2. “My people are bent to backsliding from me.”
THE several historical allusions to the former glory of the Temple will prove only the more interesting if we consider these in connection with the history of the royal house of David, since, while the former manifest the holiness and the abounding grace of Jehovah towards Israel, the latter, in sad contrast, testifies to the sinful backslidings of Israel.
The latter part of David’s reign (1 Chronicles 28 and 29) and the former part of the reign of Solomon, might well be considered as the period during which was displayed the first glory of the kingdom. If we may be allowed to make use of the expression, the culminating point of this glory was reached when the presence of the Lord God of Israel was manifested in His holy temple; when Israel could rejoice indeed, and sing, “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.”
It was then that the queen of Sheba came from a far-off country to hear the wisdom of Solomon, to behold his glory, and, out of the abundance of an overflowing heart, to bless the Lord God of Israel. But, like the sun, which has no sooner attained to the height of its meridian splendor than it commences to decline, even so did the first glory of the kingdom prove of very short duration. Why? Not because the Lord had ceased to delight to bless Israel, and to display His tender mercies towards the nation of His choice. Alas! the reason is only too plainly discernible. Israel, as a nation, quickly turned aside from following the Lord. And it saddens one to reflect that Solomon-chosen of God to build the Temple (1 Chronicles 28:66And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. (1 Chronicles 28:6))—was also the builder of the high places upon the mount of corruption (i. e. the Mount of Olives), severally constructed for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Molech (2 Kings 23:1313And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. (2 Kings 23:13)). This fact alone sufficiently explains the reason why the first glory of the kingdom proved so transitory; and it may also be suggested as one reason why the several historical allusions to the former glory of the Temple are so few and far between; which latter (as we shall see as we proceed (in the sight of those who were privileged to behold the same) positively became even more glorious! yet we know not for how long or how brief a period the glory, as seen upon the day of the dedication of the Temple, was openly discerned.
Israel’s declension in the latter years of Solomon’s reign was very deplorable, but that in the days of his immediate successor proved even more so. When the revolted ten tribes exclaimed, “What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel! now see to thine own house, David” —did they simply reject Rehoboam? Did they not at the same moment deliberately reject the Son of David—He whom David acknowledged as “Lord?” They could, not reject the house of David and not reject the “Prince of the house of David, “to the open dishonor of Him who had promised that He would set His King upon His holy hill of Zion. With the exception of a faithful remnant (many of whom willingly vacated their possessions rather than forsake the Lord, 2 Chronicles 11:1313And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts. (2 Chronicles 11:13)-.7), these ten tribes quickly turned from the living and true God to serve idols; and Bethel, i.e., house of God, became Beth-aven, i.e. house of iniquity. (Comp. 1 Kings 12:2929And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. (1 Kings 12:29), Hosea 4:15;1015Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The Lord liveth. (Hosea 4:15)
15So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off. (Hosea 10:15). 5.)
For three years Judah “walked in the way of David and Solomon;” then they forsook the Lord: and, for this cause, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Judah was severely chastised by Shishak, king of Egypt. They “humbled themselves,” and for a brief season “things went well” in Judah. During the reign of Abijah there was at least a formal acknowledgment that Jehovah was with them (2 Chronicles 13:1-121Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. 2He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valor. 4And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel; 5Ought ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? 6Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord. 7And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them. 8And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods. 9Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods. 10But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the Lord, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business: 11And they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the showbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye have forsaken him. 12And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper. (2 Chronicles 13:1‑12)). “Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” Jehoshaphat “walked in the ways of his father David,” but brought great trouble upon himself, his household, and his kingdom, by taking the daughter of Ahab to his son to wife. Nevertheless, when the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Edomites allied their forces and came up against Judah, Jehoshaphat sought the Lord and proclaimed a fast in Judah. “And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” We are not told that these beheld the Shekinah glory; but this we are told, and it is well that we should mark this, that they received an immediate answer to their petition; thus they were enabled to realize that the Lord was present in His Temple. And those who sought the Lord in a day of trouble, returned after their bloodless victory, with joy unto the house of God, to own God’s great deliverance (2 Chronicles 20).
Very bitter were the fruits of the sinful matrimonial alliance with the idolatrous house of Ahab. For three generations we read of bloodshed, and murders in cold blood. Humanly speaking, but for the faithfulness of a woman, the direct line of the royal house of David had become extinct! For six years the house of God was the refuge of the infant Joash (2 Chronicles 22:10-1210But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah. 11But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not. 12And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land. (2 Chronicles 22:10‑12).). It is worthy of remark that the names of the son, grandson, and great-grandson of the daughter of Ahab, are omitted by Matthew in “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” See Matthew 1:88And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; (Matthew 1:8).
We also might have refrained from referring to the several reigns of these, and also to Athaliah’s usurpation of the throne, if it had not been recorded that “the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman,” broke up the house of God, and bestowed the dedicated things upon Baalim (2 Chronicles 24:77For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim. (2 Chronicles 24:7)). Her grandson Joash, however, in the days of Jehoiada the priest, repaired the house of God. But after the death of Jehoiada, Joash forsook the Lord, and with the treasures of the house of the Lord he redeemed Jerusalem from plunder (2 Kings 12:1818And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem. (2 Kings 12:18)).
Uzziah the son of Amaziah the son of Joash, “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.. and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.” He was “marvelously helped,” but “when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.” He presumed to enter into the sanctuary, and utterly ignoring the vehement protests of Azariah and those eighty faithful priests, was determined that he would burn incense upon the golden altar; but the Lord smote him instantaneously with leprosy, so that he was “thrust out” of the sanctuary; and he was a leper unto the day of his death.
Uzziah was smitten with leprosy in the house of the Lord: was the sanctuary rendered thereby defiled? This question might have troubled very many of the godly in Israel for many years after this had occurred, if the God of all grace had not mercifully interposed, surely for their sakes.
In the year that king Uzziah died, the prophet Isaiah was privileged- to behold a glory, the description of which favors the thought that it far surpassed “the glory” which Israel saw upon the day of the dedication of the Temple. Israel had seen “the glory of the Lord upon the house,” but Isaiah now saw “ the Lord, sitting upon a throne.” In short, as John informs us, the prophet saw “His glory” (John 12:4141These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. (John 12:41)). The throne was high and exalted: though this glory was now displayed in connection with the Temple, it was simply “the skirts thereof” which filled the sacred edifice. His was discerned to be the transcendent glory.
Above the Temple stood the seraphim; now seen in connection with the throne. Each of these had six wings; “with twain he covered his face,” as unworthy to look upon Jehovah; “with twain he covered his feet,” as unworthy that the Lord should look upon him; “and with twain he did fly”; in instant response to the will of God.
Full many have been the speculations concerning those created intelligences. But we have no desire to speculate. It is most evident, that, by means of this vision, the Spirit of God taught the prophet, and through him all Israel who had eyes to see, ears to hear, and understanding hearts, that the throne of God was established in holiness. To this the seraphim bore witness as they cried “holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” “And the posts of the door” (the prophet probably refers to the pillars Jachin and Boaz, 2 Chronicles 3:1717And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz. (2 Chronicles 3:17)) “moved” (or trembled) at the voice of the seraphim.
Who can estimate the comfort which this vision afforded to the godly in Israel, especially after the report that a leper had been driven forth from the sanctuary? Notwithstanding this had come about, notwithstanding the unholiness of the nation at large, the Holy One of Israel had not deserted His holy temple.
The latter part of the vision is also most instructive. If Isaiah had before this been exercised about the uncleanness of Uzziah, in the presence of the holy Lord of •hosts, it is the realization of his own personal uncleanness that causes him such exercise of heart. Have we not all been taught the same lesson? It needed that Isaiah’s iniquity should be taken away, that his sin should he purged, before he essayed to go forth to proclaim the word of the Lord.
From this time henceforward the prophet Isaiah wearied not of testifying to Israel of His glory.
(To be continued.)