Sermon by the late Rev William MacLean, MA *
Preached on Sabbath, 23rd October, 1966, at a communion in Auckland, New Zealand.
Text: Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart, (Song of Solomon 3:9-11).
It is clear that in the Song of Solomon a greater than Solomon is brought before us: even the New Testament Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom King Solomon was a type. It is believed by many that the text refers to the chariot that King Solomon made to bring the daughter of Pharaoh, whom he had married, from Egypt to the house he had prepared for her at Jerusalem. Be that as it may, it is in the chariot of salvation or redemption, made by the New Testament Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ, that sinners are brought from the Egypt of a state of nature to the heavenly house that He has prepared for them.
* See footnote overleaf about Rev. William MacLean
He has declared: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you… that where I am, there ye may be also.” Therefore we believe that the chariot in our text may be described as the chariot of salvation which Christ prepared for lost sinners. No other chariot can bring us safely to Immanuel’s land but the chariot of His preparing.
First, we may consider the need for preparing such a chariot. Secondly, we may notice what is said about the making of the chariot: “King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.” Thirdly, we shall notice the invitation that is given. Christ, in the chariot of the gospel, is passing by, and this invitation is given: “Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.”
I. First, let us notice the need for making this chariot. The covenant of works which the Lord made with Adam was a chariot reflecting the glory of God. The chariot that Solomon made for the bringing of Pharaoh’s daughter to the house that he had prepared in Jerusalem would be a chariot befitting Solomon’s glory. The truth shows that there was no king so rich, so wise, so glorious in his day as was Solomon: and we can well believe that the chariot he made would reflect his glory. The chariot of the covenant of works that the Lord made with Adam was a chariot reflecting the glory of God in His attributes: the glory of His holiness, justice and truth. The way that Adam, as the head of the covenant of works, was to take was set before him by God. It was: “Do this and thou shalt live.” It was the way of obedience to God’s revealed will; and in going this way he would bring himself and all his posterity (which were included in the covenant) into possession of the life which was promised in the covenant. He and his posterity would be confirmed forever in a state of innocence.
But Satan, as an angel of light, came and set another way before Adam: the way of disobedience. In this way Adam thought to obtain greater glory and happiness. The way set before Adam by Satan did not appear to be the way of death but a way in which he and Eve could become as gods, knowing good and evil. Adam was deceived by Satan and took the way set before him by Satan: but instead of obtaining the happiness, honour and glory which Satan promised him and he expected, he went over the precipice and brought himself and the whole human race into an estate of sin and misery. He broke that chariot: he broke the covenant of works, and brought death upon himself and his posterity.
* Rev. William MacLean (1907-85) became the minister of the Ness congregation in Lewis in 1948. He was translated to the Gisborne congregation in New Zealand in 1962, to the Grafton congregation in Australia in 1973, and re-inducted to the Ness congregation in 1976, where he remained until his death. Under the pen-name of Ergatees he wrote Arminianism – Another Gospel; Christ or Antichrist – Facts for Enquirers; and several other useful pamphlets, published by Westminster Standard Publications. See The Free Presbyterian Magazine, Vol. 90, No.12, December 1985, page 378.
Sinners will discover as surely as Adam did, that the way of disobedience is the way of death. Satan promises them happiness and satisfaction in the way of disobedience. The truth declares, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” The fall brought man into “an estate of sin and misery”; a condition out of which man could not save himself and in which he was now “liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself and to the pains of hell forever”. Not only was man not able to deliver himself, but also the way into heaven was now shut because of the sin of man. The flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life, was proof that man was shut out by the justice of God.
What need there was of another chariot; the chariot of salvation. Man would have been shut out eternally if God did not have a purpose of mercy towards him. In the eternal councils He made a covenant with His only begotten Son, whom He set up as the head and mediator of the covenant of grace. It is because of grace in God that such a covenant was made for the saving of a countless number of the race of lost, perishing sinners to which we belong. With regard to Christ being set up as the head and mediator of this covenant of grace, and as the only redeemer of God’s elect, He himself declares, “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” Under the covenant of grace, which is God’s way of salvation, Christ undertook to come in the fulness of time and to suffer and die for all who were given to him by the Father. Christ was to give the obedience to the divine law which the first Adam failed to give, and thus He was to magnify the law and make it honourable. He was to meet with the flaming sword of God’s inflexible justice; He was to suffer the penalty of the law, and thereby open up the way which man, by his sin, had closed up against himself. He was to prepare the chariot of salvation.
II. That leads us, secondly, to notice the making of the chariot; the preparing of the chariot of salvation by Christ, by his obedience unto death. This is symbolically brought before us in our text, “King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.”
First, with regard to the chariot of salvation, the bottom or base of it is of gold. By “gold” we understand Christ’s eternal deity; for only God manifest in the flesh, God the Son, could work out redemption for lost sinners. The word “gold” also brings before us the preciousness of Christ’s person. He is, as to his person, God’s eternally begotten Son. The eternal Sonship of Christ is the base of the chariot of redemption. In constituting Christ as redeemer and as priest, we find the Father saying to Him, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” The glory of His person is bound up in His eternal Sonship, as it is written, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” This is the base of the chariot: Christ’s eternal person as God’s eternally begotten Son. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person.
How precious is this base or foundation! Christ has become precious to all who are in the chariot; who are saved by grace. “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.” They may have doubts about their relationship to Christ, and have fears about not being in Him, but where faith is in the soul by the Holy Spirit’s operation, the person of Christ is precious to that soul. “We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living God,” said Peter. It is through divine teaching that Christ becomes precious to us, and through divine light that we see Christ as God’s eternally begotten Son. Then we can never countenance any view that is derogatory to the glory of Christ’s person.
The Holy Spirit will strip sinners of Arianism, as surely as he strips those he saves, of Arminianism. The essence of the lie of Arianism is the denial of the eternal Sonship of Christ. It makes Christ to be a created being only and says that He is not God. That lie is burnt out of the souls of those whom the Lord in his grace brings into this chariot. They are brought to set their seal to what the apostle Peter says, “We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” They are brought therefore to worship Him as God. That is the base of the chariot, the preciousness of Christ’s eternal person.
The chariot was also made “of the wood of Lebanon.” By the wood we may understand Christ’s human nature. There was no wood comparable to the wood of Lebanon. Now, there was a time when the wood of Lebanon did not exist. But then the wood of Lebanon was created. So there was a time when the human nature of Christ did not exist. His eternal deity existed, but the human nature did not exist until it was miraculously formed by the power of the Holy Ghost overshadowing the Virgin. It was then that Christ took a human nature into union with His divine person. For if He was to work out eternal redemption for sinners, He must take the nature of those who have sinned, and in that nature must render to divine justice the satisfaction it demanded.
Then we read about the pillars of the chariot. “He made the pillars thereof of silver.” The pillars support the covering of the chariot. We may take these precious pillars to signify, in the first place, the proofs that Jesus of Nazareth was God manifest in the flesh and the promised Messiah. We may mention the following proofs: His fulfilling all the Old Testament types of the Messiah. They found their fulfilment in Him. His fulfilling all these types is a proof: a pillar of silver supporting His claim of being the One who was to come.
Also, the Old Testament promises and predictions concerning the Messiah found their fulfilment in Christ. What was predicted concerning His death was fulfilled. The Scripture was fulfilled, “A bone of him shall not be broken.” When the Pharisees, anxious “that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day”, requested Pilate that their legs should be broken, Pilate gave orders that their legs should be broken to hasten their death. Then we read that the soldiers brake the legs of the first malefactor and of the second, “but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs.” We also read there, “But one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water: and thus there was the fulfilling of the scripture which says, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.” The fulfilling of these scriptures is as a pillar of silver supporting Christ’s claims to be the One who came to work out eternal redemption for His folk.
His miracles also were proofs of His messiahship. In connection with His first miracle we read, “He manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.” His miracles were proof of His deity; they are as silver pillars supporting His claims to be the promised redeemer who is divine.
The pillars not only support the covering but may also serve as a support to cling to for those who travel in the chariot. As far as those people who have a hope that they are in this chariot are concerned, the promises of God, all of which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, are pillars of silver to support and sustain them. What a pillar of silver this has been to many a poor and cast down believer: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The promises of the truth are “exceeding great and precious promises” and are as pillars of silver for the strengthening and the supporting of those who are in the chariot.
These also are as pillars of silver to his people: that all the purposes of God are in the hands of Christ. All things are put into His hands and He is fulfilling God’s eternal purposes in His providence and grace. Christ is in supreme control of every trial that befalls His people. Who was more tried than Job? In all that he met with he could see the hand of the Lord. He went beyond second causes and saw by faith the hand of the Lord in the losses that befell him; for he said, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” That was a support to Job. He could say about God, “He knoweth the way that I take;” a way mapped out and appointed for him by the Lord. “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” The Lord’s people shall be tried as gold, for He says, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” So when grace is in exercise, this promise and purpose of the Lord is a pillar that the hands of grace will lay hold of when they are passing through the fire, whatever the fire may be.
Solomon’s chariot also had a covering: “he made the covering of it of purple.” By the covering of purple we may understand the atonement that He made for sin by His death. The word “atonement” in Hebrew signifies “a covering”. Only the atonement that Christ made can cover our sins. By His obedience unto death He brought in an everlasting righteousness and made reconciliation for iniquity. This is the covering of all who are in the chariot. All who have a hope that the Lord delivered them out of the Egypt of a state of nature, and to whom Christ is precious, have the blessing of being under this covering. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” They are under the shelter of the blood. “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Those who are in the chariot believe that nothing else could atone for their sins but the precious blood of Christ. God looks upon them in Christ; He is not looking upon them as they are in themselves, but as persons under this covering. God sees such infinite merit and efficacy in Christ’s precious blood that He says about those who are in the chariot that He “hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel”. They are perfect in Him. “Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
We read too that Solomon’s chariot was paved with love – “the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.” It was in love that the chariot of salvation was prepared. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Those who are in the chariot are loved by Him with an everlasting love, and He gives them tokens of His love. Even the chastisements they receive are the pavings of love in this chariot. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth… But if ye be without chastisements, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” His dealings with them are in love, and are for the good of their souls and to His glory. We find the Lord saying about Lazarus’ sickness, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” This chariot is paved with love inasmuch as He loves His people with a constant and unchanging love. “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” Their love changes, and at times waxes cold. We read in Scripture, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” But however cold they may find their love to be, and may be wondering at times if they have any love to Him at all, His love to them is unchanging and everlasting.
To be concluded