Some Principles of the House of God # 5

The Meeting of Mercy and Judgment

Then, let me remind you that the threshing floor of Ornan, the site of the temple, was the place where judgment and mercy met. We sing 

"With mercy and with judgment My web of time He wove."

There must be judgment. It was so in the case of David. But judgment is only one side. Judgment and mercy met on that threshing floor that day and kissed each other, and the temple resulted. Judgment has to begin at the house of God, but, thank God, it is not judgment unto utter destruction. It is mercy mingled with judgment, and the end is the triumph of mercy over judgment. That is Calvary, that is the house of God. We shall find it like that all the time. There  will be judgment; it has to be; we know it quite well.

The Lord does not let pass things that are contrary to the principles of His house. If we only knew it, as Paul tried to make the Corinthians know it, many are suffering today in numerous ways because they are not observing the principles of the house of God (1 Corinthians 11:30). There is that side; it goes on. But oh, God only does that in order to have mercy. It is mercy that is His end. So He founds and so He builds His house.

God Under No Debt to Man

No indebtedness to man is allowed to be represented by God's house. How insistent David was, how alive now to Divine principles! The refining fires wake us up to principles. It was so with David on another occasion. You remember how the ark was put on the cart. David had forgotten the Scripture. He went through a time of suffering until at last he came to see the Divine principle in the Word of God and put things right (1 Chronicles 13, 15). Here is is alive to principles again. When Ornan wanted to give David the threshing floor, David said, "No, I will pay you in full. No man shall ever say that the house of God is in debt to men; no other shall ever be able to say afterward, "Yes, I gave God that; the site of that temple is my gift".

No, Ornan is bought out of all holding. Man has no place as a creditor in the house of God; there is no debt to man, he is bought right out. You can apply that.

The Threshing of the Corn

This was a threshing floor, the place where all is threshed out before the Lord. No chaff here; nothing that is not real, genuine, true, solid; nothing that will not contribute to building up. It must be the true corn. God is always seeking to do this. The house of God is a threshing floor. All our chaff, our vanity, our emptiness, is being got rid of, all that really does not count. God is after that which builds His house, or, to change the metaphor, the Body. He is after the corn. The chaff must go. In our very relationship to the Lord among His people, as forming His house, we find He is winnowing, threshing, getting rid of  our vanity, our unreality, our chaff. But in so doing He is getting reality, He is getting what is solid, what will stand, what will feed. This is the basis of His building.

All that we have said should work out in very practical ways. The figures employed are but types and symbols, but the realities are in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and He will unceasingly press for their fulfillment in the lives of God's people. Let us see to it that as He  works in our case He has our full cooperation.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(The End)