Category: 历代志上

David’s Praise to God for the Establishment of Worship at Tabernacle in Jerusalem

v8-22: This section is exactly the same as Psalm 105:1-15

v23-30: This section is exactly the same as Psalm 96:1-9

v43: [all the people left, each for his own home, and David returned home to bless his family]. After the congregational worship of God, everybody returned to their home. David returned home to bless his family. Often time, we are so busy with serving the Lord at church, when we returned home, we are already tired and just wanted to rest or be alone to do our own thing and ignore our love ones. But we are reminded by the scripture that when we are at home, we entered into another ministry, the ministry to our spouse and children. Our present at home should be a blessing to our family. Be careful not to fall into the mistake of ignoring the needs of our immediate family. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? (1 Tim 3:4-5).

Carrying The Ark into Jerusalem

v2: [the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD…]  The Ark represents the testimony and the presence of God. The Ark leads the Jews in the wilderness of Sanai, into the promised land, into victory against the City of Jericho. In today’s church, God is calling and waiting for believers who are willing to carry the ark, to be His testimony, to bring the presence of God among His people, are you willing to carry the ark?

v12: The is two requirements before anyone can carry the ark, first the person needs to be a priest, second he needs to consecrate himself. In today’s church, to carry the ark, there is two requirements, first the person needs to be a believers of Jesus Christ. All believers are priests in the NT (1 Peter (2:5, 9). Second, the person needs to consecrate himself. It means to make himself clean. How do we make ourselves clean? We are cleansed by the blood of the lamb, by the blood of our Savior Jesus. We however need to stay clean, by living a holy life, away from sins, and do not conform to the patterns of world (Rom 12:2).

v13: [..We did not inquire of Him..]. David made a mistake, he admitted his mistake, learned from the experience but did not give up. And then he try to bring the ark into Jerusalem again, this time according to the way of the Lord. No matter how spiritual we are,  we would eventually make mistake in our life. the important thing is to learn from the mistake, confess our weakness or sins before the Lord, and no to repeat it again. Do not let mistakes prevent us from carry the ark of the Lord.

v16: […singers to sing joyful songs..]. Carry the ark seems like a huge burden, but in David’s time the levites were singing with joys. The atmosphere was a joyful one. Do you have joy when carrying the testimony of the Lord? If not, that is something wrong, and you need to come to the Lord before you continue to carry the ark.

v17: […Asaph..] He wrote several psalms.

v22: […Kenaniah …was in charge of the singing…because he was skillful at it..]. God gives different spiritual gifts to His people according to His will. Our job is to learn what our gift is and to use it to the fulless potential the way God has designed and intended in our life.

v26: […God had helped the Levites who were carrying the ark..]. Sometimes we may be weary when carrying the testimony of the Lord, but remember, God is with us, when we are faithful to His calling in our life, He will help us to carry the ark, to fulfill the calling. We need to learn to trust in Him.

v29: [..she despised him in her heart]. Sometimes when we carry the testimony of Jesus in our life, others would laugh at us. Do not let the enemies distract us from carrying the testimony of the Lord. Remember you are not carrying the testimony alone, many brothers and sisters are carrying the same testimony with you. For the ark was carried by more than one priest.

This chapter is a copy of the original records in 2 Samuel 5:11-25.

According to 2 Samuel, the events in chapter 14 (2  Sam 5) happened before the events in chapter 13 (2 Sam 6).

David Had Many Wives in Jerusalem

v2: [David knew that the LORD…] David understand he did not become King of the whole Israel by his own ability, but was established by God.

v3: [In Jerusalem David took more wives…] Deut 17:17 forbids King to take many wives. Although God did not prevent David from having many wives, it does not mean God approved polygamy. David had to face serious consequences as a result of his action, see 2 Sam 13.

God Helped David to Defeat the Philistines

v8: [they went up in full force to search for him…]. Once the Philistines found out David had been anointed as the king over all Israel, they wanted to kill David because David is now a treat to the Philistines.

v10: [..David inquired of God..] and v14 […David inquired of God again…]. These records show that David is a man after God’s heart. He depended on God for power and desired to do the will of God. As a result, God has gone out before him (v15) to strike the Philistine.

If we desire to defeat the enemy, if we desire God to go out before us in our spiritual battle, we need to learn to come before God to seek His will and ask for His wisdom and power.

Ark of The Testimony (chapter 13-16)

The Ark is the center theme from chapter 13 to 16.

In the days of Eli the ark was in the Tabernacle at Shiloh (1 Sam 3:3). Eli’s sons took it into battle against the Philistines who captured it. For this reason, it was said, “The glory has departed from Israel” (1 Sam 4:22). The Ark stayed with the Philistines for seven months (1 Sam 6:1), where ever the Ark was, it brought tumors to the Philistines and many died. (1 Sam 5:6,9,11).

The Philistine returned the Ark back to the Jews, the Ark stayed in Kiriath Jearim, in the house of Abinadad and his son Eleazar ( 1 Sam 7:2) until David came to take the Ark to Jerusalem.

When the priests brought the ark into the inner sanctuary of the temple, only the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb (1 Kings 8:9).

Hebrews 9:4 tells us that at one point, the ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

The Ark represents the presence of God. Rom 3:25 tells us the Lord Jesus is the mercy seat that covers the top of the ark. The ark was a foreshadow of the Lord Jesus. Whenever Jesus is present, God is present. Today God is present in men by the presence of His Son.

However not many people desire the presence of the Lord. Praise God that King David was thinking about the ark. He desired the presence of the Lord.

However David made a mistake by taking the easy way to carry the ark, by using a cart. It was the way of the Philistines (1 Sam 6:7,10). The command of God is that the ark needed to be carried by the priests.

It pleases God when we desire His present, however we need to be careful not to follow the way of the world (Philistines) to bring the presence of God into men. The ark must be carried exactly the way God commanded the Jews. In the same way, the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Church must be carried out by the way of God. All believers of Jesus Christ are priests, we are holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5). Holy means separated from the world and dedicated to God. Thus God is looking for holy priests to carry the ark of the testimony in the church today. These are the people who have the responsibility to carry the ark of the testimony, to bring the presence of the Lord Jesus among God’s people. Are you willing to be the holy priest to carry the ark?

The Fall of Saul

V1-12 is a exact copy of the last chapter of 1 Samuel, chapter 31.

v13-14 are unique to 1 Chronicles, these two verses are not in 1 Samuel. It provides us a clear reason of the fall of Saul: because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD.

It was God will put Saul to death. God was not cruel, He has given Saul 40 years of opportunity as King of Israel, however Saul did not show any sign of repentance of his unfaithfulness to God.

Faithfulness is what is the Lord Jesus seeking in His church (Matt 25), are you faithful to the calling of the Lord in your life?

Chapter 1 to 9 consists of the genealogies of Israel from Adam to the post exile period. The immediate purpose of these genealogies seems to be the resettling of the land in accordance with public records. Those who had returned from the Babylonian captivity were entitled to the lands formerly held by their own families. In the OT land had been apportioned to families and could not be sold in perpetuity out of the family (Lev 25).

In the same way, the priesthood was hereditary. A priest was to be succeeded by his son.

All scriptures are profitable, but not all scriptures are at the same profitability. These genealogies are useful for us to understand the genealogies on OT characters. For example we found that Moses is the great grandson of Levi (6:3), Absalom is the 3rd son of David (3:2), and all the kings of Judah is listed in one page (3:10-16). These genealogies however need not be read for devotional purposes as often as some other part of scriptures.

v1: [The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.] The writer reminds the Jews who have returned from Babylon that it was the unfaithfulness of their forefather that cause them to be exile by the Babylonian. This implies a calling to a faithful life in obedience to Yahweh. Later in chapter 10, the writer reminds the Jews regarding the unfaithfulness of Saul, which caused God to put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David. Have you been faithful to the calling the Lord has on your life?

v20: As the grandson of Aaron, Phinehas was in charged of the gatekeepers, and the LORD was with him. It is one thing to be in a leadership position in a church, it is another thing that the LORD was with the person. When we are put in a leadership position, let’s pray that the LORD be with us, else our service would have no power, and no value in the eyes of the LORD.

v28-34: [Some of them were in charge of…Others were assigned… But some of the priests took care of..] What a beautiful picture of God’s people faithfully serving the Lord in His temple together, each exercising his own gift and were faithful in the task entrusted to them. In the church, all members should exercise their spiritual gifts to serve God by serving each other.

Author

1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles were originally one book. Together with Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra was the most commonly assumed author of these books by Jewish tradition. One of the reasons why we think Ezra is the writer is because the end of 2 Chronicles (36:23) is exactly the same as the beginning of Ezra (1:2).

Ezra used at lease 12 sources to gather the history of Israel is the kingdom period and compiled into one book.

Same examples of where original sources are:

1. Concerning the genealogies: The genealogies recorded in the book of the kings of Israel (1 Chro 9:1)
2. Concerning King David: The records of Samuel, the records of Nathan and the records of God (1 Chro 29:29)
3. Concerning King Soloman: The records of Nathan, the prophecy of Ahijah, the visions of Iddo (2 Chro 9:29)

Title

The original title in the Hebrew Bible read ‘The annals (events) of the days. The english title Chronicles originated with Jerome’s Latin Vulgate Translation (400AD), which used the fuller title “The Chronicles of the Entire Sacred History.”

The Importance of 1 Chronicles

1. All scriptures are profitable (2 Tim 3:16), thought not alike profitable
2. Although at casual reading, it appears that much of the contents of 1st and 2nd Chronicles are mentioned in some other books in the bible, especially 1 and 2 Samuel. But if we look closer, some information can only be found on these books, some says over 55 percent of content is the Chronicles are unique.
3. Repetition is not necessary redundant, it can be the same information presented in different angles. Paul said: “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.” (Phi 3:1). Paul had no problem repeating some of his teachings in his epistles. A lot of the history of Jesus in Mark and Luke were already mentioned in Matthew, albeit they reveal more information.
4. The genealogy of Jews was extremely important for the Jews in exile when they returned back to Israel. It was used to determine whether a person is from the tribe of Levi, which allows him to serve in the temple.

The Purpose of Chronicles

There were three returns from Babylon to Israel:

1. Zerubbabel in Ezra 1-6 (538 BC)
2. Ezra in Ezra 7-10 (458 BC)
3. Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1-13 (445 BC)

The original intended readers of the Chronicles was for the Jews who had returned from Babylon to the promised land. Although they had returned, but the land has lost its previous glory for the following reasons:

1. there was no Hebrew King, but rather a Persian governor (Ezra 5:3)
2. there was no security for Jerusalem, so Nehemiah had to rebuild the wall (Neh 1-7)
3. there was no temple, so Zerubbabel had to reconstruct a pitiful semblance of the Solomonic temple’s former glory (Ezra 3)
4. the Jews no longer dominated the region, but rather were on the defensive (Ezra 4; Neh 4)
5. they enjoyed few divine blessings beyond the fact of their return
6. God’s divine present no longer resided in Jerusalem, having departed (Ezek 8-11)

The purpose of this book is to remind the Jews of God’s promises and intentions about:

1. the land
2. the nation
3. the Davidic king
4. the Levitical priests
5. the temple
6. true worship

All of this was to remind them of their spiritual heritage during the difficult times they faced, and to encourage them to be faithful to God.

The emphasis of the history books:

1. 1 Samuel: King Saul – The Kingdom according to the will of man
2. 2 Samuel: King David – The Kingdom according to the will of God
3. 1 Kings: Starts with King Solomon, ends with King Ahaziah of the Northern Kingdom
4. 2 Kings: Starts with King Ahaziah of the Northern Kingdom, ends with the fall of Jerusalem and the exile into Babylon

There are many similarities between Samuels, Kings and Chronicles.

In broad outline,

1 and 2 Samuel = 1 Chronicles

1 and 2 Kings = 2 Chronicles

The main differences are that:

1. 1 Chronicles begins with a lengthy genealogy beginning with Adam but omits the stories of Samuel and Saul (except for Saul’s suicide).
2. 2 Chronicles omits entirely the history of the northern kingdom

However Samuel was written by Prophets Samuel (also a Judge and a Priest), Nathan and Gad, thus the emphasis of Samuel is on the authority of God.

Chronicles was written by Ezra, a priest. Thus Chronicles’s emphasis is on worship of God.

Jerusalem (11:4-9)

Jerusalem is an important topic in 1 Chronicles.

God has revealed to the Israelites through Moses on how to worship Him in the tabernacle while in the wilderness. They did not have a permanent place of worship while they were in the wilderness. Where ever they go, they would move the tabernacle with them and worship in the tabernacle.

However before they enter Canaan, God told them in Deut 12 to “seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put His Name there for His dwelling.” (Deut 12:5)

God however did not reveal which was His chosen place to anyone, because no one was thinking about God’s dwelling place, until King David came. The bible did not mention how did King David find out that Jerusalem was God chose dwelling place, however the bible did tell us David was the King who conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusite . He brought the ark of testimony to Jerusalem (chapter 15) and made Jerusalem the dwelling place of God.

The following Psalms tell us how important Jerusalem is to the Jews and to God.

[Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together.That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel.There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David.Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure.] (Ps 122:2-6)

[If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill].May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy] (Ps 137:5-6)

Church

Jerusalem represents the present of God. When the Jews worship idols for generations and didn’t repent, God raised up the Babylonians to conquer the Jews and destroyed Jerusalem. The present of God is not longer in the city.

Although Israel failed, our Lord Jesus succeed. The Lord was crucified on the crossed and the Church of God was born. The church of God is where the present of God is today. It is the real Mt. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God (Heb 12:22-23).

The purpose of the Church of God is to be the testimony of God to the gentiles world. Just like the purpose of Jerusalem was to be the testimony of God to gentiles nations.