For Zion's Sake

by WATCHMAN | Category: For Zion's Sake | Apr 1962

In a sense certain tribes in Israel were raised to an eminence in Israel because of the men from whom they sprang and also because of the outstanding character of certain men who belonged to such tribes. Ephraim, the second son of Joseph, had Jacob's right hand laid upon his head when he adopted Joseph's two sons (Genesis 48. 5, 13-20). Joseph had the birthright (1 Chronicles 5.1, 2) which Reuben shamefully cast away. He was unstable as water, as his father said of him when he lay a-dying (Genesis 49.8, 4), and, alas, he seemed to pass on his unstable and uncertain character to his sons (Deuteronomy 33.6). They seemed given to making great resolves of heart which they never carried out (Judges 5.15, 16). Great resolves should be followed by great actions. Reuben, despite the resolves and searchings of heart, sat still by the sheepfolds to hear the pipings of the flock, instead of being with Barak and joining in the clash of arms in the deliverance of God's people.

Ephraim, by the laying on of the hand of Jacob, had the birthright conferred upon him. With the birthright went the service of the house of God, as we see in Jacob's case. For Jacob who bought the birthright and obtained the firstborn's blessing was led to the place which he called Bethel, the house of God, and there he raised the stone, which he had for a pillow, as a pillar, and of this he said, "This stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house"; and of his gift to be given in God's house, he also said, "And of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give' the tenth unto Thee." Earlier his grandfather Abraham had given the tenth of the chief spoils unto God's priest, Melchizedek (Genesis 14.18-20).

Thus it was that ere Israel left Egypt by divine appointment the Tabernacle and service of God were to find their place in Shiloh in the hill country of Ephraim.

Sing aloud unto God our strength:

Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

For it is a statute for Israel,

An ordinance of the God of Jacob.

He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony,

When He went out over the land of Egypt"

(Psalm 81.1-5).

Joseph acquired the birthright which was passed on to Ephraim and on to the tribe of Ephraim, for wherein Reuben the first-born failed, Joseph in his temptation rose gloriously supreme. Besides, Joshua was a man of the tribe of Ephraim, and that fact shed an added glory on that tribe.

Great indeed also were the benefits and blessings which accrued to the tribe of Levi through Moses, who was a Levite. His brother Aaron became the high priest of Israel, and in his descendants the priesthood of God's people remained ever after. On the occasion of the worshipping of the Golden Calf, when God was about to slay Aaron and destroy Israel, Moses stood in the breach to turn away His wrath, and then the Levites gained for themselves a blessing when they separated themselves to the gate of the camp to Moses. As sent by Moses into the camp again, they executed God's judgement on His sinning people. The blessing the Levites obtained was that they were taken man for man, instead of the firstborn sons of Israel, and appointed in their stead to the service of the Tabernacle (Exodus 32; Numbers 3). Thus the tribe of Levi was raised to an eminence in Israel which one could never have expected, in the light of the actions of Levi and those of Simeon which were justly condemned by their father on his deathbed, when he cursed their anger, and divided and scattered them in Israel (Genesis 49.5-7). Alas, Simeon had no son like Moses to raise that tribe to prominence in Israel. The tribe of Simeon which was domiciled in the Negeb (the south) spent its days in the shadows so far as sacred history is concerned.

The tribe of Judah owes much of its greatness to that son of Judah, David the shepherd boy, who became the greatest of all Israel's kings. He left a blessing behind both to Israel and to Judah, and also to his own house, from which arose in the fulness of time Mary, of David's royal house, who was the chosen virgin of whom the Messiah, He who is blessed for ever, was born. But we cannot overlook, as we think of Judah's greatness, the lonely mother on childbed in her tent, who had been seeking in the birth of her three former sons the love of her husband, which had been denied her. In the birth of her fourth son Judah, Leah rose supreme above all natural affection. She said in her motherly joy as she looked upon her infant son, "This time will I praise the LORD," so she called him Judah (praise). Her's was a voice heard far in the depths of heaven, and by divine choice, "of him (Judah) came the Prince; but the birthright was Joseph's" (1 Chronicles 5.2). This fact of the Prince arising from the tribe of Judah was clearly not seen till David's time. Yet in oracular words Jacob as he was dying took up the same theme as his wife Leah, "Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise" (Genesis 49.5). And, looking far into the future, Jacob said, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the obedience of the peoples be" (verse 10).

But Ephraim failed, for

"The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,

Turned back in the day of battle.

They kept not the covenant of God,

And refused to walk in His law" (Psalm 78.9, 10).

The state of the priesthood Of Eli and his sons also was so deplorable

"That He forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh,

The tent which He placed among men" (Psalms 78.60).

He never returned to Shiloh or to Ephraim again. Long years of misery and frustration passed over Israel, and then,

"He refused the tent of Joseph,

And chose not the tribe of Ephraim

But chose the tribe of Judah,

The mount Zion which He loved.

And He built His sanctuary like the heights,

Like' the earth 'which He hath established for ever.

He chose David also His servant,

And took him from the sheepfolds" (Psalm 78.67-70).

It was a time of refusing and choosing. He refused Joseph (Ephraim), and refused Shiloh. He chose Judah and Zion, and He chose David also. It is well for us to be present when God is in the way of choosing, and as He chose David also He may choose you. But you will have to make yourself efficient for His work in the silent, unseen place where men are equipped and where character is formed. Even after David had been chosen and the golden oil of anointing dripped from his bushy locks, he had long days of sore persecution to bear, when faith and patience were tested to their utmost extent. We need not to refer to many of his psalms to prove how low down he sank on many, many occasions. But God sustained his spirit and he won through.

We cannot forget the night he wandered about in the darkness in Hebron, wrestling with the LORD that He would show him where He wished His Tabernacle to be. They (whoever it might be) remembered David's deep exercise and so the song was written and sung in deep yet sweet cadences.

"LORD, remember for David

All his affliction" (Psalm 132).

They sang of his oath and his vows, of his refusal to go home and go to bed, of his refusal to sleep, until he had found a place for the LORD, a Tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob. Where did he find it? It was in Zion!

"For the LORD hath chosen Zion;

He hath desired it for His habitation.

This is My resting place for ever:

Here will I dwell; for I have desired it"

(Psalm 132.13, 14).

This song is one of the psalms of the Ascents, of the "goings up," for in deed and truth God's people began to go up to a higher level of spiritual experience when David found that the LORD had chosen Zion as His habitation and resting place. Where are those who have an exercise like David's to find a place, by divine revelation, for God? Who knows anything about Zion today?

WATCHMAN | Apr 1962
For Zion's Sake