Overview of 2 Chronicles, Adult Discipleship Class

that one day, as was mentioned today, that we will see you face to face. We long for that day, and yet desire to also make the most of the present. Lord, we think of how you are patient with us, that you’re slow to anger, and how often, Lord, we aren’t patient with each other when you’ve been so patient to us. Then knowing we sin against you not only every day but every hour and perhaps even every minute knowingly and also unknowingly not only in the things that Doing the things that you command us not to do but also not doing the things that we should So Lord, we’re just absolutely humbled at who you are and it is in you that we take refuge we look at Israel’s example in the Old Testament and it’s easy to look down on them just Seeing how foolish their idolatry was while neglecting the own plank in our eyes of our own idolatry Whether it be trust in our own strength throughout daily tasks or our own wisdom Or even Lord trusting our circumstances rather than you yourself. And so we ask for a redirect. We thank you for the one this morning In the worship service and we pray that even in the study of 2nd Chronicles Lord that you would speak to us your people today It’s in your name. We pray these things. Amen So please turn in your Bibles to the book of Second Chronicles.

And as you’re there, I want to review a few things. We studied First Chronicles. That would have been, was that last weekend? It was, okay, thank you. That is time. as escaping me. Everything seems to blend together, at least as of late. Last week we studied 1 Chronicles, and obviously the question that we have when we come to Chronicles, at least for me, if you’re like me, is why? Like, why study Chronicles?

We have Samuel and we have Kings. It seems a bit redundant, and it can be easy in Scripture when we see things that are repeated to almost think that perhaps maybe the chronicler or author made a mistake or just wanted to kind of write something, that maybe there isn’t too much of an intention in it, whereas scripture itself says that it’s all profitable. So we must always ask why. If we ever are tempted to doubt the usefulness, to doubt the authority, of course, but especially just, yeah, the valuable nature of God’s word, we must always ask why. And so when we come to Chronicles, there are many reasons why we should study Chronicles.

Last week we talked about how it’s a totally different audience. Samuel and Kings, specifically Kings, is written to an audience in exile, Israel in exile. And their questions that they’re facing are, how is God still faithful to his word and yet we’re still suffering in exile? And it’s answered several times through a reference back to what’s known as the Mosaic Covenant. What we’ve been studying, that God promised to Israel corporately blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and that since Israel had disobeyed God, God was being faithful to his word while they were in exile. That was the reason for their exile and was shown in Samuel as well as Kings.

When we come to Chronicles, though, the audience is different. The audience is now a more hopeful audience. It’s an audience now back in the land after the exile. The purpose of Chronicles is different than Samuel and Kings. The author’s intention is different. I talked last week about how most think that Ezra wrote 1 and 2 Chronicles, and that would fit, that would seem to make sense. It’s from a priestly perspective rather than a more prophetic one. There is much emphasis in 1 and 2 Chronicles on the temple, on the importance of proper worship, and the emphasis is more on the priest than the prophet.

All right, everybody, let’s try it again. What is the role, biblically speaking, of a prophet? Brings what to what? God to the people, right? Through his word. Good job. Great work, all of you. And what is the role of the priest? To bring the people to God, right? Absolutely. So bless you.

We saw throughout, especially kings, an emphasis on the ministries of Elijah and Elisha confronting the wickedness of the northern kingdom of Israel. And here in Chronicles, we see more of an emphasis, more details about God choosing. That was the theme that we took from 1 Chronicles, is the God who chooses, chooses the place of worship, chooses David, chooses the king. And what we’ll see here in 2 Chronicles is along with God choosing, we also see the God who chastens. In 1st and 2nd Chronicles, we see a more optimistic outlook on the reigns of David and Solomon. Whereas in 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, some of the shortcomings of both David and Solomon are recorded, and the ones that we saw in David’s life omitted specifically. They’re an emphasis on his sin with Bathsheba, whereas there’s less of a focus on those things in Chronicles because the purpose is to give hope back in the promised land, at least part of it in post-exile. So, we come to the book of 2 Chronicles today, and the main theme is going to be the God who chastens.

Like we said, Ezra is most likely the author. This is just a continuing of the book of 1 Chronicles. This is meant to really just be One whole book, but because of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, that is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it got a little big, so they wanted to split it sort of in half. We were to divide the Book of Second Chronicles, we could divide it into two sections.

Once again, I mean, it’s a little subjective, but I think that the narrative itself lends towards this. The first section being the reign of Solomon, which is chapters 1 through 9, and the second section being the reign of Judah’s kings, which is chapters 10 through 36.

As you should see, even another difference between Kings and Chronicles, the focus is not on Israel really at all, the Northern Kingdom. Very, very little focus on the Northern Kingdom. The focus is on the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Sometimes in Kings, it can be confusing when they’re talking about a king from the North and a king from the South, and there’s a bit of overlap, and they have a lot of similar names.

But in Chronicles, the focus is on Judah’s kings because that we saw in Genesis 49 10 the scepter would not depart from what tribe Judah right exactly the focus is on Judah and more specifically geographically the southern kingdom after the split from Solomon’s foolish son Rehoboam which we will see in 2nd Chronicles if we were to think of a parallel very concretely parallel to 2nd Chronicles would be 1st and 2nd Kings so We begin in chapter 1, verse 1 of this book that shows the God who chastens with Solomon worshiping at Gibeon. We read in verse 1.

Now Solomon, the son of David, established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and exalted him greatly. This is pointing back to the theme of 1 Chronicles, that God is the God who chooses He chose israel. He chose the place of worship. He chose david in his line, right? We think of the davidic covenant and God’s promise to david We see in verse 2 solomon spoke to all israel to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every leader in all israel the heads of the fathers’ households. Then Solomon and all the assembly with him went to the high place, which was at Gibeon, where God’s tent of meeting was there, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the wilderness.”

Now, that’s got to be getting pretty old. I mean, we know that when Solomon began work on the temple, it was in It was in his fourth year, I think as we’ll see in the text, in 480 years after the Exodus, what we saw in 1 Kings. That would have most likely been 966 B.C. if we’re taking the 1446 B.C. date for the Exodus. Now this is really important, and I know these just sound like numbers, and I want to show you a little bit of my work here, or I should really say sort of piggybacking off others’ work and just trying to think through my own mind so that you also can know why we take an earlier date. The main difference that you see in biblical dating is that the more conservative estimates are those who take God’s Word at face value are going to be in the 15th century BC for the Exodus. So that’d be the 1400s BC. The more liberal interpretation and approach would then take the 1200s BC. Not taking God’s Word at face value, not taking into account several different dates in the Bible itself, and instead seek to elevate other things, whether it be archaeology or human reason, or just a doubt of God’s Word, even though it disguises itself as biblical studies.

Most often you hear that the pharaoh of the Exodus was very likely Ramses, or one of the Ramses, right? And I think that comes from that interpretation that the Exodus took place later, but Looking throughout scripture, and if we’re being faithful to God’s word, as well as looking at the many artifacts that have been found, the most consistent date that follows and appreciates the authority of scripture is somewhere around 1446 to like 1449 BC.

It’s amazing, in 1863, some archaeologists discovered what’s known as the Kirk Stella. This was a record that described a battle between Shalmaneser III of Assyria versus Ahab, king of Israel. It’s been dated to be roughly around 853 BC. And it’s said that king of Israel, Ahab, had allied himself with Ben-Hadad of Aram, the king of Aram. And this must be somewhere between 1 Kings 20 and 1 Kings 22.

And so if we look at the biblical account as well, and I could show you all my work, and perhaps even just realizing right now this probably isn’t gonna be that helpful, we end up finding that 1446 BC is a pretty accurate date for the exodus, and also takes into account other things mentioned in the Bible, such as Jephthah saying that Israel had been in the land for 300 years by his time and the time of the judges. And if any of you are curious about that, for apologetics reasons, I would love to explain that to you in a different context. I have stuff written out here with a bunch of random dates, but I figured I don’t think we’d probably have time for all of that.

So, it’s an old tent, that’s the point. Verse 4, however, David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-Jerim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. Now the bronze altar, which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of the Lord, and Solomon and the assembly sought it out. Solomon went up there before the Lord to the bronze altar, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

We’ve read much of this already in the parallel account. But that’s a lot of sacrifices. If any of you have gone hunting and had to like gut an animal, one is a lot. Or you’re in cattle business, right? One can be a lot, especially like a cow, something big. Yeah, a thousand burnt offerings, that’s a lot.

In the night we see in verse seven, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ask what I shall give you. And Solomon in verse eight said to God, we see his prayer for wisdom in verses eight through 13. You have dealt with my father, David, with great loving kindness, and have made me king in his place. Now, O Lord God, your promise to my father, David, is fulfilled, for you have made me a king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

As numerous as the dust of the earth. Where have we heard something like that before? Abraham, yes, genie, right? The Abrahamic covenant, where God promised Abraham, what? Three components of the Abrahamic covenant. Land, seed, blessing. Great work, everybody. See, you guys are all doing so great, making me so proud. Land, seed, and blessing. God has been faithful to his promise to Abraham, and Solomon recognizes this when he prays to the Lord. You have been faithful to your word. And so what does he ask? Verse 10, we read, give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of yours?

The parallel account in 1 Kings 3, 9, Solomon asks for a listening heart to discern between good and evil. And what’s amazing is in the original, there is something very similar happening to what took place in Genesis 3. The temptation was the tree of the knowledge of what? Good and evil, right?

And what Solomon is essentially saying in this prayer is, God, I don’t want to determine my life autonomously or by myself. I want to submit it to you. I don’t want to be like Eve in the garden. Lord, help me to be wise according to what you say is wisdom, not what I think in my own mind. It’s just an amazing thing.

And God responds similarly in verse 11, saying, because you have had this in mind and did not ask for riches, wealth, or honor, or the life of those who hate you, Nor have you even asked for a long life, but you have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may rule over my people, whom I have made you king. Wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will give you riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed, nor those who will come after you. So Solomon is now blessed with wisdom, but not only that, with much riches, showing that God indeed is the God who chooses and is faithful to David and his line. We see here, verses 14 through 17, there is a summary of much of Solomon’s wealth. And verse 15, it says, the king made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones.

It’s a little different today, right? I don’t know if any of you watch the price of gold and everything like that, but it seems like every single time I try to get some sort of accurate amount to apply to our present day, how much this gold would be worth, it’s different every single day. But it’s plentiful as stones. It’s like stones in Jerusalem.

Much wealth. God is faithful to his word, what he told Solomon. Verse 16 is interesting, though. It says, Solomon’s horses were imported from where? Egypt. And kings in the book of Deuteronomy were forbidden to multiply what? Wives? Yep, exactly. Solomon did good with that one. What? Wives and horses, right? Exactly.

And God, specifically with those, he wanted him to depend on him, right? With wives, he wanted him to depend on God to provide the next heir rather than try and take things into his own hands. With horses, he wanted him to depend on him for military strength and not rely on the nations. And specifically in Deuteronomy, there is one country that is referenced that he says, lest you trust in that country. What’s the name of that country? Do any of you remember?

Egypt so even though this is a very optimistic outlook on the monarchy in Israel There still are little bits and pieces that we, knowing the context of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, know Solomon isn’t perfect, right? He is a sinner like us ourselves. So even though it’s going to leave out a bunch that is mentioned in the Kings account, right? It still is truthful in that it recognizes he’s not perfect. So we see in chapter 2, Solomon has decided to build a house for the Lord, we read in verse 1. in a royal palace for himself.

I mean, a massive undertaking. Verse two says that he assigned 70,000 men to carry loads and 80,000 men to quarry stone in the mountains and 3,600 just to supervise all of them. Yeah, just a lot. And then Solomon sent word to Haram, the king of Tyre, which is gonna be an important character later in the 2 Chronicles narrative to see the author’s intention. which we will address when we get there.

But he said this, he says, as you dealt with David, my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house to dwell in, so do for me. Behold, I’m about to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, dedicating it to him. Now, if you contrast this with 1 Kings 5, that’s pretty much where it ends, with what he says he wants to do. But in 2 Chronicles, it continues, showing an emphasis on the importance of worship and the priestly duties, because that’s the different focus of 2 Chronicles. and specifically dedicating it to him to burn fragrant incense before him, representing the prayers of Israel, and to set out the showbread continually, which would represent the tribes, and to offer burnt offerings morning and evening on Sabbaths, on new moons, and on the appointed feasts of the Lord our God, this being required forever in Israel.

Think about it. They’re coming back into the land. They’re confused. They’ve been in exile for a long time. They need a redirect, the people of God. And they are reminded with this that worship’s important, that Solomon had mentioned this to the king of Tyre, and that this was something being required forever in Israel. So once again, we see the different purpose of Chronicles, even in this account with his letter to the king of Tyre. And so, verse 11 says that Haram, king of Tyre, answered in a letter to Solomon, and he says this, he says, because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them. Then Haram continued, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who will build a house for the Lord and a royal palace for himself. Pause. Is Haram a Jew or an Israelite? No, he’s not. He’s not. He’s of Tyre, right? He is not an Israelite.

And he is praising who in verse 12? The Lord, right? Remember, Israel, when they were set apart, when they were brought out of slavery from Egypt, in Exodus 19, were given a specific role to be among the nations. They were a nation among the nations, but they had a specific purpose that God laid out. What was that purpose? Do any of you remember? kingdom of, priesthood, and holy nation. In other words, they were to live differently, and in doing so, God would bless them. And then the nations around would see that they were being blessed, living totally different lives than they lived, and would want to seek the same God.

And so, we even see in sort of a micro form, this sort of kingdom of priests being lived out. God has blessed Solomon, and Haram recognizes this. and praises God even though he himself is not an Israelite. And so he gives, pledges his assistance to Solomon to build the temple as well as his palace. In chapter three, verse one, we read, then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.

Why is that place significant? Do any of you remember? We didn’t really go over this, I don’t think, in our Genesis time, one of the Genesis times. Close, very close and good thinking because that’s another hill, that’s Golgotha, but so close and it’s Mariah is very close in Jerusalem and I think that’s significant that Jesus was crucified so close. I think there is significance there. Mount Moriah was where what happened?

We go back to Genesis. What? Abraham offered Isaac, right? Exactly. And what’s amazing is even when you think of the crucifixion as well, there’s a consistent theme of God providing the means for a sacrifice, for the atonement, the covering of sin. And so just as God provided for Abraham with the offering of Isaac, almost sacrifice of Isaac, the substitute ram, so too he would do so for his people corporately at this location on Mount Moriah, a place of sacrifice, atonement, God’s presence among his people. And then I think as well that, I think it’s only about like a half mile from Golgotha, so it’s really close as well. And I think that it’s just amazing to see how God’s providence unfolded. And yeah, our God is a very specific God.

So verse two, here we see, it said, he began to build on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. And once again, I’m not gonna bore you with chronology, but if you do want to know why we get those dates, they’re not just random. This is a helpful verse as well to understand where Solomon is at in his reign when he begins to build the temple.

So we see the dimensions and materials of the temple in verses three through 17, the furnishings of the temple of all chapter four. I mean, the amount of detail here should stand out to us when we compare it to the king’s account parallel, because there is such an emphasis on the importance of right worship. a very priestly perspective, also important, just a different emphasis that will help the people that are now coming back from the exile back in the land. We see in chapter 5, the ark is brought into the temple. Even verse 9 talks about how the poles of the ark could be seen, and they were there to this day. That’s just, that reference there is, in verse 9, is to the historical account that the chronicler took and put into 2 Chronicles.

The glory of God fills the temple. Now verses 11 through 14, we read at the end of verse 13, that the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud. We’re reminded of God’s special manifestation of his presence in his leading his people through the wilderness wanderings, the pillar of cloud and fire. And it says, this is so intense in verse 14, that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Now Solomon then dedicates the temple. We see in verses, chapter six, verses one through 11. And his prayer of dedication specifically is in the following verses. There’s so many amazing things about this. And when it says he began to pray in verse 14, he prayed this. He said, oh Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. So pause.

Old Testament context, one of the most key things that would show a difference between Israel and the other nations, even today, is that they were strict monotheists. They worshipped one God. They didn’t worship many gods like the nations. They worshipped one God because he was the God who created everything and the Holy God. He begins with that, a very strong statement. The God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth.

Keeping covenant. Covenant. We’ve already talked about one of the covenants. We’ve talked about, actually, we’ve talked about all the three very significant covenants today. The Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and Davidic covenant. He recognizes you are a faithful God to your word, simply put. You’re faithful to Abraham. People are like grains of dust or sand. You’re faithful to the land, seed, and blessing promise. You’re faithful to the Mosaic covenant.

We even saw he would have known from a judge’s history When Israel disobeyed, God brought about discipline for their disobedience, and for their obedience corporately as a nation, they were receiving these blessings. And we also see with the Davidic covenant in place that God had established a Davidic king, and that one would come that would rule and reign forever. We find out this is in Solomon.

But he’s just, you’re a faithful God. And also showing loving kindness to your servants who walk before you with all your heart, who has kept with your servant, David, my father, that which you’ve promised him. Simply put, God, you’re faithful to your word. You’re an amazing God, no God like you. You are faithful to your word.

And I wanna read verses 22 and 23 real quick, because there can be some confusion if you’re reading this at first glance, but it makes total sense when we study it. He says in verse 22, if a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

Now here, this isn’t a corporate statement. Normally when we speak of blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience, we’re talking about Israel as a nation, not individuals. And so the temptation could be, or the potential cause of concern at the end of verse 23, is righteous being given him according to his righteousness. I mean, just as we learned today in Dave’s message, we don’t deserve anything other than judgment for our sin, right? It’s God’s grace and mercy. and Christ’s righteousness that we are right before him.

And whenever we come to parts of scripture that seem to conflict with each other, we must remember something what’s known as the analogy of scripture, which just means scripture interprets scripture. All the Bible is authoritative and there are no inconsistencies within it. There are no contradictions. Whenever it seems like a contradiction to us as we’re studying it, the problem is not with the text, but is with us. We need to study it even further to figure this out. And what this means is, the analogy of scripture means that more clearer passages interpret less clear passages. All scripture is inspired and there are no errors within the whole counsel of God.

And so what we need to do is we need to look for what the author’s intention here. And do you think the author’s intention in 2 Chronicles is to put together a full-scale soteriology polemic or doctrinal statement? Probably not. That’s not his point here in verse 23.

His point here, if we actually see it within the context, speaks about Israel’s legal system, and it’s in the context of the Mosaic Covenant. And so there’s nothing to worry about here when it comes to something like soteriology, because the subject here is the legal system.

Just kind of a helpful thing to remember, whenever you’re studying any scripture and something seems confusing, And so he asks, Solomon continues in this prayer, and he says, Lord, you know, if we receive curses for our disobedience, and if people pray toward you, verse 33, then hear from heaven, from your dwelling place, and do according to all, not only in which Israel prays, but the foreigner calls you in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name. the ultimate goal of not only being the salvation of Israel, but also the Gentiles. Always was, always will be.

And so Israel as a kingdom of priests was to point the peoples to God and, Lord, please deliver your people and also even the foreigner that reaches out to you so that the nations may know you. And to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name. He says in verse 36, when they sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin, and you are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near, pause, that audience would have understood that very vividly through their own experience. Continue in verse 37. If they take thaw in the land where they are taken captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity saying, we have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly, If they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land, which you have given their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name, then hear from heaven from your dwelling place their prayer and supplications. And maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

It’s amazing, even Solomon praying this, there’s some foreshadowing, I mean, with this. Israel is expected, knowing the sinful heart of men, that they will receive curses for disobedience one day. And so the request is, Lord, we trust in you. Please deliver us in that day if we cry out to you.

We see in chapter seven, verses one through three, the Shekinah, it says that now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. Verse two says the priest couldn’t even enter because of God’s glory. Verse three says all the sons of Israel seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord saying, truly he is good, truly his loving kindness is everlasting.

You know, we often think about certain parts of the Bible where it would be really cool to visit, right? A student, some of my students in Olive Tree, one of my classes in attendance question I gave them was, okay, Minus the time of Christ, right? Because I feel like that’s what everyone would choose. What part of the Bible, if you could be in one part and just go and visit on a field trip, what would you go to?

I actually got some really interesting answers, knowing they’re high schoolers. But I feel like this would be a good one. Yeah, I had a high schooler say, I think he said Judah and Tamar. And I was like, yeah, oh boy. That wouldn’t be one I would want to go visit.

We see in verses 8 through 10, there’s the feast of dedication. Once again, importance of feasts, importance of corporate worship coming from a priestly perspective. And then God gives a promise and a warning to Solomon. And this whole passage is really important.

And I know this has often been one that people have read. And I’m sort of sympathetic with the way that they read it, even though they read it wrongly. It’s often used by political leaders, applying it to our country as if America has received the Mosaic Covenant. Has America received the Mosaic Covenant? No, that was to Israel, right?

And taken out of context, it can be easy to put everything one for one, but there still are helpful principles. Helpful principles that if nations repent, that God will hear their cry, that God will see that. He won’t overlook that. I mean, we think of the Ninevites as an example. In Jonah’s ministry there, God brought about amazing revival. They repented. God heard their cry, spared the city of Nineveh.

We see that that was short-lived because eventually in Nahum, they are rebuked and that they will be judged because they have forsaken that earlier position of repentance. But there are helpful principles, I think, here in this section. So I’ll go ahead and read. I’ll go ahead and read, starting in verse 13, just because I do think that this is helpful to understand and make sure we don’t wrongly apply it to our country, even though there still are helpful principles here.

After God already said that he’s heard Solomon’s prayer, and he says, if I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Once again, land specifically was a component of what covenant? Abrahamic, right? And the Abrahamic covenant was given to Abraham and his descendants, which made what nation? Israel, exactly.

We don’t want to falsely apply those things to us, but there still is helpful principles. The God hears these cries of repentance. He says in verse 15, now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place, the place of his choosing. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house, that my name may be there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.

As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel, but If you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from my land, which I have given you, and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? And they will say, because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them land of Egypt. And they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, he has brought all this adversity on them.

Even in Israel’s disobedience, in the curses coming on them for disobedience, God still would testify to the nations of his power and his holiness. God’s plan of bringing salvation, not only to Israel, but also the Gentiles is also seen even now, right? With the Gentiles being grafted in to make the Jews jealous. God’s plan of salvation always will take place according to his decree, and he is not thwarted even by Israel’s disobedience.

So we see here Solomon’s activities and accomplishments, and this is that account of Haram that I thought was kind of helpful in contrasting Chronicles with Kings. Verse two, we see that Solomon built the cities which Haram had given to him and settled the sons of Israel there. And if you remember our study in Kings, There’s that little account of Haram being given some land, and he really loved the land Solomon gave him, right?

He didn’t. He really didn’t like it. Remember, what did he call it? He called it Kabul, which means as good as nothing. And this was important because it showed that Israel was strained by their building projects, so very likely were giving gifts that weren’t that valuable. But also more than that, Solomon was giving land that God had promised to Israel to foreigners, which also was bad.

But because Chronicles is coming from a more optimistic view of Solomon and also of God’s choosing Israel because they’re back in the land now. The focus is not so much on those mistakes. The focus now is on God’s promise, God’s choice in some of his chastening as well throughout the rest of 2 Chronicles. Again, we see in verse eight, to this day, these things wouldn’t have probably been the case during Ezra’s time. This is him compiling sources. Once again, assuming this is Ezra writing this. So the to this day probably came from that.

Verse 11 talks about Solomon bringing Pharaoh’s daughter up. And I just, this emphasis on Egypt is so interesting because in our study in Hosea as well, Israel is rebuked for trusting in Assyria and Egypt. It’s a form of idolatry rather than trusting in God, not only in the gods of the nations, but the nations themselves. That we need to make some sort of alliance or some sort of compromise in order to be safe rather than trust the promises of God.

I just find it kind of interesting. There’s almost some foreshadowing there. Chapter nine, we talked about before. This is the peak. It’s peak is what the youth say. If you want some youth lingo, you want to sound not cool at all, use something like that or the six, seven lingo. Peak is one of them.

The visit of the Queen of Sheba. This is where Israel is at the top of their game when it comes to being a kingdom of priests. The Queen of Sheba comes and she praises God we see in verse 8 blessed be the Lord your God who is delighted in you Setting you on his throne as king for the Lord your God because your God loved Israel established establishing them forever Therefore he made you king over them to do justice and righteousness. I mean, it’s almost, it’s very similar to Haram’s words, showing again the authors trying to emphasize, hey look, Israel was operating here almost in the glory days as a kingdom of priests and holy nation. We, as a result, having these promises after the exile, should live the same way.

Solomon’s wealth and power are described in the following verses. We see that in verse 20 again, silver was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon. Verse 22 says that Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And verse 23 shows that Israel’s operating as a kingdom of priests, not only with Sheba, but also other kings and queens and other rulers of other nations. It says, and all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Again, verse 27, the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. In verse 28, there’s just a little detail again that is important.

It says that they were bringing horses for Solomon from what country? Egypt, uh-oh, not good. But what’s so fascinating about 2 Chronicles is we don’t learn about the 700 wives, 300 concubines. We don’t learn about the idolatry that that brought into Israel.

We see that God is faithful to his word when Rehoboam, his foolishness leads to the split of the northern and southern kingdom. But there is less of a focus on these particular sins that are very clearly in view in the king’s account. And the reason, again, is because the author of Chronicles has a different purpose with what he’s writing. He’s trying to encourage the Israelites now back in the land, not lying and saying these guys were perfect, still including some details of their flaws, but not emphasizing it to the point that Kings did, because that was an explanation for why they were in exile.

So verse 31, we end up seeing the death of Solomon. We read, and Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place. And this actually, looking at the time, this is just perfect because there’s so many devotional riches in chapters 10 through 36 that I don’t want to overlook because of this priestly perspective and with these leaders of Judah.

And so I look forward to doing that with you sometime soon. Let’s pray.

Lord, we come to your word again, encouraged knowing that all scripture is inspired and also is profitable, that not only is it without error, but Lord, it always has something to give to us. Lord, we ask for grace and the grace for endurance and perseverance in our study of your word, that even in times, Lord, when it seems like we question why we’re even reading these things, that Lord, we would be motivated to search even deeper. For Lord, there are so many amazing, Treasures to be found even within something such as 2nd Chronicles We think of your faithfulness Lord to not only Israel, but to us as well as the church We think of all of your many promises as we saying today that you will hold us fast That you work all things together for our ultimate good that none can snatch us out of your hand as Zeke even mentioned today Lord, just as one of the many awesome promises that we can rest upon in a very crazy world that we live in. And so Lord, we pray that you would use your word to continue to change us, to not only Lord, cause us to grow in intellectual knowledge of you, but Lord, that it would also warm our hearts as well. And that our hearts, warmed hearts would lead to conforming our lives to be more in accordance with the calling to which we’ve been called. We thank you, Lord, for your own faithfulness to your promises and pray that you would grow us more this week. It’s in your name we pray these things. Amen. There is no way that chronology like.