1 Chronicles 28 - Continuity

The account of the transition from David to Solomon given in Chronicles has a very different flavour to that found in Kings. In Kings we read of David's old age and the palace intrigues and plots. Here we see God's plan working very smoothly. What are we to make of all this? Is it a contradiction? Is the writer of Chronicles telling a pack of lies? No. Rather it gives an understanding of how God's plans work out in life. At one level there can be be much confusion and conflict, we all encounter this is our own daily lives. Yet through the confusion and mayhem the plan of the Lord is being fulfilled and it is His will that will prevail. So despite all the intrigues of men, there was a plan for the temple, and the plan was fulfilled. So, in the current situation in Jerusalem which was messy to say the least, the people could be confident that the Lord's will would prevail and His plans be fulfilled.

So it is with church life. At times it is very messy, but we should not lose heart. Rather we should continue to seek to obey the Lord, confident that in the end He will smooth everything out.

So here we read of David making a clear declaration to the nation of how God had worked in the past and what the next steps were, namely Solomon building the temple.

David gives a charge to Solomon to obey the Lord, and gives detailed instructions. The writer is stressing the continuity of God's plan, as well as the importance of obedience.

1 Chronicles 23-27 - Lists

David made Solomon king, though from the machinations that are recorded in 1 Kings it seems that this was not made public. He also assigned priestly work for the temple. We then get a long list of names. The point that the writer is stressing is the continuation of the Levitical priesthood for ministering in the temple.

Chpater 24 gives us even more lists of priests.

In chapter 25 we come to the musicians. That this was also linked with the ministry of prophesying. There are two factors here that are relevant today. One is that music and prophecy are found together in the Bible. Elisha sometimes had a musician when he prophesied. There is also the fact that prophesy is a lot wider than what we traditionally think of as prophesy (eg the Isaiah's and Jeremiah's). In the current debates about cessationism the cessationists seem determined that all prophecy must be "high level prophecy", ie Canonical level. The Biblical evidence does not seem to support this view.

In Psalms we see a number of them attributed to the Asaph (eg Psalms 73-83).

Chapter 26 continues the lists with gatekeepers, treasurers and other officials.

Chapter 27 goes on to army divisions, tribal leaders and overseers.

It will be apparent that I do not find these chapters that inspiring, but that is my shortcoming. However, one thing that we can learn is that God is aware of all that we do in the kingdom, whether the role is prominent or not. Jesus said that anyone who gives so much as a cup of water will be rewarded.

1 Chronicles 22 - Operation Preparation

Although David himself would not build the temple he did make preparations. Foreigners were free in Israel but had very limited political rights, so could be easily exploited. The Law had various rules on not oppressing foreigners. Verse 5 tells us that David made preparations because he realised the importance and size of the task ahead, especially for Solomon who would be a new and therefore inexperienced leader.

David called Solomon and gave him the charge to build the temple. Note that Solomon's assuming the throne was not straightforward. So even if we have been given a task by God we may still encounter difficulties and opposition along the way. 

The reason why David was not allowed to build the temple was because he had fought so many wars and had blood on his hands. This implies that David was in some way defiled by the bloodshed. In contrast, Solomon would have a time of peace.

David urges Solomon to keep the Law and to be encouraged. The temple was to be a home for the ark of the covenant.

1 Chronicles 20-22:1 - David's sin and the ground for the temple

The start of chapter 20 deals with the time when David committed his infamous sin. Following this sin there are various victories.

Having ignored David's sin with Bathsheeba the writer does not ignore David's other major sin, namely taking a census of Israel. The account here includes some material that is not found in 2 Samuel. 

The text says that Satan incited David to take a census. David had all that he needed, for he had the Lord, and all his victories were given by the Lord. So he had no need to take the census and doing so betrayed a lack of trust. Joab seemed to recognise this. Note that although Satan incited David, David is still responsible. We may be tempted, but we have no need to give in to temptation, and if we do we can blame no one else but ourselves.

So David persisted with the census. After it was completed David seemed to realise that he had sinned. Quite possibly he realised it was wrong all along, but our depravity makes us carry on doing something even when we know it is wrong, then after the deed is done we "repent". Why do we behave like this? Two reasons. One the depravity of our soul, and secondly the deceitfulness of sin. Sin always fails to deliver what it promises.

Gad the seer gives David the three choices and David entrusts himself to the Lord. David accepted full responsibility for what he had done.

The latter part of chapter 21 (and 22:1) is concerned with David buying the ground that would become the site of the temple. Note that the temple is built on ground associated with repentance. 

1 Chronicles 19 - Unreasonable opposition

This chapter follows 2 Samuel 10-12 fairly closely, but omits David's sin with Bathsheeba. 

David sought friendly relationships with Hanun, the Ammorite king, but his overtures were rejected. The Israelites who had returned had not sought to cause trouble to anyone yet were encountering much opposition. Similarly, there are times when we as individuals and as churches seek to be helpful to others or to society but just get accused of all sorts of scurrilous motives. This is normal!

The Ammonites realised that they were now considered the enemy by David and bought help from Aram to attack Israel. David's army, under Joab, went out to meet the enemy and adopted reasonable military tactics. Joab won the battle. When the Lord is with us sometimes there will be miraculous intervention, at other times normal or natural means will be used to give us victory.

The Ammonites sought to counter attack. This time David was involved in the battle and won the victory. The Arameans learnt their lesson and would not help the Ammonites again.

The key lesson to be learnt from all this is that opposition and unreasonable behaviour is a normal part of life. When we encounter it we need to engage in battle instead of becoming discouraged, and God will give us the victory. Although not a point from this chapter, we also need to ensure that we ourselves continue to act in an upright and reasonable manner.

1 Chronicles 18 - Winning victories today

David achieved many victories. In view of the writers intentions there are two key points. The first is that it happened "in the course of time", and secondly these victories occurred before the temple was built. God's victories in our lives do not occur instantly, they take place over time. When He took them into the Promised Land God gave them victory "little by little" (Deut 7:22). Often we don't like where we are, we know where would like to be, and may even have some idea of where God wants to take us. We would like to be there instantly. We need to learn to live in the inbetween times, for all our life in this age is an inbetween time.

Then the victories happened before the temple was built. The Israelites who had returned from exile needed to realise that the lack of the completion of the temple did not mean that God could not work through them. Likewise, there may be major things lacking in our life, major things that still need to be accomplished or put right. That may be so, but we can still win significant victories today. God is used to working with the imperfect (eg you and me!).

Moreover, these victories lay the foundation for the future. Some of the stuff that David captured was used in the temple that Solomon built (v8).

The most important things was that "David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people" (v14). So it is with us. Today, no matter how imperfect the situation seems, let us do what is right today. In doing this we will win victories and lay down a foundation for the future.

1 Chronicles 17 - Our ideas, God's ideas

David had always wanted to build a temple for the Lord. This was motivated by good reasons. David himself had a palace yet God was "living in a tent". David told Nathan the prophet of his desire, and Nathan encouraged him to go with it. However, God later told Nathan that David was not the one to build a temple.

As an aside note that Nathan was in no way infallible. He was certainly a man of God and was not afraid to confront David when necessary. Yet here he was mistaken. At the time of writing this (29 Nov 2013) there has recently been a degree of controversy over the Strange Fire conference and much debate about the role of spiritual gifts today. It has been very interesting to listen to debates between sensible charismatics and reasonable cessationists. Eg beteen Michael Brown and Sam Waldron  and between Adrian Warnock and Doug Wilson. While I agree with many of the concerns of the Cessationists (eg health and wealth merchants) I cannot find any Biblical support for their arguments. One of their planks seems to be that prophets always spoke the infallible word of God. The incident here is just one demonstration that faithful prophets could get it wrong.

God's word to David is that He could manage quite well without a temple, and He never commanded the leaders to build a temple. Building a temple may have seemed important to David, it was not of immediate concern to God. 

In fact God seems more concerned with making David's name great! Moreover, God would build a house for David. Now just think about this and realise how amazing it is. it is very easy for us to start deciding such and such a way is the way that God is going to be honoured, even if God has no interest in being honoured that way! A temple would indeed be built, but it would be built by Solomon.

This revelation results in David humbling himself before God and praising Him all the more. We need to be so careful that we do not try and foist our own ideas on God, and that we joyfully accept His ideas for ourselves. That is the path that leads to true worship and joyful service.