Reading: 2 Chron. 35:1-29.
2 Chron. 35:1-2: "And Josiah kept a passover unto Jehovah in
Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of
the first month. And he set the priests in their offices,
and encouraged them to the service of the house of Jehovah."
Whatever He says do not begin to struggle after it,
remember that the first thing is apprehension by faith. If you
begin to struggle, you deny the finality of Christ's work; you are
saying in effect, "There is something to be done still to complete
that work", and there is nothing to be done except that faith
should take it. You will know by now the elementary truth that the
Holy Spirit only works to make things real where faith
appropriates. You have got to give the due value to what God has
done in Christ. We will come to that in a moment.
2 Chron. 35:3: "And he said unto the Levites that taught all
Israel, that were holy unto Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the
house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build;
there shall no more be a burden upon your shoulders: now serve
Jehovah your God, and his people Israel."
Put it in the House and get it off your shoulders. Perhaps you do
not recognise the value of that. Oh, you were trying to carry the
full weight of the responsibility of the testimony upon your own
shoulders when God has provided a place of corporate
responsibility, and the carrying of the testimony is the business
of the whole House. The full weight must never come upon the
shoulders of individuals. Now you are labouring under the burden
of the testimony; share it with others. Most of us have very great
cause for thanksgiving that the Lord ever opened our eyes and
hearts to the reality of the House of God. Some of us were going
along bearing a terrific burden of the testimony alone, carrying
it about on our own shoulders, and then the Lord brought about
very blessed spiritual fellowship with those who were also seeing
the testimony of Jesus. What we owe to that fellowship, that
prayer co-operation, what we owe to that mutual upholding!
Most of us know something of the blessed relief that comes in
having the House of God around you sharing the testimony. It is a
great blessing to have the Lord's people sharing the
responsibility of the testimony. So Josiah said, "Put it in the
house and it will no longer be a burden upon your (personal)
shoulders".
You have come here with your individual spiritual burden, and it
may be almost a crushing weight, though it may be a true burden.
You will find your relief as you cease to maintain an attitude or
position of exclusive individualism. You will find your
deliverance as you cease to be out in the cold, on your own
spiritually, and come into the warmth of the House of God.
God has provided the House to share the responsibility of your
spiritual burden concerning Himself. Only as you let go to the
Lord's people in fellowship, as you come into that mutual
fellowship with other saints, will you find your relief from that
crushing weight. The Lord does not want us to carry a weight like
that, though it be the burden of the Lord. He wants us to share it
in the House; so shall our shoulders be relieved from undue
pressure. If you are inclined to be a detached, separate one,
apart from the rest, and you are very conscious of your burden and
perhaps of your loneliness; perhaps you feel that no one else can
understand exactly your case, your position, and you think it is
no use trying to tell them; well, try fellowship. Try, by the
grace of God, to get above your own reserve, to get over your
spirit of detachment. Ask the Lord to help you to open your heart,
rightly, in the right direction, and come into fellowship.
We do not want to be so many units gathered together, we want to
be one; thus shall we come into the richness this chapter
represents, and thus find the burden on our shoulders lightened by
the Lord's people. The Lord must not see any of us going through
this conference as individuals. We have got to come in for our own
sakes and for the sake of others. When travelling a while ago, I
saw an advertisement, "We want to carry your burdens"! You must
not remain on the fringe of things. Maybe you are not sure what
these people are, whether they are safe or sound. Ask the Lord to
open your heart in love. You will never get anywhere if you put
your head into things. "No more a burden upon your shoulders".
Look right on to verse 6: "According to the word of the Lord by
Moses". Put these three together, gather them up and notice how
that in this thing everything is to be according to the word of
the Lord. It is the Word of God that governs the assembly of the
Lord's people. We speak of revelation, having things revealed by
the Spirit. That is perfectly right, but by that we never mean
anything extra to the Word of God. We mean that the Word of God in
its inner content and deeper meaning which is not opened generally
to us, is revealed to us by the Spirit. There are no prophets
according to God on the earth today, truly so, who get revelation
straight from God for the church, outside the Word of God. Any
such claim is a false claim. But there is much sealed up in the
Book that has not yet been revealed.
We must be governed by the Word: "To the law and to the testimony".
Bring everything to the Word. Join the aristocracy of those who
were more noble than those in Thessalonica, who searched the
Scriptures to see if these things were so. Search the Scriptures,
keep to the Word, but do go to the Word and ask the Lord to show
you. You would be surprised sometimes how the Word is hidden until
the Lord suddenly reminds us of it. On one occasion I quoted to a
dear man a certain chapter and verse. He read the chapter and he
said, "It is not there" and three times he questioned me until I
looked in his Bible and put my finger upon the verse. The man was
prejudiced against the thing I was pointing out, and prejudice
blinded him and made it impossible for him to see the Word when he
read it. Confirm everything by the Word.
2 Chron. 35:4-7: "And prepare yourselves after your fathers'
houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king
of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. And
stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the
fathers' houses of your brethren the children of the people, and
let there be for each a portion of a fathers' house of the
Levites. And kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and
prepare for your brethren, to do according to the word of the
Lord by Moses. And Josiah gave to the children of the
people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the
passover-offerings, unto all that were present, to the number of
thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the
king's substance."
That is real bounty! May we come into the measure of the king's
bounty, the king's riches, the king's measure of the appreciation
of the Lord Jesus. That is what it is. That is where you begin.
The king begins from his throne and gives his expression of his
appreciation of the Lord Jesus. Now we want to come up to His
measure of the appreciation.
2 Chron. 35:8,9: "And his princes gave for a freewill-offering
unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and
Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave unto
the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand and six
hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen. Conaniah also, and
Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and
Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for
the passover-offerings five thousand small cattle, and five
hundred oxen."
Now here is just a word by typology, symbolism that should be of
profit and guidance to us.
These were princes and leaders, people in high positions who were
making provision for the sacrifices for the people, and they
represent those who have, shall we say, an advanced, a more
mature, a more highly developed appreciation of the Lord Jesus.
Therefore it is in their power by reason of their spiritual
wealth, their spiritual development and maturity, to bring for all
the others a rich appreciation of the Lord Jesus. If you have
larger wealth spiritually, than another or than others, if you
have a more advanced spiritual life and knowledge of the Lord,
then you must bring your spiritual riches, your spiritual goods,
your larger apprehension and enjoyment and knowledge of the Lord
to help others into your fulness. That is what is happening here.
And you who think you may have a very little to give or to bring,
a very little knowledge of the Lord, very small riches, very
meagre spiritual development, that you have not grown very much,
well, remember the Lord has provided among you those to whom He
has committed His riches, and that they are there for your
enrichment, for your good, for your enlargement. Draw upon them
and take advantage, come into their appreciation of the Lord Jesus
and do not shrivel up and say, "Well I am the least among the
Lord's people and I do not count very much; they are all so much
ahead of me... I am out of it." Well, they know for your sake, for
your good, for your enrichment. Do not be jealously inclined and
go off and say, "If I can't win I shall not play"! Come and take
advantage of the spiritual enrichment.
Anybody who may think they are a prince, do not keep your
spiritual goods to yourselves. Remember the Lord has entrusted to
you for others. Let them have it. This is maturity and this is
what makes for such a day as this in Josiah's time, a very blessed
day indeed.
2 Chron. 35:10-13: "So the service was prepared, and the
priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their courses,
according to the king's commandment. And they killed the
passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they
received of their hand, and the Levites flayed them. And they
removed the burnt-offerings, that they might give them according
to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of the
people, to offer unto Jehovah, as it is written in the book of
Moses. And so did they with the oxen. And they roasted
the passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy
offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and
carried them quickly to all the children of the people."
You know the meaning of that by now, the threefold method of the
fire's activity: the pots, the caldrons and the pans. There are
secret testings of fire which are not seen in the closed pot,
which are only seen in the caldron when you take the trouble to
look in and examine and understand. But there are those testings
of fire in the open pan, open to all eyes. Those are the testings
of the Lord Jesus; in secret where no one saw, in that other life
where only a few understood, but in that other life where all
could see the action of the fire upon Him. So this threefold
apprehension of the suffering of the Lord Jesus is set forth here
in this Passover. May we have an appreciation of Him from all
these standpoints - an inner understanding of what the fire meant
in His life.
2 Chron. 35:14: "And afterward they prepared for themselves,
and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were
busied in offering the burnt-offerings and the fat until night:
therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the
priests the sons of Aaron."
In this work, in looking after the greater need of the Lord's
people their own need was met.
2 Chron. 35:15-27: "And the singers the sons of Asaph were in
their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph,
and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at
every gate: they needed not to depart from their service; for
their brethren the Levites prepared for them. So all the
service of the Lord was prepared the same day, to keep the
passover, and to offer burnt-offerings upon the altar of the
Lord, according to the commandment of king Josiah. And the
children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that
time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. And
there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days
of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel
keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the
Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of
Josiah was this passover kept. After all this, when
Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to
fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out
against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I
to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee
this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God
hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with
God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but
disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened
not unto the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to
fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king
Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I
am sore wounded. So his servants took him out of the
chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and
brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the
sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned
for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the
singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their
lamentations unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in
Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds,
according to that which is written in the law of the Lord, and
his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book
of the kings of Israel and Judah."
You always get a reaction from the enemy especially at the end
of a conference, for example. Do not forget that comes at the end
of every conference. We should be prepared, know what to expect. A
glorious time, glorying in the Lord, exulting in Him, honouring
Him, giving Him His place and then you would be surprised how
often something like this occurs.
Look earlier in this book to the reforms of Hezekiah, and you
find the very same thing happened. Whenever there has been some
special honouring of God, setting the rights of God in their
place, there is a tremendous reaction of the enemy. Let us know
what to expect. He will not like it, we shall have to meet him,
but blessed be God this celebration is the way to victory, this
precious testimony is triumphant, and we shall never have to meet
the enemy except in the power of an already accomplished victory.
May we stand our ground in the day when the enemy reacts. And may
the Lord bring us to gather round Him and to have real fellowship
around the Lord Jesus and to have Him as our one Object:
everything unto the Lord, for His Name's sake.