2 Chronicles 4:1-22 - Homiletics

The altar, the sea, the light, and the bread.

The homiletics of this chapter, viewed in certain general aspects, have been already treated with those of 2 Chronicles 3:1-17 . But it remains to notice other interesting and important aspects of the contents of this chapter. As soon as these are exhibited in such a manner as to make their relative importance apparent, they do indeed become of marked interest.

I. First, and no doubt first in importance, we read of the great ALTAR OF BRASS . The contents of the temple begin from this. The sacrifice is the great feature; nay, the great fact. of worship on the part of the Church on earth. By this early forecast of prophecy; by the earlier of the tabernacle; by the much earlier of the patriarchs' house and family; by one earlier even than that—by the earliest of all, just outside the garden of Eden, and "eastward" of it, and in the presence of "cherubim" and "flaming sword" there,—the sacrifice is what Scripture brings prominently to our view. Take note also of the "golden altar" (verse 19). Well may it be that, though in every corruptest form of religion, no heathen tribe that emerges to view in our wide fields of missionary enterprise needs to be taught one thing, viz. the place of "sacrifice and offering" in religion, the call for it, the efficacy of it. Can we deny, all charity granted, that the lesson all this teaches nothing short of blindness can fail to see and acknowledge!

II. We notice that, second in order, comes the great SEA OF MOLTEN BRASS , with its symbolic lily-flower ornamentation. The use of the "molten sea" is expressly stated. That use reminds us primarily of the need on the part of the priests of old, and of those of modern day, who in even a more real sense take their place, of all cleanness of hand, of deed, of word, of thought, of conscience; furthermore, of the perpetually recurring need of the cleansing and renewing of their spirit; and of this most solemn thought, that even in their holiest work impurity and defilement may be first contracted, and most disastrously. And then, by all most just and certain of inference, it reminds all believers, all servants of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, all saints and faithful, of their perpetual need of such purification as consists of self-examining and self-watching together with the direct and only all-sufficing sanctification of the Holy Ghost.

III. We notice, third in order, the TEN LAVERS . These, for the washing of the victims and sacrificial offerings themselves, remind us what pure offerings and genuine sacrifices all that we bring to God should be; broken and contrite hearts, simplest motives, genuine affections, and the outward objective gifts we bring, not merely ungrudged, but—best proof of the same—of our best, of what may have cost us self-denial, some preparation, some honest labour to make them a little less unworthy of the Master's work. To bring the blemished, to bring what we can so utterly dispense with, that we either do not know it is gone, or are glad to know it, is, in plain words, to bring polluted offerings.

IV. We find, next in order, the TEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS , each probably of sevenfold lamps. They were for actual light. They were typical of that yet more actual spiritual light that must ever be present in the true Church, must ever be witnessed to by it, and which must ever be shed forth from the true Church. We are not to forget that these, too, were made from the pattern shown in the mount. And the various and beautiful Scripture references to them are most animating to think of (see, for instance, Zechariah 4:1-3 , Zechariah 4:11-14 ; Revelation 1:12 , Revelation 1:13 , Revelation 1:20 ; Revelation 2:1 ; Revelation 11:3-5 ).

V. We have next THE TEN TABLES on which was placed the shewbread, which lay there one week, and was after that to be eaten by the priests alone. Though it is not distinctly revealed what the twelve loaves of shewbread intended, the very mystery left hanging about it enhances our interest in it, since high importance is repeatedly attached to the mention of it. It must justly be regarded as an ordinance; it must surely typify nourishment, and that not the mere nourishment of the body, but of very spiritual life. It was the shewbread , i.e. of God; the presence-bread, i.e. of God. Was it not one perpetual standing type of the Bread of life—the Bread that was to come down from heaven for the life of the world?

And after these five leading declarations of the contents of the temple, and the preparation of them, there follow descriptions of several lesser ones, all beautiful, all pure and costly in their material, each with its distinct tributary service and use. Distinct attention may be invited to the seventeenth verse, specifying the place where King Hiram cast the precious metal vessels, and the pillars, etc. It must not be said that this statement may not be important, and may serve merely some perhaps evidential use at some time or another, in corroborating the general contents of this holy history.

Yet, if it be so, the mere suggestions it inevitably excites are worth giving some expression to. The moral suggestions of the clay ground and thickened clay, by help of which and in which the finest vessels, and most enduring monuments of metal were cast and fashioned, are fruitful. They may recall to us the very mould original of that body into which the Almighty breathed the breath of life, and countless instances in the history of the individual and of the Church, when the Master-Potter has indeed shown his sovereign power and unchallengeable right over the clay. Out of it, what vessels of grace and beauty and enduringness has not he fashioned! by aid of it, and all its humiliation, what grand results to character, discipline, and sanctification, has not he brought about! and—not the least encouragement to our faith and patience in trial, in affliction, in the horrible pit and miry clay—how has the very contrast astonished and delighted the beholding Church and world, between the methods used and the Divine results obtained! But the humble sufferer himself has been not a mere admiring beholder. His tears have been turned into smiles and joy; and even on earth he has learnt how the "suffering" has been outweighed beyond all estimate by gain, advantage, and that which he best knows to be the earnest of a certain "eternal weight of glory."