The Place of Our Sanctuary
S. Conway Jeremiah 17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.… Some four hundred years had passed between the date of these words and the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of the Egyptian king. But that remote event, fruitful of consequences as it was at the time, was fruitful also in results for generation after generation in the centuries to come. And it is to one of those results that this verse has reference, or rather was occasioned by it. Forever since that marriage there had been an Egyptian party in the court of Judah, which sought to sway the affairs of Judah in harmony with those of Egypt. On the other hand, there were the representatives of another near and mighty monarchy which sought to render Judah subservient to their interests. This was the Assyrian power. There was consequently a perpetual tendency on the part of Judah, when trouble came, to make alliance with one party or another. Now the Egyptian alliance was preferred, and now the Assyrian - Isaiah 30. and the history of the reign of Josiah and his death are instances in proof. But the prophets of God were ever against these alliances, and lifted up their voices, though in vain, in protest. These verses, 5-12, are one of those despised utterances, denouncing the false trust and exhorting to the true. This twelfth verse - I. SPEARS OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM. 1. For that temple has a throne. It was the earthly throne of God. There was the mercy-seat and the cherubim bowing in profound homage over it, and between them was the visible presence of the glory of God, that Shechinah, that wondrous appearance so bright and awful that but one out of all Israel, and he only once a year, could look thereupon and live. "In Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." 2. And it was a glorious throne. By reason of its external magnificence; but more especially of the glorious manifestations of God which had been seen in connection with it. 3. And a high as well as a glorious throne. Not only because Jerusalem was a mountain-city, the loftiest in the world, so high and lifted up was the "mountain of the Lord's house," but also because of the spiritual glory - so far excelling all other - which belonged to it. The ancient psalmists and prophets were never tired of declaring and demonstrating how the Lord was "King above all gods." 4. Venerable also: "from the beginning," from the first days of their national life, God had chosen a place for his Name - beneath the rugged cliffs of Sinai then, and now in the magnificent temple, the place of their sanctuary. But - II. IS DESIGNED TO SUMMON GOD'S PEOPLE TO TRUST IN HIM. 1. For to assert that the place of their sanctuary was a "throne," was to assert that Jehovah was a King. Kings occupy thrones. The sovereignty of God is declared by the prophet's words. And what a King! How glorious, let all the records of their race declare. How preeminent over all the gods of the nations, let the gods of Egypt, of Philistia, of Tyre, and others confess. And he was the eternal God. "From the beginning" his rule and majesty had been confessed. But the prophet reminds his countrymen of all this that they might see and own the folly of trusting in gods of the heathen as they were so prone to do. 2. And he reminds them of the nearness of God. For the place of their sanctuary was his court, his throne, his abode. Therefore to forsake such a God, and one so near, for idol-gods, and they afar off, - what folly, what ingratitude, what sin that! But the same memory cherished concerning God, his glorious sovereignty, his all-superintending power and his nearness to us, - how would this strengthen and cheer our hearts oftentimes! Our sins and sorrows, our faint-heartedness, our fears and dismay, are all largely owing to our forgetfulness of that glorious and precious truth which the prophet here declares. And - III. MAY BE TAKEN AS A SETTING FORTH OF WHAT OUR SANCTUARIES SHOULD BE. 1. For God should rule in them. A Christian Church, whether we speak of the fabric or the people, should be a throne of God. His Law supreme, his will the rule confessed of all. Human governance in any shape or form which will infringe on the Divine authority, is forbidden. Christ is the Head of the Church, and the "crown rights of the Redeemer" should be jealously maintained. "Let Caesar's dues be ever paid To Caesar and his throne, But consciences and souls were made To be the Lord's alone." 2. And if our churches be the Lord's throne, he will make it "a glorious high throne." We should try to make our church buildings glorious outwardly, so far as we may, coveting what is splendid, majestic, beautiful, in architecture, music, adornment, to lay as a tribute at our Sovereign's feet. Where, consistently with other claims, this may be done, it should be. But he himself will make our Churches his "glorious high throne,': by coming into their midst. On how many a Sunday his people have known that he has been with them! "The King himself comes near And feasts his saints today." And by asserting his power over men's hearts. This is his most glorious power - to sway the spirit, to lead the will, to bend the heart. And this, by his Spirit in connection with the proclamation of the Word of his grace, he will do, and so the Church will become "a glorious high throne" of the Lord. 3. And because of "the communion of saints," and the consequent union of the Church of today with the Church of all the ages past, therefore the Church is God's throne which has been "from the beginning." The Church of today is in the honored succession of the Church of the first days, through its long line of patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, saints, and thus may claim to have been the "glorious high throne of the Lord from the beginning." Let us cherish and seek to hand on this succession, and thus justify our claim to the august title con-rained in these words. But most of all these words - IV. REMIND US OF CHRIST AND HIS CROSS, THE TRUE SANCTUARY OF SOULS. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ - type of all ignominy and shame, though it was - has become the Lord's "glorious high throne." From it and by it he has wielded a sovereignty so glorious, so wide, so holy, so enduring, that, far more than the mercy-seat, its ancient symbol, it deserves thus to be described. Whether we consider the number of his subjects, their character, the means by which his rule over them has been won and is sustained, or the nature of his rule, - all justify the ascription to his cross and to him the supreme reference of these words. Let each one ask in conclusion - Is the cross of Christ the place of our sanctuary, the place where we worship, the beloved retreat of our souls? God grant it may be! - C. Parallel Verses KJV: A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. WEB: A glorious throne, [set] on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.