God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 5:11-14 The Glory of the Lord

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, September 30, 2024

11 Then the priests came out of the Holy Place.

Normally, the priests did not carry the Ark of the Covenant or the other furnishings of the tabernacle or temple. The Ark was to be carried by the Levite clan of Kohath. The priests were to cover the items and prepare them for travel (Numbers 4:4-14), but when this was done, the non-priests (Levites) of the Kohathite clan were to pick the Ark up and carry it (Numbers 4:15, 3:31). But on two occasions, moving the Ark across the Jordan River (Joshua 3:3) and here, moving the Ark into the temple, the special honor was given to some priests—probably but not necessarily from that same tribe.

All the priests who were there had sanctified themselves, without regard to their divisions.

12 All the Levites who were singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and relatives, who were dressed in fine linen, stood on the east side of the altar with one hundred twenty priests who were trumpeters. They were playing cymbals, harps, and lyres. 13 The trumpeters and singers, as one, played and sang in unison to give praise and thanks to the LORD.

On this special day, the priests set aside their divisions (1 Chronicles 24:7-18). They all sanctified themselves, which involved ceremonial washing and clean linen robes, but especially involved a repentant heart and trust in the forgiveness of sins through the coming Savior (Psalm 25:18,22). Levites from both of the former worship locations were present. Heman and Jeduthun had been ministering at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39-41), where the tabernacle had most recently stood (and was now within the new temple). Asaph had been assigned to serve before the Ark at the special, temporary tent David set up for it (1 Chronicles 16:37). Now, with all the other musicians, they played and sang a song in unison, “as one.” This, along with all these other things, emphasized their unity and fellowship in worship.

They raised their voices in song with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD:
“For he is good,
  for his mercy endures forever.”

Psalms 106, 107, 118 and 136 all begin the same way: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.” But I think that it’s more important to remember that this was the song David sang when he brought the Ark into Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16:34).

God is good. Not only this, but God radiates his goodness outward to everything and to everyone, the way a light shines on everything and everyone, or the way a sound reaches all ears that hear. We tend to call God’s goodness his “kindness,” just as Jacob prayed: “I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant” (Genesis 32:10). And recall the unexpected blessing of Naomi: “The Lord has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead” (Ruth 2:20). The goal of God’s goodness with sinners is to rescue us from the burden of our sin. This is why he promised his Son and then sent his Son (Genesis 3:15; John 3:16), to remove our guilt without destroying us. This is the mercy of God that endures forever.

Then the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not take their positions to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

The cloud was the Glory of the LORD, the visible manifestation of law and gospel prior to God speaking a message to his people. The bright light or glow of the Glory displays all of his perfections, while the presence of the cloud also indicates his transcendence, so that the first instinct of man upon seeing the Glory is to fall down and worship (Numbers 20:6; Ezekiel 1:28, 44:4). Our Seminary’s great teacher from a century ago, Professor August Pieper, wrote specifically for our understanding: “In general, the interpretation of the Glory of the LORD is not difficult. It is… a more or less complete image of the true glory, or the absolute and infinite transcendence of God over all creatures according to his all-pervading presence, his all-dominating power, his infinite grace, and his all-consuming holiness—a symbol of his absolute sovereignty, of the one and only true and perfect Lord, to whom all creatures ought to render willing obeisance and joyful service, and offer adoration, praise, and glory without end” (The Glory of the Lord, p. 2).

The same cloud, the Glory of the Lord, appeared when the first tabernacle was dedicated (Exodus 40:34-35). At that time, “Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.” Surely the appearance of the cloud both then and here in Solomon’s time were both indications of the Lord’s own approval and consecration of the place of worship. In fact, in Exodus, Moses was specifically commanded to carry out the consecration of the tent in a definite pattern of ten events:

1, The Tabernacle (holy place and most holy place) was set up.
2, The Ark was brought, covered, into its place.
3, The table for the bread was put in place.
4, The lampstand was brought in and set in place.
5, The altar of incense was brought in.
6, The bronze altar was put into its proper place.
7, The basin (the “sea”) was set up and filled.
8, The outer curtain (the courtyard) was set up.
9, Moses was to anoint everything with oil.
10, The priests were ordained (this last item was only done the first time, and whenever a new priest or class of priests were brought into service).

But the very first time the tabernacle was set up, after the outer curtain was set up (Exodus 40:33), the cloud descended. It appears that before Moses could consecrate and bless the tent with earthly oil, the Lord consecrated and blessed the tent with his presence first. His goodness radiates outward from him to all. And now in Solomon’s time, the same thing took place. Once again, God’s goodness radiates outward from him to all, blessing all. “Where God’s glory is,” Luther said, “there must be peace.” For the prophet said about the temple when it was rebuilt: “‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘And in peace I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty’” (Haggai 2:9). He meant of course that the second temple, built as a kind of puny and unremarkable thing in the days after the exiles returned from captivity, four hundred years after Solomon’s temple was built, would be held in greater glory because Christ would occupy it. The cloud appeared in the Tent, and the cloud appeared in Solomon’s temple, but Christ himself appeared in the second temple and glorified it with his preaching and teaching, and even shedding some of his blood there at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles, priests (John 18:22) and Romans alike (John 19:1-3). His blood dripped to the ground of that temple, the temple court, as he was led outside (Mark 15:20), and that blood was the same blood that atoned for the sins of the world (John 1:29). A single drop was enough to fill up the temple and the full measure of God’s demand for the sins of all, from the fall of Adam and Eve to the last transgressions of those who will see his return on Judgment Day, at the very last moment of what John calls in his vision the “1260 days” (Revelation 12:6), which is to say the whole long duration of the New Testament age, which the prophet also calls the time, times, and half a time. His mercy endures forever.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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