Scripture Reading: Heb. 4:12; 5:12-14
In this message we will give a concluding word to the supplement to the history of the kings of Judah.
The supplement in 1 and 2 Chronicles to the history of the kings covers only the kings of the kingdom of Judah and not one king of the kingdom of Israel.
Unlike the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah remained on the ground of the unity of God’s chosen people (Jerusalem) and kept the oneness according to the fundamental teaching of Moses.
Both the people of Judah and the people of Israel were the people of God. However, the people of Israel forsook God and made themselves the same as the people of mankind. As the elect of God Israel should have been sanctified, separated, unto the holy God. But the people of Israel, especially the kings, forsook God, turned to the idols, and set up centers of worship other than Jerusalem. That offended God to the uttermost. Israel was like a wife who forsakes her husband for another man. God, the Husband of His people, would never tolerate such a thing.
The kings of Judah remained on the ground chosen by God and stayed with God. In this matter God was happy with them. Although the condition of the kings of Judah was not pleasing to God, He was pleased with their standing on the proper ground and with their keeping of the fundamental faith according to God’s word released to them through Moses. Because of their standing, God still had a people on earth who stood with Him and who at least tried to keep His word.
The condition of the kings of Judah did not match their standing on the unique ground and their fundamental belief. Most of these kings were wrong in their intention, purpose, desire, and preference.
To some extent this may also be the situation in some places in the recovery today. Certain ones take the proper ground and keep the fundamental faith, yet they live in the flesh, in the self, and in the natural man. They may be selfish and pursue their own interest, seeking glory and exaltation. Even worse, they may have ambition, something that is hateful and abominable in the sight of God. The root of every rebellion that took place among us in the past seventy-two years has been this ugly and evil matter of ambition.
Most of the kings of Judah, like the kings of the kingdom of Israel, forsook God as the fountain of living waters and followed the idols to hew out for themselves broken cisterns which hold no water (Jer. 2:13). In principle, certain local churches have fallen somewhat into this kind of situation, forsaking the fountain of the living waters and following something else.
It seemed that none of the kings of Judah had a heart that was absolutely pure in seeking the kingdom of God, not their monarchy, and in establishing and living for the kingdom of God on the earth and not laboring and struggling for a monarchy for themselves and for their descendants. This is a picture of the situation in some so-called local churches.
The kings of Judah broke the law of God, which was given to them through Moses to govern them and keep them in the enjoyment of the God-promised good land. God not only gave His elect people the good land and transferred them out of Egypt and into this land; God also gave them the law to govern them and keep them in the enjoyment of the good land. However, the kings of Judah broke the law of God.
The law of God, which was decreed through Moses in the second part of Exodus, beginning from chapter twenty, and the entire book of Leviticus, had two sections — the moral section and the ceremonial section.
The moral section (Exo. 20—24) was composed mainly of the Ten Commandments. The first five commandments governed the relationship of God’s people with Him and their parents. The commandment regarding the honoring of parents was therefore ranked with the commandments which concerned their relationship with God. The last five commandments governed the relationship of God’s people among themselves.
The ceremonial section (Exo. 25—Lev. 27) was composed of the laws of the tabernacle, the offerings, the priesthood, and the feasts. These four things are all types of Christ.
The tabernacle typifies Christ as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9; John 1:14) for God’s people to contact Him and to enter into Him for their enjoyment. Christ has become a tabernacle, a dwelling place, which we can enter. This means that we can enter into Christ. Perhaps we need to practice saying, “Brother, let us enter into Christ. Let us go together into Christ and stay in Him.” To remain in Christ is to enjoy God in Christ as the tabernacle.
The offerings typify Christ as all kinds of sacrifices (Heb. 10:5-12) to meet the need of God toward His people and the need of His people before Him.
The priesthood typifies Christ as the High Priest (Heb. 8:1) taking care of God’s chosen people before God.
The feasts typify Christ as the bountiful enjoyment in every aspect assigned by God to His chosen people (Col. 2:16-17; Phil. 1:19).
The law of God is the portrait, the photograph, of God. Human laws always are a picture of the people who make them. This is true of the laws of every country. This is true even in your family life. The laws and regulations you make at home are your picture. The principle is the same with the law of God as a portrait of God. God’s law portrays what kind of God He is.
I appreciate the commandments about not killing, not committing adultery, not stealing, not lying, and not coveting. How good it would be if everyone on earth kept these commandments! Suppose in the whole world there were no killing, no adultery, no stealing, no lying, and no coveting. If you took away these five things, the earth would be like heaven. However, everywhere people are killing, committing adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting.
God’s people, His elect Israel, should have been different from mankind. They should have been a testimony of God, that is, the expression of God. If they had lived according to the law of God, they would have been the expression of God, for to keep the law is to express God. The kings of Judah stood on the ground chosen by God and they kept their belief in the Word of God, but they did not express God, because they did not keep the law of God. They did not live, conduct themselves, and have their being according to God’s law.
As the portrait of God and as the testimony of God, the law is a type of Christ. Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4). He is the totality, the consummation, of the law. Since the law is the image of God, to keep the law is to bear the image of God and express God.
The kings of Judah stood on the proper ground and kept the fundamental faith, but they did not keep the law of God and thus they did not bear the image of God. They broke the law again and again, and this caused God to be angry with them. Eventually God came in to take them away from the good land. He would not allow them to enjoy the good land which He had given them, because they did not express Him but instead expressed His enemy, the devil.
Today Christ is the good land (Col. 1:12). We have been put into Christ; we have been transferred into Him. We need to stand on the proper ground and keep the proper faith as Paul did (2 Tim. 4:7). We also need to live and walk in Christ (Col. 2:6), conducting ourselves according to God to be His expression. Then we will enjoy Him, and the border of our enjoyment of Christ as the good land will be enlarged (1 Chron. 4:10).
God knew that no man can keep the Ten Commandments as the moral section of His law to be justified by Him (Rom. 3:20). So, by His grace and according to His economy, He also gave His people the ceremonial section of His law, through which the condemned sinners, the breakers of the moral law of God, could contact Him and enter into Him to enjoy Him as their everything. In this way sinners could be justified by God to be righteous men (cf. Matt. 1:19a; Luke 1:6, 75; 2:25; 23:50). Foreknowing that we could not keep His commandments, God prepared the ceremonial law to be our salvation, to save us from the condemnation under the moral law.
The entire law of God was decreed to His people by Him with the intention to expose and convict His people by the moral section of His law, that they would be conducted to the ceremonial section of His law, that is, conducted to the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God for their redemption, salvation, and bountiful enjoyment in every aspect (Gal. 3:23-24) through all the ages unto eternity.
Since the kings broke the entire law of God, both the moral and the ceremonial sections, again and again, they provoked the wrath of God and caused Him to give their good land to the Gentiles and make them captives to the pagan nations. Thus, they lost their portion in the enjoyment of the God-promised good land. This miserable outcome has lasted for twenty-seven centuries until today.
To study the history books of the Old Testament in the way of life is to comply with God’s purpose, that these books were written in His divine revelation for our admonition and enlightenment (1 Cor. 10:11).
