  They are abandoned, left in servitude, bowed down under the heavy yoke of the nations, outwardly without God and with nothing else but a weak hope.  They come, they go, they live, and they trade, despised and hated by most of the population, keeping a low profile in order to escape hostile attention, unhappy, but accustomed to the yoke they bear, and remembering, in the midst of their abjection, their past greatness, for they were not sustained, as those who returned to Jerusalem, by their affection for the altar, the temple, and the walls of Jerusalem, no doubt having among them part of the priestly race, as we see in the book of Ezra, but without an object for which to exercise it.  Their woe is not even assuaged by outward expression,  except when their terrible portion is decreed.   If I had one expression to describe this condition, I would call it the indifference of the unfortunate.  Just look at them: they had no country, no capital, no city but Shushan, the capital of the Gentiles, no prince, no priest with the ephod, neither the Urim nor the Thummim, through which they might have consulted the Lord (the remnant in Palestine had at least the hope of this, Ezra 2: 63), but they also had neither idols nor theraphim.  (Hosea 3: 4)  They live in a moral desert.  I am speaking of the impression which this book intends to produce, for the second book of the Psalms, which places us prophetically in the midst of the same circumstances, shows us that their faith addresses God, rather than Jehovah.

This complete absence of relationship with God, draws down on this remnant of the captivity the disdain of the world to which they are in servitude.  The characteristic expression of the second book of Psalms, where we see the remnant of Judah driven from Jerusalem and dwelling in the midst of the nations — this expression: "Where is thy God?" - applies in a special way to the circumstances of the book of Esther.  "They say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?"  "As with a crushing in my bones mine adversaries reproach me, while they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?" says the dejected soul of the remnant who "go… mourning because of the oppression of the enemy." (Ps. 42)  And likewise, in the prophet Joel: "Spare, O Jehovah, thy people, and give not thine inheritance to reproach, that they should be a by-word of the nations.  Wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is thy God?" (Joel 2: 17)  But even this abandon, this void produced around them, added to the danger of death which threatens them from one moment to the next, causes them to cry out to the very God who hides His face from them: "Many say, Who shall cause us to see good?  Lift up upon us the light of thy countenance, O Jehovah!"* (Ps. 46)

*This fact alone already indicates to us (and we will return to this) that the book of Esther is a typical book.  We will become increasingly convinced of this as we study the character of the personalities depicted in it; Ahasuerus, Vashti, Esther, Haman, and Mordecai.  This is all the more remarkable since the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, although they are full of instruction for the present time and for all periods of time, do not have this typical character.  This is also the reason why the book of Esther could not have been added to the book of Ezra, into which, from a historical point of view, it should be inserted.  This is without speaking of the fact that, the book of Esther, treating the dispersion of the Jews among the nations, transports the remnant to another terrain entirely.

Thus God is hidden, and if God is hidden, everything else is hidden as well.  The light of the world has disappeared; night has fallen, in which no one can work.  This light may shine in the midst of the ruins of Jerusalem, in a miserly way, so to speak, but it shines there where the conscience is active, there where souls, like the soul of Ezra, confess the sin of the people, repent and humble themselves.  Here we find nothing of the kind.  The world may shine in all its earthly splendor, but Israel is seated in darkness.  The great light, which the prophet speaks of, will not shine again until the first appearance of the little Child of Bethlehem.

In the days of Esther, the people, who have been reduced to servitude, hide themselves.  Mordecai, a servant of the all-powerful king, does not reveal his race until forced to explain his attitude toward Haman.  Esther, under Mordecai's orders, hides her origin and does not dare declare it, which would be her ruin.  She is a little like the 7,000 men who were not known at the time of Israel's apostasy and the notorious cult of Baal.  Only, in the book of Esther, the people are not hidden from a triumphant display of idolatry.  The sovereigns of Persia abhorred false gods and practiced the religion of Zoroaster which completely repudiated idols: no doubt it was a false religion, but it was not grossly idolatrous, like the religion of the Chaldeans.  The Zoroastrian religion acknowledged a supreme God, Ormuz, a benevolent God, with His good genies, and a second God, a malevolent God, Ahriman, who was eternal like the first, contending against Him with  equal power, and always seeking, together with His evil genies, to seduce man, but whose power must come to an end, leaving the benevolent God to triumph.  This Ahriman is the devil who has succeeded in "seducing men by bringing them fruit to eat," and by this means depriving them of the advantages which they had enjoyed.  In all this we see, along with gross errors concerning the nature of God, an altered echo of the primitive oral traditions — the original reality of which  God has given us in His Word.  Ahasuerus little more than this feature — his religion — in common with Cyrus, his father Darius, and his son Artaxerxes.

In the midst of this scene, in the cold mist which shrouds the captives (and this is the main feature of the book of Esther) a hidden Providence watches over them.  The entire account proves this, and we will have ample occasion to point this out when we come to details.  This is because God is faithful and because, even if He is obliged to hide His face, He cannot deny Himself.  He does not repent Himself of His promises, and, even when He passes over them in complete silence, He remembers them perfectly.  He cannot declare this character as long as the people bear the effects of their governmental judgment, whose sentence is about to be executed.  If He acts differently toward the people returned to Jerusalem, it is in view of the coming of Christ into their midst, as the last three prophets witness.  Here, in the book of Esther, there is nothing of the kind.  But, in this silence, God remains the same, and God is love.  He is not only the holy God; He remains what He has always been, a God whose bowels are moved with compassion toward this guilty people.  This is the reason for the unceasing care of His providence.

We may consider the providence of God in two ways.  In the first aspect, men have the public spectacle before their eyes every day: the indisputable manifestation of this providence, as the apostle says: "[God] did not leave himself without witness, doing good, and giving to you from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness." (Acts 14: 17)  The second aspect is of a providence which is hidden in its ways and purpose, in such a way that men can discern it only through its final result. In this way a Moses — and such examples are frequent - saved from the waters by the ways of providence, and introduced in the same way to Pharaoh's court, becomes the deliverer of his people.  At every turn we find this second character of Providence in the book of Esther.  Remaining hidden, it directs events, and only faith knows that it is at work and counts on it.  This is also the reason why, faith is necessary in order to understand this book.  To summarize, here we find secret Providence acting in the midst of the most terrible dangers which could assail the people under the governmental wrath of God — in order to give them rest through vengeance upon their enemies and in order to introduce the reign of peace.

There is another important feature of the book of Esther, which we must insist upon.  One of the most marvelous traits of the Old Testament — and here we include not only the prophetical writings, but also the law, the historical books and, in a word, all other writings - is that it either presents the moral principles which are valid at all times, and go completely beyond the periods in which they were composed, or it prefigures events yet to come and personalities of the future.  The feature we speak of may be more or less evident according to the different writings, but it is a constant feature.  Even when God hides Himself, as in the book of Esther,  one feels that He chooses the actors and one distinguishes, behind the scene, the One who is at work sovereignly, mysteriously shaping the type of events and personalities to come in the future.  For those who study the Word with prayer, this fact that we find types, even in a book like Esther, is, as we shall see, of great importance.  When we consider this account, it gives out spirit a familiar impression.  A certain event, a certain personality, carries our thoughts toward future things often meditated upon.  Facts link up, persons appear or associate together in a characteristic way.  A certain allusion, a certain name which would not be remarkable to a casual reader, suddenly takes on unexpected significance, and becomes clear in a burst of light.  And it is not one of the least attractions of this divine book, to cause us to discover a thought which runs like a silent underground stream, unknown to the common man, who walks over the ground without suspecting its presence, until the moment when the Spirit of God allows it to spring forth — and it suddenly gushes up, like an artesian well, before the eyes of those who doubted its existence.

Such is the case with the book of Esther.  There is nothing which seems to offer less for edification than this history, if we stay on the surface level of it.  Because of this, many people have inserted thoughts, which are very useful on other occasions, but which this history does not contain.  Others might be tempted to prefer the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which are so full of edifying principles, applicable to our present circumstances, but which do not present prophetical types, because these types are contained in contemporaneous prophets: Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.  But, I repeat, when we tune our ears to the murmur of the underground current, what mysteries we discover!  Divine power concentrated in one person; the deliverer, elevated to royalty and crowned; the sworn enemy of the man who represents the people, judged and condemned; the Gentile wife repudiated; the Jewish wife come out of her captivity and become the wife of the great King; the remnant passing through great tribulation, until the intervention of the Deliverer; — peace and joy succeeding this deliverance!

It is an astonishing thing that the opposition of men against Christ especially attacks this book, in appearance so conformed to the principles which reign in the world.  This is because those who fight against it vaguely sense the existence of a secret which they do not wish to see or know and which nevertheless they hate.

Special circumstances explain why these things are presented in such a secret way and through the use of types, in appearance so incomplete; and why these types may remain undetected even by the reader who believes, but who lacks spiritual intelligence.  The people, as we have already said, no longer exist;  every  link which connected them to God is broken: the Master of the harvest sleeps.   Here, when we come on the scene of the great tribulation, "Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30: 7), the character of those who go through it is very different from that which we usually meet in the Psalms and the prophets.  In the book of Esther we do not have the spectacle of a repenting, upright remnant, who acknowledge that they have merited their chastisement, and who cry out to God from the depths with the consciousness that they will not escape, if God should give heed to iniquities.  Here, on the contrary, every link with God having been broken, the people who are no longer "beloved", see no possibility of deliverance.  Only one man, Mordecai, who will be the instrument of that deliverance, knows that it will come.  Quite different than the feelings expressed in the book of Esther, are the feelings of the remnant returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Ezra.  Although they are Lo-Ammi, they are conscious of their relationship with the Lord.  And so, in the book of Esther, the distress depicted is greater and more poignant, even though it is properly the remnant dwelling in Jerusalem who, in prophetic times, will be put to death and undergo martyrdom.  Here, we say, the distress is more anguishing, and provokes "a loud and bitter cry" (Esther 4: 1), and nevertheless, in the final account, not a single hair of their heads falls in that foreign land.  Their condition is that of the woman pursued by the dragon, in Revelation 12: 16; whereas the situation of the remnant, remaining in Judea and Jerusalem, is indicated to us in verse 17 of this same chapter.  In their case, we find active faith, a deep sense of sin, repentance, hope which is expressed in the Psalms by the words: "How long?", and expectation of the Messiah's appearance.  In the case of the people in Esther, the terrible anguish of destruction which seems to be immediate and inevitable, is further aggravated by the sentiment they have, of being part of Judah and Benjamin; and, faced with their imminent ruin, they have no assurance, but nevertheless, despite everything, they have a ray of hope.  "Perhaps…", "Who knows…", says Mordecai.*

*Concerning the great tribulation, consult Jeremiah 30: 4-11; Daniel 12: 1; Matthew 24: 21-22.

Historically, the remnant which remained in Persia, in the book of Esther, belongs to Judah just as much as those of its members who returned to Palestine.*

*The situation will be the same in the prophetic last days.  Some will remain in Jerusalem, and others will flee among the nations. (Matthew 24: 15-19)

Thus the Word does not present here two remnants of Judah, but rather the remnant of Judah in two different situations: the one corresponds to the degree of faith and obedience that the people had shown in returning to their inheritance and rebuilding the temple, the other corresponds to their indifference and unfaithfulness.  Only God uses the circumstances of the people who remained in Persia, in order to give, in the book of Esther, an idea of the extreme distress of Israel in the future.  The helpless ship has lost its  rudder, compass, masts and sails; it is thrown here and there in the night, driven toward the reefs which, in an instant, will break it up and swallow it up.  There is no hope, no help!  And during this time a mysterious hand prepares deliverance through an event which calms the furious waves and "[brings the ship] unto their desired haven." (Ps. 107: 30)  And this haven is the grace which introduces the people in peace to the joy and glory of the kingdom.  Thus, the entire prophetical history of Israel is summarized, in type, in  these few passages of the book of Esther: the nation is rejected and brought into servitude; the Jewish wife is a slave at first, then received in grace, and becomes the queen of the nations; the great tribulation, during which not a hair of their heads shall fall in a foreign land; judgment overcomes their adversaries; and the reign of peace is introduced!

And so the book of Esther is the history of the future scattering of Judah among the nations and, in a sense, we may apply it to the scattering which followed the death of Christ until our own days; but this account, as we have said, goes much further than the present epoch.  In type it goes on to the history of the remnant of Judah, scattered in a future day among the nations, whereas part of them will continue their testimony at Jerusalem.  All will be deeply tested in their conscience, but the Word does not mention this moral work in the book of Esther, in order to concentrate out attention on the interrupted relationship between the people and God, the depth of their distress, and the greatness of the grace which effectuates their deliverance.

* * *

Esther

Ahasuerus and Vashti

The account begins with the description of solemnities which have been unequaled, even until our own time,  which were celebrated for a period of six months by king Ahasuerus (Xerxes) at Shushan, the capital of the Persian empire.  The prophet Daniel had predicted this ostentation, saying: "Behold… the fourth (king of Persia) shall enrich himself with great riches more than all; and when he hath become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all the realm of Greece." (Dan. 11: 2)  "The third year of his reign" corresponds, according to history, to the year in which his formidable expedition against Greece (which had already victoriously resisted Darius, his father) was decreed.  We have no doubt that all this show of luxury and power was intended to prepare this expedition by planning together with the princes, nobles and chief men of the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of this immense empire.  A special term which characterizes some of them, seems to us to indicate this purpose.  This passage speaks of the power (v. 3), next in line after the princes of the kingdom.  This expression, "the power," properly speaking, means the army, that is to say, the leaders or generals of the army.  Except for this detail, there is not the least allusion to the purpose of this ostentatious reception.  As we have said, in the introduction, these immense preparations are of no interest, in the Word, except in the measure in which they concern the people of God, or prepare — as was the case here — the fall of the empire of the nations, since the Gentiles had not answered to the purpose of God, who had entrusted them with sovereign power following the unfaithfulness of His people!  How this observation minimizes all the political plans of men in the eyes of a believer!  God has only to say to the sea which threatens to cover the world: Thou shalt go no further! in order for its efforts to disappear like the wind which unloosed it.  And this was because in the midst of this unprecedented pomp — for, in addition to his fabulous riches, Ahasuerus reigned over 127 provinces, whereas Darius the Mede, as powerful as he was, had only 120 under his scepter (Dan. 6: 1) — God was mindful of a people who were dispersed, destroyed, the object of the disdain and hatred of their oppressors.  We shall soon see this people appear on the scene.

But first let us say a few words about Ahasuerus, and see how the Word depicts him.  His natural character comes out strikingly in this book, and the likeness of the Biblical portrait can be confirmed, as if that were necessary, by what history teaches us about him.  Ahasuerus presents a singular mixture of pride and weakness.  His pride is sustained by the custom established at all times by great men and governors, that the law of the Medes and Persians was irrevocable.  This custom gave the king the illusion of being himself a sacred person, unchanging, all the while giving the great men of the empire a means of escaping from the power of the arbitrator on the throne.  This is precisely what these men of high rank had called upon under the reign of Darius the Mede, in order to rid themselves of the prophet Daniel.  No request or prayer made for a period of thirty days in the empire was to be addressed to anyone but Darius, which elevated him, as a monarch, to the rank of the divine.  The pride of Ahasuerus drives him to display the most hyperbolic pomp in order to dazzle the great men and the people of his empire.  Moreover, it is decreed that if someone should appear before him without being invited, that person should be put to death.  No one can see the face of a god and live, unless (a fresh proof of his sovereign will) the king should stretch forth his golden scepter to him and received him in grace.

Ahasuerus' haughty awareness of his omnipotence is allied to his terribly violent character, whenever an obstacle or form of resistance appeared in his path.  Time and again, in the course of this account, the king bursts into wrath and his fury blazes.  (Esther 1: 12; Esther 2: 1; Esther 7: 7, 10)  Violence is never an indication of strength, but rather, on the contrary, it denotes the weakness of a man incapable of governing himself.  This weakness reveals itself again in the fact that Ahasuerus, despite his pretensions of being a deified sovereign, is the plaything of his favorites and he allows them to usurp his place, at the price of turning on them in vengeance should they displease him.  And let us add, that when he had to make a decision concerning queen Vashti which concerned only himself personally, he surrounds himself with counselors who persuade him that the queen's act touches the very organization of the state.

But, not only is Ahasuerus weak and violent, he is also indifferent to the wretchedness of his people.  He authorizes even the most cruel acts, provided that these acts exempt him from the trouble of making an investigation, and delivers thousands of lives in his kingdom over to a wicked man, who is his favorite.  In fact, this formidable man has no character in the midst of all the machinery of Omnipotence.

And nevertheless, as strange as it may seem, we find in Ahasuerus, who appropriates divine prerogatives to himself, a type of the power of God; for, in a time when God hides His face from His people, he confides sovereignty to the leaders of the nations.  Thus, God uses this monarch — whose  limitless ambition seeks only to make himself equal to Him, satiating his passions — in order to depict for us divine authority and power operating sovereignly, in view of showing grace to His people and of transferring administrative power to the man of his choice.  Thus, it is only the Sovereign who has the right to show grace; and this truth, hidden in the shadows, brought some comfort to this afflicted, miserable people.  We cannot insist enough on this.  Whereas God had turned away from His people, there remained, to the eyes of faith, a principle of authority: the right to elevate and abase, the right to show grace, personified in the leader of the nations, to whom God had confided it (after His people had proved themselves unfaithful.)  Thus Ahasuerus, who in reality usurped the place of God, has, in type, divine authority and is the representative of it.  He has supreme power, manifested in figure in the book in which God hides Himself, but in which it suits Him to show that His authority subsists in spite of everything.  Ahasuerus is also the type of divine power in relation to Esther and on behalf of Mordecai, as we will see later.

This truth, which is a familiar one to those who are acquainted with the types of the Old Testament, leads us to other observations.  In the chapter before us now, we see Vashti, the Gentile wife, give evidence of her rebellion, disobedience and lack of submission toward the one whose favor had lifted her up to the throne.  She is proud of her position and prerogatives and does not fear to show her independence in relation to the head she depends upon, and she refuses to display her beauty publicly.  The consequence of the revolt is that she is repudiated as his wife, and a captive Jewish virgin is called to take a place she has never had, as the wife of this great king.  According to the wise men who surround Ahasuerus, Vashti's revolt, if it were tolerated, would sanction individual independence throughout the kingdom.  It is therefore necessary to restore order: The Gentile wife is entirely repudiated.  And this is what will happen to the Church, taken from among the nations, seen in her character of Christian responsibility.  She will be left to her fate and will be worth no more than the least prostitute for the Sovereign ruler.  She will disappear and never be mentioned again.

This chapter 1 also has a lesson for us from the moral point of view.  The limitless power of Ahasuerus is held in check by a weak woman who resists him.  A grain of sand humiliates all the pride of this enormous empire which is so thoroughly organized.  Vashti may be divorced, but her act remains and the humiliated king is powerless to force her to appear in public.  If she had repented, what would the result have been?  Here, from the very beginning we find the hidden providence of God at work.  Man is full of grandiose projects: a feast which lasts for seven days, the crowning event of these long solemnities, leads to Vashti's revolt against the king's decision.  Her decreed and irrevocable repudiation is not carried out until Ahasuerus returns, at which time the Jewish wife, prepared by Providence, can come on the scene and be substituted, at the appropriate moment, for the Gentile wife.

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Esther

Esther, wife and queen.

Chapter 1 was a preamble, intended particularly to show us the repudiation of the Gentile wife, who had refused to show her beauty to the nations.  Chapter 2 introduces the two principal characters of the book onto the scene, and reveals to us how Providence secretly prepares the ways which would elevate the Jewish wife publicly to the level of royalty over the nations.  The first of these two characters is Mordecai.

Mordecai was the great-grandson of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been taken captive from Jerusalem* to Babylon, under Jehoiakim (Jeconiah).  This Kish was no doubt of Saul's race, as his name indicates, for in 1 Chr. 9: 36 we already met a Kish, the uncle of Kish, Saul's father.  It is true that this name is also mentioned as belonging to the members of the Levitical family**, but who were probably established in the territory of Benjamin.  However that may be, the name of Kish was celebrated on account of it's connection with the royalty, formerly established by God in Israel, but rejected by Him on account of it's unfaithfulness; and it is possible for us to think that Mordecai's great-grandfather belonged to this dethroned royal race.  Whereas, at the time of the decree given by Cyrus, Zerubbabel, who was the last representative of the family of David, had returned to Jerusalem with the faithful portion of the tribe of Judah, a representative of the family of Saul had remained with the ruined, rejected people, just as the unfaithful king from this family had formerly done.  Mordecai himself was in servitude.  He had not taken advantage of the decree of Cyrus in order to return to Jerusalem***, not out of indifference, but because, like Daniel and Nehemiah, he had a responsibility to fulfill at the king's court, and could not leave without special authorization which he was probably forbidden to request on account of the position which he occupied.  He "sat in the king's gate." (Esther 2: 19, 21; Esther 6: 12)  We see Daniel himself occupy this place (Dan. 2: 49), at the moment when he was raised up in dignity, as governor of the province of Babylon and as the chief administrator of all the wise men of Babylon.  No doubt it was a subordinate position, but a position of confidence, implying, as we see in the rest of our account, particular watchfulness over the person of the sovereign ruler.  Such was this man and his function.  Later we shall become acquainted with his character.

*Jerusalem was the common domain of both the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.  (1 Chr. 8: 28, 32)

**(See also Kushaiah 1 Chr. 15: 17); 1 Chr. 6: 44; 1 Chr. 23: 21, 22; 1 Chr. 24: 28, 29; 2 Chr. 29: 12.

***The Mordecai of Ezra 2: 2 and of Nehemiah 7: 7 cannot be the same person.

Mordecai brought up his cousin Esther*, the daughter of his uncle who had been orphaned of both her father and mother, in his home as though she were his own daughter.  Between these two, the adoptive father and his adoptive daughter, there was a very close and affectionate relationship.  Esther was characterized above all else by her obedience to Mordecai's orders, whether or not she understood their bearing.  He had forbidden her to declare her people or her birth: Esther obeyed, for "did what Mordecai told her, like as when she was brought up with him." (v. 20)  The time had not yet come to declare her origin.

*Esther bore the name of Hadassah, which means Myrtle.  The names of the Old Testament are so often symbolical, that I do not hesitate to see in this case the earnest of the people's restoration.  (See the book of Zechariah, by H. R., p. 15.)

Ahasuerus, who had returned from his expedition, (for several years had passed since the events reported in Esther 1 — see Esther 1: 3, Esther 2: 16), remembered what Vashti had done.  Preoccupied by other cares and more urgent interests, he had left his wrath time to calm down.  Now he had the leisure time to think about his family line and the civil organization of his kingdom.  Following the advice of his counselors, young "maidens, virgins of beautiful countenance" were brought to Shushan out of all the countries within his empire, so that the king might chose one of them to replace Vashti.  Esther, along with many others, fulfilled these conditions.  Did she then have advantages which distinguished her from all her companions?  Certainly her origin would have excluded her from the beginning; and Mordecai, being aware of the  humiliation of his people, knew it very well.  Thus, Esther is a hidden wife, but her grace and her beauty attract the sympathies and love of all.  She pleased Hegai, the keeper of the women, and finds favor before him, and likewise with all who see her; she pleases the king, "above all the women,"  and is lifted up, in her still secret character, to the level of the dignity of queen of the nations, instead of Vashti.

In all these things we see a providential God who directs according to His own purpose the thoughts and hearts of men and the thoughts and heart of the king in order to carry out His plans of grace toward His people.  The only wife who may replace the Gentile wife if the Jewish wife, a member of a repudiated people, and the Lord will manifest this when the appropriate moment comes.  But, simultaneously with these ways of divine Providence toward Israel, secretly preparing the future reign of His people over the nations, we see how humiliated she was in her actual condition!  We see the Jewish wife, forcibly submitted, like a slave of whom one disposes, without consulting her, to the king of the Gentiles!  Her will counts for nothing in this alliance; she is forced into it; such a position might be desirable, in the highest degree, to all the other virgins in the empire; but it could not be desirable for Esther.  That which characterized a Jewish woman was submission and dependence, freely given, as seen in Rebecca, when she said: "I will go;" it was the respectful affection of Sarah, that holy woman who, of her own accord, called Abraham "her lord"; and it was the enthusiastic love of Abigail, throwing herself at David's feet, and aspiring to the role of a handmaiden to his servants in order to serve David himself.  It was the daughter in Psalm 45, "[inclining her] ear; and [forgetting her] own people and [her] father's house," a woman whose beauty lay in her abnegation which made her desirable to the king, while she acknowledged his all-powerful Lordship in adoration!  In the future this last characteristic will be that of Israel returned in grace to the Lord of glory, the future king of Israel; but here, what a contrast! involuntary, forced subjection to a yoke which was the consequence of the people's sin.  The law (Deut. 7: 3) forbade these marriages, prescribing that an Israelite not give his daughter to a Gentile, but here everything had changed: the kings of the nations dominated over the unfaithful Jews; God had withdrawn Himself, and Nehemiah was obliged to say: "Behold, we are servants this day…  The kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins… have dominion over our bodies." (Neh. 9: 36-37)  Thus this daughter of Israel is presented to us in this incongruous situation: on the one side, of servitude carrying with it the necessity of hiding her origin; and on the other side, of elevation to royal dignity.  Do we not see in her the type of the future wife, first hidden from all eyes, and then publicly recognized by the Lord, the great king of the nations, all of whose ways are righteous and true? (Rev. 15: 3)  Esther proves herself submissive to the orders of her counselor.  She shows fear toward Ahasuerus, but submission and dependence toward Mordecai — "[she] did what Mordecai told her, like as when she was brought up with him" — united to wisdom which discerns in all things what is appropriate; and to prudence which compromises neither her adoptive father nor her people; and to patience which is able to wait for the appropriate timing; and to decision which takes hold of that occasion; and to confidence committing herself in all respects to the instructions of Mordecai, whose word is for Esther like the word of God.  In this regard, it is very striking, as we have already pointed out, that at a time when the Scriptures were known and taught among the Jews, this book does not mention them even once.  Nevertheless, Esther has faith in the Word, the word pronounced by a man, who would not have had anything but very tenuous rights to be listened to, but who, for Esther's heart, personifies divine authority.  How all these features characterize this book, where even prayer and supplication are not mentioned; for they could not be addressed to a God who had turned away from the people who had dishonored Him.  Nevertheless the connection remains despite everything, but it was visible only to God.  Underneath all this surface of moral desert and foreign bondage, we find the hidden river, escaping the eagle's eye, but not the eye of faith which can follow it in its secret detours, and which waits only for the moment when it will gush up in broad daylight, at Israel's restoration.  We come across this secret at every turn.  The world openly pursues its course, great men make their decisions, and the king approves them — and nevertheless all these things are mysteriously decided by Him who directs as He will the spirits, projects, and decisions of men, and does not allow any of them, unless it be to accomplish His own purposes, and to finally bring about their display in public.  Mordecai himself secretly watches over Esther with touching solicitude (v. 11), which does not prevent him from keeping watch over the person of the king, whom God had given him, through the fault of the people, as master.  All this is very lovely, and reveals that Mordecai had a great understanding of the mind of God as well as a rare submission to His will.  When the plot of the two eunuchs comes to his knowledge, while he "[is] in the king's gate," he did not hesitate for an instant to have recourse to Esther in order to expose this treacherous plan and thus protect the life of Ahasuerus.

In this chapter, the beautiful character of this man of God begins to reveal itself.  He substitutes himself for the parents which Esther had lost, and he welcomes her into his home.  In a sense, this is a divine role: "For had my father and my mother forsaken me, then had Jehovah taken me up." (Ps. 27: 10)  He brings her up with care and watches over her with the loving concern of a mother; then, in his relations with the royal court, he openly watches out for the king's welfare, seated at his gate, so as to avert any danger from his person.  Since Esther's fortune was connected to Ahasuerus' existence, Mordecai becomes the king's savior, and then silently withdrew,  asking nothing for himself,  and allowing Providence (all that remained to his oppressed nation) to direct him.  It was Providence which had led those two chamberlains to expose their projects in Mordecai's presence.  Providence had prepared Esther's ear to receive this communication; Providence had arranged that these matters be recorded in the book of the chronicles in the kings very presence.  More and more, the hidden current follows its course to lead us to final deliverance under a reign of peace and righteousness.

Esther, the Jewess, who has become the wife of the one who exercises supreme power, was publicly acknowledged by the king who sets the crown on her head, and makes a great feast in her honor, "Esther's feast."  But although she is acknowledged as the queen, what she really is  had not yet been manifested.  Mordecai, who in fact, had all authority over her, had commanded her not to make known her birth.  The case will be the same at the time of the end.  Before the Lord publicly acknowledges the origin of His Jewish wife (whom the promises and counsels of God destine to reign over the nations), He will have His wife (although she will not yet be publicly manifested), in the form of a despised and the persecuted remnant, who will nevertheless find grace in the eyes of many, but whose beauty will be known by her Husband before He can present her to the world.  Then the Jewish wife will not be disobedient, as the Gentile wife was.  She will be, on earth, the pure reflection of the glory of her Husband, just as the true Church, glorified, will be in heaven.

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Esther

Haman.

As we approach chapter 3, note its relationship with the preceding chapters.  The main subject of Esther 1 is the disobedience of the Gentile wife.  After these things (Esther 2: 1), the Jewish wife appears in Esther 2, hidden from the eyes of all as far as her origin is concerned, but already loved and acknowledged by the sovereign ruler before the great tribulation which will fall on the remnant of Judah and Benjamin.  After these things (Esther 3: 1), we find in Esther 3, the appearance of the hereditary enemy, supported by the head of the nations and drawing his authority from him.  He becomes, with the complicity of the empire, the promoter of the great tribulation; but the grace of God delivers the people out of the hand of the enemy, in order to give Mordecai and Esther the first place in the kingdom.

Now let us take account of the origin and character of Haman.  He was the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. (v. 1)  Agag was the title of the kings of Amalek, probably a generic title, as was the title of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. (1 Sam. 15: 9, 32; Num. 24: 7)  Thus Haman came from this royal race.  Amalek, the people of Haman, descended from Esau, through Eliphaz: he was primitively a chief, and then became the people of Edom. (Gen. 36; 12, 16)  Indeed, under Hezekiah, we see that the remnant of Amalek lived among the Edomites, that is to say in "the mountain of Seir," the territory of these Edomites.  Amalek occupied the south-east region of the Seir mountains, and probably part of the wilderness of Sin and of the wilderness of Paran.  This geographical position explains the capital interest Amalek had (Ex. 17) in opposing Israel's onward march to enter Canaan; for Amalek occupied the first buttressing range of mountains in Palestine and defended the southern frontier (Num. 13: 30; Num. 15: 45; 1 Sam. 14; 7; 1 Sam. 27: 8) on which side this country could be most easily penetrated.

A various intervals, we see Amalek in league with other nations against Israel.  Thus, in Judges 3: 12, 13, we see Amalek in league with Moab, which explains the mention of Agag in Balaam's prophecy against Balak, the king of Moab. (Num. 24: 7)  In Judges 6: 3, we see Amalek associated with Midian in a common hatred directed against the people of God.  The Amalekites were defeated by Saul (1 Sam. 15), and finally by David (1 Sam. 27, 30), according to Balaam's prophecy concerning the "Star [which should come] out of Jacob, and a Scepter [which should] rise out of Israel."  Then, the prophecy goes on to say, "Amalek [was] the first of the nations, but his latter end  [should] be for destruction." (Num. 24: 17-20)  As a fulfilled prophecy, this star is David; and, as a prophecy yet to be fulfilled, this star is Christ, David's Son.

And so, in Amalek we have to do with the enemy of the people of God.  It is Amalek who is the first to oppose Israel's forward march, when they came out of Egypt (Ex. 17), who mercilessly pursued Israel and exterminated the weak, and the stragglers among a people wearied in crossing the wilderness.  Amalek is, in a word, the Enemy; the image of Satan, the great Enemy.  He opposes the purposes of grace of God toward His people.

Without the intercession of Moses on the mountain and without Joshua, he would have annihilated the people.  When the people had taken possession of the land, he sought to destroy them little by little.  Although he was finally conquered by David, he did not yet consider the struggle as finished.  Now that the people are captive, reduced by their unfaithfulness to the last degree of humiliation, he stirs up the person of Haman the Agagite to exterminate the weak remnant of this people and, let us not forget, his hidden purpose is to take Israel away from Christ, the king according to the counsels and promises of God.  Could there be a deceitful plan more satanic than that?  Although frustrated in his efforts, as this book teaches us, Satan does not consider himself beaten.  He attacks the very Leader of Israel, Christ.  At His birth, he attempts to put Him to death, by means of a new Agag, in the massacre at Bethlehem.  He is once again disappointed and at the scene of the cross he raises up the entire world against Christ; and it is at the very moment when he thinks that he has triumphed through death, that he is conquered once and for all.  Nevertheless he will continue to conspire to the very end against the Lord, His Anointed, and His people.  And so the Lord has sworn that He "will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." (Ex. 17: 16)  Israel must not forget to wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under the sun (Deut. 25: 19), a terrible judgment, comparable to no other in the Word, unless it be to the judgment of Edom, which belonged to Amalek!

Let us now return to the book of Esther.  Israel is enslaved, defenseless and rejected; all alone, the off-shoot of a reproved royal family resists the Agagite.  Everything favors the plans of Haman.  But although he hates the people, he directs his wrath against their head, the only one who refuses to bow down before him and reverence him: an obscure image of Him who, at a time yet future, would refuse to acknowledge Satan, when, from the mountain top, he would show Him the kingdoms of the earth.  Will this descendant of Agag, — who suddenly appears on the scene, and who comes from who knows where, but who is now raised to a position of highest dignity by the king of the nations (who elevates him up and sets his seat above all the princes) -, this sworn enemy of Israel, this Wicked man,  succeed in his designs?  If we turn to the end of the prophetical history of Israel, we will take account more exactly of all that this scene signifies.  In Revelation we find a sort of satanic trinity in league against Christ and against His people.  Firstly, there is Satan, whose spirit animates the powers of this world; then there is the head of the fourth empire (just as Ahasuerus was the head of the second empire), and finally there is the Antichrist.  The Antichrist will be exalted by the sovereign ruler of the fourth empire as Haman was exalted by Ahasuerus.  Will Israel, like a poor, fearful bird, escape out of the bird-catcher's net?  We learn, from prophecy, the entire satanic plot to annihilate the remnant of Israel will not succeed any better than the plot concocted in the history of Esther.

We have already sought to describe the character of Ahasuerus and the character of Esther.  We will develop and summarize of the character of Mordecai in the course of this account.  But first of all we may draw the portrait of the enemy who reappears here in such a sudden way.  He is marked by unmanageable pride, the desire to exalt and deify himself, terrible hatred directed against the people of God and against the one who represents them.  In order to revenge himself of him, the enemy sacrifices the entire nation.  Finally, he is characterized by deceit and infernal craftiness to obtain his murderous purposes.  In a word, he is the spirit of wickedness incarnated.  Is he not the same one who says: "Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be mentioned no more"? (Ps. 83: 4)  Can Mordecai, the "poor man" who is defenseless, resist him?  Will the wonderful deliverance of the people be renewed now that Israel is no longer the people of God? Now that there is no more Moses or Aaron to intercede for them, and no more Joshua to lead them?  Now that a simple decree from the king is enough to wipe them out entirely?  Will Amalek triumph here, when Israel has no weapons and no resources?  But did he triumph over Christ at Bethlehem, in the wilderness, or on the cross?  On all these occasions, the victory of Christ was complete, and His victory was won on behalf of the people: on the cross by giving Himself and in the wilderness by simple dependence on the word of God.  But, for Mordecai, the word of God is silent.  Nowhere do we find it in this account, and there is a reason for this (although in fact it existed in the midst of the people).  Does Mordecai then have any resource to avoid death?  Nothing could be easier, some will say.  Let him accept the king's decree and reverence Haman.  But no: Mordecai remembers that there will always be war against Amalek.  He will not bow down before the Agagite any more than Daniel would bow down before Darius.  The only difference is that Daniel was forbidden to bow down before God, whereas Mordecai was ordered to bow down and reverence Haman.  A true figure of Christ in anticipation, Mordecai refuses to do this.  Like his Master, he can say: "Get away behind me, Satan!"  There is perpetual war against Amalek.  There is no other reason for his resistance to give those around him, but the fact that he is a Jew. (v. 4)  He cannot, like Daniel, openly declare by his attitude that he is a servant of God, for everyone could ask him: "Where is your God?"  This explains that while on the one hand he forbade Esther to declare her origin, on the other hand he is bound to declare his own origin*  This declaration makes us think of the Lord's good confession at Gethsemane: "I am [he];" only this confession drew down judgment on Christ alone, so that His own might be delivered, whereas the confession of Mordecai brings down vengeance on all his people.  This attitude is in nowise one of pride in Mordecai.  He fully recognizes the rights of the head of the nations over him and over his people (rights ordained by God as chastening) but in no way does he recognize the rights of Amalek.  Although he is placed under judgment and although he belongs to the rejected royal line through the flesh, which God no longer recognizes, nevertheless he obeys the word of God, kept in his heart, by refusing to bow down to Amalek.

* This is a good confession, the only testimony that he could give of his relationship with the God of Israel, but a testimony sufficient to unleash the anger of the enemy against himself.

There is great beauty in Mordecai's character.  We have already seen his tender and delicate care for the captive daughter of Israel.  Now we see his courageous determination to obey the commandment of God, standing firm, unshakable, even though it may cost him dearly, walking in all the dignity of an Israelite, fallen to the lowest level no doubt, but the object, despite everything, of the promises (not to be repented of) and of God's election.

Like the fury of the Antichrist against those who do not acknowledge his power and authority, and who refuse to bear his mark on their forehead and hands, the fury of Haman against a man who despises his person and refuses his yoke, knows no limits.  But he would have scorned to put Mordecai alone to death.  He must strike him down together with all his people.  Haman cast Pur (that is, the lot) in order to know when this extermination should take place.  He believes in this superstitious practice, just as later the Antichrist will consult the "god of fortresses" (Dan. 11: 38), for even the most incredulous man must have some religion: a fact we may observe every day.

Vashti had rebelled in the third year of Ahasuerus' reign,  Esther became the king's wife in the seventh year, and the lot is cast at the beginning of the twelfth year of his reign.  The lot indicates the twelfth month for the massacre of the Jews.  Why not the third or the fourth month, in order to take away any chance of escape from the oppressed people?  Is it not once again hidden Providence which directs everything as always?  What can the "oppressor of the Jews" (Esther 9: 10, 24) do in the face of the secret counsels of Providence?  He is obliged to obey the lot he has consulted, and right there his rapid course to death and judgment begins.  He has no difficulty in convincing the king of the necessity of annihilating the Jews: "There is a people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from [those of] every people, and they keep not the king's law; and it is not for the king's profit to suffer them."  Haman proposes to enrich the king through this destruction: "I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have charge of the affairs, to bring [it] into the king's treasuries."  Ahasuerus refuses the silver and delivers the people up to Haman, "to do with them as seems good to [him]."  What indifference, what a hardened heart we find in this king!  The name of Israel has no significance for him.  He fights against the Lord whom his fathers had known, but whom he himself does not know, but the fortune of a multitude of his subjects does not matter to him in the least.  One of his favorites, a wicked man, is more important to a sovereign ruler who ought be concerned with his people, than the existence of an entire nation!  How different he is from his father Darius and from Cyrus, his ancestor!  This decree which causes consternation in all the provinces of the empire, will no doubt also extend as far as to reach and exterminate the remnant returned to Jerusalem through the decree of Cyrus, and maintained by his successors, and the king does not remember this decree!  "Do with them as it seems good to thee," he says — that is to say, do evil with impunity!  The royal ring ornaments Haman's hand, who sets its seal to his murderous decrees.

Haman writes "in the name of king Ahasuerus," and in appearance acts as his humble servant in affairs that the king himself has resolved and decreed.  Similar circumstances will be renewed at the time of the end.  The Antichrist will make himself the servant of the Roman Beast (Rev. 13: 14-16), in order to carry out his own plans.  The satanic plan of Haman begins with the pride and ambition of this man, who prefers to crush everything under his feet than to see them subjected to Christ.  The decree is quickly carried throughout the provinces of the vast empire, due to a system of communication which would be the wonder of the world, if it had not been surpassed a thousand time by the present generation.

During this time "the king and Haman sat down to drink!"  In the one there was a lack of conscience and in the other there was satanic joy in evil.  Wine (in which man forgets himself, which keeps him in his indifference, which engenders violence, and which provokes the enjoyment of brutality in the midst of the ruins which it accumulates) seals this intimate alliance between the prince of darkness and the deified sovereign over the nations!

The city of Shushan, accustomed to everything but such butchery, a capital city used to pageantry, pleasure, and refined civilization, was in consternation.  Whereas the majority of the Jews who lived there were literally crushed by this unexpected news.

Only twelve more months and the slaying would be accomplished.  All the spoils of the people would belong to the Amalekite.  Only twelve more months… but the God who was hidden from every eye is keeping watch, and His judgment is close at hand.

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Esther 4

The great tribulation

The death sentence has been pronounced.  The entire remnant of Judah and Benjamin is under this threat, which no human law can change, for the decree is irrevocable*

*As we have said before, although, according to the design of this book (which forms a typical episode of the history of the captive people) there is no mention of the people returned to Judea, there is no doubt that they must be included in the massacre; for in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we see them up against the violent hatred of their enemies.

Mordecai, with his garments torn, covered in sackcloth and ashes, goes out into the city, giving vent to his desolation with a "loud and bitter cry."  He no longer even has access to the king's gate, for mourning and weeping are not tolerated in his presence.  Everywhere, in the provinces, there is mourning, fasting, weeping and wailing among the Jews.  Esther herself is in great anguish.  Do we not see here a weak anticipatory image "of the great tribulation" in the future, "such as has not been from [the] beginning of [the] world until now, nor ever shall be; and if those days had not been cut short, no flesh had been saved"? (Matt. 24: 21-22)  But how can we speak of resource, when there is none, and when any access to a righteously irritated God is intercepted?  This is indeed what this unparalleled tribulation will consist of.  When the head of the nations, indifferent to evil, delivers the people into the hands of their fierce, heartless, unscrupulous enemy, who can they run to?  There is not a single ray of hope!

And yet there is still one ray of hope, although it is very weak indeed.  That ray of hope is that Esther "should go in unto the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people."  Mordecai commands her to do this; but of what use is his commandment when even access to the king's presence is closed?  Esther charges her messenger to tell Mordecai this fact: "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law, to put [him] to death, except [such] to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live; and I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days." (v. 11)  If Esther appears before Ahasuerus without being invited (and he has neglected her for thirty days), she will be put to death, unless… feeble resource… unless the king is pleased to hold out the golden scepter to her.  Thus the only means of escape is the grace of the one clothed with sovereign authority.  But can Esther count on this grace?  Not at all: everything depends on the king's good pleasure.  Can one count on the good pleasure of one who has just, with a single word, erased an entire people from the land of the living?  Can one address God?  God hides Himself.  Humble oneself?  Yes, certainly, it is possible to mourn, wail, lament and acknowledge the sin which led the people, once called the people of God, to such an extremity.  But there again, will this loud and bitter cry find an echo?  Thus this time of tribulation cannot be terminated except by the word of grace, come out of the mouth of the sovereign Judge.  Mordecai understands this: "Imagine not in thy heart that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.  For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at his time, then there shall arise relief and deliverance to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall perish."  Here we see Mordecai's faith: his faith is resolutely attached to deliverance in whatever way and from whatever direction it may come.  "And who knows whether thou art [not] come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"  Is it not possible that the secret, providential ways which have placed you on the throne are in view of this time of distress?  Esther's answer to Mordecai shows her wisdom, faith, devotion, self-abnegation, and her love for her people: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish."  The feeble resource of possible grace, but grace surrounded with insurmountable difficulties, causes her to consider the law as barring any way out, and if she does not find grace, she will suffer, if necessary, death under the provisions of the law.  And as Esther obeys Mordecai's commandment, so Mordecai now acts in accordance with Esther's commandment.

Surely this is a marvelous scene!  Tribulation  gives birth to perfect communion in the hearts of  these believers as well as all the sentiments of devotion and self-abnegation, which God can approve of and acknowledge.  The ways of God toward them produce in these afflicted souls: faith — which has no resource but grace, uncertain as yet, of which they do not feel worthy.  But no matter what, "faith is [the] substance of things hoped for," and this expression of Mordecai is the proof of it: "[There shall] arise relief and deliverance… from another place."  Is not faith the pendant of these words: "How long," so often repeated in the Psalms in similar circumstances?

But all this leads to the conclusion that now Esther must make herself known: the great tribulation will bring to light the character of the Jewish remnant.  Until then Esther had remained hidden; now, in this trial, her origin will appear in broad daylight.  At the moment when God intervenes, the nation will be publicly recognized.  The testimony of the Wife is born in persecution, it will shine in all its splendor, and it is produced in tribulation; but it is based on grace.

At last the hour is about to strike when the nations will no longer ask; "Where is their God?"

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Esther 5

Esther is received in grace.  Haman betrays himself.

Let us remark again, in view of what is to follow, that the book of Esther (which is very different from its contemporaries, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah) presents types, but types which are more or less hidden, in relation with its character generally speaking.  If this book did not exist, there would have been a blank in the divine writings.  At the time of the great tribulation, which this book pre-figures, will there still be a resource for the remnant absent from Jerusalem and dispersed among the nations?  Yes.  In the book of Esther we see a Jewish wife received in grace by the one who represents the supreme authority and she is so received, after the Gentile wife has been repudiated.  After the favor which is shown to her, this wife will be publicly recognized in respect to her origin, raised up in dignity and honor as the Jewish queen of the nations, the object of her husband's affections, she, whose "honorable women" shall be "kings' daughters." (Ps. 45: 9)  Esther represents the Jewish remnant according to the Lord's heart, become the center of the renewed people.  But moreover, in this time of tribulation, a savior of the people is revealed to us in this book — Mordecai, subjected to all the consequences of Israel's unfaithfulness and to the yoke of the nations, by himself alone undertakes to resist Haman the Agagite, the Jews' adversary.  He resists at the risk of his own life, but is delivered from death, whose borders he merely glimpses; (in contrast to Him who alone could taste death in its terrible reality and come forth victorious.)  Mordecai is delivered to be, as we shall see, raised up in supreme honor and at to at last secure peace for his people.  All this is more or less obscure and must be so, at a time when God had turned His face aside from His people; but this people finds in supreme grace a resource which can be taken hold of only by faith.  Thus the remnant will be saved from the great tribulation.  Although faith alone can take hold of and acknowledge this resource, the fulfillment of this deliverance also depends of the faithfulness of Esther.  The situation is the same in the Psalms, which contain both the cry of faith, counting on God's grace, and the integrity of the hearts which are faithful to the word and commandments of the Lord.  Likewise Esther obeys Mordecai's commandment, whatever the risks of her comportment may be.  Thus deliverance depends on sovereign grace on the one hand, and on the other hand on the faith and faithfulness of the Jewish wife.

Trusting in Mordecai's word, Esther presents herself before the king.  Hardly does the king see her, but he extends the scepter of gold toward her.  She is received in grace!  How her heart must overflow with joy!  Deliverance is not yet accomplished, but the grace which brings deliverance has appeared to Esther's eyes.  "What wilt thou, queen Esther," says the king, "and what is thy request?  it shall be given thee even to the half of the kingdom."  From the very first instant, she is sure of sharing half of the king's possessions.  Her requests may extends far beyond the limits of all she desired to ask him.  But as long as the Enemy is powerful, the prudence of a serpent must be combined with the simplicity of a dove.  Esther postpones her request to a later time and invites the king and Haman to her feast, and thus she offers the king the occasion to confirm his promise.  (See v. 3 and 6)  Now a confirmed promise, in which the sovereign alone was engaged, could not be annulled.

How this scene differs from the one we see take place in Mark 6.  There another king, Herod, says the same words to the daughter of Herodias: "Whatsoever thou shalt ask me I will give thee, to half of my kingdom."  But Herod spoke out of a heart inflamed by his guilty desires, and the young woman who answered him desired the murder of Christ's forerunner, the witness and prophet of the great King.  Satan inspired all that — Satan, the murder who reigns by means of lust.  Here, what a difference we find!  The king's affection is attracted by the grace of his wife.  She presents herself to him, and he desires her — he who has legitimate rights over her.  But, although he had neglected her for a time, when she returns to him, after three days of fasting, bearing on her face the traces of her anguish and sufferings, his interest is awakened, and his heart goes out to meet her, granting her everything in advance, and she has only to ask in the certainty of obtaining an answer at her very first word.  We discover God behind all this scene, and if Ahasuerus, called to represent Him, is a bottom but an unworthy creature, spoiled by omnipotence, nevertheless God, the God of Israel, uses this power and his right to exercise grace, in order to signal His own character and to accomplish His purposes.

As we have said, under divine inspiration, Esther has the prudence of a serpent.  In order for judgment to fall on Haman, it is necessary that his pride and hatred reach their full measure, and he must be found in the presence of the race which he desires to exterminate — the race whose defense has been taken up by God Himself.  The first meal offered by Esther only exalts his pride, but "all this is of no avail to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate," he says. (v. 13)  The things that Satan offers men in order to seduce them are always of this nature.  When men possess them, like Haman, who attained the satisfaction of his pride, they are of no more use, as long as a new lust has not yet been satisfied.  Thus sinners are led from one lustful desire to another, from one illusion to another, until the day of judgment.  Here, Haman's hatred, which cannot be quenched except by the murder of Mordecai, is about to lead him into direct contact with the God of vengeance who protects His servant.  What will be the lot of the Agagite when this happens?  His fall is prepared, just like that of Shebna: "There shalt thou die,  and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, O shame of thy Lord's house!  And I will drive thee from thine office, and from they station will I pull thee down." (Isa. 22: 18-19)

The satanic hatred of Haman is even stronger than his pride.  All his glory has no more value, as long as he has not executed vengeance.  His friends and his wife encourage him: "Go in merrily with the king to the banquet."  He has all the congratulations the world can offer him, at the price of saying to him, after having flattered his lusts: "[Thou] wilt certainly fall before him." (Esther 6: 13)

All this is an image, not only of the struggle between Haman and Mordecai, but also between Satan and Christ.  The Adversary must completely unmask himself before God intervenes.  At the cross, Satan said: Everything is worthless to me, as long as I am not rid of Christ.  Fear of seeing Him take up omnipotence and sovereignty, fear of seeing himself replaced in his own domain by the Holy and Just, and fear of seeing the Lord fulfill His plans of grace in the salvation of His people, force the Enemy to completely unveil himself at the cross, by putting Jesus to death.  And, as in the book of Esther, this scene takes place at the very moment when God hides His face from Christ!  Here, as there, a solitary man is in question; in His career of humiliation, Christ had "saved others," just as Mordecai had saved the king himself.  And what did this man, Mordecai, ask for, what did he receive as a reward?  Nothing: no more than the Savior, of whom he is a weak type.  In love, he had tenderly cared for and welcomed the daughter of his people, as a hen gathers her chicken under her wings.  What had he reaped?  Nothing.  The gallows is prepared for him: fifty cubits high; he can see it rise above the palace of the city of Shushan.  What does he do to escape it?  Nothing.  This man walks with integrity, lives a hidden life, observes the law, serves others, suffers and weeps over their sorrows, and meets nothing but a gallows at the end of his career.  Yes, just as in our account here, Satan unmasks himself at the cross, and God remains hidden.  God seems to be weak in the face of the triumph of the Wicked One; His servant is weak in the presence of the formidable power of the Enemy; but the weakness of God is stronger than men or Satan himself, and God glorifies Himself in the end through judgment of the Adversary, the exaltation of Christ and the salvation of those whom He loves!

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Esther 6

The secret ways of Providence.

The secret providence of God on behalf of His people appears in this chapter in a most remarkable way.  The world calls it chance; the believer discerns the hand of God and worships Him.  If a believer should thankfully recall the thousands of occasions in his life when, through circumstances, apparently accidental, God has preserved him or led him without his knowing it, what would these individual acts of help be compared to what we see here?  God extends His protection over a man in order to save an entire people, and He delivers Mordecai so that  Israel may be delivered.  Now, as we have already seen, in this book, which is so simple in appearance, but which is so full of mysteries in reality, Mordecai is a type of Christ; except that Christ alone passed through death itself in order to deliver us, (for, since all were dead, He must die for all.)  An Isaac goes no further than the sentence of death.  A David is appointed to death every day, under the pressure of his enemy.  A Jonah is swallowed alive in the belly of the fish, and comes out alive, after having passed through death in figure; a Mordecai sees the fifty (thirty: commentary text) cubit high gallows but is never hung from it; and it is only thus, that along with so many other typical personages, that Mordecai can offer us a picture of Christ.  Christ alone was hung from the cross, to bear our sins, to be made a curse for us, to gather together the scattered children of God, and to become the center of attraction for all men.  Nevertheless these types illustrate in a marvelous way the thoughts of God and reveal their depths.  In an altogether different way than Mordecai, Christ passed through the tribulation of Israel in His soul at Gethsemane, under the governmental wrath of God.  Much more than Mordecai, Christ cried "with a loud and bitter cry" to Him who could save Him both Himself and His people from the darkness of death.  And much more than Mordecai, Christ was heard because of His piety.  But, unlike Mordecai, His blessed relationship with God His Father was never interrupted.  Except during the three hours of darkness, they have always been complete and entire.  Even at Gethsemane, Jesus said: Abba, Father, when in the anguish of the combat, He passed through the tribulation of His people in anticipation.  On the cross, before the dark hours of abandon, He said: "Father, forgive them," and after those hours He said: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit."  That is because,  although He passed through the tribulation in all its intensity at Gethsemane (see Ps. 102), He did so as a holy, innocent, undefiled Being, voluntarily substituting Himself for His people, whereas the remnant of Israel will pass through it as a consequence of their individual and collective sins.  The moral tribulation at Gethsemane was the act of one solitary Man, prophetically substituting Himself in grace for the future remnant, so that the remnant might be encouraged by learning that their Substitute had been delivered and that consequently there would be deliverance for those who belong to Him.  But furthermore, the tribulation of Israel is destined, in the ways of God, to produce repentance in the people.  Mordecai's faith realizes this through fasting, sack cloth and ashes: he realizes it obscurely, no doubt, for he cannot withdraw for an instant from the position in which God's indignation has placed both himself and his nation.  He does not even dare (we speak here of what we find in the book of Esther) lift up his voice to God, as Jesus did at Gethsemane.

But let us return to the principle subject of this chapter, to the mysterious ways of the providence of God toward His people.  Here, questions tumble from our lips, and the result of these events alone can give us the answer.  The gallows is set up for Mordecai.  Haman's plan, skillfully concocted, seems headed for sure success.  Why, on this very same night, should sleep escape the king?  Why should the idea come to him of having the book of his annals read to him in order to soothe his insomnia?  Why did the reader fall on the passage about Mordecai?  Why did the king ask about the distinctions conferred on his savior?  What was the origin of his question: "Who is in the court?"  Why should Haman come, at this precise instant, to solicit his master to execute Mordecai?  Why should the king phrase his question in such a way to Haman, that it should cause his favorite to fall into the trap?  Why is Haman himself obliged to become the herald of the man whom he hates with all the strength of his soul?

It is because, in order to save the people, Mordecai must first be saved.  What could be the further use of the gallows which had been set up, since Mordecai had been publicly recognized as the man whom the king delighted to honor.  One man must become the liberator of the people (and here again we find in Mordecai such an interesting type of Christ which is so interesting); and to this end, it was necessary that after having humbled himself to the lowest degree, in sackcloth and ashes, he should be raised to supreme dignity.  It was necessary that the Omnipotent should make him (in image) Lord and Christ.  Nevertheless, all these honors conferred on him do not prevent Mordecai from keeping his place as a servant: he returns to "the king's gate." (v. 12)  Certainly unlike Haman (who lifted himself up in his measureless pride, and desired to be served by all), here Mordecai presents a type of Christ.  He came to take the form of a servant, not, it is true, out of constraint like Mordecai, but freely in love, coming to subject Himself, to serve, and to lay down His life.  Like Mordecai, He was exalted by anticipation the holy mountain, and came down from it to immediately take up His service again.  But much more than this, after having suffered the cross, he was exalted to the right hand of the Father and continuing His service from that position, He washes the feet of His disciples.  And lastly, after He shall have been fully acknowledged by all, He will still continue to serve His heavenly people and His earthly people, "accepted of the multitude of his brethren." (Esther 10: 3)

Haman's friends, his wise men, and even his wife begin to open their eyes: "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but wilt certainly fall before him." (v. 13)  Where is their sympathy for the man who presents himself before them "mourning and having his head covered"?  Only the previous evening they had said to him: "Go in merrily,"; now they do not have a single comforting word for this downcast, wicked man.  "Thou hast begun to fall… [thou] wilt certainly fall before him."  This bitterness is added to all his other bitter experiences, at the moment when tribulation strikes his own person.  Can anything else be expected from the selfishness of natural hearts?  As long as misfortune does not strike them personally, what does it matter?  The man who distributed favors to them can do nothing more for them.  Not a single one of them even attempts to suggest to him a means of escaping his misfortune.  Every resource fails him.  He has no external support and he no longer has even the internal support of his own pride.  Willingly of not, he must meet his appointed lot, for at that very moment, "the king's chamberlains came, and hasted to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared."  Oh! how that expression: "To-morrow also I am invited to her with the king," turns against him.  The sun of his glory is darkened.  This banquet is a storm-laden cloud, bringing the lightening about to strike his guilty head!

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Esther 7

Esther reveals her origin.

The hour of the banquet has come.  For the third time Ahasuerus repeats to Esther his offer of half of his kingdom.  Whatever may happen, she may have full confidence since the promise has been confirmed twice by the king's own mouth.  And so she now becomes quite bold: "If I have found grace in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request; for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.  But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the adversary could not compensate the king's damage."  The moment has come when the Jewish wife unveils her origin before the Gentile power whose favor she has gained.

Here we have the second phase of the history of Esther, of the history of the remnant.  In the first phase, Esther is in servitude to the nations; her beauty and grace only accentuate this servitude.  She is forbidden to make herself known until the power of wickedness, represented by Haman, reaches its full measure.  But when Mordecai, in whom we have a type of Christ, is attacked by the enemy who seeks to be rid of him; when, already exalted by the supreme power, the designs of the enemy against him seem about to be accomplished, Esther reveals herself and, being unable to allow Haman to carry the victory, she proclaims her relationship with the people of God whom she calls: "My people;" and she does this in the presence of the sovereign ruler who is infinitely favorable toward her and who cherishes her.  She has followed, so to speak, all the steps by which Mordecai has passed.  When he was hidden, she was hidden herself, all the while having a place of favor in the heart of the sovereign ruler, and while no one yet knew that she was Jewish.  When Mordecai is exalted, before he obtains omnipotence over the nations — at once Esther reveals herself as belonging to the people of Him who does not yet have the government of the nations in hand, but who is lifted up in the eyes of one and all, and manifested as having the right to royal dignity.  The appointed time has come.  The Lord will rise up and have compassion on Zion. (Ps. 102: 13)  The hour has struck; Already Mordecai's glory is shown before his government is established; how can one refrain from openly declaring that one belongs to the people of God?

The first manifestation of glory is not yet the establishment of his reign.  Speaking of this glory, it is said in Zechariah 2: 8: "After the glory, hath he sent me unto the nations that made you a spoil; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye."  Thus it is that after the glory of Mordecai, Esther is acknowledged as the Jewish wife, and the enemies of Israel become the prey of the people whom they had brought into bondage.  If it had been a question of increasing Israel's servitude "[by selling them] for bondmen and bondwomen" Esther could have remained silent, but could she still do so, when her protector is lifted up in dignity, and when it is a question of annihilating her people?  At this very moment Haman is judged.  This will also be the moment when the Antichrist, in whom Satan will be personified, will be thrown down from his great height and will be broken in the abyss.

After these things, we see the third phase of Esther's history: the peaceful possession of the kingdom, under the sovereign power and under the administration of Mordecai, a type of Christ to whom this administration will be confided.  But, in our chapter, we still find ourselves in the second phase, when Esther obtains, as the earnest of what has been promised to her, vengeance upon the enemy.  This enemy is at last revealed as "the Adversary, the Enemy, the Wicked one": names which the Word gives to Satan and to the Antichrist.  It is too late for him; anguish assails this man who had sought the death of the righteous, and whose foolishness had gone so far as to attack Israel's protector!  The wrath of the king is not appeased until Haman is hung from the gallows which he had destined for Mordecai.  Haman's judgment is executed, as the judgment of the Antichrist will be, before God has intervened for the complete deliverance of His people.  But Esther (the remnant of Judah) is recognized in her royal dignity and as belonging the people of God, before the Antichrist is cast down.

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Esther 8

Mordecai administers the kingdom

Deliverance is at hand; but first, Esther declares what Mordecai is to her (no longer merely her origin and the people to whom she belongs): this is the highest confession of the Jewish wife.  She openly declares the ties which attach her to the one who has brought her up when she was an orphan, who has counseled her and re-directed her in all her anguish.  Mordecai had already been clothed in royal dignity in the sight of all the inhabitants of Shushan in virtue of the fact that he had "[spoken] good for the king" (Esther 7: 9), but this dignity was only moral dignity up to this point, so to speak, and immediately after this, he returned to his position as a servant at the king's gate. (vv. 1, 15)  From this point on, he is no longer at the gate; he comes before the king.  His dignity becomes effective and official.  He is clothed in "royal apparel of blue and white;" he wears a "great crown of gold," and receives the royal ring which confers on him the authority of administration over the peoples of the kingdom.  All this is no doubt a hidden image, like all the images of this book, but in it faith discovers the Man Christ Jesus, clothed in the attributes, the prerogatives, and the responsibilities of supreme power by the Sovereign who possesses this power.*  Indeed, Christ, as Man, depends on God; He will receive from God the reins of government, and will return them to His Father's hands, after having administered the kingdom for His glory.

*We cannot repeat often enough that, on account of his natural character, Ahasuerus is one of the sorriest sovereign rulers of Persia.  He was violent, but had no will power; he lacked self-control; he yielded to evil as well as to good, according to the influences upon him; he was unaware of his carelessness when he revoked a decision, never attributing to himself, but to others, the evil which he would otherwise have accomplished, or at least tolerated and encouraged (cf. Esther 8: 7)  But, quite apart from his merits and his character, power is vested in him, so that, on certain occasions, he is not represented to us as what he is morally, but as the bearer of supreme power.  Thus it is said: "Ye are gods" (John 10: 34) and: "There is no authority except from God." (Rom. 13: 1)

From this point on, Mordecai passes verdicts in favor of the people of God, (verdicts which Haman, the satanic man, had passed previously for the purpose of destroying them.)  Esther gives him the right to all that had belonged to Haman; as Liberator, he takes the place usurped by the oppressor of the Jews.  But Esther has yet one more duty to fulfill toward the one who possesses supreme authority.  She speaks to Ahasuerus, throws herself at his feet, weeps and supplicates him.  Before, she had fasted and had neither eaten nor drunk for three days; now, she humbles herself before the sovereign and implores his grace.  He alone, her legitimate husband, can turn the calamity aside in grace.  He extends the scepter of gold to Esther; then she presents her request, sensing that, in order to see that request fulfilled, she depends entirely upon his grace: "If it please the king and if I have found grace before him, and the thing seem right to the king, and I be pleasing in his sight, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman." (v. 5)  This will also be the attitude of the Jewish wife, in the future day when evil, plotted by men against the people, will be at the point of overtaking them.  Only grace will be capable of putting an end to judgment.  But how can this take place?  Is not the sovereign bound by His own decrees?  He is not a son of man that He should repent himself; what He has said will be accomplished.  Judgment must be executed; but, instead of falling on the people of Esther, it will fall on their enemies.  It is still judgment, but judgment that has been turned aside, through grace, from over the head of those who, after having received at the hand of the Lord double for all their sins, now have need to be comforted.  What good news for Esther's heart!  Grace speaks to her heart, and tells her that her time of distress is finished.

This entire scene seems to correspond, in some measure, to what we are told about Israel, in Revelation 12, when the serpent casts water out of his mouth like a flood, (a flood of the nations which are under his influence,) to swallow up and destroy the Messiah's people.  But the earth, the scene of divine order in the world, opens its mouth and swallows the river.  Is that not just what happens here?  It is the nations which are swallowed up, and not the people of God, once the government is put in the hands of the only One who is worthy of exercising it, as this mysterious book of Esther indicates to us.

And so, the day determined for Israel's ruin becomes the day of their deliverance, but through judgment and vengeance upon their enemies.  The king associates himself with all that takes place.  He who, stretching forth the scepter of gold to Esther, had received all her requests in grace, puts his word into action for the rapid fulfillment of what he had promised. (v. 14)

What a change of scene!  For souls plunged into the night of despair, the sun has risen.  There is light for the Jews "at eventide." (Zech. 14: 7)  Where apprehension and terror reigned, there is now only joy and happiness.  It is a feast day, a day of celebration.  One solitary man, Mordecai, has been the instrument and the organizer of this immense deliverance.  Joy spreads to the capitol of the nations; "the city of Shushan shouted and was glad" (v. 15) as they see the man appear who had already passed through its streets as a savior - now invested with power, wearing a royal garment of blue and white, a great crown and a cloak of byssus and purple.  But also the terror of the Jews falls on a great number of the peoples of the land, who become Jews in order to escape judgment.

The same thing will happen at the time of the end.  "In those days shall ten men take hold, out of all languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard [that] God is with you." (Zech. 8: 23)  Even before vengeance is executed, the Jews rejoice.  Rest, perfect confidence are born in their hearts, with the appearance of Him who alone can turn aside wrath from over the head of the people.  In just this way, the appearance of Christ will put an end to the great tribulation, even before the final blow has been struck.  Confidence will fill the hearts of the people, because He who has loved the virgin daughter of Israel, who has carried the captive people in His affections, and who, in all their distress, was in distress, now possesses the Omnipotence to accomplish the glorious designs of His love.

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Esther 9

Full deliverance

This chapter brings us to full deliverance.  In Esther 8, the terror of the Jews had driven many people to become Jews in order to escape judgment.  In Esther 9: 2, "no man could withstand them; for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon all the peoples."  Here again we see the secret action of the providence of God in favor of His people.  The nations of the empire could have formed a coalition against the tiny Jewish minority which dwelt in their midst, but no one resists before the fear of the Jews.  Moreover, "all the princes of the provinces, and the satraps, and the governors and officers of the king, helped the Jews; for the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them."  The situation will be the same at the end of the age; the fear that Christ will inspire, will cause "kings [to] shut their mouths at him" (Isa. 52: 15) and will oblige them to obey Him.  In order to understand the severity of  the reprehension of the peoples, we must remember the sentiments which animated all the peoples of the empire against the Jews.  If they are overcome with fear when judgment is decreed, such was not the case when their animosity seemed about to satiate itself.  At that moment, they were the "enemies" of the Jews and "hoped to have power over them" (Esther 9: 1) they "hated them" and "sought their hurt."  This hatred must necessarily meet its retribution, and, when that moment comes, it was the fear of Mordecai alone which prompted the great men of the empire to "[help] the Jews."  "Because of the greatness of thy strength, thine enemies come cringing unto thee," it is said to Christ (Ps. 66: 3).  And: "Strangers come cringing unto me." (Ps. 18: 44)

As for Mordecai, he "was great in the king's house, and his fame went forth throughout the provinces; for the man Mordecai became continually greater." (v. 4)  He is a good representation of the Lord forcefully advancing into the possession of His earthly sovereignty.  As in the case of David, at the time of his ascension to the throne, this sovereignty is not established by one splendid, theatrical blow, to use a human expression.  His royalty has not yet been established, but it is in formation; it will not be conclusive until after the final victory over the last of his enemies, but his supremacy is acknowledged, before all the nations are subjected to him.

The oppressor of the Jews is judged, as well as his race (vv. 6-10); in the same way the apostate race of the Antichrist will perish in a future day, for the hour of vengeance has struck.  Only the people "laid not their hands on the prey" (vv. 10, 15, 16), in accordance with what had been prescribed concerning Amalek or the enemies of Israel. (1 Sam. 15: 9; Joshua 6: 19-20)  It is only a matter of executing God's judgment, without any profit for those who execute it.  Ahasuerus accepts this vengeance as a necessity.  His capital, where the plot against the Jews had been fomented, is delivered to the judgment of God for one day more than the other cities of the kingdom.  Everywhere the fourteenth and fifteenth days become days of joy and feasting and rest.

Thus the year of the great tribulation ends.

The king of the nations no longer appears on the scene except in dependence on Esther and Mordecai; they alone are in question until the end of the chapter.  It is Mordecai who, like the future Messiah, orders joy and rest.  "The Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them."  They submit themselves to the written word of him who had been unknown and ignored by all and by themselves, and whom God had now exalted in the sight of one and all.*

*The written word of Mordecai takes on a totally new importance in a book where the law is not mentioned even once.

The memorial of these days is perpetuated from age to age.  Only one feast, the feast of Purim, is mentioned in this book: it is a new feast which will last forever in commemoration of the deliverance of the earthly people of God.  There is perfect harmony between Esther and Mordecai, and the people; what Esther and Mordecai establish, the people establish for themselves. (v. 31)  What is "written in the book" (v. 32) on the occasion of their fasting and their cry, is celebrated in all generations.  Thus ends this account which leads us to the dawn of the glorious time which follows deliverance, and leads us prophetically to the threshold of the millennial reign of Christ.

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Esther 10

Conclusion

Esther 10 is a sort of appendix, summarizing in a few words the final result of the preceding events.  The sovereign power, which Ahasuerus represents, sees, after the deliverance of the Jews, all the land, and far beyond it, the isles of the sea which did not belong originally to the king, submit themselves to him and pay him tribute: a weak image of the establishment of the kingdom over the entire world.

Mordecai is a great man, exalted by the king and established second after Ahasuerus, that is to say occupying a subordinate position in relation to the supreme power.  Such will be the exaltation of Christ, as head of the nations.  As Isaiah says: "My servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and be very high.  As many were astonished at thee — his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the children of men — so shall he astonish many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them shall they see, and what they had not heard shall they consider." (Isa. 52: 13-15; see also Mal. 1: 11)

But the character of Mordecai in relation to his people is especially noted here; — "[He was] great among the Jews," prospering in his magnificence (Ps. 45: 4); — " accepted of the multitude of his brethren," as the son of Jesse had been formerly (1 Sam. 18: 5); — "seeking the welfare of his people," as (the true) David, the Anointed will seek the welfare of Jerusalem (Ps. 122: 9), or as the Lord will think to do good to the house of Judah (Zech. 8: 15); — "speaking peace to all his seed."  Thus this book closes at the moment when the reign of peace begins.  All this people, formerly oppressed, are recognized as the race (or seed) of Mordecai.  What an ending!  Thus this expression is realized in a measure: "On earth peace, good pleasure in men!"

Summary

Let us briefly summarize the contents of this book, as well as the character of the major personality.

In a time when God still hides His face from His people, the wife from among the nations is repudiated, and the virgin daughter of Israel takes her place in the affections of the Sovereign.  Still hidden, as far as her origin is concerned, she becomes his wife and thus becomes queen of the nations.  The adversary raises up a great tribulation against the people, but he is defeated by the liberator of Israel who takes possession of all his goods, and he undergoes the fortune which he himself had prepared to the object of his hatred.  The Jewish wife is recognized publicly as such.  The enemies of the people are the objects of the vengeance which those same enemies had desired to wreak against them.  The administration of the kingdom is confided to the one who had been the servant of all, and who at last inaugurates the reign of righteousness, peace, and joy.

In this book, Mordecai especially attracts our attention.  We can distinguish two orders of qualities in him: his moral character and his official character.

His moral character, a precious portrayal of the character of the Savior, strikes us with his tenderness, his delicate sensibilities, his family affections, and his constant care for an orphaned daughter.  But he is just as remarkable on account of his righteousness and uprightness, his courage and his decision, as well as his unshakable attachment to the word of God.  Taking the place of the remnant of Israel, he accepts bondage — he who would be declared great in the presence of one and all.  Nevertheless, he refuses to bow his head to the adversary: he resists the enemy at the expense of his own life.  He associates himself with the distress of his people and suffers it in his own soul, but he is patient in hope, and that is the triumph of faith when the enemy is all powerful and God hides His face.

His official character is just as remarkable.  He keeps watch at the king's gate and thus he becomes the Savior of the nations.  He is recognized as such, at the moment when the satanic adversary is cast down.  He is the Savior of his people and, as administrator of the kingdom, he himself bears the attributes of royalty and wears the great crown.  He makes himself to be feared through judgment.  He exercises vengeance, but as a prelude to rest, and he reigns in righteousness.  He presides over the joy and happiness which he has obtained for his seed.  He orders everything, in company with the Jewish wife, his adopted daughter, who reigns over the nations and shares his interest for his peoples.  He becomes the Prince of the kings of the earth, accepted by God and his brothers, great, and, in his royal character, doing everything in view of the welfare of his people — and finally, he introduces the reign of peace.

In the book of Esther, the Spirit of God desires to attach our affections above all to Himself — to Christ.