2 Chronicles 6:18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you… I. Let me call your attention to THE FACT OF THE DIVINE GREATNESS; because it is only in the view of that that we can be prepared to appreciate the Divine condescension. "Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee!" 1. What a view have we here of the immensity of God! We ourselves are among the stars, careering through space, myriads of miles distant now from where we were at the beginning of the service, but though perpetually changing our place in the universe, ever surrounded by His presence, and enclosed by His essence. 2. Equally awful is God's relation to duration, or His eternity. 3. Here is also a recognition of God's infinite supremacy. II. AND WILL THIS UNCONTAINABLE BEING ACTUALLY MANIFEST HIMSELF TO MAN? And here be it remarked there was but one religion in the ancient world that knew anything of a condescending God — but one — the Jewish. The so-called gods of Olympus could be mean, intriguing, self-debasing; but they had it not in their power to condescend. Morally, they had no height from which they could stoop. But the history of the Divine conduct, as recorded in the Bible, had been, from the first, a history of condescension. Look back to God's first act of condescension. Sin might have produced eternal silence. Yet it was to man, the sinner, that He took the first step in His career of condescension by speaking to him. Time rolled on; and though the depravity and guilt of man went on increasing, there comes before us in the text another stage in the Divine regard. He appoints a place for the symbol of His presence to dwell in, and where man might be always welcome to approach and commune with Him. This was a vast advance in the condescension of God. All this, astonishing as it was, was only preliminary. What if He should take our nature and make a temple of that! This, indeed, was an act beyond human conception. What! will God in very deed dwell with man — as man — upon the earth? III. Who does not feel the WONDERFULNESS of the Divine condescension? And what part of His conduct is not condescending? and what part of His condescension is not a wonder? Ascend to the first act — creation — for here the wonder begins. But all this, a man might say — much as it enlarges my views of the Divine condescension — all this I can believe. It relates only to His natural greatness. Low and limited as His creatures may be, they are not as yet supposed to have revolted, sinned. What might have taken place we know; and it is that which makes what He has done so amazing. Here the real wonder begins. That He should have stooped to ask for a hearing in a world filled with noisy praises of itself and its idols. IV. But THIS WONDERFULNESS OF THE DIVINE CONDESCENSION IS NO VALID OBJECTION TO ITS REALITY AND TRUTH. This is the very gist of the text, that, amazing as the conception is, it is yet a fact. 1. Let us not be told by a pretended philosophy that such a Divine interposition is out of all proportion to man's importance in the universe. The objection rashly assumes that the incarnation of the Son of God can have no relation to any other part of the universe; for if it have, the objection fails. His relation to our world, indeed, will always be specific and unique. But we can conceive of no world to which His incarnation and death for the redemption of our fallen race can be made known, without having their views of God enlarged, and their motives to holiness increased. As an affair of moral government, it is fraught with interest for all the subjects of God's universal empire. The planetary insignificance of the earth, the very circumstance which man makes a reason for disbelieving it, may be an element investing it, in the eyes of other worlds, with transcendent interest. They may behold in it only a further illustration of the principle on which God uniformly acts, of "choosing the things which are not to bring to nought things that are." They may see in it a designed intimation that there is no world, however insignificant — no islet in space, however remote — which shall not be filled with His glory. 2. Neither let a mock humility pretend that such condescension is too great for man's belief. The right point of view is not from the dust in which man is lying, but from the throne on which God is sitting. The reason of the whole is in God. Do you not see, then, that, wanting in wonderfulness, the Divine manifestation would have been wanting in analogy with creation and providence — wanting in the very means of authentication as a Divine act? It only stands in a line with other wonders. But the end to be obtained by it is incomparably greater. Creation and providence are but introductory and preparatory to it. 3. Nor let the mere formalist limit the displays of Divine condescension to the past. The ordinances of religion are with him memorials of past rather than means of present grace — tombs rather than temples. True, God has been in the past, and will be in the future, as we do not look for Him in the present. Looking back, Shekinah and vision are there, miracle, prophecy, and inspiration, an incarnate Saviour and a descending Spirit. We expect not now a repetition of such scenes. Looking forwards, we regard the future as stored with supernatural events. "Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." The history and the prophecy are only for limited times, the promise is for all time, large as the heart of God, and the fullest utterance of it. And is not every truly Christian Church a proof that the manifestation of God is still in process, and His condescension unabated? Wonderful as that condescension is, they can dispense with all formal proof of it. V. What, then, ARE THE MEANS OF SECURING THE DIVINE PRESENCE, AND THE EMOTIONS SUITABLE TO IT? (J. Harris, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! |
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