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 cooperation; 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 Jehovah
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, and 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 Jehovah was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to
offer burnt-offerings upon the altar of Jehovah, 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 Jehovah,
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 and 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 happen. 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.