EXPOSITION
The contents of this chapter may be said to form one scene with those of the next up to verse 25. They represent David in the presence of a magnificent company of witnesses, the flower of the Church, the military and the civil elements of his kingdom, devolving upon his son both the building of the temple and the throne itself.
1 Chronicles 28:1
One Hebrew word ( שׂרֵי) stands for the princes (twice), captains (three times), and stewards (once) of this verse. The classification of the verso speaks for itself. There are the princes of Israel; i.q. the princes of the tribes (1 Chronicles 27:16, 1 Chronicles 27:22). Otherwise the former of these expressions may be of an entirely generic kind, and apply to all that succeeds. There are, secondly, the princes of the twelve military companies… by course of the months (1 Chronicles 27:1-15). Thirdly, there are the princes of thousands and hundreds (Deuteronomy 1:15; 1 Samuel 8:12; 1 Samuel 17:18; 1 Samuel 18:13; 1 Samuel 23:7; 1 Chronicles 12:14; 1 Chronicles 27:1). There follow, fourthly, the princes of all the substance and cattle of the king, and (as seems to be added here) of his sons. There can be no doubt that the Hebrew text does say this, and does not merely register the fact of the attendance and presence of the sons of the king, as also it does not specialize the attendance of Solomon himself, though it is certain that he was present. Otherwise it may be doubtful, considering the facts of the occasion, and comparing 1 Chronicles 29:24, whether the original document is not misrepresented here. Next, fifthly, mention is made of the officers ( סָרִיסִים), the Hebrew for which word generally means "eunuch," and such use of it must have become much more familiar during and after the Captivity, and, therefore, of course, at the time of the compilation of this work; but it does not necessarily mean it. Eunuchs are never mentioned elsewhere in David's reign. There is no reason to suppose the word means "eunuch," for instance, in Genesis 37:36; Genesis 39:1; 1 Samuel 8:15; 1 Kings 22:9; 2 Kings 24:12; 2 Kings 25:19; Jeremiah 34:19. Under any circumstances, it would seem unnecessary that such officers of a royal establishment as eunuchs should be under summoned that description to an assembly of this kind. Sixthly, the mighty men (1 Chronicles 11:10-25) were called to the assembly. And perhaps a seventh division may be made of all the valiant men (1 Chronicles 11:26-40), who belonged to other places, or who were at this time more especially in Jerusalem, as residents.
1 Chronicles 28:2
The expression, David the king stood up upon his feet, probably means to emphasize the fact that hitherto, having been in a sitting or recumbent position, owing to his age and infirmity, he now with effort forced himself to stand in the presence of the unusual congregation and in consideration of what he felt was due to the occasion. He had not lost the man and the brother in his official and exalted rank, and, following ancient precedents (Genesis 29:4; 19:23; 2 Samuel 19:12), he addresses the congregation as my brethren, and my people. David says he had it in his heart to build a house of rest, i.e. an abiding house (Psalms 132:8, Psalms 132:14) for the ark of the covenant, instead of the moving one, and for the footstool of our God. By this he means the mercy-seat, to which especial allusion is made 1 Chronicles 28:11 ( בֵּת הַכַּפֹרֶת). God is often spoken of as "dwelling between the cherubim,'' and sometimes (Psalms 99:1) as "sitting between the cherubim," which were over the lid of the ark, called the mercy-seat.
1 Chronicles 28:3
The contents of this verse are stated, as already seen, even more forcibly in 1 Chronicles 22:8; while far less forcibly in 2 Samuel 7:5; 1 Kings 5:5.
1 Chronicles 28:4-7
David mentions himself as the elect of God among all the members of his father's family, and from thence is led to trace the call from the first, by the following steps:—The tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:8; 1 Chronicles 5:2); the house of Jesse (1 Samuel 16:1); thirdly, of himself (1 Samuel 16:13); and lastly of Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:9, 1 Chronicles 22:10; 1 Chronicles 17:11-14; 2 Samuel 7:12-16). The exact time and method of David's receiving the identification of Solomon as the son to succeed him, is nowhere given. The throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. This expression, not found in its entirety elsewhere, is an emphatic statement here of the true theocracy, which should have ever prevailed among the people of Israel, and which is now paralleled by the kingship of the Lord in his own Church (1 Chronicles 17:14; 1 Chronicles 29:23). The solemn and most distinct proviso, If he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day, reminds us of Psalms 132:12. This proviso is emphatically presented again to the attention of Solomon, when the time comes for the direct appeal of God to him (1 Kings 3:14; 1 Kings 8:61; 1 Kings 9:4).
1 Chronicles 28:8-10
The double charge of these verses, first to the people and then to Solomon, is full of force and majesty. Translate, Now therefore in the sight of all Israel—the congregation of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God ("Hear me," 1 Chronicles 28:2), keep ye and study to do all the commandments of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 4:21, Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 30:19; Le 25:46; Jeremiah 3:18). The. expression, Know thou the God of thy father, for a practical knowledge and fear of God, is analogous with the expression, "Hear thou," for the matter of practical obedience; e.g. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets" (Luke 16:1-31:32). Although there are not very many instances of this use of the word "know," its antiquity and classical character may be considered guaranteed by such passages as Job 18:21; 1 Samuel 2:12; Proverbs 3:6; Psalms 36:10; Jeremiah 9:2; Hosea 5:4; Hosea 6:3. The expression, "the God of thy father," evidently intended to be touching, is more fully given in verse 20, "God, even my God, will be with thee," which in its turn reminds us of Paul's language, "But my God shall supply all your need" (Philippians 4:19). The urgent entreaty on the part of David breathes in every sentence of it, thought, and a mode of presentation of it, feeling, and depth of conviction, with which we are familiar in his psalms. He speaks from his own varied, remarkable, and rich experience of the Divine care and jealous love, and from much personal experience of the deceitfulness of the heart, to Solomon, into whom, were it possible, he would pour the advantage of all he had learned, and from whom he would hide nothing of his intense and anxious solicitude. To the same strain he returns in verse 20, but there with more exclusive reference to the undertaking of the building of "the house of the Lord," or the house for the sanctuary. One thing only fails, perhaps, to be made quite apparent from the language of David, viz. why he deemed it necessary to urge so strenuously on Solomon the enterprise of building the temple and of carrying it to completion. With abundance of means and preparations so large already made, one might have supposed a young king and a young man would have needed little pressure and little exhortation. Nevertheless, in the manifest presence of David's words, it is very far from impossible to suppose the dangers and temptations of Solomon's position as constituting a serious risk.
1 Chronicles 28:11-19
These hints respecting the parts of the building that was to be, and respecting the furniture of it, will come in for fuller consideration in the fuller treatment of them, found in the narration of the actual construction of the building in 2 Chronicles compared with 2 Kings 6:1-33; etc. It is evident that David desired to make a solemn and set business of handing over even the patterns and plans. Nor is this under any circumstances wonderful, but least of all considering their Divine origin. The Divine original of the tabernacle and all its belongings (Exodus 25:1-40.-30.; Hebrews 8:5) was not to be a neglected precedent as regards the greater temple. It is said that "David gave" these "patterns to Solomon his son" (2 Kings 6:11), and the form in which he gave them is explained in 2 Kings 6:19. There we read, "The whole in writing from the hand of Jehovah upon me, he made me to.understand—all the works of this pattern." Whatever we generally accept respecting the writing of the tables of the Law by the finger of God (Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:15, Exodus 32:16; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 5:5, Deuteronomy 5:22; Deuteronomy 9:10), is at all events open for acceptance here. At the same time, the phraseology of our nineteenth verse is certainly not so uncompromising-as that of the references just instanced from the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. The words of verse 19 may be satisfied by the meaning that David was in such manner and degree "in the Spirit" (Revelation 1:10), that in the writing and the drawing of patterns his hand was entirely under the guidance of that Spirit. In either alternative, to hand over such documents and such "patterns" must have been felt by David and all present an act of which much should be made.
1 Chronicles 28:11
The patterns of six parts of the future building are here delivered over to Solomon.
1. The porch; הָאוּלָם (1 Kings 6:3; 1 Kings 7:6; Ezekiel 40:7; Ezekiel 8:16; Joel 2:17; 2 Chronicles 3:4, where we read that the length was twenty cubits, and the height one hundred and twenty cubits; 2 Chronicles 8:12; 2 Chronicles 15:8; 2 Chronicles 29:7, 2 Chronicles 29:17); Septuagint, τὸ αἰλὰμ τοῦ rang generally, but in this verse τοῦ ναοῦ is all that appears. This porch was built on the east of the temple.
2. The houses thereof; i.e. not of the porch, but of the whole building; בָּתָּיו; Septuagint, τῶν οἴκων αὐτοῦ. The word "houses" in this place designates the" greater house," or" temple," or holy place of 2 Chronicles 3:5; 1 Kings 6:5, 1 Kings 6:17; and the "inner house," or "oracle," or "most holy house," or "holy of holies,'" of 2 Chronicles 3:8; 2 Kings 6:19-27.
3. The treasuries thereof; נַנְזַכָּיו, a word found only here in this form, with a Chaldee termination in אַךְ; Septuagint, τῶν ζακχῶν αὐτοῦ. The treasuries were chambers for receiving gifts, and storing the treasures new or old of the temple. Which of the rooms that were built against the sides of the temple were set apart as these treasure-chambers is not known. Perhaps they were the three-storied wings of the temple (1 Kings 6:5).
4. The upper chambers thereof; עֲלִיָּתֹיו; Septuagint, τῶν ὑπερῴωνLanguage:English} (for fuller treatment of these, see 2 Chronicles 3:9). We may only with confidence say of these chambers that they were upper chambers, but whether over the "oracle" as Keil and Bertheau think, or over the "porch," or the higher of those, that leaned against the sides of the main building, it is impossible to determine from such data as we at present have.
5. The inner parlours thereof; חֲדָרָיו הַפְגִימִים, Septuagint τῶν ἀποθηκῶν τῶν ἐσωτέρων. There can be little doubt that these designate the lower rooms of the side buildings of the holy place, and perhaps also of the porch.
6. The plane of the mercy-seat; בֵּית הַכַּפֹרֶת; Septuagint, τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ ἐξιλασμοῦ.
1 Chronicles 28:12
Bertheau, Keil, and some others regard the spirit here spoken of as referring to the spirit and mind of David, and Bertheau goes so far as to translate, or paraphrase, "the pattern of all that floated before his mind." Such manifest stress has been laid upon the two facts—that the patterns were of God's giving, and that they were now in such form that they could be given over into the hands of Solomon—that such an interpretation seems inadmissible. Rather translate, And the pattern of all which was by the spirit with him. For the courts of the house of the Lord, see 1 Kings 6:36; 2 Chronicles 4:9. The chambers round about; הַלְּשָׁכוֹת סָבִיב(1 Chronicles 23:28). There seems no necessity to suppose that these chambers were separate from the building. For the treasuries, the correct translation is the treasures (1 Chronicles 26:20).
1 Chronicles 28:13
This verse either continues the subject of the giving of the patterns, which will read rather harshly, as preceding the courses of the priests and the Levites, and could only mean directions or instructions for their interchange, etc.; or it may continue the subject of the "chambers round about" "for the treasures of the house of God," etc; also for the convenience "of the courses of the priests," etc; and "for all the work," etc; and for keeping "all the vessels of service," etc. Bertheau and Keil somewhat scout the former supposition, and adhere to the latter.
1 Chronicles 28:14, 1 Chronicles 28:15
The general meaning of these verses is that, if the question were one of gold, or one of silver, David assigned for each vessel and each part of the candlesticks, the proportionate weight of gold that was to be employed.
1 Chronicles 28:16
So tot, as regards the tables of shewbread, whether in sort of gold or of silver, he assigned the due weight of metal for either sort. We should have been at a loss to understand the plural here employed, showing more than one table (Exodus 25:23; 1 Kings 7:48; 2 Chronicles 29:18), but for 2 Chronicles 4:8, 2 Chronicles 4:19; in the former of which verses we read of "ten tables" being made and placed on "the right side and on the left, in the temple," and in the latter verse, yet more distinctly, of "tables, whereon the shewbread was set."
1 Chronicles 28:17
It is to be observed that the term basons ( פְוֹרִים), which appear to have been covered goblets, is only found here and in Ezra 1:10; Ezra 8:27.
1 Chronicles 28:18
By the chariot of the cherubims, is of course not meant that the cherubim had a chariot, but that they constituted the chariot of Jehovah (Psalms 18:11).
1 Chronicles 28:19
This abrupt bringing in of David as the speaker himself has already had one illustration in 1 Chronicles 23:5.
1 Chronicles 28:20, 1 Chronicles 28:21
These verses, as above seen, continue and close David's urgent and last exhortation to Solomon. He has now done with admonition and urgent appeal, but he offers prayer for him (1 Chronicles 29:19).
1 Chronicles 28:20
David in this verse enlarges upon the certainty of God's faithful steady presence with Solomon and support of his work to the end.
1 Chronicles 28:21
In this verse David reminds Solomon what servants and helpers he has ready to hand on earth, as well as his God above—priests and… Levites,… all manner of workmen,… willing and skilful,… princes and… people.
HOMILETICS
1 Chronicles 28:1-10.-The Assembly
Well worth reproduction by the annalist of centuries afterwards was the solemn and inspiring scene pourtrayed in this and following sections. For the same reason that particulars, however gloriously interesting or terribly interesting, yet of merely individual concernment, are absent from the Chronicles, those of the highest national significance are sketched afresh, and engraved with deeper-cut lines. Much of the sorrow and misfortune of David, much of wherein he sinned, or was sinned against, would be inexplicably denied to the reader but for the steady observance on the part of the annalist—we doubt not under inspiration's guidance—of the principle that the nation's religious history is to be his grand subject, its lessons his theme. Well, too, might the religious teacher of a nation that had passed through a strange stretch of apostasy, a stranger severity of punishment on account of it, and had now, strangest of all, another offer of opportunity priceless in prospect, be supremely anxious to give all legitimate prominence to such a scene. History enabled them once more with fidelity to produce it. They rested in it themselves with delight. They longed to imbue the people with its spirit and its ancient original fascination. All things considered, the sun had scarcely risen, through the reign and whole life of David, on a day of more real grandeur, more essential honour to himself—certainly not among the number of those that were inevitably declining days, and their brightest, warmest suns, those of mellow light and temperature, subdued. Age was now a crown of glory to him. The experience of a life moderately long, of a reign remarkably long, of vicissitudes and events strangely varied, was dignity higher than anything artificial, than anything outward. And weakness of bodily force and limb brought out in greater relief the moral deference he had made all his own, while a nation attend his voice, and receive in a young son of his their future shepherd and king. Nor was David himself at all insensible to what was most peculiar, most characteristic in the scene. A word or two, an action or two, an attitude, betray his nervous appreciation of it. That day, that hour, that scene—what three ways met there and then! The past way of his people, and their undiscovered future path, and not least momentous that by which his own departure must forthwith be made. In a scene of an exceptional character, with much of just importance in it, and of essential impressiveness, let us pause to note the main features.
I. THE ASSEMBLY ITSELF WAS ONE OF A DIGNIFIED CHARACTER. And the dignity of it was a true dignity. The assembly represented a nation. It represented the worth and the substance of a nation. It was not its idle wealth, its idle fashion, its idle glitter, its sinecurism, but the strong head and strong purpose and strong arm of the nation. There was position in abundance there, but it was that healthy position that comes of high office worthily filled, of doing a nation's work and of adjudged competence to do it. This assembly represented, therefore, the diligence of a united, happy, active people. And when we consider the purpose for which the assembly was gathered together, it undoubtedly bespeaks its highest honour as representative of the order and obedience of a divinely governed nation. There is no nation that is governed fit to be so named, that is not divinely governed, if only that be taken into account which is transpiring a very small depth below the surface. And this fact postulates order, a listening ear, and obedience. The government, the legislature, the nation that go on with but just a moderate workable amount of these, know a certain unsatisfactoriness, but they little know the wreck and absolute misery of ruin where the indispensable minimum is absent. On the other hand, the nation then most nearly touches the point of perfection when its order, attention, and obedience, as perfect as that of an army, are at the same time moral in their character and voluntary in their forthcoming.
II. SPECIAL ELEMENTS OF DIGNITY GATHER ROUND THE PERSON WHO CONVENES THIS ASSEMBLY. David is the centre of it; the chief, not to say the only speaker in it. Yet even he is not acting in his own name and right alone. He is the visible deputy of one far higher, and who is invisible. He is an aged man, and furthermore older than his years. Great is the contrast, wonderfully effective the contrast, between what he now is, putting off the armour, and what he once was, when he "assayed to go" in the improved armour of Saul, and "put it off" also (1 Samuel 17:39). The juvenility, the simplicity, the unexpectingness, the inexperience of that day are at the extreme antipodes of what he now is and feels. Then so ruddy and robust, of rude physical health, and of abounding energy of limb, but now with sunken eye and sallow cheek, only with difficulty able to rise from his royal chair, and "beside those things that are without" (2 Corinthians 11:28), more weighted still with the responsibilities of office and the accumulations of experience, and "the care of all the" nation. The figure of that "old man eloquent," but yet "more eloquent" in deeds through his whole life than in words even, must stand a sculpture of most defined and enduring outline against the Bible sky while the Bible lasts. But the life that was bounded by these two extremes had played a great part, and the tides had risen full and high and tumultuous, times without number, in it. Yet through all the conflicts, work, perils, and sins, and virtues of the life, a certain thread of continuity had been preserved, and indeed had preserved it. As the truest image often comes out clearest and best in death, so was it now. There had been a thing long in the heart of David. The decline of life speaks it out with extraordinary emphasis. And does he not then touch the highest point of his fame when, with the grand company in front of him, he rises with some effort, addresses those who listen to their father and their king, as "my brethren and my people," and shares with them the deepest wish and the most real ambition to which his life owned? How different this from the close of many careers! Nay, how very few are those who have the faith, the calm determination (or even the merciful opportunity given them), to put into the hand of another the secret of a brilliant future that had been thought of by themselves, longed for by themselves, but denied to themselves! When Paul wrote to Timothy he was a yet higher illustration of this, yet it must be taken into account that Paul was not disappointed as David was.
III. STATEMENTS OF EMINENTLY MORAL SIGNIFICANCE IN THE ADDRESS, IN WHICH DAVID NOW ADMITS ALL TO BE SHARERS OF HIS BOSOM'S DEAREST SECRET.
1. After a courteous appeal to all, addressing them under kindly titles to hear him, who might, from his office and age, have commanded, David credits the sovereignty of all the kingdom to God. The throne is "the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel" (1 Chronicles 28:5).
2. He credits all that he was himself, all which had been given him, all to which he had been raised, to the sovereignty of God. These David traces through four stages. The Divine sovereign choice of the tribe of Judah, of the house of his father, of himself out of all the rest of his father's family, and he carries it down to the designation of his favourite son Solomon, as successor to his throne. "Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king over all Israel: and of all my sons, (for the Lord hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And 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 28:4 6).
3. With the frankness of truth and the unmistakable singleness of aim of an aged man "ready to depart," David speaks out what had been his own pious design, his cherished resolve, and the actual preparation he had made for it. "I had in my heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building" (1 Chronicles 28:2). It is to be noted that no matter of personal advantage, or of family advantage, or even of a noble ambition, but yet a mere ambition, is here concerned. It is the calm, correct, intelligent prompting of religion. No doubt the desire of David's heart carried to completion must redound to the honour and fame of himself and his family to all generations, and must be calculated to secure great practical benefit to a whole nation. Nevertheless it were a gratuitous maligning of a good heart to mistake these, or any of them, as the motives of David. He is learning and is illustrating the great though alphabetic principles that rule the man who distinctly believes in the invisible, and worships the invisible One. It is his right and due, it is justice, that a settled house, a permanent place of abiding, a worthy temple, be raised to him, and that nothing take real precedence of it.
4. With a different frankness, a frankness of perhaps even rarer sort, he withholds nothing of all that had passed between God and himself. He gives the reasons, correct and exact, on account of which his heart's desire is denied to him. It cannot be denied that there was something about them which a man less brave and strong might have inclined to suppress. There are things in life which, far from criminal, and far more misfortune than fault, nevertheless ask for a veil of kindly forgetfulness, and beg not to be thrust into prominence. But David tells all without disguise. It comes to this, that in the strongest of his days he had been very busy in work not of the most savoury, not of the most spiritual, not even of the most humane, and the stain of it cleaved to him—that stain the stain of blood. A very busy life in some directions often makes good works impossible at the time. But this is not necessarily the worst of it. The more significant and sad thing is that it does one or both of two other things. It either finally takes away all taste and disposition to do the work of higher goodness; or if, as with David now, it does not do this, yet it clothes the man against his will with a character of unsuitableness to it. In this neither is man censorious nor God unjust. But nature is vindicating its reality and strength, and another illustration is added of the truth, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This, then, is David's frank confession: "God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my Name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood" (1 Chronicles 28:3).
5. With grateful memory David records the promise that God had made in substitution for granting the exact desire of his heart. This promise of what should be done in and by Solomon was "the word on which God had caused David to hope." And reflection upon it was very food to him, commemoration of it was a welcomed and sacred duty. The promise had been given in close connection with a detailed reminder of how God had selected David, and called him, and made such a changed career for him, upon all that had naturally loomed before him (2 Samuel 7:8-16). The whole scene and purport of that report that Nathan made to David in his interview with him, had stamped one clear, effective impression on his mind. And it is evident that his own address to the people and to Solomon now answers feature for feature to it. But in the centre of it was this promise about Solomon; all the rest clustered round it, and the grateful promise holds the central place now in David's memory and heart.
6. The dosing charge of David—a double charge, one to the people, one to their future king, one to the Church, the other to the minister, "the leader and shepherd of Israel."
(1). The charge to the laity. The very essence of impressiveness lies sometimes in the directness of personal appeal. There may be personal appeal without individual appeal.
Each in a large number shall sometimes sufficiently feel that the address is to himself. In the brief language of David much is contained. Its sententiousness is telling and emphatic. The great throng of human witnesses is instanced. The supreme omniscient Witnesser is pointed to, is well held up to view. "In the sight of all Israel the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God;" these are the imposing sanctions which precede the solemn burden itself of command or earnest exhorting. Then follows such exhortation—it is entreaty itself: "Keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God." The rule for nation, leaders, ay, and for individual, if they are to be safe and sure, is thus constituted. Obedience, inquiring obedience, and impartial, uniform obedience, are the triple essentials of that wise and holy law. And the scriptural reward of obedience is set forth, and in that finer form to which Scripture gives, in one way or another, so unique a prominence, viz. the reward not to self and present time alone, but to the future and to generations yet unborn. This tendency to suggest the future, to point to it, and to urge the taking it into account, is one of the noteworthiest marks of the diviner methods of monition and impression. Where the subject-matter may make it impossible in one way, it will, if possible, insist on appearing in another way. "That ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever."
(2) The charge to his own loved son. Now all the father's heart and soul are moved. Every short clause, in its full, majestic Hebrew vocabulary, thrilled with the deep conviction and earnest persuasion that the abounding experience of an aged and holy father would bring to bear upon his son. What influences they are that offer themselves to produce an ever-remaining impression on the young man! At a moment when all the eyes of a vast and august assembly are bended on the young Hebrew prince, a solemn individual appeal is made to him. Again the beaming of the height of paternal love and pride is shining on him. Again the familiarly known earthly father's name is raised into union with the Name of the one Being above all: "Know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind.",, Then are brought rote' prominence the grand characteristics of that Being, as One who searches all hearts, and perfectly understands all the imaginations of them." His gracious approachableness, if sought, and his deep offence and sure punishment, if neglected, are declared, till the close of all is reached. This consists
(a) of the distinct admonition to watch; of the
(b) suggestion of strong comfort and support that lie in the thought of the Lord's choice and decree; and
(c) of the challenge, in the name of all which had gone before, to "be strong and do it."
1 Chronicles 28:12, 1 Chronicles 28:19.-Divine inspiration the guide of human work.
These verses amount to a very real and very interesting assertion of Divine inspiration. The "things that float before the mind," to use Bertheau's words, without his meaning in them, may none the less be the fruit of inspiration. But beside and in addition to the mind's ordinary command of its own gifts, in addition to the exercise of reason, to the aids of the accumulations of experience, and of even some touch of foresight, which belong by nature to all, and which attach to some in a very high degree by training and by purity of mind, the Divine Spirit gives as he lists special impulses and sure guidance, an unusual discernment and unerring correctness of deliverance, and truth absolute betimes. The leading instance and type of such inspiration is to be found, no doubt, in those impulses and that Divine superintending and Divine informing of certain men's minds in the essential matter of spiritual truth, which by many an instalment and through a very long stretch of ages secured for us at last the grand total we now call our Bible. This may be called the inspiration of word or of truth; while that exercise of inspiration which the present passage leads us to notice might rather be designated the inspiration of work. There is, of course, nothing manifest to distinguish these in their nature, for the same gracious Spirit, the same mighty and heavenly Force, is in either case at work. But there are important and grateful thoughts suggested to us in the fact that the quickening, informing, revealing Spirit comes to our aid not only in the deepest and highest things that can touch soul, but in the literal works of our hands. Let us notice —
I. THE SPIRIT DOES NOT DISDAIN TO CO-OPERATE WITH MEN, IN SUGGESTING, SHAPING, AND COMPLETING THAT WHICH IS TO BE MADE BY THEIR HANDS, AND TO AFFECT THEM THOUGH THE MINISTRY OF THE SENSES. Though the inevitable and just inference in our own minds herein is of the condescension of the Spirit, yet we need not pass over the consideration, that this is in keeping with an analogy that we might expect would be observed. As St. Paul teaches us forcibly, in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, that they are to be adjudged worthy of the severest condemnation who refuse to learn the invisible things of God himself from his works visible in creation, so the Spirit would nourish in our outer works right methods of approaching the Being who must all the while be "worshipped in spirit and in truth."
II. THE SPIRIT PUTS HONOUR ON THE EXPRESSION ON THE PART OF MAN OF HIS WORSHIP AND SERVICE OF GOD, EVEN IN THE OUTER REQUISITES OF THEM. That which has cost nothing of money, of skill, of thought, of care, is not what is to be offered to God. It would not be offered to those we loved or respected among our fellow-creatures, and yet less should it be offered to him.
III. THE SPIRIT HONOURS IN PARTICULAR THE EXACTITUDE AND PERFECTION IN ITS KIND OF WHAT IS GIVEN TO GOD. The sacrifice must he the young and the pure and the blemishless. And a similar principle must be observed throughout our service of God. But how often, how grossly, how notoriously, how self-deceivingly, is this plain principle disregarded by multitudes of professing Christians! To God is given last; to God the least; to God that which is too poor to keep or to give elsewhere.
IV. THE SPIRIT RECOGNIZES AND SUGGESTS OUR NEED OF PATTERNS. The Lord's Prayer was one kind of pattern; the sermon on the mount was another kind of pattern; the sacred cross was another illustrious pattern; the directions given to the twelve disciples and again to the seventy, on their first missionary journeys, were a pattern; the Israelites were a pattern; John, Peter, and Paul were each respectively a pattern. And for the first solid temple that informed and intelligent worship of God ever reared, the Spirit gave the pattern, and pattern after pattern for details.
V. STILL THE SPIRIT GIVES BUT THE PATTERN, He does not supersede our active exertions, our best exertions, nor permits us to reckon on even his proxy. But he does wait to lead, offer to show and to teach, and above all in this particular way—the way of imparting principles of right action, of holy action, of beautiful action.