Gooding, David: 7 - Preserving the House

This is now the seventh of ten studies on the first and second book of Kings, and we are delighted to have your company this evening. You are very welcome indeed. We have not been attempting to cover the whole of these two books, either in detail or even to cover every chapter. We have been interested in what we judge to be one of the major themes, and for that purpose we have taken notice of Solomon's prayer of dedication, when having built the temple, he summoned the whole nation to come and celebrate its dedication, and before them all confessed to the wonder surpassing understanding, how Almighty God, who fills the universe, and all beside, should ca- possibly presence himself in the building that Solomon had built. But that said, he shows himself aware of the various needs that will come across his people, and he thanks God for the provision that God has made for the maintenance, spiritual maintenance of his people in the coming years, and if need be, their recovery, if ever they have wandered off into sinful ways. So we have been following the history by looking at the plans for the house of the Lord, and then comparing them with some of the major points that are recorded in the historical narrative. There in front of you is a possible reconstruction of what the, uh, house of God that Solomon built may have looked like. We cannot be absolutely sure, for there are technical terms that we don't really know exactly how they should be translated, and then styles were different. But here is a reconstruction, at any rate, of the, uh, house of God. Is the, uh, main doors with the two freestanding pillars with their delightful capitals, and then at the side and running around the back and running around this side, lean to buildings that were there for practical purposes, for the priests and the Levites to work in them, whether for treasury or for preparing sacrifices or for the vestments or whatever, uh, these were the rooms that they had. And Solomon's prayer in making this was that whatever straits the nation got into, then if they would only look towards and pray towards the God who graciously presents himself in that building, God would restore them. So then we were emboldened to look at the, uh, uh, various, uh, divisions of the building of the house. There is a cutaway, the best we could find, is showing the side rooms here and the predominance of gold everywhere inside the house of the Lord. Professor Kitchen has reminded us in some of his academic writings that this story of gold everywhere, even to gold on the floor, is not fairy story stuff. Gold was plentiful in those days, and it was the habit not only of Israelites but other nations too, thus to decorate their temples. The, uh, house of God had, uh, two divisions, like the tabernacle of Moses. This is the holy place beyond the veil, was the holiest of all. In that was the ark that Moses had built, now antique, but still preserved, with the cherubim on the mercy seat. In addition to that, there were two olive wood cherubim, very large in the holy place, standing, their faces looking outwards, and their wings outstretched, so that the wings between the two of them covered the width of the most holy place. As they looked out, so to speak, if we may say that of symbols, they would have found the walls everywhere covered with cherubim and palm trees and rosettes. And we made the point in one or two of our past talks that this is and meant to be for the time being in those far off days, the temple, the house of the living God. And that the way God governs is in part by imparting the right kind of life. As you are aware, God doesn't send down a government notice from above to apple trees, remember this is the time to start budding and producing apples. He gets it done simply by giving the tree apple tree life. And if we would live as children of God, the secret is, of course, the sine qua non is that first of all we be born again and receive the life of God Within. within. So then, for the inside of the house, it is the fact that it was only a small building, though generally twice the side of Mos- twice the size of Moses' tabernacle. Small as it was, when you entered into the door, and even more so if you were allowed through the veil, you entered a world bigger than ours. Because here, the Shekinah glory of God deigned to dwell. And to find once- oneself in the presence of that infinitude makes life very big. So we recently studied the life and ministry of Elijah and found one of his favorite, uh, phrases to be this: the God, the living God, before whom I stand. We found likewise in studying the ministry of Elisha, it was marked by life giving, which doubtless he learned as he meditated upon the symbolism of the house of the living God. To show at least some relevance, and a preacher that doesn't do that is not worth his salt, is he? Um, to show at least some relevance, as we observed the features of this place and the pillars with their delightful and attractive capitals, we observed what the New Testament has to say at the end of one Timothy chapter three. These things I write, says Paul, hoping to come to you shortly, but if I delay, I write these things that people might know how they ought to behave in the house of God, in the church of the living God. Pillar and ground of the truth. Well, tonight we must press on. Hitherto in our studies, we have noticed that in the paragraphing of the Old Hebrew text, there are five divisions of instructions for the building of the various buildings. So here on the left, taken from chapter six, First Kings, there was the one house, its structure, and, uh, its side rooms. But the side rooms were simply that. They were not separate houses. There's only one house of God in the whole of Judaism. Then, among the directions for building, there's a special plea for obedience. Then comes the third set, with the installation and organization of the inside of the house of the Lord. With its chief, of course, piece of furniture, not the only one, but the chief one, the Ark of the Covenant, the symbolic throne of God in the Most Holy Place. The fourth set, the Hebrew rabbis found very odd, because this is an account of the building of the king's house. And we shall study that this evening, God willing. The rabbis wondered how that could possibly be said here, before Solomon had concluded building these other things that belonged, uh, to the house of God. So that in the ancient Greek translation, these things are reversed, and the fourth set stands last, and the fifth set stands in the place of the fourth. Supposed godliness has moved the scribes, uh, to what they thought was favoring God's house rather than the king's house. But the king's house was built a bit lower down the slope, surrounded by court like the Lord's house was. It may have had a stairway connection between the king's palace and the house of the Lord. But as we notice the history, we perceive that they were a twin, though not equal, twin arrangement for the government of God's people. God set his laws. It was among the king's duties to see that the people obeyed those laws. Then finally, in the fifth place, you get the furniture of the court outside, the pillars, the two big pillars, so significant they are given names, Jakin and Boaz. Beautiful with their capitals and attractive, the two pillars, and then the sea and the lavers. The sea was a laver itself, but so enormous that it got named the sea. In addition, there were ten subsidiary lavers on wheels so that, uh, you could wheel them around wherever water was needed for cleansing. It is to be noticed that there is no mention of the altar with its blood. And that I point out because the theologians might otherwise think I had overlooked something. And since I haven't overlooked it, then I can ask the theologians afterwards why the altar isn't mentioned, at least in the plans. These were the, uh, the, uh, uh, if we were right in thinking that the building of the house of the Lord was God's provision for the maintenance of his people and where necessary for their recovery, then we naturally look to the history to see what happened. What a sorry, disappointing story it is at first sight. Solomon was scarce dead. When the nation divided, and Jeroboam was given by God rule over the ten tribes, and just two tribes left to Solomon's son. Whereas this laid it down, there should only be one house. Jeroboam, he made houses all over the place. Built houses on high hills, where people worshipped the greenery of trees and everything else like that. Spiritism generally. And elsewhere. A sorry introduction of idolatry, from which Israel as ten tribes never recovered. We noticed that Jeroboam's son Nadab was eventually replaced by a certain Baasha of Israel. He destroyed Jeroboam's dynasty. Must have been aware of God's pronouncements through the prophets, of God's, uh, rejection of the idolatry that Jeroboam had introduced. In spite of it, in spite of any plea for obedience, he continued in that idolatrous practice of Jeroboam. We noticed in the third set that the most sacred part of the temple was the most holy place, in which was the ark of the covenant, the very first term of it. Thou shalt have no other god but me. Ahab. He installs Baal as Israel's chief god. I think he did it to please his wife Jezebel. She took some pleasing. That that be sufficient. Blatant. Not merely introducing, like some kings allowed, idolatrous things within the temple. But here, they built Baal a special temple. Worship Baal. Then we were thinking about the king's house, and we shall have to think about that in a moment. Jehu of Israel, appointed by God to execute God's judgment and chastening upon the nation, but doing it far too willingly and thoroughly and excessively, destroys the royal house of Ahab, root and branch. Whereupon, Athaliah, who was Ahab's daughter, rose up and eliminated the whole royal house of Judah. That isn't bad going for one go, is it? The whole house except one little boy. We shall have to signi- uh, think about its significance in a moment. Ahaz of Judah, he was by the Assyrians, and the Assyrians, like Americans appeared to us in the remote parts of Suffolk, as though they were giants from another world, you see. And the Assyrians came, and A- Ahaz was very much taken with them. And he went up there, and he saw the altar. So he sent a postcard home to the high priest in Jerusalem. Please, this is, these are directions and dimensions for an altar. I've just seen a wonderful altar. Perhaps you'll be so kind as to make an al- uh, an altar just like that one and put the other one around the side somewhere. Uh, that made a change, didn't it? And then he took the big sea, which stood on the backs of oxen, and he cut it down and put it down on the pavement. That also made a change. Regardless of the fact that this arrangement was God's command. You're not surprised to read at the end of the book. That Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up. He not only conquered Jerusalem, he smashed the sea. And the pillars. That was an easy way for transporting the copper of which they were made, which were very valuable, of course, at that time. And took it all to Babylon. A distressing story, and I should scarce have, uh, had the courage, uh, to rehearse it before you, were it not for the fact that these books contain a series of revivals. There's the revival led by Elijah on Mount Carmel, and sundry other revivals. And just like revivals do, these revivals, they're similar in general, had a particular point to them. This one, who is the true God, Baal or Jehovah? This one led by Jehoiada the high priest against Athaliah, Ahab's daughter, and her attempt to eliminate the house of David. The issue at stake is, who is the true king? Not Athaliah, by any chance. It was the little boy who had been saved in spite of her determination to destroy the whole house, now preserved and set upon the throne. Third revival, led by Hezekiah at the time of the siege of Jerusalem by the forces of the king of Assyria. The issue at stake was here, is the Lord God just one more God among many gods, as the Assyrians argued he was? Says the great emperor through his rabshaki, I've pillaged many a temple and got their gods, like boys stealing eggs out of bird's nests, and your God is no different. Led by, uh, encouraged by Isaiah the prophet, Hezekiah managed to stand firm for the truth that the Lord God is unique, transcendent Lord. And then a final revival led by King Josiah, who set about cleansing the house of the Lord, and they who cleansed found a book, found it was a copy of a, a part of a Bible, started reading it. That was a novel idea in those days, could be in ours. It was a, ha ha, and read it and found all sorts of things that they were supposed to do and weren't even aware of. It started a reformation. Will the nation repent and return to obeying the word of God and all its commandments? In spite of the gloom of the book, therefore, and the many apostasies, it is a book of encouragement with a series of revivals. And with that we come to this, um, uh, fifth set, uh, fourth set of plans. They are to be found in one Kings, chapter 6. Oh, sorry, chapter seven. One Kings chapter seven, which begins, and Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. Then the text lists the various rooms, palatial rooms that there were in the palace. He built the house of the forest of Lebanon, the length is given it, and the number of pillars and the beams, uh, you'll see, and the doorposts. Then verse six, he made the porch of pillars, the length thereof was fifty cubits. Verse seven, he made the porch of the throne where he might judge, the king's bench division of the palace. And then there was his own private apartment, the house where he might dwell, verse eight. And then a house similarly for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken to wife. Twin unit. So then God gave the commandment. It was one of the tasks of the king to encourage the people to keep those commandments. And certainly not to lead them off into idolatry, like so many kings did. But now I want to get us to perceive a nice little distinction in terminology. We have read the directions for the construction of the king's house, properly so called, meaning the house where he lived was in Jerusalem. But then other scriptures talk about the house of David, and that's a rather different thing. So, let me illustrate the difference, if I may. Round about some rather ordinary town in England, there's a castle called Windsor Castle. I'm told that the Queen likes it very much. She likes living there. That's what it's for, mainly. For the king or queen to live there. It does have functions and other things, but it's basically where they live. It's got a bedroom and a bathroom to start with, running water, you'll see, in this king's palace. So that is called Windsor Castle. But if I talked about the House of Windsor, you wouldn't think of the castle, would you? You would say, oh, oh, oh, now the word house is being used a little bit differently. Now it means the royal dynasty and the present set of kings and queens are of the House of Windsor, as distinct from Jacobeans and other such things, uh, that have been in the past. These are the House of Windsor. That is a legal notion, a succession within this family of the Windsors that provides kings and queens right when we need them. We have to distinguish in our thinking, therefore, between the literal house that Solomon built for his dwelling place and for the, uh, e- execution of his many duties, like law courts and so forth and so on, and receiving embassies from s- foreign countries and this and other, but where he basically lived. And the other phrase, the house of David. If you want an example, you will find it in one Kings chapter twelve, where the ten tribes say to Rehoboam, well, if you're not going to grant us our request, goodbye, Rehoboam. Look to your own house, David, we couldn't care less. So they rejected the ruling house of David and set up the house of Jeremiah, uh, of Jeroboam, which didn't last very long. We must try to hold both of these ideas in our heads. Because, do you see, our major story is of a queen who came to live in the king's house in Jerusalem. And for all I know, may have sat upon the throne, in the porch of the throne, in the king's house. Who did her level sinister best to destroy root and branch the whole house of David. Why ever did she do it? Well, I'm no psychologist, and when it comes to dealing with queens, I pay my income tax and hope us otherwise to escape notice. You'll see. But she was Ahab's daughter. And she married the son of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat being the king of Judah. Now, let me remind you, Jehoshaphat was on the whole a dear, saintly man who loved the Lord and tried to serve him. Did Jehoshaphat. But, if a lesser mortal may, may criticize him a little bit, he did appear to have a weak spine or trembly legs or something, and was forever being inveigled by Ahab to join some scare brain scheme that Ahab had for conquering Syrians or something, or for launching ships to go and get gold. And you wonder how he managed to do it, with Ahab so sold out to the worship of Baal. How did the king of Judah, living in that king's house, within the shadow of the house of the Lord, come to compromise with a fellow like Ahab and his worship of Baal. One upshot was, you know, you can't, you can't avoid these things happening, can you? Of course, Ahab put on parties, and uh, the ladies were there in all their finery, and marvelously attractive they were. No money spared. Mm-hmm. And the young gentlemen were amazed. Jehoshaphat's son eventually married Ahab's daughter. That's a liar. Now I have to tell you that Israel's sin under Ahab and Jezebel was so grievous and extreme. That in the end, God commissioned a prophet, his name was Jehu, to execute the wrath of God on the aforesaid Ahab and Jezebel and all the Baal worshippers. He was a bloodthirsty boy, he was, um, Ji Hu. If I weren't in Ulster, I should say, he was a little bit like some of the reformers. That would have cut your head off if you didn't agree. Jehu, through the prophet Hosea, got himself complains at him, for he exceeded his commission by miles. But in the course of his, uh, action, he killed, of course, Athaliah's husband and the next in order. Has he killed so many? I don't know. I must let Athaliah speak for herself. But she was certainly down on the house of David. And determined to blot it out. You say, well, that was bad. But why should we bother of a Thursday evening at nine o'clock to even think about these things? Let me ask you, would it have made any difference to your faith if Athaliah had succeeded in destroying the whole house of David, root and branch, without exception. Well, here's a man thinks it would have made a difference to him. And it is too. Well, I won't take a vote then. Yes, for the simple reason that the promises of God were given to David before Athaliah was born, that he would have a son, and that his kingdom would eventually prosper and not fail. And as scripture went by, promise was added to promise of what the son of David would do. So that when our Lord came, the gospels frequently point out, don't they, that the crowd appealed to him, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on us. Yes. To Mary, the angel announced, you're going to have a child, Mary. He shall be called the Son of God, and God will give him the throne of his father, David. The Christian gospel is inextricably tied to the name David. Let me try to demonstrate that to you, if I may. Romans chapter one. For now, I'm on safe ground. For not all Christians know what one and two Kings is about, but all Christians know their Romans inside out and upside down. And here Paul is about to expound the gospel, and he says, do see, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh. Declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection. We notice that Christianity, if I may put it this way, is not a philosophy. Anybody with twopenny eightly worth, well, you'll need a bit more than that, six months worth of intelligence can concoct a philosophy. Some are better than others, of course. There's nothing wrong with philosophical thinking. But the Christian gospel did not come by philosophy. Christian gospel is rooted in history. It is about a savior who was of the seed of David. Would you know who this savior is and was and what connections he had? Well, he is of the seed of David, according to the flesh. Moreover, David said things that imply the deity of his son. Let me read you the famous words of Matthew chapter twenty two. This is Matthew twenty two and verse forty one following. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What think ye of the Messiah. Whose son is he? Please notice that he's not saying, what do you think of me? I am the Messiah, and what do you think of me? No, he's asking a theological question. What do you think of the Messiah? When he comes, whose son will he turn out to be? They say unto him, the son of David. He says to them, but if that's all he is, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet. If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son? I think... you Irish gentlemen will see the point of our Lord's remark very quickly. You have a son, maybe, and you're going with your dear wife on a Mediterranean cruise, and after that to South Africa and the penguins, and you won't be back for six months, and you say to your elder son, now, my lord, would you please consider possibly cutting the lawn once or twice? You don't say anything of the sort, do you? Call your son Lord. Be an unusual Irishman that did that, uh, do you see? Of course not. But David, talking in the spirit, inspired writer of the Psalm, says, do you see, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I put thine enemies under thy feet. If David then calleth him Lord, how is he simply his son? The Lord that is Jehovah says to my Lord, David's Lord. How is he merely David's son? We know, of course, and I don't need to emphasize it to you, that our blessed Lord, being of the seed of David, is not mere human, but is God incarnate. And, you know, I have been listening from time to time, as I've noticed you in worship, reading worshiply, worshipfully, the great song sung by multitudes and recorded in the Revelation chapter five About him who has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof because he was slain and has redeemed you to God by his blood out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And what is more, not only redeemed you, but made something of you. Made us a kingdom, people that obey God, and priests that worship God. I've noticed how dear to your heart it is. Who is it you're talking about? Well, it begins like this, doesn't it? The book was there in the right hand of him that sat on the throne. The challenge was issued. Who is worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof? For as each seal is opened, some judgment or other falls on earth. Who's worthy to do it? Not who has the power to do it, who is morally worthy to do it. And you have heard the answer. Weep not, says the angel to John, for the lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered. I don't know if you, if you like being saved by a Jew? The lion of the tribe of Judah. Only so. But when Paul was in Pisidian Antioch and preached in the synagogue, the first Sabbath, a lot of God-fearers came, as they used to come. For in many a Greek city, there were people called God-fearers. They had abandoned their paganism as being nonsense, and they used to attend the synagogue, do you see, because they felt that the synagogue preached a certain kind of philosophy, do you see? So they came, mostly the women, because, uh, they could join. The men would have to be circumcised, as discouraged them. And when Paul got up to preach and preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus, do you see? Be it known to you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all who believe are justified from all things, from which it is not possible to be justified by the law of Moses. And when the Gentiles heard this, they got excited. Here is a Jewish book telling of a Messiah who is to be a light to the Gentiles. The synagogue authorities were very angry with Paul. Paul couldn't make it out. But look, he said, look, look, look at the crowds coming. Didn't the prophets say that one day, through the advent of Messiah, the Gentiles would come? Look at them. Wonderful, isn't it? Sometimes I get the privilege of talking to a Jewish friend, and it goes as usual on the very well-worn things. It's you Christians that told the Sunday school children that it was the wicked Jews that crucified Jesus. You are responsible for the concentration camps and the gas chambers. I would say, my dear friend, do you know who killed Jesus? What do you mean? I said, I did. You, you did? What, what, what do you mean? Well, I said, Christians know what believe, that when Christ died, he died for our sins. According to the scriptures, there was no other way of forgiveness. So he died for our sins. Said, I'd no more accuse you, my good friend, of being the cause of Jesus' death than I would myself. I said, but you tell me. Another Jew. I said, you know, I'm an old Gentile. But I believe in God. Not just any kind of God either. I believe as a Gentile in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do you know who led me to that belief? And not only me, but millions of Gentiles. And his name is Jesus Christ. Find me another Jew that has led more Gentiles to believe. In the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And can offer forgiveness. In God's name. When Paul writes second Timothy, the executioner's axe was very near. And he writes to Tim. Tim, he says, remember Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, according to my gospel, conquering David, risen from the dead, and hallelujah. And he's soon coming, isn't he? At least I'm simple enough to take what his word says. This is the last book of the New Testament and the last chapter, and verse sixteen: I, Jesus, have sent mine angel unto you to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bride and morning. He didn't start like we do. He's the root of David. He is also the offspring. He is the bright and the morning star. He shall come and speak peace to our world under his rule. You say, but you didn't get round to telling us about Ahab. He's the juicy bit in this story, isn't he? Or if not Ahab, Ahaz. What about all this kind of stuff he did with the temple furniture? All right. I've run out of time. But God willing. If you're interested in hacking lavers to pieces or seeing it done or this and that and other, and pillars carted off to Babylon. Well, we should be delighted to welcome you once more. God bless his word. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank thee for thy holy word, written so long ago, but life breathing. We thank thee thou has discovered to us its very heartbeat in the person of thy dear son. We thank thee, Father, for bringing us as thy children into a little of thy plans that we might begin to understand them. Help us to live intelligently in our world, we pray, rightly to represent the interests of thy Son, as we look forward to his coming. Oh, thou bright morning star. Shine into our hearts, we pray. The comfort of thy beam. That we might be ready for thy coming as the noonday sun. We thank thee also for the refreshments we shall enjoy together and our Christian fellowship. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.