I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 15-18.

    When Asa returned victorious from his battle against an overwhelming army from Cush (Ethiopia) he was met by a prophet. Inspired by that prophet, Asa removed the idols from shrines in the land he controlled. He called an assembly of the people, which included many who had moved to Judah from the Northern Kingdom because Asa was serving God, to renew the Covenant with God. As a result of Asa’s, and the people’s, faithfulness to God the Kingdom of Judah had peace for over thirty years. However, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded. Rather than trust God, who had given him victory over an even more powerful Ethiopian army at the beginning of his reign, Asa sent a bribe to the King of Aram for the King of Aram to attack Israel and draw Baasha’s attention elsewhere. Asa made a mistake that many of us make. When we have few resources and no way to deal with the overwhelming problems we face, we turn to God and rely on Him to deal with our problems. Later, when we have more resources and more ability we rely on ourselves rather than turning to God. Let us always seek the path which God wishes us to follow when we face problems, even when we think we can handle the problems ourselves.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 11-14.

    When Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem from learning that the Northern Tribes had rejected him as king, he immediately gathered the army to put down the rebellion. However, God sent a prophet to tell him not to do so. I do not believe that Rehoboam listened to the prophet on his own. I believe that his army refused to march out against the Northern Tribes because of what the prophet said to them. We are also told that the priests and Levites living among the Northern Tribes moved to the territory controlled By Rehoboam, as well as those other Israelites who truly wanted to worship God (I am sure that this is slight hyperbole; there were certainly some Israelites who wanted to continue worshiping God for whom relocating to Judah was impractical). Those who moved to Judah from among he Northern Tribes fully supported Rehoboam for three years. Unfortunately, Rehoboam’s “faith” was politically motivated. As soon as he had consolidated power, he abandoned his dedication to God and led the people into sinfulness. We need to be careful about leaders who behave like Rehoboam; leaders who start out apparently worshiping God, who abandon doing so as soon as their power is established.

    In this passage there are three accounts of where the Southern Kingdom was in a bad situation militarily. In each of these cases, they called out to God for deliverance and he delivered them. It is worth noting that in the first case, they first acknowledged that they deserved the suffering they were experiencing because of their failure to be faithful to God. In all three cases they were facing an enemy whose army was vastly superior to their own. The lesson for us is that God is able to see us through whatever troubles we face, no matter how overwhelming they are, if we put our faith in Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 8-10.

    When I came to the place where Solomon decided that he needed to build a separate palace for his wife because the Ark had been in David’s palace, and therefore David’s palace was holy ground, my first thought was, “You should have thought of that before you married her.” We all make foolish decisions, but if a woman (or, if you are a woman, a man) does not share your love and dedication to God, do NOT marry them. Solomon had many reasons for marrying Pharaoh’s daughter, but none of them should have been allowed to overcome this deficiency.

    When Rehoboam became king, the people of Israel came to him and asked him to scale back his father’s projects, to reduce the burden on the common man. He asked the advice of both his father’s advisers and of the guys he had hung out with while he was growing up. His father’s advisers advised him to give the people a favorable answer, to be conciliatory. His contemporaries advised him to show the people who was in charge, to stand firm and be tough. Rehoboam followed his contemporaries advice because it appealed to his vanity. He discovered that he was not in charge as much as he thought. There are two important lessons here. The first is the importance of listening to the advice of those with experience over the inexperienced. The second is the importance of being responsive to the “general populace” and making sure they feel like their interests are being taken into account. In this year’s election cycle we see what happens when the experienced advisers forget the second lesson.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 5-7.

    This passage contains an account of Solomon’s dedication of the Temple which is very similar to the one found in 1 Kings. As part of that dedication Solomon asked God to listen when people repented of their sins, faced the Temple, and called out to Him. I remember reading that in 1 Kings and noting that Solomon asked God to accept foreigners who turn to Him. What I do not remember noticing is that in God’s reply, while He says that He will indeed listen and respond when people repent of their sins and cry out to Him, He makes no mention of them facing the Temple when they do so. On the other hand, God does tell Solomon that He has chosen the temple and set it apart to be holy. However, God also warned Solomon and the people that if they, or their descendants were to fail to obey His commands and decrees, He would bring destruction on the city and the Temple. Destruction which would serve as an object lesson to people for all time. Even today, Jerusalem serves as an object lesson, both to God’s love for His people and for what happens when they fail to follow His commands.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 1-4.

    There are two parts to today’s passage. The first is the account of Solomon’s interaction with God at Gibeon. There Solomon requested wisdom and knowledge rather than wealth and fame. God gave Solomon what he asked for and He gave him wealth and fame as well. The point is that we should seek wisdom and knowledge rather than wealth and/or fame. If we seek wisdom and knowledge, God will see that we find them. Once we have wisdom and knowledge, if we do as they instruct we may also find wealth and fame, but we will certainly find joy.

    The second part of this passage is preparations and efforts to build the Temple. In preparation for building the Temple Solomon gathered his resources and entered into an agreement with King Hiram of Tyre for Hiram to supply him with cedar for the building. Before construction began, Solomon made sure that he had the resources to complete the project. In addition, he made arrangements with others to supply those resources which he did not himself possess. Then he began construction, but he did not limit himself to just constructing a building. As part of the project he planned for and had constructed the furnishings and decorations as well. The description of Solomon building the Temple can give us insight for when we do God’s work. We need to carefully plan what resources we will need to complete the project. Then we need to put in the effort to do so, but we need to keep in mind that it is not enough to build the basic structure we must also take into account how the work will be used once it is complete. We need to plan out the work to which God calls us and not consider it finished until we have “furnished” it.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 27-29.

    The account here of the events leading up to Solomon’s coronation implies a contradiction to the account given in 1 Kings. I can think of an explanation which do not require this account to be false (there are probably others). It seems likely that after the emergency coronation of Solomon in response to his brother’s attempt to seize the throne that a second “official” coronation was held after the leaders from more distant areas were summoned. While it is unlikely that the King David described in 1 Kings at the time of Solomon’s coronation would have given an address to the assembly, it is conceivable that the address recorded here was given on his behalf. There is no inherent contradiction between the two accounts of Solomon’s coronation and the events leading up to it. We just have two writers who chose to record different aspects of it.

    Regardless of the above there are two wonderful, related points made in David’s prayer of praise. First, we can give nothing to God that He does not already have. No matter how much wealth we have, that wealth came from God in the first place. We should not expect credit for spending some of the wealth which God has given us to do God’s work. Second, we have only a short time on this earth to serve God. Let us take advantage of the wealth and time which God has given us in order to serve Him joyously.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 24-26.

    I noticed in this passage that it repeatedly stressed that no preference was shown in assigning the duties to the priests and Levites. We should follow this model in selecting people to accomplish the necessary tasks in the Church. I am not suggesting that we should use lots for the purpose (although that might be a good idea for some of them). The important part is that we do not show preference. Not only was no preference shown, but significant effort was made to ensure that everyone could see that no preference was shown. The selection was process was open so that everyone knew how and why a certain person was selected for a particular task. The passage tells us that no regard was given to age or experience. However, it does point out that all of those selected for the various musical duties were accomplished musicians. Elsewhere it talks about there being many qualified officials among the descendants of Levi and Aaron. This implies to me that while the various tasks were divided up without preference, those tasks were divided up among those who were known to be qualified. I am a firm believer that in the Church we should assign tasks according to whether people are capable of performing them, not based on how well we like the people, or their age and experience. The only criteria should be: are they qualified? In addition, we need to make sure that our procedure for selecting people for jobs in the Church is open so that everyone knows how people were chosen and that favoritism was not shown to one individual over another in the process.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 20-23.

    I do not know that I ever noticed this before, but David took the census AFTER completely defeating two enemies of Israel. It seems as if, after his success against the Ammonites and the Philistines, he decided to go on a campaign of expansion. David was given a choice of three punishments for his sin: three years of famine, three months of destruction by his enemies, or three days of plague. David chose the three days of plague. He knew that it would be easier for himself and his people to recover from suffering of shorter duration than the longer, even if the devastation was greater. It is a facet of human nature that we generally recover better from a devastating experience of short duration than a more minor suffering of long duration. This is a principle which we would do well to remember, and factor in, when we consider options in our criminal justice system.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 17-19.

    When David wanted to build a Temple, a house for God, God told him not to do so. God reiterates that His home is not a house, is not a building of any sort. God is not fixed to one locale. Other gods were specific to certain locales, but God is not so limited. The Tabernacle was the perfect idiom for God’s home. It was mobile and could be moved from place to place. Furthermore, God proclaimed that he would build a house for David. It would not be a house made of stone and timber. Rather it would be a house made up of David’s descendants who would serve the Lord. This passage reminds us that we, as humans, are constantly trying to limit God by building structures to contain Him. Sometimes those structures are buildings. Sometimes they are the organizations we create. We often do this with the best of intentions. Whatever our intentions, God has to intervene to remind us time and again that He is not limited to those structures, nor is He limited by those structures. We, the people who worship Him, are where He desires to live. We need to allow God to live in us. We need to live lives that make God welcome. When we do not behave in a holy manner we are desecrating the only Temple God desires.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 13-16 .

    When David decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, he expected that it would result in nothing but good for him and his people. However, while the Ark was being transported, someone touched it in a manner other than what had been laid out by God. That man was instantly struck dead. This frightened and angered David, how could God do such a thing when David was trying to honor Him? However, we see that over time David realized that the death was caused by his, and his men’s (including the man who was killed), mistakes. They had not followed God’s instructions. David discovered that having good intentions is not enough. We need to not only have good intentions, we need to also do the right thing.

    I love the psalm/song which David wrote to celebrate when he finally brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. He calls on us to praise God and rejoice. The phrase which stands out to me today is this: “Each day proclaim the good news that He saves…Tell everyone about the amazing things He does.” To whom have I proclaimed the good news about God today?