Overview of 1 Chronicles, Adult Discipleship Class

I was sad to miss last week. I went to the Ark Encounter. I don’t know if many of you have heard of Answers in Genesis. It’s a little plug-in here for the ministry of Ken Ham, certainly ministered to me greatly. It’s the amazing structure in Williamstown, Kentucky, I believe is the name of the town, and it’s the biggest wooden structure in the world. They made a replica of Noah’s Ark, and it’s just absolutely amazing. I’m very grateful for his ministry.

Today we’re going to be in First Chronicles. So if you will grab your Bibles and turn to First Chronicles, that is where we will be today. And as you’re turning there, I have a couple of things with me, sort of to pull the curtain back to show you some things that have been helpful for me.

If you’re looking for just easy, you know, short surveys of Old Testament books, these are two really good books. One is by a guy named Benware. It’s the survey of the Old Testament. It’s pretty simple, pretty easy to read, pretty easily accessible, as well as the MacArthur’s Quick Reference Guide to the Bible.

This is going to be pretty much the same thing you would have in the Steady Bible as well. So if you have a Steady Bible, maybe you don’t need to get this book. The Steady Bibles, especially in the introduction sections, are so incredibly helpful. Often overlooked, but maybe the most valuable parts of those Steady Bibles are the introductions.

And so these are two books that have helped me. There are some others as well that maybe serve different purposes. But just for a brief Old Testament survey, if you’re looking for something that’s easy and very accessible, those two books should certainly be on your list if you’re looking for ones for the Old Testament. And will be some from that I draw. draw from a little during this time.

So we come to 1 Chronicles today, and our last class was on the book of 2 Kings. And I think that the question all of us ask when we come to this book, maybe if you’re like me, is why Chronicles? Why? I mean, if you were to take a look at the book, the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles is genealogy. Genealogy, and everyone loves genealogy, right? It’s your favorite part of the Bible. In morning devotions, you go to genealogy. No, not normally. And knowing what we know about Scripture, that all Scripture is inspired and profitable, we know 1 Chronicles is as well. And so it is always good to ask, why is this included in Scripture? Why is this book particularly in the Bible?

Not to mention the genealogies, also the almost redundancy of history of Israel, the monarchy of David and a little bit of Saul and then of Solomon and then eventually the divided kingdom era. If we have 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings, why Chronicles? And this is a great question to ask because it gets to the heart of the meaning of the book. The book of 1st and 2nd Chronicles, which really is supposed to be one book, but because of the Septuagint Greek translation ended up being too big, so they split it into 1st and 2nd Chronicles, has a different purpose than 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. The books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles are written to a different audience and at a different time.

Whereas Samuel and Kings was written to, especially Kings, to those who were in exile. Remember, after the divided kingdom, the northern kingdom first was taken into exile by the Assyrians, and a little over a hundred years later, the southern kingdom, Judah, was taken into exile by the Babylonians. In that time, often, they probably would question, you know, we’re God’s people, what happened? And so, the books of specifically of kings uh and samuel as well helped them understand why are we here why are we having why do we have these the suffering well we’ve disobeyed the mosaic covenant you know blessings for obedience curses for disobedience and because of this we are getting what we deserve However, 1st and 2nd Chronicles are written to an audience that has just come back to the land after the exile.

I know, a little bit of a spoiler alert. We haven’t made it that far in the history of Old Testament Israel yet. That’s where we will be once we make it through 1st and 2nd Chronicles, the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. But once the people made it back into the land, they needed to know God’s plan for them, needed to be reminded of the amazing history that they had, and also the importance of worship.

If we were to think about it very vividly, and actually there’s a great chart in this book about comparing Samuel and Kings with Chronicles. If we were to think of the Samuel and Kings books, that incorporates both the northern and southern kingdoms in the divided kingdom time. The book of First and Second Chronicles only focuses on the southern kingdom, Judah.

Which remember, how many good kings did the northern kingdom have? Zero, right? Good memory, absolutely. Yes, I see you, Dan, yes. And southern kingdom, they had some good kings. There weren’t all good kings, but they had some good kings, and that is why the exile was later. Jerusalem, here’s another question I don’t think I’ve asked. Jerusalem, the capital, religious capital of Israel, was in the northern or southern kingdom? Southern, right? Absolutely.

So there’s a focus on only the Southern Kingdom in the Book of Chronicles, specifically 2 Chronicles in the divided kingdom time. There’s no mention of the Northern Kingdom, or not too much mention, I should say, the focus isn’t on the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

In Samuel and Kings, the emphasis is on the throne, the monarchy, and even though there certainly is much reference to the monarchy in 1 and 2 Chronicles, the focus is more on the temple. Rather than the throne, its focus is on the temple and worship. If we were to think of Samuel and Kings, the emphasis of God’s servants is focused on the prophets, remember, and especially in the divided kingdom, the majority of the narrative centered upon Elijah and then Elisha. Whereas in 1 and 2 Chronicles, the focus is on the priest. Now, another question to review. Oh, it’s so much fun reviewing. Sorry, I didn’t mean that to sound sarcastic.

What’s the difference between a priest and a prophet? A prophet brings what to what? The message to the people, right? So, and if we were to simplify, it brings God to the people through the message, right? Prophet brings God to the people. And the priest does what, brings? The people, yep, the opposite, the people to God. If you want an easy way to remember, prophet brings God to the people, priest brings people to God.

And so the emphasis in 1st and 2nd Chronicles is on this priestly role of worship. It’s emphatic about those who would bring the people to God. We know Israel’s role in Exodus 19, that God gave them after they’d been delivered from their Egyptian slavery, was that they were to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation. A kingdom of priests meant that they would bring the peoples to God.

So once again, the emphasis in Samuel Kings is on the prophet bringing God to the people, confronting the wickedness of the monarchy through God’s prophets. Whereas in Chronicles, the emphasis is then on worship, the priest, the people that brought the people to God.

Samuel and Kings explains the reason for the exile. Why are we in the exile? What did we do wrong? Samuel and Kings makes that very clear. We even remember from our last study in the book of 2 Kings, of all of the different kings, they were always compared to good kings and bad kings, whether they were faithful to the Mosaic Covenant, generally speaking, or not. And whereas the Samuel and Kings books are the reason for the exile, Chronicles, not to be overly redundant, the hope for the returned exiles.

So we come to 1 Chronicles today with a history of the nation of Israel in a different light. and a priestly light rather than a prophetic one, one that is to give hope to those who have just come back to the land and needed to get their priorities straight. So it is certainly worth our time studying. If we were to think of an author of First and Second Chronicles, it’s sort of a little bit up for debate, but Jewish tradition believes Ezra the priest to have been the one who chronicled all of these things, using a variety of sources under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, giving the people who are now back in the land hope of Israel, of their promises that they had received from God in light of their history. That would explain the priestly perspective back in Jerusalem certainly. If we were to think of a parallel for 1st Chronicles, since that is our book of study today, we could think of some of 1st Samuel, a good portion of it, not all of 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel, likely would have been around 450 to 430 BC.

And the theme of 1st Chronicles is the God who chooses, the God who chooses. As Pastor Ron mentioned today, you know, God chose the specific time that Christ would come, sovereign over all things, illustrating his eternal decree. God also chose Israel to be his chosen people, and specifically David in his line to reign as king. So, if we were to think of a structure for this book that teaches the God who chooses, the first section is the royal line of David. We see this in chapters one through nine. And then the second section would be the reign of David, chapters 10 through 29.

Now, what we’ll notice specifically when comparing Samuel and Kings to Chronicles is that this isn’t a comprehensive history, right? We think of all sorts of narrative in the Old Testament, even the Gospels themselves. They’re not comprehensive in history, meaning they aren’t writing down every single event that took place, because that’s not the purpose. No, they are recording accurate events, but it’s all to sort of convey a certain message. And this is that God who chooses, that even though Israel had just gotten back from exile, God’s promises were still to Israel. who’s meant to remind Israel of God’s faithfulness. And we see here this sort of selection, rather than being comprehensive, it’s very selective in its focus.

And we see here in the genealogy, it’s not only the line of David, but also of the Levites, the Levites. And what tribe were the priests supposed to come from? Levi, right? The Levites. So there’s an emphasis again here on worship. There’s also some of the Benjaminites, which what king in Israel’s history was a Benjaminite?

It’s all right, good memory. And there’s also an emphasis on Israel’s land as well in these first nine chapters because they’re, historically speaking, they’re receiving this after they’ve come back into the land. So we see in 1 Chronicles 1, 1 through 3, the genealogy from Adam to Noah’s sons. and it continues talking about that more. Noah’s sons, just gonna go over a few brief things in here.

Verse eight, we see the sons of him were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. Mizraim, just for some perspective, that’s the Hebrew word for Egypt. And Canaan as well, we know that that would be, descendants would be in the land of Canaan. Verse 12, we see more descendants from which the Philistines came. Remember, Philistines, Israel’s enemies. Verse 14, we see the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites. Jebusites specifically were those who inhabited Jerusalem until David conquered them. We see verse 15 as well, more of these peoples.

Verse 17, we see Aram is one of the descendants of Shem. In verse 24 through 27, we see Shem through Abraham. We see more descendants in the genealogy of Abraham, beginning there in verse 28, talking about immediately Isaac and Ishmael and their descendants.

Verse 32, a mention of Midian, I think that’s important. And we also see Esau and Jacob all the way through verse 54. Even a mention of the chiefs of Edom would have given Israel perspective of their enemies and the Edomites, which many of you might remember, descendants of Esau. Chapter two talks about the 12 tribes of Israel, verses one through eight. And we also see the genealogy of David beginning in verse 9 Going through Going through quite a bit This whole first nine chapters.

There’s much here. What it would have communicated is remember how God was faithful to all of these people The same God who’s faithful to all of these people is faithful to us as well. The family of David is mentioned in chapter 3. We see the sons that were born to him in order. It says in verse 1, the firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam the Jezreelitus. The second was Daniel by Abigail the Carmelitus. The third was Absalom, the son of Maccah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. The fourth was Adonijah, the son of Hagith. And we talked about all of the difficulty in succession with David and sort of the dynamics that would have come from his firstborn.

Amnon, right, was killed by Absalom. Daniel, we don’t hear much about, and Samuel and Kings. And so it’s assumed that he probably died pretty early on. Absalom, we see in verse two, is the third born, and he was killed. And then that left the fourth born sort of as the front runner, apart from David’s word and God’s plan, being Adonijah. And that’s why Solomon began to reign. Adonijah was a rival to his throne. We see the lines of Hur and Asher in chapter four, Simeon as well.

There’s mention of ancient records in chapter four, verse 22, and chapter four, verse 33. The author, presumably Ezra, was consulting various sources that themselves didn’t have to be completely inspired, but through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, incorporated them into 1 Chronicles as the inspired account.

Chapter five speaks of the genealogy of Reuben, and then we see at the end of chapter 5 and sort of an explanation for why the Northern Kingdom, like I said, it’s not mentioned that often in Chronicles, but it still is mentioned, why they went into exile.

Verse 25 said that they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land whom God had destroyed before them. So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pol, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tiglath-Pil-Nezer, oh goodness, try saying that ten times in a row, king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Hela, Abur, Herah, and to the river of Gozan to this day. Now, another little detail that I don’t know if we’ve talked about in our study of Old Testament history, specifically the divided kingdoms, is there was some defection from the northern kingdom into the southern kingdom. Those who genuinely wanted to worship God the way he commanded in Jerusalem, not worship at the sites that were created in Bethel and Dan with the golden calves. There’s some evidence for people coming down into the southern kingdom, so that when the southern kingdom was taken into exile into Babylon, it would have incorporated all of the tribes to a certain extent, but the majority of them were taken away into the Assyrian exile, the tribes up in the north, that is everyone primarily except Judah and Benjamin.

Now in chapter 6 we see an emphasis on the priestly line. We see the importance of proper worship. We see in verse 49 specifically it says Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense for all the work of the most holy place and to make atonement for Israel according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded. In the midst of all of these different names and specifically the line and descendants, the genealogy, there’s even a little bit explanation for why they did what they did. It’s because God takes worship seriously.

Chapter seven, we see a genealogy from Issachar, verses one through five. Descendants of Benjamin in verses six through 12. Naphtali in 13. Manasseh, 14 through 19. Ephraim, verses 20 through 29, and a brief note on the tribe of Ephraim again. In our study of Hosea, we saw that God sometimes rebuked the northern kingdom, Israel, by calling them Ephraim, and that’s because Ephraim would have been the largest tribe at one point in the northern kingdom, very likely, and so it would have been synonymous with the northern kingdom, when God would specifically say Ephraim in that context.

We see the descendants of Asher in verses 30 through 40. The genealogy from Benjamin comes in chapter eight, sort of setting up the narrative that is to come about Saul’s reign, which is very brief in this first Chronicles, because the main point is to show God’s choosing of David. And we see the genealogy from Benjamin from verses one through 32. And then it sort of narrows in verse 33 and begins to speak of Saul, the genealogy of Saul himself, verses 33. through 40.

The people of Jerusalem then are recorded in chapter 9, and this is important because this speaks of the historical context of being back in the land that God still was with them, even the people that were there as well. Verse 1 says, So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies, and behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah was carried away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness. This is sort of a summary of about what’s to come later on in 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles as well.

Some of those references, if you’re looking to find verses that speak of people from the northern kingdom coming to the southern kingdom, would be found in 2 Chronicles 15.9 and 30.11. And so we see the ancestry and descendants of Saul in chapter 9, verse 35 through 44. And this is the end of the genealogy.

This sort of shows the focus of this book is going to be on David and the priests as well in proper worship. a priestly perspective giving more hope to Israel now that they are back in the land rather than focusing on some of the negative components of why Israel went into exile that is found in Samuel and Kings. And in chapters 10 through 29, we see the reign of David, the reign of David. If you remember 1 Samuel, there is much more about Saul, much more about Samuel, but because it’s not the point of 1 Chronicles, it isn’t included. Both are important, but coming from different perspectives.

Saul died, we already went over that. And it says in verse 13 through 14, it said that Saul died for his trespass, which he committed against the Lord, because of the word of the Lord, which he did not keep. And also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, and did not inquire of the Lord. Therefore he killed him and turned the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse. And remember, even from our understanding from Genesis, we should have known that the scepter would not depart from what tribe. Judah, right? Is Saul from Judah? No, Saul wasn’t. Who was from Judah? David was, right?

Exactly. So when we were going through the Old Testament narrative, and they should have understood, something’s a little inconsistent here. Something should, this won’t always be this way, that this Benjamin will be reigning. And so we see this takes place as David takes over. See, before chapter 11, there’s no mention of Ish-bosheth, right? The son of Saul. No mention of the strife that took place between Judah that aligned themselves with David versus the, yes? Oh yes, sorry. That’s a great question. I don’t, I mean. Other than being part of his secret will, I don’t know.

Yeah, I mean, I think the reason why we see in 1 Samuel is that they wanted a king like the rest of the nations, right? And so, wanting a king like the rest of the nations meant that they wanted a king to go out and fight the battles for them. And he was the tall candidate, right? He was the one that, you know, if they were to be operating solely by their, you know, external appearance, he would Exactly, right? Yeah, I remember. I don’t know if you remember Nathaniel. He was here when I think we were teaching on that, and he stands about this tall, and I was like, you know, just like Nathaniel, like that.

He was head and shoulders above everyone else, but his heart was far from God. And the emphasis of 1 Samuel is that God looks at the heart, right? He exalts the humble and humbles the proud. And so my guess is it was just sort of an act of discipline on Israel, right?

They wanted a king like the rest of the nations, and that’s exactly what God gave them in Saul. And so why he was of Benjamin, that would have to be something I’d have to look up more. But yeah, as far as I know, the reason why Saul was chosen is because he was just He was above everyone else and maybe just because he happened to be part of Benjamin and the rest would be the secret will of God a lot of I’m sure there’s other reasons for it as well. But that’s a great question when I’ll have to think more about for sure.

We see in chapter 11, though, that David is made king over all Israel. He’s made king over all Israel, and like I said, there’s no struggle with Ish-bosheth. From Samuel, we saw that David at first was recognized by Judah, but the rest of the tribes did not recognize him because they aligned themselves with Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth. No doubt, partially, especially with Benjamin, due to sort of tribal, I don’t know, jealousy maybe. But here we skip all that because the focus is on David and God’s support of David, and it’s not meant to be a comprehensive history.

And David is made king over all Israel. Now we see in chapter 11, it says, verse one, then all Israel gathered to David at Hebron and said, behold, we are your bone and your flesh. In times past, even when Saul was king, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord your God said to you, you shall shepherd my people Israel and you shall be prince over my people Israel. And so they made a covenant with David, it says, and that he was king.

And then we see that the capital shifts from Hebron to Jerusalem. And geographically, the only thing that I think the thing that we need to all think about that is helpful with this is that Hebron was further south than Jerusalem. And it would have been more convenient geographically to move the capital, on top of it being God’s choice to be in Jerusalem, to Jerusalem for sort of security reasons. It would be protected further north.

In verse 9, sort of a theme that we see in this section with David is that he became greater and greater for the Lord of hosts was with him. God chose David to be his king. in his line after him and God established him in his line. And so we see some interesting accounts here of David’s mighty men in verses 10 through 47. I mean, there’s just lots of interesting stories that I would love to know more about. Like verse 11 speaks of a man who lifted up a spear against 300, whom he killed at one time. There’s sort of a funny story that, at least I find funny, in verses 15 through 19. I’ll read it real quick.

It says, now three of the 30 chief men went down to the rock to David in the cave of Bedolim while the army of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. David had a craving and said, oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. So the three broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, David would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. Thanks a lot, David.

We just risked our lives getting some water and you just poured it out. And he said, be it far from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives? For at the risk of their lives they brought it. Therefore, he would not drink it, these things the three mighty men did. David wanted his men to know he cared more about them than just satisfying his cravings for water, and also dedicated it to God.

But I was just thinking about the perspective of those three mighty men. At first, there might’ve been a little bit of a misunderstanding, like, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Another guy in verse 20 swung his spear against 300. I mean, just amazing. Verse 22. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went down and killed a lion inside of the pit. Killed an Egyptian who was roughly five cubits tall, probably like seven feet, seven and a half feet, just incredible.

We see that David’s supporters in chapter 12, we see some of Saul’s kinsmen from Benjamin being there as well. And We see at the very end of that section, verse 22, it says, for day by day, men came to David to help him until there was a great army like the army of God. God chose David. God blessed David because he was his chosen king. We see peril in chapter 13 and transporting the ark. We talked about this before, Uzzah, right? The classic R.C. Sproul illustration. I mean, I would just listen to the Dr. Sproul about that. He covers that story very, very well.

One thing that I guess I didn’t realize before is in verse seven here, it says that part of the problem was that they carried the ark of God on a new cart. And I guess I never realized before in 1 Samuel 5, that’s the same wording that they use of the Philistines carrying the ark. So it’s like they’re treating God the same way the nations treated him.

It began that way and of course with Uzzah touching the ark also disobeyed God directly because they were not to touch these holy things or else they would be put to death as found in Numbers 4.15.

God takes worship seriously and I think that’s the broader application we can get from that. Chapter 14 speaks of David’s family being enlarged And we see in verse 2 this sort of same theme It says and David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel And that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel God has chosen David God has chosen Israel God is blessing them Let’s see here Philistines are defeated, verses 8 through 17, and we see then the fame in verse 17 of David, went out into all the lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him on all the nations. Remember, they’re a kingdom of priests. God is going to use Israel to bring the nations to himself, to bring in the Gentiles as well.

As we even talked about the revelation of the mystery today. That certainly is part of that And God is using them to do so by putting the fear of David in Israel because they’re chosen by God to the nations so then In chapter 15, there are these plans to move the ark to Jerusalem and there’s again an emphasis on the ark an emphasis on worship priestly history and the importance of worship The reason why they, Uzzah was struck at the beginning in verse 13 was because they did not carry it at first, like they were supposed to instead put it on that new cart. That’s why he made an outburst on us for we did not seek him according to the ordinance. We see in chapter 16, there’s a tent for the ark.

And David assigned Asaph and his relatives to give thanks to the Lord, and we see this psalm of thanksgiving, which is just absolutely phenomenal, in verses eight through 36. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, verse eight. Call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. Verse 13, O seed of Israel, his servant, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones, he is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac. Real quick, three components of Abrahamic covenant. What are they? Go. Land, seed, blessing. Great work, everybody. You’re doing great. So that’s what they’re talking about. God is faithful to the Abrahamic covenant. He said in verse 18, saying, to you, I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.

Verse 24, tell of his glory among the nations, kingdom of priests, right? Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Verse 31, let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Just an amazing verse there. I mean, if you were to think of a summary of the entire Bible in three words, I mean, it’s like the Lord reigns, right? That the nations would know that as well.

They’re worshiping before the ark in verses 37 through 43. And then in 1 Chronicles 17, we see the Davidic covenant. Remember, this was already seen in 2 Samuel 7. This is foundational for our understanding of Old Testament history. It builds upon the other covenants that God had made with Abraham, with Israel corporately in the Mosaic covenant, with David. And because we don’t have time, I won’t read through it specifically, but it’s very favorable toward David showing God’s choice of David as king. We see David’s prayer in response in verses 16 through 27. Just amazing. Why would you choose me? And the answer is, it’s not because of you. It’s because to demonstrate his glory.

David’s kingdom is strengthened in chapter 18 in verse 1. He defeated the Philistines in verse 2 Moab verse 3 how today’s are king of Zoba Verse 5 we see the Arameans and the end of verse 6 says the Lord helped David wherever he went God certainly has chosen David as his king and his blessing him they he got many articles of gold and silver and that they carried away from the nations. In verse 11, it’s mentioned Edom, descendants of Esau, Moab, their enemies, especially in the wilderness wanderings, the sons of Ammon, the Philistines, and from Amalek. We see at the end of verse 13, it’s the same theme, and the Lord helped David wherever he went. So David reigned over all Israel, and he administered justice and righteousness for all the people. David’s messengers then are abused among the sons of Ammon, trying to pay his respects, if you will, or just to sort of be a bit diplomatic. And then Ammon and Aram are defeated in verses 10 through 19. And then in chapter 20, we see a war with the Philistine giants, but there is a major part of David’s life that is missing here in the narrative that’s in Samuel, 2 Samuel. There’s no Bathsheba. There’s no sin with Bathsheba. Why not include that? I mean, that certainly is a noteworthy event in David’s life.

And the reason why is, again, 1 Chronicles was written to those who were coming back to Jerusalem. It was written to give them hope, and the focus was not so much on having disobeyed the Mosaic covenant, even though we see elements of that in here. That was the focus of Samuel and Kings. for why they were in the exile. Here the focus instead is God’s choice, his choice of Israel, his choice of David, and the hope that they had for the future. And so even though this certainly isn’t, Solomon’s in the narrative, it’s not like the chronicler is trying to make it seem like that never happened, it’s just not the purpose of Chronicles.

And it sort of shows the difference between the accounts in Samuel and Kings versus Chronicles, giving hope to Israel. We see this war with the Philistine giants, it says in verse one, then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the sons of Ammon and came and besieged Rabba. But David stayed at Jerusalem. That’s all we’re told about that whole Bathsheba account right there, right? And Joab struck Rabba and overthrew it. In verse two, this is really interesting, David took the crown of their king from his head and he found it to weigh a talent of gold.

So I looked up yesterday, I don’t know how accurate this is. What I saw from the sources I consulted is that a talent was roughly like 75 pounds. And as I was reading this downstairs in my basement, I was reminded we had a 75 pound dumbbell in the basement. And it wasn’t my most intelligent moment, but I picked up the 75 pound dumbbell and I held it above my head. And I didn’t move. Luckily, I’m not injured. I’m here today. Praise the Lord, right? Really stupid. But that weighs a lot. 75 pounds is quite a bit.

And my guess then, after that whole incident, was that David was probably sitting down. This was a ceremonial thing showing that God had blessed David. God was fulfilling his promise to Abraham in driving out the peoples of the land. We see there was a brother of Goliath in verse 5 mentioned, and this is the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. These were huge. There were men in stature, verse 6, that says they had 24 fingers and toes. Kind of scary. And then Chapter 21 speaks of the census that brought about pestilence.

Again, there’s no mention of Amnon and Tamar. Remember, David’s oldest, and him and his sister, and then Amnon being killed. There’s no mention of Absalom in his rebellion, his insurrection. Instead, it just goes right to the census, because again, the point is not why are we in exile, because of our disobedience to the Mosaic covenant, and instead is God’s choice of Israel.

David chooses when God gives him options for his discipline on Israel. He requests in verse 13, please let me fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercies are very great. Even in the midst of God’s discipline, David could trust God’s character. Kind of something that Pastor Ron was alluding to today, the importance of our trust in who God is.

We see that David has an altar built, verses 18 through 30. And then David prepares for the building of the temple in chapter 22. I like 1 Chronicles 2 because it mentions more about David’s help in the preparation for the temple. We know Solomon was the one who built the temple, who oversaw that whole project. But I think it kind of gives a greater appreciation to me, at least, for David’s role in the temple being built.

Solomon’s charged with the task in verses 6 through 19. David is speaking to Solomon and he says in verse eight, that the word of the Lord came to me saying, you have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name because you have shed so much blood on the earth before me. Behold, a son will be born to you who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give rest in his days. Solomon, sounding a lot like Shalom, Shlomo, meaning peaceful.

And I don’t know, I’m not for sure, I’m gonna have to fact check this. I’m pretty sure this doesn’t, this little detail in here is informed in First Chronicles. I don’t remember it specifically from Kings. That the reason why David was not chosen was because he was a man of bloodshed, but we’ll have to fact check that.

But Solomon is a man of rest, and I think this is significant about the worship of God. The special dwelling place of God was to be characterized by peace. We talked about the details of the temple and how there was almost an Edenic garden-like imagery to it, the special dwelling place of God, and that it was a reminder of Eden and the peace there. And so the temple was supposed to be special, and I think that could be a reason why Solomon was chosen, because he was not a man of bloodshed.

Now, David also says in verse 12, only the Lord give you discretion and understanding and give you charge over Israel so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses concerning Israel.

Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience theme here, not only for the nation corporately, but also for the leader of the nation, the king. Solomon, a brief account of him reigning in verses one and two of chapter 23. We see the offices of the Levites coming up in the following verses, specifically Gershonites in seven through 11, Kohathites 12 through 20, Merorites 21 through 23, and their duties mentioned in 24 through 32. There were certain divisions of the Levites.

They were to have certain times that they would go and minister, and it shows that God cares about order and intentionality in worship in chapter 24 here. They were divided by law in verse five to who would have what time, and that was seen as God’s choice. And we see in verse 10 that one of the sections, the eighth, was for Abijah, which if you remember Luke chapter one, Zacharias was chosen because he was of this section of Abijah in that specific time. God would use that even in bringing the message of the forerunner for the Messiah. Just amazing to think of God’s providence and how sophisticated and deep it is, even in the Old Testament here. that we see in verse 19, it describes the priestly shifts.

Chapter 25 describes the services of musicians and their numbers. 26, the division of gatekeepers, keepers of treasure, those with outside duties and sort of security. and legal matters. Chapter 27, we see the commanders of the army, chief officers of the tribes, various overseers, counselors.

David gives an amazing address in chapter 28, if we had more time, I would read through much of it, alluding back to the Mosaic Covenant and the importance for corporate obedience. Chapter 29 describes offerings for the temple. And then David’s prayer, chapter 29, verses 10 through 19. I would recommend reading that on your own time if you have the ability to.

There were sacrifices on that day. Solomon’s made king, and then David dies in the very end. So it’s amazing. God has chosen Israel as a special people. He’s chosen David as their king, and Israel now being back in the promised land has great hope, knowing that since God is faithful to his promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to Moses, and to Israel in the wilderness wanderings, as well as to David and in the monarchy period, so he too would be faithful to them when they came back to the land.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, we know that all scripture is inspired, and that Lord, even when we are tempted to be bored with your word, to feel that it’s redundant, to not want to go into certain parts of your word, that Lord, this is a problem with our own hearts, for all of your word is profitable. Help us to understand that, Lord. Even in our devotions this week, in our study of your word, help us to be reminded that every single scripture is in your word for a reason.

We thank you that First Chronicles demonstrates this very clearly, that you are a faithful God to your promises. We see that through Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant. We think of the Mosaic covenant and your faithfulness to Israel and to David as well. We thank you for your faithfulness and your forgiveness in the plan of salvation for us. In your son, Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman who came to crush the head of the serpent, that we have hope for eternal life in him. It’s in your name we pray these things, amen.