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

This passage suggests that David consulted all of the leaders of Israel about bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and built a consensus to do so.  That is consistent with the accounts presented elsewhere.  This passage also places David’s two defensive battles against the Philistines between when David first started to bring the Ark to Jerusalem and when he completed that transfer.   I think the writer means to suggest that David consulted God, and perhaps the Book of the Law, before completing the transfer of the Ark to Jerusalem (which is consistent with everything else we have about David as a leader).  In this passage we are also told that David appointed Obed-Edom the Gittite and his associates to minister to the Ark after it was moved.  This is noteworthy because Obed-Edom appears to have been a Philistine (being a Gittite indicates that he was from Gath, and Gath was a Philistine city).  This is one of several places where we get a suggestion that the Ancient Israelites had a different idea about what it meant to be a Levite, or a priest, than we normally understand the references in the Bible about those groups suggests.  At some point, I may do a study to see if possibly there was an understanding that God might “adopt” people into the tribe of Levi and even into the priesthood.

Finally, it struck me that Abiathar, who at the end of David’s life supported Adonijah’s attempt to seize the throne was appointed to minister before the Ark in Jerusalem, while Zadok, who supported Solomon, was appointed to continue ministering at the Tabernacle in Gibeon.  When I read about Adonijah’s attempt to make himself king and Solomon’s ascension to the throne I was struck by how it seemed that Adonijah had cultivated the support of those whose power came from being part of King David’s government, while Solomon appeared to have the support of those who actually ran the country.  None of that is spelled out, but reading between the lines, Adonijah spent his time giving himself the appearance of being kinglike, while Solomon was actually doing the things which a nation needs a king to do.  So, if that is the case, Abiathar had become part of the social circle of government officials in Jerusalem, those who thought that appearances mattered more than actions as a result of spending so long in Jerusalem,  While Zadok remained more connected with what needed to be done because he spent less time in the capital.

You know, when I started to write that last paragraph I had a clear idea of what it would say.  I failed to express my thinking as clearly as I had hoped.  I pray that my readers will see through my poor wording to the point I was trying to make.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.