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

Initially, when King David proposed building a Temple for God in Jerusalem, the prophet Nathan approved the idea.  However, that night God came to him and revealed that David should not be the one to build the Temple.  Instead, God tells Nathan to tell David that one of his offspring will be the one to build the Temple for God.  Now, the simple view of Nathan’s prophecy holds that King Solomon fulfilled it when he built the Temple.  However, the prophecy also says that his throne would be established forever and that God would set him over His kingdom forever.  Considering that Solomon died and was buried, remaining in his grave, I would argue that Solomon was not the fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy, or, not the complete fulfillment of it.  Instead, Nathan was prophesying the coming of the Messiah, who I believe to be Jesus Christ.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 10-12.

A couple of things which become clear from this passage which are otherwise somewhat murky.  Here it explains how Joab became commander of the army for David.  Elsewhere we see various lists of David’s mighty men and, aside from being commander of the army, Joab does not otherwise rank particularly high among them.  Even his brother Abishai comes out in those lists as a more major figure.  However, here we learn that Joab became commander of the army for David by leading the attack to conquer Jerusalem.  Further, Joab played a major role in building Jerusalem as the capital of Israel (here it says that David built up part of the city and Joab restored the rest).  Another thing we learn here, although there is some reference to it elsewhere, is that while David was on the run from King Saul warriors from many different tribes defected from Saul’s army and joined David.  Perhaps the most significant of these were the warriors of the tribe of Benjamin, which was Saul’s tribe.  These defections show us that David developed a following among all of the tribes, even while Saul was still king.  They became the basis for David becoming king over all of Israel.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 7-9.

The genealogies continue today and once again I noticed a couple of things only because I had to find something to write about this passage.

Note: I am not saying that these things are only worth noticing because I need something to write, only that I would not have noticed them if I did not need something to write.

First, the passage mentions that two of Ephraim’s sons were killed when they raided livestock from Gath.  One might easily pass that by, after all Gath is more or less part of the Land of Canaan and most of Jacob’s sons and grandsons grew up near there.  However, Ephraim was born in Egypt and never lived in Canaan.  This is not an important thing, but it tells us that the Israelites raided into Canaan after Jacob’s family moved to Egypt.  Second, I noticed that the writer tells us that complete genealogies were kept in the records of the kings of Israel and Judah.   Or, at least, that is how I read chapter 9 verse 1.  At some point I may look into whether Hebrew scholars agree with my understanding of what is written here.  The other thing I noticed was that after listing genealogies for all of the tribes, the writer writes about those who first resettled in the land after the Exile.  This tells us that the Books of Chronicles were compiled after the Israelites returned from Exile.  I know some people who conclude from this that ALL of the Old Testament was compiled after the Exile.  However, that does not follow and we have portions of the Torah from before the Exile.  The fragile nature of paper and parchment makes it somewhat surprising we have even that.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 5-6.

And today we have another passage of genealogies.  The writer makes a point that Reuben lost his rights of first born because he slept with one of Jacob’s wives.  Interestingly, the writer thought it important to point out that even though Judah was the strongest of Reuben’s brothers and that the ruler came from the tribe of Judah, it was Joseph who received the rights of first born after Reuben lost them.  Was this included to explain how the Kingdom of Israel divided?  Or, does it serve some other purpose?  I find it interesting that the writer listed the places to which the Assyrians exiled the tribes who had lived east of the Jordan River.  After writing about the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, the writer goes on to outline the genealogy of the tribe of Levi.  The writer goes on to write about those who King David assigned musical duties around the Ark of the Covenant after he brought it to Jerusalem.  All of these genealogies had great significance to those who returned to Jerusalem and the land of Israel after the Exile.

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

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

I have written time and again that I get little out of the genealogies in the Bible, nevertheless I believe they have value and seek to find it each time I come to them.  Today, reading this passage I received confirmation of something that had gradually been rising in my awareness.  The family of Jesse, King David’s father, was prominent in the tribe of Judah, and thus in all of Israel, before David rose to prominence.  Jesse was descended from Boaz, who was descended from Nahshon.  Nahshon was the leader of the tribe of Judah during the Exodus.  That fact is not terribly important, but it does help us understand why King David’s nephews (Joab, Amasa, and a few others) kept cropping up in the accounts of his reign as people he had to negotiate with rather than just command.  Again this demonstrates the value of reading and re-reading the Bible, even the “boring parts”.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 34-36.

When we look at King Josiah, we tend to focus on the discovery of the Book of the Law and his reaction to it.  We tend to over look that most of his reforms happened BEFORE the Book of the Law was discovered in the Temple.  At age 16, Josiah began to seek God.  This probably corresponded to the time when his regents began to let him begin to exercise some authority as king.  At age 20, he began to purge the kingdom of idols and places of idol worship, not just breaking down the places of idol worship, but desecrating them.  This probably corresponded to the time when he came into his full authority as king.  When he finished in Judah, he continued cleansing the land of idols and places of idol worship into the territory of the Northern Kingdom.  It was only after he had cleansed the land of idol worship that he ordered the repair of the Temple, during which the Book of the Law was found.  Until today I had never really thought about how when Josiah sought God, one thing just followed after another for good.  The same thing will happen for us.  If we seek God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds, God will reveal the next step we should take in order to further His will for us. Don’t worry about what you do not know of God’s will, just do what you know.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 31-33.

Mannasseh, Hezekiah’s son, represents a counter lesson to those kings who did good in the eyes of the Lord, but did evil in their later years.  Mannasseh did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but after being taken prisoner by the Assyrians, he turned to God.  After his conversion he removed the idols and the altars to other gods which he had installed and worshiped only God for the remainder of his life (the passage does not tell us how long that was).  The writer makes it clear that the evil Mannasseh did was extreme.  That he actively undid much of the good which his father had done and paid a price for it.  Yet, when he cried out to God in distress, God heard him and rescued him from his suffering.  So, we learn that even those who are desperately evil can turn to God and receive forgiveness.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 29-30.

When we think of King Hezekiah we generally think of the Assyrian threats against Jerusalem during his reign, but today’s passage sets the stage for that event.  Hezekiah ordered the consecration and reopening of the Temple as his first act as king.  In doing this Hezekiah had the full support of the priests and Levites.  Less than two months after Hezekiah took the throne after his father’s death, the Temple was ready once again for sacrifices, offerings, and worship of the Lord.  The part I like the most out of this is the special Passover celebration which Hezekiah promoted.  Since there was not enough time from beginning to cleanse the Temple and the normal date for the Passover for enough priests to be consecrated, someone among the initial assembly suggested that they hold it a month later than usual (the inspiration for this would have come from the instructions given to those who were unclean through no fault of their own at the time of the second Passover).

All of Israel was to be invited, not just those living in the Kingdom of Judah.  So, Hezekiah sent messengers throughout both Judah and the Northern Kingdom.  Those messengers sent to the Northern Kingdom were met with scorn and ridicule.  Yet even so, a number of people from the Northern Kingdom chose to come to this Passover celebration in order to resume worshiping God.  This whole episode tells us a lot about how we should worship God.  The people of Judah sought to celebrate the worship of God with all of those to whom His promise had been given.  Those from the Northern Kingdom were willing to be ridiculed in order to worship God.  On whichever side of such a divide we find ourselves, let us emulate the people of Hezekiah’s time.  If we are within the group celebrating the worship of God, let us invite those outside who wish to worship Him to join us.  If we are among those who ridicule the worship of God, let us stand up to worship God and be ridiculed.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 26-28.

Uzziah and his son Jotham had great success as kings of Judah because they did what was right in God’s eyes.  However, Uzziah’s pride led him to attempt to usurp the authority of the priests.  The passage is pretty straight forward, but it seems to me that there was a little more going on than stated.  It seems to me that the incident with Uzziah attempting to burn incense before God was not the first time he rejected counsel to not do that which he desired to do.  However, his son Jotham reigned as a good king. As a result of their faithfulness, Judah was strong under both of these kings.  Unfortunately, Jotham’s son, Ahaz, did not follow in his father’s footsteps.  Instead, he followed the example of the kings of Israel (the Northern Kingdom).  In fact, he went so far as to sacrifice his own children to the idols he worshiped.  This led to Judah becoming weak and suffering at the hands of other nations.  Ahaz did not learn from his defeats and turn to God, rather he committed even greater idolatry.

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