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1
Chronicles Chapter Twenty-two
1 Chronicles 22
Chapter Contents
David's preparations for the temple. (1-5) David's instructions
to Solomon. (6-16) The prices commanded to assist. (17-19)
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 22:1-5
(Read 1 Chronicles 22:1-5)
On occasion of the terrible judgment inflicted on Israel
for the sin of David, God pointed out the place where he would have the temple
built; upon which, David was excited to make preparations for the great work.
David must not build, but he would do all he could; he prepared abundantly
before his death. What our hands find to do for God, and our souls, and those
round us, let us do it with all our might, before our death; for after death
there is no device nor working. And when the Lord refuses to employ us in those
services which we desired, we must not be discouraged or idle, but do what we
can, though in a humbler sphere.
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 22:6-16
(Read 1 Chronicles 22:6-16)
David gives Solomon the reason why he should build the
temple. Because God named him. Nothing is more powerful to engage us in any
service for God, than to know that we are appointed thereto. Because he would
have leisure and opportunity to do it. He should have peace and quietness.
Where God gives rest, he expects work. Because God had promised to establish
his kingdom. God's gracious promises should quicken and strengthen our
religious service. David delivered to Solomon an account of the vast
preparations he had made for this building; not from pride and vain-glory, but
to encourage Solomon to engage cheerfully in the great work. He must not think,
by building the temple, to purchase a dispensation to sin; on the contrary, his
doing that would not be accepted, if he did not take heed to fulfil the
statutes of the Lord. In our spiritual work, as well as in our spiritual
warfare, we have need of courage and resolution.
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 22:17-19
(Read 1 Chronicles 22:17-19)
Whatever is done towards rendering the word of God
generally known and attended to, is like bringing a stone, or an ingot of gold,
towards erecting the temple. This should encourage us when we grieve that we do
not see more fruit of our labours; much good may appear after our death, which
we never thought of. Let us not then be weary of well doing. The work is in the
hands of the Prince of peace. As he, the Author and Finisher of the work, is
pleased to employ us as his instruments, let us arise and be doing, encouraging
and helping one another; working by his rule, after his example, in dependence
on his grace, assured that he will be with us, and that our labour shall not be
in vain in the Lord.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Chronicles》
1 Chronicles 22
Verse 1
[1] Then
David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the
burnt offering for Israel.
Said —
Thro' the instinct and direction of God's spirit, by which as he is said to
have had the pattern of the house, porch, altar, etc. 1 Chronicles 28:11,12,19, so doubtless he was
instructed as to the place where the house should be built.
This —
This is the place appointed by God for the building of his temple and altar.
Verse 5
[5] And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is
to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory
throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So
David prepared abundantly before his death.
Prepared, … —
And good reason, because it was intended for the honour of the great God, and
was to be a type of Christ, in whom all fulness dwells, and in whom are hid all
treasures.
Verse 8
[8] But
the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and
hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou
hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
Shed blood —
Not that wars are simply unlawful, but to teach us that the church (whereof the
temple was an illustrious type) should be built by Christ, the prince of peace,
Isaiah 9:6, and that it should be gathered and
built up, not by might or power but by God's spirit, Zechariah 4:6, and by the preaching the Gospel
of peace. David therefore was less fit for that service, than one who had not
been called to such bloody work. Likewise by setting him aside for this reason,
God shewed how precious human life is to him.
Verse 14
[14] Now,
behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred
thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of
brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone
have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.
Trouble —
This he alleges as a reason why he could do no more, because of the many wars,
whereby much of his treasures were exhausted.
Talents — A
talent of Gold in the first constitution was three thousand shekels, as may be
gathered from Exodus 38:24,25,26, and so this amounts to a
vast sum, yet not impossible for David to get, considering how many and great
conquests he made, and what vast spoils and presents he got; and that he
endeavoured by all honourable ways to get as much as he could, out of zeal for
God's house. And whereas some object, that this quantity of gold and silver was
sufficient, tho' the whole fabrick of the temple had consisted of massy gold
and silver, it is to be considered, that all this treasure was not spent upon
the materials of the temple, but a great part of it upon the workmen, who were
nigh two hundred thousand, whereof a great number were officers, and what was
not employed in the building of the temple, was laid up in the sacred
treasures.
Verse 16
[16] Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number.
Arise therefore, and be doing, and the LORD be with thee.
Be doing —
When thou shalt come to the throne. The sense of God's presence must not
slacken our endeavours; because he is with us, we must rise and be doing. Then
he will be with us even to the end. Work out your salvation, and God will work
in you.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Chronicles》
22 Chapter 22
Verse 2
And David commanded to gather together the strangers.
What we cannot destroy may be usefully employed
Whom we are not able to destroy we may be able to employ in holy
service, is a doctrine which is not applicable to persons only, but has a
distinct reference to emotions, passions, impulses, and sympathies. We are to
hold ourselves in bondage, and often we are to drive ourselves to forced
labour, and to become hewers of wood and stone, bearers of burdens, and indeed
slaves to our higher manhood. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 3
And David prepared iron in abundance.
Builders
It sometimes becomes difficult to say who really did build the
temple, so little was left for Solomon to do. Is it not so with all the temples
of civilisation? Who built the temple of literature? Who erected the temple of
science? Who is the architect, and who the builder of the temple of discovery?
The last man is so immediately behind us, that we dare not take credit to
ourselves for aught we do; so much has been done in preparation that when we
speak of the temple we say it was built by the age, or the generation, or the
spirit of the times. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 5
And David said, Solomon my son is young.
The ideal temple
I. The motive
which set David to work in preparing for building the temple. This motive was
thankfulness for a great mercy--God’s mercy in arresting the pestilence. God
sends us deliverances from earthly calamities, not merely, not chiefly, that we
may be delivered, but that our hearts may rise in thankfulness to Him. The soul
gains more by the effort of thankfulness than the body has gained by
deliverance from the physical mischief. The deliverance without the
thankfulness is a sheer failure, baulking the providential purposes of God.
Life would be brighter and stronger if each mercy were the occasion of a
resolution to do some piece of good work for God.
II. The high
estimate david had formed of what he had set himself to do: “Exceeding
magnifical,” etc. He felt that a great effort was due, first of all to God
Himself, as being what He is, and next, for the sake of those who did not know
Him--the surrounding heathen peoples, who must not think meanly of what God’s
servants thought to be due to His service. If anything is fatal to greatness in
human endeavour, in act, in work, in character, it is a stunted estimate of
what we have to do. The artist who has no ideal before him, or only a poor and
meagre ideal, cannot hope to succeed. It is so with all forms of external
enterprise. It is so with the formation of character. If we set out by saying
that it is impossible to attain to anything great or noble, most certainly we
never shall attain to it. We must make up our minds that the house of the Lord,
whether it be material or spiritual, must be exceeding magnifical. No honest
student of David’s Psalms can maintain that he was ignorant of the true meaning of
spiritual worship; or that he thought more of the things of sense than of the action
of the soul in its approach to the Holy One; but his spirituality was not of
that unwise kind which imperils the very existence of religion among men by
doing away with all the outward symbols of its presence. Worship will not be
the less spiritual when man has done his very uttermost in his poor way to
express in outward and material structure his sense of the unapproachable
magnificence of God.
III. The great
distinction of David’s work of preparation for the temple is its unselfishness.
One of the sternest lessons a man learns with advancing life is the disabling
power of sin. Long after we have sincerely repented of sin it haunts us with
its double legacy of a dimmed moral eyesight and of an enfeebled will; and even
where these effects do not follow, as in David’s case they did not follow, sin
remains with us as a memory which tells us when we would attempt something
beyond the work of other men, something heroic, something sublime, something
that belongs to the career of the saints, that, other matters apart, we are not
the men to do it. The discovery that he would not be allowed to express his
devotion in one supreme effort must have caused David a shock which we may not
easily take measure of. But David did not think of the temple as having to be built
either for his own glory or for Solomon’s glory, but for the glory of God. And
so David prepared for it with all his heart.
IV. David’s
preparation points to a great truth--the preciousness of work unrecognised by
man. David does the work, Solomon is decorated with the reputation. Almost
every discovery in science has been led up to by forgotten workers. The
discoverer, who, after all, has only taken the last step in a long process,
lives in history. A minister rises in his place in Parliament to make a
statement which astonishes us by its familiarity with the details of a vast and
intricate subject; but while the country is ringing with his praises the fact
is that the knowledge which so astonishes England has been brought together by
the patient toil of the permanent staff of the department, the toil of clerks
whose names are, perhaps, unknown beyond their own families. Much more is this
the case with the best work in the Church of Jesus Christ. (Canon Liddon.)
The inspiration of a lofty ideal
We expend our strength according to the ideals which it is our
purpose to realise. The man who has not a high ideal of his work will be
content with indifference, and with doing as little as possible. How profitable
it would be if every young life could say at the beginning of its career, “My
life is to be exceeding magnifical: it is to be a life of intelligence, purity,
beneficence, holy activity in all blessed service: I will now make preparation
for it.” What school-going we should then have! What attentive reading of
initial books! What an eager sympathy with the purpose of every tutor! How
little we should then make of difficulties! The work of preparation would be
done under the consciousness that the temple was already built. (J. Parker,
D. D.)
David and the temple
A fine and delicate sense of the becoming hindered David from
building the temple. A voice within him had whispered, “No: however right and
praiseworthy the idea, you are hardly the man to carry it out. Your hands are
too stained with blood.” When the Divine word came, simply interdicting, it
awoke in him at once a Divine perception of the reason and reasonableness of
it; and the God-taught, God-chastened spirit within him made him see at once
why the work of enshrining the ark, the ark of the holy and awful presence,
must not he his.
I. Consider the
remarkable self-restraint displayed by david. He who had lived much in camps
and on the battlefield, whose will was law through the length and breadth of
the land--he could stay himself from prosecuting his daring scheme with the
thought of incongruity.
II. The
self-restraint of David reveals the intense reality which god was to him, as well as the
impression which he had of the character of God. How pure and lofty would be
his conception of the almighty Ruler when it struck him as altogether
inappropriate and inconsistent that a shrine should be built for Him by one who
had been engaged, however patriotically and for the interests of his country,
in shedding much human blood.
1. The picture indicates that, although a man of war from his youth, David had never
been proud of fighting. He had had dreams perhaps in his father’s fields of
quite another sort of career for himself, and could see something far more
attractive and desirable; it was not his ideal life; but it was what his lot
had rendered inevitable for him and incumbent on him; it was what he had to do,
and he did it.
2. Then, ones more, observe revealed here the remarkable preservation
of David’s higher sensibilities. Neither the tumult and strife of years of
warfare, nor the elation of successes gained by bow and spear, had prevailed to
coarsen him, to render him gross and dull of soul. He emerges from it all, on
the contrary, sensitive enough to answer readily to the whispered suggestions
of seemliness, to be restrained and turned back upon the threshold of a coveted
enterprise by a sense of the becoming.
3. Although precluded from doing what he had purposed and wished to
do, he did not, as is the case with many, make that an excuse for doing nothing;
did not, therefore, sulkily fold his hands, and decline to see what there was
that he might do.
4. Then see how his true thought and noble aim survived him, and
survived him to be ultimately realised. The temple grew and rose at last in all
its wonderful splendour, though he was not there to behold it. (S. A. Tipple.)
Working up to death
We should work up to the very moment of our death. Our last breath
should, if possible, help some other man to pray better, or to work more, or
suffer with a firmer constancy. Let no man suppose that the world stands still
because he dies. God has always a temple to build, and He will always raise up
the builders of it, and yet it pleases Him in His condescension to receive our
assistance in preparation. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verses 6-19
Then he called for Solomon his son.
David’s charge to Solomon
I. A father’s
privilege.
1. To cherish a lofty ideal for his son. This does not require that
the father should undertake to decide the particulars of his son’s career. This
would involve the danger of weakening his will, of lessening his power of
independent judgment and free choice. I have seen an apricot tree trained to a
wall, trunk and branch fastened to it by nails and bands. It made a vine of
what was meant to be a tree. If it had been taken from the wall it would have
lain limp on the ground.
2. To make the example of his own daily living one which will help
and stimulate his son. A wise father will recognise the fact that he commends
to his boy, not that which he praises, but that which he pursues. It is not by
telling our children what we wish them to become that we mould them most
effectually; it is by the evidence which they get from our daily living, as to
bur main desire and hope for them. The unintended influence of the home is that
which will move them most. The atmospheric influence is more pervasive than
that which comes from medicine.
3. He may provide means by which his son may carry out his purpose
and friends to help him in it.
II. A son’s
advantage. From all that a good father thus can do a son has no small
advantage.
1. By the law of heredity.
2. By this harmonious environment a wise father can largely shape the
influences under which his son grows up.
3. By the improved opportunity which comes to him as his father’s son
and heir. Solomon has but to keep with care what David has acquired with hard
work. The son stands naturally upon the platform to reach which the father has
come by climbing the steep ladder. Many a son to-day has grand opportunity for
noble living which has been gained for him by the toils of those who have gone
before him. But only opportunity. There is a sermon in the word opportunity. It
is that which is ob portus, over against the harbour; but there your fleet may
rot at anchor as readily as it may be submerged at sea. The skilful master must
raise the anchor, set the sail, take advantage of the favouring breeze, steer
his craft to port, or all the shipbuilder’s skill has been for naught. All the
advantages of the most favoured son will amount to nothing unless he will
himself arise and build. Honour is not in what is inherited, but in what is
accomplished. (Monday Club Sermons.)
David’s charge to Solomon:--
Learn
I. That some
originate a good work, but are not permitted to execute it.
II. That others may
be called to execute work which they never originated.
III. That when
called, they should finish the work given them to do. (J. Wolfendale.)
But the word of the Lord
came to me, saying.--
God’s word to David
How the word of the Lord came to David we do not know. In what way
soever the communication was made to David, the communication itself is of
singular moral value.
1. Say that the Lord delivered the message immediately in audible
words, we have then the doctrine that God will not permit men of blood to end
their career as if they had been guiltless of blood-shedding.
2. Say that David uttered these words out of the depths of his own
consciousness, then we have the doctrine that there is a moral fitness of
things that hands stained with blood should not be put forth in the erection of
a house of prayer. The house of God is to be a house of peace, the sanctuary of
rest, a Sabbatic building, calm with the tranquillity of heaven, unstained by
the vices and attachments of earth. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Behold, a son shall be
born to thee.
A son predicted
I. Son of David;
so was Christ.
II. A man of rest;
so was Christ.
III. The giver of
peace; so was Christ.
IV. He had a
significant name; so has Jesus Christ.
V. He was a
glorious king; so is Christ.
VI. His great work
was the building of the temple; so is the work of Christ. (Biblical Museum.)
The prediction of Solomon’s birth
This is a forecast which is full of moral instruction; it shows
how God knows every man who is coming into the world, what his character will
be, what function he will have to discharge, and what will be the effect of his
ministry upon his day and generation. The Christian believes that every event
is ordered from above, that every man is born at the right time, is permitted
to live for a proper period if he be obedient to providence, and that the
mission of every man is assigned, limited, and accentuated: all we have to do is to say,
“Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” and to obey what we honestly believe to
be the voice from heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verses 11-13
Now, my son, the Lord be with thee.
A father’s prayer for his son
I. For the
possession of moral qualities.
1. Wisdom and understanding.
2. Strength end moral courage.
II. For the
presence of God.
III. For successful
undertaking. (J. Wolfendale.)
Condition of successful effort
I. Personal
fitness.
1. Wisdom to direct.
2. Strength to work.
II. God’s presence
to help in its prosecution.
III. Loyal obedience
to god: “keep the law of the Lord.” (J. Wolfendale.)
The qualifications needed
I. The source from
whence they come.
II. The design for
which they are given. (J. Wolfendale.)
Keeping God’s law
I. God’s will is a
law.
II. This law should
be kept.
III. Obedience to
this law is wisdom. (J. Wolfendale.)
Right training
We have read that Solomon was young and tender, young and timid; it
would seem as if David, recognising the timidity of his son, specially charged
him to cultivate courage, bravery, fearlessness. This was training up a child
in the way he should go. We are too fond of training our strongest faculties,
and thus we are tempted to neglect the weaker side of our nature. Find out the
weak side of a child’s character, and address yourself assiduously to its
cultivation. We should seek to fall the empty sack, not to overcrowd the full
one. Bring into play the muscles that are most difficult to get at, and do not
overtrain those which afford the fairest prospect of immediate results. When we
complain of a weak memory, or a hesitant will, or a defective imagination, we
should address ourselves to the cultivation of that which is in special need of
culture. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 14
Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the
Lord.
Great enterprises for God
I. That great
things done for God look poor in the sight of the noble souls by whom they are
done. “Now, behold in my trouble,” or as rendered in the margin, “in my
poverty,” or as it is given in the margin of the Revised. Version, “in my low
estate,” “have I prepared for the house of the Lord.” Speaking after the manner
of men, David had really made great preparations for his sacred design. It has
been calculated that as much gold was used in the building of the temple as is
usually stored in the vaults of the Bank of England, and toward this lavish
expenditure David made a large contribution: “A thousand talents of silver.”
This is reckoned such an incredible quantity that some scholars suspect that an
error has crept into the text. Brass and iron, timber and stone, were also
prepared in abundance. Yet the king does not regard his gifts with
complacency--there is no trace of pride or boasting; on the contrary, he feels
that his offerings are poor and inadequate. It is ever thus with noble souls;
however great in the sight of the multitude is their work or sacrifice, they
mourn over it as over a mean and incommensurable thing. If any man thinks that
his sacrifice for the cause of God is notable and adequate, there is something
wrong with the size of that man’s soul.
1. Whatever we are, we are poor by the side of what God is. The god
in many an idol temple is a poor creature indeed when compared with the
splendid fabric in which it is worshipped; it is a shock to turn from the
gorgeous workmanship of the shrine to the stained, ugly, contemptible idol.
Exactly the contrary of this was true in regard to Solomon’s temple. However
glorious the building, it was yet an unworthy footstool of the God whom Israel
knew and worshipped. The God of Israel was the Eternal; the Creator of earth
and heaven; the only wise God; the God of truth and without iniquity, just and
right; glorious in holiness, delighting in mercy, doing wonders. When tempted
to spiritual pride and vanity let us be humbled by “the beauty of the Lord.” If
you wish to gain a true estimate of yourself do not measure yourself by your
neighbour; judge yourself in the sight of God, and your righteousness shall
fade as a leaf. The sight of God makes the millionaire a penitent, and as
penitents we must strive to build His house again.
2. Whatever we do is poor by the side of what God does. We must
notice how both David and Solomon cast side-glances at the vastness and
magnificence of the temple built without hands. “But will God in very deed
dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot
contain Thee; how much less the house which I have builded.” Whatever they
might build was narrow and mean in comparison with heaven and the heaven of
heavens. It is a fine discipline to compare our best workmanship with the work
of His fingers. The chemist can produce an artificial rainbow, but nobody will
mistake the stage rainbow for God Almighty’s rainbow. It is well in a
generation of intellectual power and artistic skill to put our creations by the
side of God’s marvellous doings so that we may not forget. “In my poverty have
I done this,” is the confession of every noble artist who criticises his work
in the light of nature’s perfections and the glory of the world.
3. Whatever we give is poor by the side of what God gives. What a
magnificent giver God is I We see that in the boundless, infinite outpouring of
the riches of nature. And we see that supremely in the redemption of the world
by our Lord Jesus Christ. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” If we
take our richest gift and grandest sacrifice to Calvary they dwindle into
nothing in sight of the Cross. Then it is that we pour contempt on all our
pride. So in the sight of God’s personal perfection, and in remembrance of His
gifts and works, David felt his talents of gold, his ingots of silver, his
forests of cedar, his quarries of marble, his abundance of iron and brass were
trivial; they did not pay his debt to God, they simply acknowledged it. If,
then, when at our best we are poor, let us not live below our best. David, at
least, did his best; let us do ours. Let us not mock God by any paltriness of
spirit.
II. Great things
must be attempted for God in the face of the most discouraging conditions.
David certainly proposed to do great things for God. He had set his heart upon
building a house for God that should “be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of
glory throughout all countries.” Familiar as were the nations round about with
wonderful architecture end splendid adornments, David proposed to build a
sanctuary for the true God that should eclipse them all. But no sooner did he
attempt to work out his pious design than he became conscious of the crippling
disabilities of human life, of the narrowness and hostility of the human
environment. We have a fine time of it whilst we dream and design; the
imagination and emotions know nothing of narrowness, difficulty, or defeat. I
should like to see the temples you never build; I should like you to hear the
sermons I never preach. But as soon as we essay to turn thought into fact our
troubles begin. It is always a critical moment when we proceed from idealism to
action. It was so with David. He no sooner attempted to take the temple out of
his heart and plant it on Mount Zion than he became conscious that he was poor,
afflicted, and of low estate. But--and here is the lesson--all the great work
of the world has to be undertaken and carried out with the sense of
disheartening difficulty and discouragement. Whenever we thoughtfully look at
the splendid achievements of industry, science, literature, and art we feel
that an infinite pathos enters into the contemplation. The angels “who excel in
strength” may do splendid things with a touch, a breath, a look, but we mortals
in poverty and weakness and suffering have built up the whole magnificent
fabric of civilisation. And all the great work of the Christian world has been
done in similar strenuousness and sacrifice. Not out of a superabundance of
wealth, learning, leisure, and opportunity has the Church of Christ floated
into power and universality,
but in defiance of circumstance does it win its widening way. In what deep
poverty Christianity had its origin! Christ is the supreme example of the fact
that glorious work must be done in profound discouragement. II David built his
golden house in poverty, did not his greater Son in a far deeper poverty build
His Church which is becoming the refuge of men of all nations, languages, and
tongues? The Cross is the grand symbol of His life and work and mission.
Indeed, the primitive Church wrought out its great task of evangelisation and
establishment amid unparalleled difficulties and a great fight of afflictions;
and through successive generations the expansion of Christ’s kingdom has been a
series of victories over manifold limitations, oppositions, and persecutions.
If you are prepared to do anything for God that is in the least degree worthy
of Him, gird yourself and be ready to face almost overwhelming difficulty. If
you mean only little things for God, you will have little trouble in doing
them; and if you mean less things than that, you will have no trouble at all;
but if God has put a great thought into your heart it will mean a sacrifice and
a battle. You never do a really large thing easily. The work you passionately
desire always looms impossible. Circumstances fetter you, but you must
resolutely work in fetters. Physical weakness must not deter you. Do not excuse
yourself because you have no leisure. Half the work of the world is done by men
who have no time, and who therefore make it. Do not allow the gathering
infirmities of age to quench your zeal and effort. Put into the narrowing range
of work higher qualities of faith and devotion. Do not even allow private
sorrows to deny or discount your public service. When a young Greek soldier
complained that his sword was short, a veteran instantly answered him, “Then
add a step to it.” And I say to you who find yourselves short of time, short of
money, short of strength, short of opportunity, “Add a step”; in other words,
make up for the deficiencies of material, opportunity, and instrument by an
intenser resolution, enthusiasm, and sacrifice. “Well,” you reply, “a man can
do no more than he can do!” Now that sounds like a very deep philosophical
saying that you must take slowly in, but in fact it means nothing. Men never
know what they are, what they can give, what they can do, until their soul
awakes. “Stir up the gift that is in thee.” “Out of my trouble have I done
this,” might have been the confession of Tycho Brahe, who made his great
discoveries without a telescope, showing that what an astronomer chiefly wants
is not a big glass but a big eye. “Out of my trouble have I done this,” might
have been the confession of Christopher Columbus, who crossed the Atlantic in an
old tub that we should hardly use to-day for a Newcastle collier. “Out of my
poverty have I done this,” might have been the plaint of Turner, who painted
some of his masterpieces with colours mixed in broken teacups. “Out of my
trouble have I done this,” says John Milton, old, poor, and blind, as he
enriches the world with “Paradise Lost.” “Out of my low estate have I done
this,” says John Bunyan, when he gives you out of Bedford jail the Land of
Beulah, the Palace Beautiful, the shining ones, the country that is green the
year round, the city of gold and glass, which when we see we wish that we were
there. Do not wait until you have “spare time,” “spare cash,” or “spare”
anything else; do your best with things as they are, and faith, which is the
genius of the heart, will surprise you and the world. However poor and
inadequate our work may seem, God will prosper and multiply it in an
extraordinary degree. David felt his poverty, but God brought the thought of
his heart to the utmost fruition. “Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord,
and the king’s house; and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the
house of the Lord, and in his own house he prosperously effected.” (W. L.
Watkinson.)
One worker preparing for another
Let us notice--
I. That david had
zealously done his part.
1. He had gathered the materials. Many a man collects people
together, and yet he has not the fashioning of them--he does not see many
conversions.
2. He fashioned some of the materials.
3. He prepared the way for Solomon’s temple.
4. He found the site for the temple. We do not always remember the
men who prepare the sites for the Lord’s temples. Luther is remembered, but
there were reformers before Luther.
5. It was David who received the plans from God.
6. He gave a solemn charge to others.
7. Have you done your part?
II. David had done
his part in trouble.
1. David thought little of what he had prepared. It is those who do
little for the Lord who are like a hen with one chick--they think a great deal
of it.
2. It was a proof of his sincerity. David in the day of his trouble,
when his heart was ready to break, still went on with his great work of
providing for the house of the Lord.
3. It was an incentive to service.
4. It must have given an elevation to David’s whole life.
III. David’s work
fits on to the work of another.
1. This is the order of God’s providence in His Church. I am told
that my venerable predecessor, Dr. Rippon, used often, in his pulpit to pray
for somebody, of whom he knew nothing, who would follow him in the ministry of
the Church, and greatly increase it. He died and passed to heaven about the
time I was born. Older members of the Church have told me that they have read
the answer to Dr. Rippon’s prayers in the blessing that has been given to us
these many years.
2. But this is a terrible blow at self. Self says, “I like to begin
something of my own, and I like to carry it out; I do not want any
interference.” There are some who do not want any help; they are quite up to
the mark; they are like a waggon and four horses, and a dog under the waggon as
well.
3. I believe that it is good for the work to have a change of
workers.
4. This creates unity in the Church of God.
5. This leaves a place for those who come after. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
And thou mayest add
thereto.--
Limited liability
So David encourages Solomon to arise and build the temple. The
king had done his best to facilitate the building, and now he urges the young
prince to come forth and do his part. It may be appropriate to reflect a little
upon the fellowship of service, to remember our mutual limitations and
responsibilities, and to encourage one another in service.
I. Let us observe
the circumscriptions of human service. David could not take in hand the whole
business, and build the temple independently of Solomon and everybody else. He
soon discovered his limitations, and knew that if the great enterprise were to
be carried out he would have to take Solomon into partnership, and Solomon
would have to take the nation into, partnership.
1. We are subject to personal, constitutional circumscriptions from
which we cannot escape. We have a certain gift and susceptibility, and within
the lines prescribed by our special endowment we can work happily and
effectively, but we make sorry work when we attempt anything beyond those
lines. We have all heard of the mathematician who, on hearing “Paradise Lost”
read, wished to know what it proved. Well, it proved that a cell was wanting in
his brain, and that he soon gave himself away when he got off his own proper ground.
We talk of “all-round” men, but strictly speaking such men do not exist. All
have the defects of their qualities with strange work. We may easily get into a
place that we do not fit; easily attempt work for which we have no faculty.
2. We are subject to circumscriptions of circumstance. We see this in
the case of David. He had gifts and aspirations which the trend of events did
not permit him to exercise and develop. The sword was thrust into his hand when
he would have preferred the harp; he was condemned to deal with politics when
he longed to write poetry; he was shut up to empire-building when he felt the
passion strong to temple-building. We possess faculties that our life does not
permit us to cultivate, aspirations that we may not gratify. Some birds have
little or no song in the wild state, although they have highly developed song
muscles which they can turn to excellent account in other and favourable
circumstances. Our environment is often too strong for us, and we must coerce
ourselves into the performance of duties for which we have little or no
inclination.
3. And then we all suffer from the circumscription of time. “David
prepared before his death.” We have only life’s little day for our large,
manifold, and strenuous speculations. “We are strangers and pilgrims, as all
our fathers were.” And this is just as true of the higher service of the race
as it is true of intellectual, political, and material service. We are
restricted to narrow bounds, and can do only here a little and there a little.
II. Let us,
however, observe to our encouragement the continuity of human service. What
David could do he did, and what he could not do he passed on with confidence to
Solomon. There is wonderful continuity and coherence in the action of man. Leo
Grindon says: “Nothing so plainly distinguishes between man and brutes as the
absolute nothingness of effect in the work of the latter. Unless the coral
isles be esteemed an exception, of all the past labours of all the animals that
ever existed, there is not a trace extant.” No; the irrational creatures have
been sagacious in an extreme degree, they have been active and energetic from
the beginning, powerful, clever, but there is no conservation of their work, no
perpetuation, no accumulation. It ceases with the life of the individual or
with the existence of the special community. Myriads of bees, birds, ants, and
beavers, curious, restless workers, but nothing of their creations and
fabrications survive. But it is strangely different with man. Frail and fugitive
as the individual may be, we have the ability to bequeath our small personal
contribution to the general and increasing wealth of the race. There is a
physical law in the animal world which economises the experience of the
individual for the benefit of the species, but we have the immense advantage of
a social law which preserves and perpetuates in an extraordinary degree the
services and sacrifices of the humblest individual. We see this in the
intellectual world. Our glorious things in literature and art are the legacies
of our gifted ancestors. The architecture of Assyria, the astronomy of Chaldea,
the pottery of Etruria, the science of Egypt, the art of Greece, the
jurisprudence of Rome, the moral science of Palestine, have come down to us
corrected, enlarged, perfected by successive generations. Bees have been making
comb for ages, and yet there is nothing to show for it to-day; but swarms of
golden bees from Homer to Tennyson have filled a million cells in the British
Museum with immortal sweetness. No phonograph has caught and preserved the
music of the birds, although they have piped from the morning of time; but the
songs and symphonies of ancient minstrels stir our souls with deep thoughts and
passions. And once again we see this continuity of service in the national
life. Our fathers bequeathed us this great empire. Your toils and sacrifices
will be conserved, they will be added to the general stock, they will survive
for ages. Here is our grand comfort and encouragement. Real work is wealth that
moth and rust do not corrupt.
III. Observe,
lastly, to your encouragement, the complementariness Of human service. What
David could not do Solomon could do. What is missing in one man is found in
another; what is lacking in one man’s service is supplied by the service of
another. We see at a glance that men are wonderfully different from each other.
Living things and creatures have always an individuality more or less sharp.
Artificial things are uniform. The roses on my drawing-room paper are
surprisingly alike--exactly the
same size, the same colour, the same number of leaves, the
flowers grow at precisely the same distance from each other, grow at the same
angle, are identical in form and colour whether they grow at the top of the
room or the
bottom, whether they get the sun or the shade, and they never vary with the
seasons; but the garden outside has no uniformity. The roses are all sizes and
colours, grow at all angles, and not the roses only but other flowers of a
thousand shapes and dyes and perfumes. So in society. David has a character of
his own, so has Solomon. And this individuality becomes the sharper with
education. Culture intensifies individuality, civilisation spells
differentiation, godliness means individual distinction. And because we are different
we often think severely of one another. The multitude of teachers utterly
unlike each other unconsciously conspire to bring out the whole truth. “Now
this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I
of Cephas,” and yet the threefold, the thousandfold, ministry is necessary to
bring out the infinite truth. Amongst the great company of preachers, each with
his singular appreciation of truth and righteousness and grace, the world gets
the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And so the multitude of
workers, utterly unlike each other, cover the whole field of service. As
geologists, astronomers, chemists, and many other workers in nature complete
the circle of the sciences, so the various servants of Christ and humanity,
guided by the sovereign, universal Spirit, take up all kinds of gracious work
so that all needs may be ministered unto and the whole race be visited and
blessed. “Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers
of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work.”
“Thou mayest add thereto.” It is a matter of obligation. Are we to receive all
and do nothing? Some people add very little to anything. But we all feel how
ignoble are such parasitic souls. Solomon felt that it was an obligation to
build, and we are awfully guilty if we shirk the work which God has so
manifestly committed to us. “Thou mayest add thereto.” It is a privilege to do
so. When God built the world He did it altogether without our intervention. We
were not there when He laid the foundations of the earth. We had no hand in
piling the Alps. We did not dig a trench for the Atlantic. We did not adorn the
firmament with golden star and silver crescent and crimson cloud. We did not
plant the oaks of Bashan or the cedars of Lebanon. The rainbow owes nothing to
our paint-pot. God did it all. “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands.” But God
has granted to us the glorious privilege of being His fellow-workers in
building up a regenerated humanity. Our thoughts, gifts, sympathies, prayers,
tears may go into this new creation whose glory shall eclipse that of sun or
star. “See that no man take thy crown”--that is, see that no man does thy work.
(W. L. Watkinson.)
Verse 16
Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.
David’s charge to Solomon
This charge has respect to and gathers force from--
I. The past. Upon
the life and conscience of Solomon were concentrated the considerations and
responsibilities which arise out of--
1. The relations of the family covenant. Solomon was a sou of
promise.
2. The influence of parental example.
3. The Divine faithfulness.
II. The present.
From the present several motives and , encouragements are drawn.
1. Problems have been solved, paths of duty have been made clear, and
avenues of effort and usefulness have been opened up.
2. The present was made rich in material which had been prepared and
laid up in the past.
3. These preparations brought within the reach of Solomon
opportunities such as had been enjoyed by no one before him. The preparation of
means and material create opportunities. Providence has created for every
Christian greater spiritual opportunities than Solomon enjoyed, and the
responsibilities arising out of these opportunities are solemn and urgent.
4. All these motives, arguments, and considerations, drawn from the
past and present, unite in a resistless appeal for action: “Arise and be
doing.”
III. The charge has
respect to the future.
1. Encouragement in his undertaking. Solomon had the promise of the
Divine presence and blessing.
2. He was also encouraged in his undertaking by the fact that in the
accomplishment of it the desires, hopes, and prayers of pious ancestors would
be fulfilled.
3. By thus fulfilling the pious desires of godly ancestors, Solomon
set in operation spiritual agencies which carry down to future ages blessings
in ever widening streams of diffusive beneficence.
Application:
1. In our work we use materials and agencies which have been prepared
by kings, prophets, apostles, and martyrs. All the achievements and
improvements of modern science and civilisation are available in Christian
work.
2. In the kingdom of God them is a place and a sphere for talents and
service of all kinds. (S. J. Wilson, D. D.)
Christian activity and its reward
I. Every good man
has an important work to do in his day and generation.
1. We have much to do for ourselves in the cultivation of our own
minds, the improvement of our hearts, and the faithful application of our
various talents.
2. We have much to do for the conversion of others.
3. We have much to do for God.
II. It behoves us to
address ourselves to this work with activity, zeal, and energy.
1. Reason dictates this.
2. Gratitude impels it.
3. The brevity of life calls for this.
4. The solemn account we shall have to give should further stimulate
us to zeal, activity, and energy.
5. The example of Christ tells us to “Arise and be doing.”
III. When occupying
our talents in the exercise of our best efforts we may confidently look for the
presence and blessing of God. “And the Lord be with thee.” This might be
rendered, “The Lord shall be with thee.”
1. There is a general presence of God with His people, which they
enjoy in common with all mankind.
2. There is an especial presence of God with His people, which is the
promise of His covenant.
Reflections: This subject will--
1. Reprove the idler.
2. Admonish those who are attempting to work without due dependence
upon God.
3. Heaven is a place of ceaseless activity. (George Clayton.)
A new year’s exhortation
I. The sphere of
Christian service.
II. The manner of
Christian service.
1. Be ready and on the look-out for something to do.
2. Let us find something to do.
3. When you’ve finished one job, set about another. “Be doing.”
III. The vower of
Christian service. “The Lord with thee.”
1. His presence will quicken our energy.
2. Will lighten our labour. (R. S. Latimer.)
Inactivity the “dry-rot” of young men
In-activity is the “dry-rot” of thousands of Christian young men.
You will never gain a good appetite for God’s Word, or a flush of joy on your
countenance, until you lay hold of some earnest, self-denying work and keep at
it. Nothing will impart such a holy vehemence to your prayers as to spend an
hour by a sick-bed, or in close labour with an impenitent heart. Nothing will
stiffen your muscle more than tough up-hill work in behalf of some unpopular
cause or moral reform. The only cure for indolence is honest work; the only
cure for selfishness is self-sacrifice; the only cure for timidity is to plunge
into duty before the shiver benumbs you; the only cure for unbelief is to put
Christ to the test every day. Prayer must kill unbelief, or else unbelief will
kill prayer. The Christian warfare is not a single pitched battle; it is a
campaign for life. You may often imagine that you have attended the funeral of
some besetting sin--and lo! it is on its feet again next morning! You won’t
fire the last shot until the gates of glory welcome you in among the crowned
conquerors. (T. C. Cuyler.)
Verse 19
Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God.
Seeking after God
I. The occasion on
which this injunction was given.
II. The injunction
itself.
1. The great object of our life.
2. In what way we are to prosecute it.
The important search
I. The object
searched.
II. The method of
search.
1. Earnestly.
2. Resolutely. (J. Wolfendale.)
Building the temple
The great aim of missionary work, at home and abroad, is the same.
This great work may be illustrated by the text. We have--
I. The heart set
upon God.
1. All work for God must begin with ourselves (Acts 22:28; 1 Timothy 4:16).
2. It must be heart-work, not merely duty, custom, or sympathy.
3. There must be a deliberate setting of the heart and soul upon God
as our God, reconciled in Christ, fixedly His (Psalms 57:7; Deuteronomy 10:12).
4. There must be continued seeking God, in prayer, meditation, holy
living.
II. The
building-work going on. The living Church is God’s sanctuary. He dwells in the
hearts of His people (John 14:23; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Corinthians 3:16). The work of
Christ’s followers is to build the sanctuary.
1. By gathering souls out of the world around to Christ.
2. By gathering souls into the Church, uniting in one body in Christ.
III. The sanctuary
used for God. Union in the Church must be--
1. For consecration. The temple is not for ornament, nor for the
admiration of the world, but for God.
2. For worship: “Bring the ark,” etc. The ark shadows forth the great
propitiation (Romans 3:25). This must hold the first
position in the Church, heart, ministry (1 Corinthians 2:2).
3. For service: “Bring the holy vessels,” etc. Each vessel has its
use. (J. E. Sampson.)
“Set your heart”
Let us take this exhortation--
I. In its
reference to God’s own people.
1. What are they to seek? “The Lord your God.”
2. How are they to seek? “Set your heart and your soul to seek the
Lord your God.”
3. When are we to seek the Lord? “Now.” Now is the only time worth
having, because it is indeed the only time we have. When did David mean by his
“now”?
II. In its
reference to those who are converted.
1. Set your heart on true religion, and be not content with the
outward form of it.
2. Seek the Lord Himself.
3. Seek Him at once with all your heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Seeking God
In the struggle of life many men and women are hampered and
depressed by the memory of past weaknesses, errors, and sins. The hours of
their real spiritual prosperity are overshadowed and embittered by the
recollection of their spiritual adversities. It is one of the wise and helpful
laws of our nature
that in freeing ourselves from weakness and sin we do not free ourselves from
the memory of them. The value of the experience lies in the lesson we learn
from it, and the truest repentance is often witnessed by the poignancy of the
sorrow, and both the lesson and the sorrow have their roots in memory. But,
while we are not to forget that we have sometimes fallen, we are not always to
carry the mud with us; the slough is behind, but the clean, clearly-defined
road stretches ahead of us, skies are clear, and God is beyond. We were made
for purity, truth, and fidelity, and the very abhorrence of the opposites of
these qualities, which grows and deepens within us, bears testimony that our
aspirations are becoming our attainments. The really noble thing about any man
or woman is not freedom from all stains of the lower life, but the deathless
aspiration which for ever drives us forward and will not let us rest in any
past, whether good or bad. That which makes us respect ourselves is not what
men call a blameless career, but the hunger and thirst after God which makes
all our doing unsatisfying and inadequate to us. Better a thousand times the
eager and passionate fleeing to God from a past of faults and weaknesses, with
an irresistible longing for rest in the everlasting verities, than the most
respectable career which misses this profound impulse. The past, remains with
us to remind us of our perils and our constant need of help, but it ought not
to haunt and oppress us. The real life of an aspiring soul is always ahead, We
are not fleeing
from the devil, but seeking God. (Lyman Abbott.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》