The Potter's Molded Clay

“I will be his Father, and he shall be My son.” (1 Chronicles 17:13) We pick up where we left off in our typology series, coming to the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles. We covered a good deal of how Solomon was a type of Christ in the books of 1 & 2 Kings. However, today, I want to encourage you to look past what you think to be as fulfillments when it comes to the person of Solomon. In fact, let me quote the LSB (Legacy Standard Bible), as it is worded best here, in my opinion, for this passage; “And it will be that when your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; and I will not remove My lovingkindness from him, as I removed it from him who was before you. But I will cause him to stand in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.” (1 Chronicles 17:11-14) We see quite clearly that Solomon was to succeed his father David as king, and he was the one to build the temple for the Lord God. However, was this the fulfillment God had in mind? The same Solomon who at the end of his life sought the false gods of his many wives and concubines? Solomon would not be the ultimate fulfillment of this promise, this covenant made with David. Three times in the above stated passage do we see the word “forever”, this could only point to one who is still reigning and will forever remain reigning on the throne. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this covenant, this promise from God to David. In fact, to further enforce the fact that this did not find true fulfillment in Solomon; less than four hundred years later we see Babylon sack Jerusalem and Judah, in which there would not be another descendant of Solomon’s to rule as the king of Jerusalem. Let us now use the word of God to help us understand the word of God, the same above passage can be viewed from another lens in the New Testament; “For to which of the angels did He ever say: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten you?’ and again: ‘I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?’” (Hebrews 1:5)
 
Jumping around, in no specific order, as is my usual. Let’s move forward into 2 Chronicles, to chapter 34. “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes. When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses. The king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem – the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.” (2 Chronicles 34:1-8,14,30-33)
 
In the above passage from 2 Chronicles 34, we see the temple Solomon had built had been left in ruin, the people bowing the knee to false gods, committing grotesque idol worship. Josiah in seeking the Lord had decided it best to restore the temple, and in the midst of the ruined temple being renovated they found something of measureless value. Not gold, nor silver, but the book of the Law. We see through the hearing of the contents of the book of the Law that Josiah seeks to not only rebuild the temple but work at building the kingdom of His God. He tears down all the high places, destroying everything associated with their idolatrous worship, he makes sure Israel no longer serves the false gods of his fathers, but serves the one true and Living God of his father David. This book of the Law is a type of Christ, as we have mentioned before how Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. He perfectly obeyed where we couldn’t. Christ is worth far more than any silver or gold, and it is through looking to Him that we too are changed; driven to worship, to praise and glorify the one true and living God. He is the Author of the book of the Law, and the Author of our life. The Law is a tutor or schoolmaster that points us to Christ, much in the same way the book of the Law pointed Josiah to the one true and living God.
 
Page after page in the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles we see son after son from David’s family line fail to measure up to who everyone longed for that would be the fulfillment of the promise/covenant given to David. As mentioned, Christ was the promised Son from David’s family line, from the tribe of Judah. Even Josiah in all that he did with removing from Israel all idol worship, rebuilding the temple, and and instituting a mandate (essentially) to seek and serve the Lord God of their father David, he still was not the long-awaited son and king of David. Christ alone is the fulfillment of the promise/covenant made with David. Even the temple points us to Christ, in various ways, many of which I will fail to mention. However, the first most noticeable is that He (Christ Jesus) is where God (the Father) has fixed His eyes and ears, that in His (the Lord Jesus Christ) mediation and intercession, He (the Father) would respond to prayer’s of His people. The temple that was laid in ruin due to the sins of the people of Israel, would represent Christ who was also destroyed (gave His life, shedding His blood) for our sins. However, Christ has been raised forevermore, never to taste death again, He is the temple that stands forever, unlike the temporary temple of the Lord that Solomon built. Even the earthly temple Solomon built was majestic, with all sorts of rare materials; gold, silver, cedar wood, etc…Yet this too pointed to the majesty that is found only in Christ, who is far beyond any measure of value, beauty, glory, and majesty.
 
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears made attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.” (2 Chronicles 7:14-16) “The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” (2 Chronicles 15:2) Let me close out with a couple quotes from Charles Spurgeon, first one being, “Search the Bible for yourself. Do not take your religion at second-hand from another.” And lastly, to close, from Spurgeon: “Praise God with the heart He has changed, the lips He has loosed, and the life He has spared.”