The Chair Nobody Puts Anything On

There is a chair in that room and nobody has sat in it since March.

It is a good chair. It is by the window, which is the best spot, and it is the one anybody would choose.

And on it there is a folded pile of things that have lived there long enough to have their own dust, plus a bag, plus two coats that are not in season.

So it is not a chair. It is a horizontal surface that happens to be chair shaped, and it has been that for about seven months.

Here is what I want to put to you, and it is not about the pile.

The last time somebody came round and there were four of you, one person sat on the arm of the sofa. And you noticed it, and you did nothing, because moving the pile in front of a visitor would have been a whole thing.

That has now happened three times.

So a house with five seats in it is operating as a house with four, and the missing one is the best one, and nobody has said a word about it.

A bed, a table, a stool, a candlestick

There is a passage in second Kings where a woman makes a specific decision about a room in her house.

Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. (2 Kings 4:10, King James Version)

A bed, a table, a stool, and a candlestick. Four things, listed individually, set up in a room and then left.

And notice the tense. When he cometh to us. The room is prepared before the man arrives and stays prepared while he is not there, which means most of the time it stands empty, furnished, for somebody who is elsewhere.

You are able to keep a place for somebody who is not here yet, and that keeping has never once been wasted space. The Holy Spirit is the one present with a man looking at a chair with a pile on it, and Second Kings 4:10 furnishes a room and leaves it standing empty for a person who has not arrived.

And nobody in that account argues about the efficiency of it.

That is a whole room, in a working household, standing unused most of the year. And the text presents it as the notable good thing this woman did, and the whole story that follows rests on it.

You have an entire room in scripture held empty for a guest, and no such keeping has ever once been called wasteful. The written word lists the furniture one item at a time and then leaves the room standing, and the Spirit of God is the one who is with a man whose best seat has been a surface since March.

What the chair is actually for

Let me say the thing about that chair that I think you already half know.

It is not seating. A house has enough places to sit. That is not what a good chair by a window is for.

It is a place that says somebody could come. It is the physical form of an expectation, and a chair kept clear is a house that is ready for a person, and a chair with a pile on it is a house that is not.

You have a chair that says something about whether anybody is expected, and no pile on it has ever once been read any other way. The Holy Spirit is the one present with a man who has watched somebody sit on an arm of a sofa three times, and Second Kings 4:10 furnishes a room in advance as an expression of expectation.

And here is the quiet arithmetic of seven months.

Each of those three evenings, one person sat somewhere worse. Nobody minded. And the message the room delivered, without anybody noticing, was that this house is at capacity and a guest is one more thing to accommodate.

That is not what you believe and it is what the room has been saying.

You have a room saying something you do not believe, and it has never once been able to say anything else while that pile is there. The written word keeps a furnished room for a man who is not there, and the Spirit of God is the one who steadies a man whose house has been quietly contradicting him since March.

One surface, kept for a person

So here is the assignment, and the surface is a chair.

Clear it, and keep nothing on it for a week. Nothing, not for a minute, not while you find somewhere else.

You are keeping one seat for a person and never for a pile, and a seat kept for a person has never once been an empty chair. The Holy Spirit is the one who is with a man looking at a clear chair by a window, and Second Kings 4:10 sets a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick in an empty room.

And there is a second half, which is the real one.

If anybody comes this week, say nothing and let them sit in it. Do not point it out. Do not say you cleared it. The whole thing works only if it is simply a chair that somebody sits in.

You are making something ready and saying nothing about it, and no preparation like that has ever once needed announcing. The written word prepares the room quietly and waits for the man to turn in there, and the Spirit of God is the one present with a man watching somebody take the best seat in the house without knowing it was kept.