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Solomon and David's Key
Hiya, Folks! Have a good weekend, I presume?
Back when you could buy Starbucks’ stock for a few bucks a share, Della and I had a friend who was looking to invest about $50K in the stock market.
We knew that regardless of the price of coffee beans in commodities, Starbucks’ stock was going to take off.
The company was expanding its little shops and kiosks all over creation, and we advised our friend to put all or most of his money into Starbucks Coffee Company.
Colin could have bought the stock for somewhere between $5 and $7 per share.
Today, it’s ten times that amount at $53+ per share.
His $50K would have been worth half a million. Know what?
He didn’t do it. Thought coffee was like investing in junk bonds following the Michael Millken scandal.
Ahh well! We can’t all be geniuses….. Hohohohoho……….
I’d like to say to him, “Told you so,” but that wouldn’t be nice, now, would it?
‘Nuff of that. My French Press is steaming, and my coffee’s awaitin.’
Ready with yours?
From the very beginning of time, there has been a principle revealed among God's people -- a principle which is at the very heart of Ekklesia.
This principle is one which demonstrates conclusively, the fact that all of creation -- as we know it -- came into being for the exclusive purpose of bringing into existence, nurturing, and bringing to full maturity, a Bride for the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was to be no ordinary Bride. This was to be a Bride who could -- and would -- function in every sense as His co-equal partner, His other self.
In order for that to happen, this Bride would have to be one that would choose Him of her own free will, and then overcome every obstacle in the path to that relationship.
This would have to be a Bride tested by fire -- purified in the furnace of affliction.
This would have to be a Bride who could rule in the midst of adversity -- a Bride who would see the very heart's desire of the Lord Jesus Christ, and focus on that desire -- a Bride who would overcome all of the natural desires and inclinations of the flesh, and center in on an intimate love-relationship with a Being who would be known to her -- at first, only by faith.
This would be a Bride who would learn to reject the human reasoning processes and choose to walk in, and by, the Spirit; at the same time learning how to rule in the Spirit by recognizing and overcoming deliberate obstacles placed in her path by a spiritual Enemy, whose entire existence revolved around defeating the heart's desire of the Bridegroom -- who would seek to place her in submission and bondage to him.
How was this principle going to be revealed?
It was simplicity incarnate!
A door!
That's right! Just a simple door. Oh yes! It did take many shapes. Sometimes it was a gate.
Sometimes it was a veil. Other times, it was the flaps of a tent.
Like Moses’ Tabernacle had…..or David’s Tabernacle.
Most of the time, however, it was just a door -- a plain, simple door.
The purpose?
Ah hah! It was to reveal the heart's desire of the Lord Jesus Christ -- the Bridegroom.
It was to express in the most basic of demonstrations, the fact that there was a place of intimacy reserved for those who would enter into this most unique love-relationship.
It was to provide a means of entrance through the Spirit.
It was also designed to be closed -- to shut out those who determined to enter by their own will, their own self-righteousness, their intellect, their performance of good works.
The door was there, also, to shut out all harm and danger from those who entered -- to provide a place of safety and protection which would be absolutely inviolable.
It would also be a portal to the vast expanses of the inheritance that Jesus Christ has in His Bride, and that His Bride has in Him.
It would be a time-portal.
(No, this is not science-fiction! This is not [doo-doo, doo-doo] the twilight zone.
This is a tangible reality, available to all who enter by this door.)
This would be a portal through which one entered, into a dimension where time was virtually irrelevant: a dimension in which time would stand still -- a realm in which one would be able to see the past, the present, and the future
FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE -- so that those who lived here would be able to see, and know, the extravagance and surpassing greatness of His love.
In this place, a day with the Lord would be as a thousand years -- and a thousand years as a day.
Finally, this would be the entrance to a dimension of living which would overtake everything that the natural, flesh-oriented, intellectually-reasoning individual would call "normal."
This would be a place that the Bridegroom would establish for those who continued to overcome every obstacle, in order that they could press into a love-relationship with Him.
This would become "home." This would become a place where He would invite His Bride to live with Him forever -- a place to which He would refer, when He would say to her, "You will go no more out."
By the way, this door has a name. Do you know what it is?
I will leave it to you, for the moment, for your consideration.
Let me illustrate.
The day came when David, the King, was talking to his best friend, Nathan, the Prophet.
"You know what? Here I dwell in a palace, living in the lap of luxury, while the Lord is dwelling in a plain old tent. Somehow, that doesn't set well with me.
I think we should build a temple for the Lord -- a temple, the likes of which would be more befitting for the true leader of our nation."
"Sounds like a great idea to me," Nathan responds. "Let's do it!"
Nathan is scarcely out of the royal palace when the Lord buttonholes him.
"Nathan! No! You go back and tell David that as long as he is King, I will gladly dwell in that mangy old tent."
"Maybe he has forgotten why we did things this way. Anyway, you tell him that when he is dead and buried with his fathers, his son can build a temple for me.
But, not him!"
"Because his first desire has always been to please me, and see to my interests among my people, Israel, you tell David that his children, and their children, and their children, etc., etc., etc., will sit on the throne forever -- that when I keep my promise to Eve about her seed crushing the head of the Serpent, I will keep that promise through David's seed."
A very awe-stunned Nathan stumbled back into the palace to relay the message to David.
"David, the Lord says, 'No!' He says that because you have been a man of force, a man who has shed blood, that you cannot build the temple.
He says that your son, who will sit upon the throne in your place after you are dead and buried with your fathers, can build the temple."
And sure enough, when David died, his son, Solomon, came to the throne.
David, however, did one last act before he died. He called together the heads of the families of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, appointed them to prophesy before Israel in the midst of the worship which would come forth as they ministered to the Lord.
In addition, he appointed twenty-four other leaders to serve under their guidance and direction, and to minister before the Lord twenty-four hours per day, with groups of twelve under each of their direction.
288! That was the number of those whom David appointed to minister unto the Lord, so that the burden of this ministry would no longer just be the responsibility of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun. 12 x 12 x 2.
The number, twelve, would be a number which had occurred, and would occur perpetually in God's economy as He continued to display His love, desire, and purposes for this unique Bride-in-the-making -- a number which would become an integral part of the preparation processes.
When Solomon came to the throne, he immediately set about to fulfill the expressed desire of his father, David, and build a temple.
It was seven years in the making.
The world had never seen a temple, the like of this one.
There was a glory associated with it that people simply could not comprehend.
When construction had finished, Solomon gave the word.
The Tabernacle of David was torn down. The Ark of the Covenant was moved from its former resting place to the new Holy of Holies in this temple.
The temple was constructed after much the same pattern of Moses' Tabernacle.
All of the accoutrements of Moses' Tabernacle were present.
There was the Outer Court. There was the Holy Place. And.....there was the Holy of Holies.
As soon as the Ark of the Covenant was moved to its new resting place, Solomon called for a dedication.
The praisers and worshippers assembled en masse, and a sound went forth such as Israel had never heard. Ministry poured out of the hearts of those worshippers as a river rushing forth with unstoppable force as they sang their worship to the Lord.
As they continued their sound, the presence of the Lord filled the temple as a cloud. So great was His presence that the worshippers could no longer stand. They fell to the floor, their strength gone. The priests, likewise, were unable to offer sacrifices; and they, too, fell prostrate.
Not since the days of Moses had the Lord demonstrated His presence in such a visible way.
Have you seen the door, yet? Understand what it is?
And, not again, for a thousand years, would the people of Israel see the Lord in a visible manner.
With the Ark of the Covenant now safely ensconced in the new Holy of Holies,
the Lord shut the door. The veil was drawn, never to be opened again (except on the once-a-year basis for the High Priest) for a thousand years.
What happened?
Even though David had demonstrated the heart of the Lord, as well as the path to an intimate relationship with the Lord through worship; and even though the Lord had fought their battles, and given them lands originally promised to Abraham but never taken by any previous leader in Israel, they continued to stubbornly cling to the Law, and reject the opportunity given for a love relationship which would have superseded the Law, and freed them from the bondage of the serpent, Satan.
They neither understood, nor accepted, the Tabernacle of David.
Thus, the Lord shut the door. And took the Key of David.
Nevertheless, Solomon continued the ministry of the living Candlestick within the Temple begun by his father David.
It continued for the next forty years of his reign. And Solomon’s prosperity exceeded his father’s in a dimension one could scarcely fathom.
If David epitomized the standard of kings, Solomon epitomized the standard for prosperity – and wisdom.
In the years that followed during his reign, Solomon penned thousands of proverbs: wise sayings that embodied spiritual principles for all to live by.
He became known as the wisest man who ever lived.
Picture for a moment, the events of the next ten centuries.
Israel repeated the error that Adam and Eve made. Even though four more kings (after Solomon) over the course of the next four hundred-plus years came to the throne who saw much the same vision David had seen, and re-appointed the descendant families of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun -- the praisers and worshippers -- to a twenty-four hour daily ministry unto the Lord; even though Israel saw the provision of God in much the same manner as they had seen in the days of David and Solomon; and even though they saw the Lord fight their battles, and deliver them from their enemies during these periods, they still chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil over an intimate relationship with the Lord.
In fact, they became arrogant in the midst of watching God's provision and care during these times, and took the position that they were "God's special people."
They somehow lost sight of the fact that the appellation, "God's special people," could only apply, so long as they entered into an intimate relationship with Him.
They deliberately disobeyed His commands, intermarried with the heathen nations, and adopted their gods.
Thus, it came about that the Lord sent prophets to them, pleading with them, and wooing them back to Him, and the special love-relationship available in Him. He sent them Isaiah, whom even
they regarded as one of the greatest prophets, ever. Isaiah prophesied the coming of One who would again
"establish the throne......and shall sit in truth.......in the Tabernacle of
David." (See Isaiah 16:4-5)
A few years later, the prophet, Amos, stepped onto the scene and prophesied,
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, 'The evil shall not overtake, nor prevent us.' In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of
old........"
(See Amos 9:9-11)
O.K. So, if the Lord gave Moses the pattern for the tabernacle that he built, and then He manifested His glory in the temple of Solomon (which was constructed after the pattern Moses used to build his tabernacle) in an unprecedented manner, why then would He say that He was going to rebuild the Tabernacle of David – not the tabernacle of Moses and not the Temple of Solomon?
Curious? It's simple!
The tabernacle of Moses represented the Law. It contained all of the steps which were ordered through the keeping of the Law. Yes, it was a three-dimensional photograph of the Garden. Yes, it was a picture of the way to relationship. But, it was through the keeping of laws, the offering of sacrifices, and the performance of ritual duties.
David, whom the Lord referred to as "a man after God's own heart," was an extraordinary individual in his era. He had the capacity to see what few of his predecessors, and successors saw -- a love relationship with the Lord which superseded the Law. David saw past the Law. He saw past the keeping of ritual ordinances. He saw past the legalistic performance of commandments. David saw the heart of the Lord.
Even though his peers thought he was a bit extreme -- even though certain members of his family thought he was somewhat bizarre (a "space case," if you please), David sang,
"Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
The whole concept of "delight thyself in the Lord" was completely lost on David's generation -- as it has been on most generations since.
The Tabernacle of David was the heart of the Lord. It was a picture of His desire. It was a living photograph of an intimate relationship. It was a symbol of the marriage between the Lord and His Bride. David left out the Brazen Altar of sacrifice, the Laver for the washing of hands, the Table of Shewbread, the Altar of Incense -- and everything that spelled "performance," "law," or the keeping of commandments and legalistic requirements.
With David's tabernacle, one did not have to be "good enough" to enter. One did not have to perform certain sacrifices in order to be accepted by God. One did not have to "measure up" in order to enter into a relationship with the Lord.
David's tabernacle was "Love at first sight."
Israel didn't see it -- ever. And so the Lord divorced Israel. And Israel divorced the Lord.
Israel insisted on being a "Bride of Law," instead of being a "Bride of Love." God was not interested in pursuing that kind of relationship. The Law was supposed to be a picture -- a pattern -- of the relationship He desired. It was never intended to be the relationship. Or a substitute for one.
It is humanly impossible to please God by keeping laws and commandments.
In fact, it is impossible to keep all of those commandments by some exercise of the will, period! It is just not in the nature of man.
Israel, therefore, was unable to keep them. And because she was unwilling, and unable to enter into a genuine love-relationship with the Lord because of her enamoring of the Law, Israel committed adultery with other Gods. Israel intermarried with other nations.
And so provoked God's wrath that He divorced Israel.
And said, "I will have a Bride who will enter into a relationship because she wants it. Let whomsoever will, come -- be that Jew, or Gentile!"
And He made ready to open the door.
And that’s where we’ll go tomorrow. Blessings on you all!
Regner
A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
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