THE Temple was pre-eminently the resting-place of the ark.
When the building was finished, Solomon and the people brought up from Gibeon “the Tabernacle of the congregation (“tent of meeting”) with all its sacred vessels (2 Chron. 5:5). This is the last historical notice of the spiritually suggestive sanctuary which Moses built in the wilderness. None of its sacred vessels entered Solomon’s Temple. With the ark it was different. It had not been in the Tabernacle since the sad days of Eli. David pitched for the ark a tent in Zion, the Tabernacle being in Gibeon. The ark was brought up from its Zion tent by Solomon and the people with all possible honor. “In it (the Temple) have I put the ark, wherein is the Covenant of Jehovah that He made with the children of Israel” (2 Chron. 6:11).
The ark was a great type of Christ. Its mercy-seat (or propitiatory) was Jehovah’s throne. It was the sign of His presence in the midst of the people whom His grace had delivered from the bondage of Egypt. It was a notable day in Israel when the much-traveled ark reached its resting-place. The singers, who had served since David’s institution of them in two companies, some with the Tabernacle and some with the ark (1 Chron. 16:37-42), were now united.
There are points of difference between David’s removal of the ark from Kirjath-Jearim to Zion, and Solomon’s removal of it into the Temple. Both were days of national rejoicing, but there was a holy enthusiasm in David that was peculiar to himself, and which was very precious to God. “David danced before Jehovah with all his might: and David was girded with a linen ephod” (2. Sam. 6:14). This was not mere fleshly excitement, but unfeigned delight in God. God was coming nearer to His servant! Michal might despise his manifestations of joy, but God estimated them at their true worth. Wholeheartedness is surely due to such a God as ours!
“I will praise Thee, O Jehovah, with my whole heart” (Psa. 9:1)
“With my whole heart have I sought Thee” (Psa. 119:10). “I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Jehovah” (Psa. 119:145).
Thus did David delight to speak to his God. “Lord, save us all from dead decent formality in divine things; give us David’s spirit!”
“There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb when Jehovah made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt” (2 Chron. 5:10). The ark had also contained a golden pot full of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, as Hebrews 9:4 reminds us; but these spoke of wilderness needs which were now past. The tables of stone remained, for they formed the basis of all the laws of the kingdom. Nehemiah in his confession (ch. 9:13) acknowledged that they were “right judgments, and true laws, good statutes, and commandments.” “The law is holy,” says Paul the Apostle (Rom. 7:12). What a different world it would have been had the Kings of Israel and all the nations carried out its every injunction!
When the priests came out of the holy place, having drawn the staves out of the ark, the Levitical choir arrayed in white linen, took their stand at the east end of the altar of burnt-offering, and sounded with their cymbals, psalteries, and harps, and with them 120 priests blew their trumpets. The voice of praise ascended to heaven. They “praised Jehovah, saying, For He is good: for His mercy (loving-kindness) endureth forever” (2 Chron. 5:11-13). The terms of this divinely-taught ascription of praise, found frequently in the Psalms, are a guarantee of future restoration and blessing for Israel. The people and their kings have deeply failed; but Israel’s God will never fail.
But what was the meaning of all this exuberance of joy when the ark was thus placed in the Temple? To the outward eye it was but a small gold-covered chest, beside which the brazen altar looked immense. The ark was the symbol of Jehovah’s presence, and He who in Moses’ day accepted the Tabernacle in the wilderness and took up His abode therein was now a second time coming to dwell in the midst of His people. But faith would not confound the symbol with the reality. Solomon showed in his prayer that he had GOD before him that day. In the evil days of Hophni and Phinehas the people sent for the ark “that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies” (1 Sam. 4:3). We wonder not that the benighted Philistines so mistook the symbol for the reality that they trembled when they heard the Israelites shout with triumph at the sight of the ark, and said, “God is come into the camp... woe unto us!” But Israel should have known better, and God so resented their superstitious carnality that He let the sacred ark fall into the enemy’s hand (Psa. 78:61). At a later date when the people cared nothing for Jehovah and His commandments, and yet gloried in their possession of sacred externals, He said, “The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest? For all those things have My hand made, and all those things have been, saith Jehovah: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at My word” (Isa. 66:1-2.). Thus the heart of a humble man, right towards God, was a more agreeable dwelling-place for Him than Jerusalem’s costly temple. Our God loves reality. Two or three humble souls who come together because they delight in Him are more to the Lord Jesus today than all the imposing ritual of Christendom. “There am I in the midst of them.” But there must be reality of heart, and sensitiveness of conscience concerning His will, else the simple conventicle is no more acceptable to Him than that against which it protests. Nay, it can be even more offensive in His sight because of its high pretensions. The exercised reader would do well to read carefully Jeremiah 7:1-7.
Jehovah answered Israel’s outburst of praise in a remarkable way. “The house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God” (2 Chron. 5:13-14). The same thing happened to the Tabernacle, so that even Moses could not enter (Ex. 40:35). Moses, as mediator, had privileges beyond those of Aaron, but even he could not go into the sanctuary at that supreme moment. Ezekiel gives us the sorrowful history of the departure of the glory when Jehovah felt constrained in righteousness to forsake His house. Chapter 9:3; 10:4, 18; 11:23 describe the stages of its departure, as if God was most reluctant to give up His people. Chapter 10:4 tells us that “the court was filled with the brightness of Jehovah’s glory,” and chapter 11:23 records that the glory-cloud paused on the mountain on the east side of the city (Olivet) before its final removal. Hear the word of Jehovah: “I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek Me early” (Hos. 5:15). What it cost the heart of Jehovah thus to deal with the people of His choice is beyond our understanding. “How shall I give thee up?... Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together” (Hos. 11:8). “The Lord of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11) became as regards His governmental dealings “the God of heaven” (Dan. 2:37; Ezra 7:25). The glory-cloud returned to the land for one brief moment when our blessed Lord was upon the Mount of Transfiguration, but only three men were favored to behold it (Matt. 17:5). They testify to us that in Him God found that delight that He has never yet found in Israel. Ezekiel was not only shown the glory departing from the Temple, he was also shown its return in happier days yet to come, when the repentant nation will say to the long-rejected Jesus, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:39). Here is Ezekiel’s prophetic vision, “the glory of Jehovah came into the house (the Millennial Temple) by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the East... behold, the glory of Jehovah filled the house” (Ezek. 43:4,5; 44:2). By the way of the East it went; by the way of the East it will return.
“Thick Darkness”
When the cloud filled the Temple, Solomon made a statement which demands some attention. “Jehovah hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness” (2. Chron. 6:1). The words recall Exodus 20:21: “Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.” These passages suggest to us most vividly the contrast between knowing God as Lawgiver, and as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Such language as Solomon used is impossible for saints today. However intimate may have been the communion of Moses and Solomon with the God of Israel, they did not know Him as the humblest believer is entitled to know Him now. God was not yet fully revealed, for the Only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father had not come forth from heaven to declare Him (John 1:18). All that God is has come out in the person and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Accordingly, God is said to be “in the light,” and Christians are in the light with Him (1 John 1:7). “God is light” is another thing. Light is His nature. “In the light,” and “in darkness” are terms which set forth His relations with men dispensationally. Peter tells us that God “hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). We are therefore “sons of light, and sons of the day” (1 Thess. 5:5). “Ye were once darkness (says Paul), but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). This is practical consistency with the exceeding grace of God. 1 John 1:7 (so frequently misunderstood) is not intended to teach us how we should walk, but where. The “how” is found in the following chapter. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
Solomon next publicly “blessed the whole congregation of Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood” (2 Chron. 6:3). Only three kings ever publicly blessed the people of God (so far as the records speak), and they were all outstanding types of Christ-Melchizedek (Gen. 14:19); David (a Sam. 6:18); and Solomon. Then Solomon blessed Jehovah on the people’s behalf. “Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, who hath with His hands fulfilled that which He spake to my father David” (2 Chron. 6:4-11). In all the doings of the great day of the consecration of the Temple, the High Priest is never mentioned. Everything was under the direction of the king. This brings home to us the great change that took place in Jehovah’s dealings with Israel when the priestly house broke down in the days of Eli. God said concerning the priest for days to come, “He shall walk before Mine anointed forever” (1 Sam. 2:36). The priest became secondary to the king. God’s King ultimately is Christ. All blessing depends upon Him, and all authority is vested in Him.