For Zion's Sake

by WATCHMAN | Category: For Zion's Sake | May 1962

Zion is a fixture in the purposes of God. He will never move to another place on earth to make it His place of residence.

"They that trust in the LORD

Are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved,

but abideth for ever."(Psalm 125.1).

"For the LORD hath chosen Zion;

He hath desired it for His habitation.

This is My resting place for ever:

Here will I dwell; for I have desired it."

(Psalm 132.18, 14).

At different periods He moved about. We find Him at Bethel in Jacob's day with but a stone to mark the place of His dwelling. At the time of the Exodus and during Israel's pilgrimage through the wilderness He descended to the Tabernacle at Sinai and filled it with the glory of His presence, and from thence He walked with His people in a tent in all their wanderings. Then when they entered the land, His dwelling was at Shiloh in the hill country of Ephraim. Then in the days of Eli He forsook Shiloh because of the disgraceful behaviour of the priests and many of His people, and delivered His glory, the Ark and Mercy-Seat, into the hands of the Philistines; After being plagued in their bodies and in their lands, the Philistines returned the Ark to Israel and it was placed in the house of Abinadab in the hill (Gibeah), in Kiriath-jearim. There the Ark remained until the great revival in the days of David. Following the finding that - Zion was the place of God's choice, David proposed to the thousands of Israel:

"Let us bring again the Ark of our God to us: for we sought not unto it in the days of Saul... And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is to Kiriath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from thence the Ark of God, the LORD that sitteth upon the cherubim; which is called by the Name" (1 Chronicles 13.8,6).

"And he prepared a place for the Ark of God and pitched for it a tent ... And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the LORD unto its place. which he hod prepared for it" (1 Chronicles 15. 1.8).

God who forsook Shiloh at the close of Eli's days never returned there again (Psalm 78.60). During the days of David the Tabernacle of the Lord, which was built by Moses in the wilderness, was in the high place at Gibeon, which was about six miles to the north-west of Jerusalem. And though God was now dwelling in Zion, yet Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests were there in Gibeon to offer sacrifices, as we read;

"And Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the Tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon, to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD upon the altar of burnt offering continually" (1 Chronicles 16.89, 40).

There, too, were certain of the singers:

"And with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest that were chosen, who were expressed by name, to give thanks to the LORD, because His mercy endureth for ever" (verse 41).

The three chief Singers were Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. They were Levites, heads of the three branches of family of the Levites, Heman (of Kohath), Asaph (of Gershom), and Jeduthun (of Merari). Of Asaph we read,

"So he left there, before the Ark of the covenant (in Zion) of the LORD, Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the Ark continually, as every day's work required" (1 Chronicles 16. 87).

Thus while Asaph ministered in song before the Ark in Zion, Heman and Jeduthun ministered in song before the Tabernacle in Gibeon.

Here was a divided service, but how David longed to see the service of God in a house which he proposed to Nathan that he would build! Nathan apparently without consulting the LORD said, "Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee" (1 Chronicles 17.1, 2), but that night the word of God came to him, and he was told to go to David and say that one of his sons would build Him a house, after he had gone to be with his fathers (verses 11, 12). David, perhaps more than any man in his time, loved the house of God, the place where His glory dwelt (Psalm 26.8), but never saw his hopes realized while he lived, for the service of God was divided between Zion and the Tabernacle in Gibeon. Throughout his life the vision of the house of God was continually before him, and near his death his prayer that God would keep it before the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of His people (1 Chronicles 29.18).

David was restrained from building a house for God, but the site on which the Temple was to be built was revealed to him. The threshing floor of Oman the Jebusite on the rocky height of Moriah was the chosen place. Thus we read,

"At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Oman the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. For the Tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel" (1 Chronicles 21.28-22.1).

It was of first importance that David should be certain about the place which would be the place of the Name.

Then the next point in sequence was the pattern of the house. This David received in writing from the LORD.

"Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch of the Temple, ... and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, for the courts of the house of the LORD... All this, said David, have I been made to understand in writing from the hand of the Loan, even all the works of this pattern. And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it. " (1 Chronicles 28.11-20).

Then followed the necessary material for the building of the house. The account of this we find in 1 Chronicles 29.1-9. David had accumulated vast quantities of gold, silver, brass (or copper), iron, wood, precious stones, and marble, and to this he added a treasure of his own, and he encouraged his people with the words, "Who then offereth willingly to consecrate himself this day unto the LORD?" "Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy" (1 Chronicles 29.9). These salient features of (1) the place, (2) the pattern, and (8) the material for the building, cast the mind back to similar things in connexion with the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness; (1) the place, mount Sinai (Exodus 3.12), (2) the pattern (Exodus 25.9), and the material, of every man whose heart made him willing (Exodus

25.1-8).

The early years of Solomon were times when Israel rose to their greatness as God's people, when they gave and toiled to provide God with a palace for Him who is the King of Israel and of the nations. The eyes of the great and the wise on earth turned toward Jerusalem, and here was a picture in miniature of what it will yet be when "the Man whose name is the Branch; .... shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the LORD: even He shall build the temple of the LORD; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne: and He shall be a priest upon His throne" (Zechariah 6.12, 13).

Melchizedek, who met Abram returning from the slaughter of the kings, was both king and priest of God Most High, one who was made like unto the Son of God. But here is One after his order, yet appearing in a glory that excelleth, who abides a Priest for ever in the power of an endless life (Hebrews 7).

How soon the glory of the Solomonic reign began to fade! The carnal pleasures, which Solomon allowed himself, undermined his moral constitution and wrecked his spiritual life. In his old age his foreign wives guided him to their heathen altars where he burned incense to those heathen deities. What a fall, and what a spectacle! Who would have believed it of a man who built the Temple and prayed the dedicatory prayer at the dedication of the Temple? (1 Kings 8.

22-66).

Then followed the folly of Rehoboam and the crash and break-up of the unity of Israel as a people - on and on the story of the house of God goes in the history of the kings of Judah, a few of whom were praiseworthy but many were otherwise, till at length we see the silhouette of the blackened and ruined walls of that once glorious Temple which had been burned by the Babylonians. Asaph portrays the havoc they wrought, in that prophetical psalm (74). Amongst his sorrowful words are these

"They have set Thy sanctuary on fire;

They have profaned the dwelling place of Thy Name even to the ground" (verse 7).

Far away by Babylon's rivers the captives wept salt tears,

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down, yea, we wept,

When we remembered Zion,

Upon the willows in the midst thereof

We hanged up our harps" (Psalm 137. 1, 2).

This song of the captives is one of the most plaintive ever written. Great is the mystery of suffering! How many have suffered through neglect of the things of Zion!

Isaiah takes up the cause of Zion which fell on evil days during the reigns of many of the kings of Judah, when he says,

"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth" (Isaiah 62.1).

Great will yet be the glory of that place where also the Lord was crucified (Revelation 11.8). Where He was crucified He will reign, and He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. But what of the application of the teaching of Zion today and of the house of God? That is of vital importance to us.

WATCHMAN | May 1962
For Zion's Sake