August 5th, 2012
I Chronicles 28
“Worship Integrity”
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD. -Jeremiah 9:23-24
Background Information:
- It is the Chronicler’s conviction that there are lessons to be learnt, and it is his task to interpret David to an age when there is no more David. His readers are still David’s people, and his object is to fill out for them the rich meaning of what may seem to be now no more than a tenuous connection. Therefore this point in the story is of special interest. David is about to leave the stage. Every reader knows that the reign of Solomon is to follow, and that the glories of war will be succeeded by the greater splendors of peace. But the fact remains that it will be a world without David. And in the crucial respect it will have lessons of prime importance for these people of a later age, whose cry is precisely that the Davidic stories have no relevance for them because they too live in a world without David. (J.A. Motyer, The Message of Chronicles, 108)
- Verse 5 ostensibly makes a simple point about how the Lord chose Solomon from among David’s numerous sons. This in itself is nothing remarkable. Had not David’s own career begun with his selection from among his brothers, though he was the unlikeliest-looking of the bunch (1 Sm 16:1-13)? Solomon’s selection had been rather different, however. Our statement in v. 5 at once hints at and draws a veil over the unsavory events catalogued in the so-called Succession Narrative (2 Sm 9-20, 1 Kgs 1-2), which suggest that in reality Solomon–himself the fruit of his father’s adulterous liaison with Bathsheba (2 Sm 11-12, especially 12:24)–acceded to the throne in the midst and as the result of court intrigue. Putting the election of Solomon in a line beginning with that of Judah reinforces the point, for the patriarch too was no moral paragon (Gn 38). (J.G. McConville, I & II Chronicles, 97)
- Solomon is God’s choice to be the next king and the builder of His temple. After that, no subsequent king of Israel or Judah will be referred to as chosen. (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quick Notes Vol. 4, 49)
- Compared to the account in 1 Kings, the Chronicler’s version of the transition between David and Solomon is extraordinarily different. Nowhere does he mention the frailty of David in his old age, the revolt by Adonijah, the desertion of Joab and others, the retribution of Solomon (as instructed by David), or any other negative aspect. The Chronicles account focuses on the Lord’s designated chain of succession without including the human struggling involved. (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quick Notes Vol. 4, 50)
- The text has probably been amplified to correspond to the insertions made in the preceding chapters. The assembly is addressed by KING DAVID. We may sense here that the Chronicler is countering the story of I Kings 1 by stressing that he ROSE TO HIS FEET. This is not the senile David of I Kings, unable to keep warm in old age and subject to the influence of intrigue on behalf of the son of Bathsheba. It is a David who in a ripe old age is still in full possession of his faculties, ready to hand over the task to his son and go to his death as a great king should (cf. 29:28). A similar transformation of Moses at his death may be seen by comparing Dt 31:2, where he is much weakened, with Dt 34:7, which emphasizes his continuing vigor. (Peter R. Ackroyd, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, 88-89)
- (vss. 11-19) The plan, as here developed, includes not simply the design of the buildings, but the ordering of priestly duties and the temple VESSELS, here given a particular weight as objects of gold and silver. This theme of the temple vessels is to recur, not only in the actual description of the building in 2 Chr4, but also in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple (2 Chr 36:18ff.) and with its restoration (Ezra 1 and again in chs.7-8). Such an emphasis is not to be seen simply in terms of the Chronicler’s obvious love of worship and of everything connected with it; it is to be seen as a theme which points to the continuity of worship from the moment of the planning of the temple right through to its contemporary use. What the worshipers of the Chronicler’s own time do is one with the worship of the temple’s founders. That the temple is built by a divinely granted plan (vv.11, 19) makes a link with the making of the tabernacle in Exodus (cf. Ex 25:9, 40), where such a plan (the same word is used) is shown to Moses by God. (Peter R. Ackroyd, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, 91-92)
- (v. 12) David was saying that not only were the temple plans revealed by God (v. 12), but that they were given to him in written form from God, to be handed to Solomon (v.11)–an ultimate testimony to their divine character. Such “blueprint or possible scale model” (North, “The Chronicler,” 1:413) goes beyond the verbal instruction and vision shown Moses for the tabernacle (Ex 25:40); 40:2). (Frank E. Gaebelin, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 4, 437)
- David explicitly attributed his instructions to God, but he also made it clear that God himself had not written the plans. David wrote them by the hand of God on him. This statement is one of the clearest expressions in the OT of the manner in which divine inspiration took place. It lies behind the NT conviction that ‘all Scripture is God-breathed’ (2 Tm 3:16). (Richard L. Pratt, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 194)
- David is not only the architect of the temple building and the designer of its appurtenances. He is the author of the temple liturgy, and the one responsible for establishing the structures of authority and personnel that ensure that liturgy’s performance and preservation. This statement, however, may be misleading. David’s plan is not credited to his own ingenuity. Rather, like Moses, David is said to pass on the pattern that was revealed to him. Intriguingly, the pattern is revealed to David as a written text: “All this, in writing at the LORD’S direction, he made clear to me–the plan of all the works” (28:19). (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation, First and Second Chronicles, 108)
- (v. 18) Since the Lord could poetically be said to ride on cherubim as on a chariot (Ps 18:10; Ezek 1), they are here designated simply “the chariot.” The Chronicler’s reference is probably not to the small golden cherubim that formed part of the ark’s holy cover, which had been made long before, but rather to those larger wooden but gold-plated cherub-angels of the inner temple, which were to “shelter the ark” as a whole (2 Chr 3:10-13). They emphasized the real presence of God in the temple. (Frank E. Gaebelin, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 4, 436)
- (V. 19) David’s mention of “writing from the hand of the LORD” (28:19 NLT) sometimes gives rise to speculation. Since David’s plans for the temple so closely parallel the plans Moses received for the tabernacle, it is interesting to note that some of the communication between Moses and the Lord was “written by the finger of God” (Ex 31:18 NLT). There is no clear evidence to surmise that the handwriting in David’s possession is God’s, but what is certain is that the content of David’s plans was received from the Lord and was written down for Solomon’s benefit (1 Chr 28:19). (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quick Notes Vol. 4, 51)
The question to be answered is . . . What is David trying to communicate to everyone as he prepares to die and leave the reigns of the kingdom to his son Solomon?
Answer: That if they would only get to know God as he knew God they would find all the necessary motivation, inspiration and justification to follow and remain devoted to God forever. Simply put: We sin, we worry, and we fail to enjoy life with all of its passion, purpose and significance because we don’t know God and therefore don’t know who we are as creatures created in His image.
The Word for the Day is . . . know
To know God means to know him as he truly is: a just God who “does not leave the guilty unpunished,” and yet a God who is above all merciful and compassionate, “forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex 34:6, 7). To know God is not merely to know of him, as a person might know and be aware of someone famous. The Hebrew word implies a knowing that is based on personal experience, a knowing that can only come about when there is a living relationship between the individual and his God. Luther once suggested that true religion lies in the pronouns. To know God in this biblical sense is not just to know that there is a God, a Savior, a Judge, a Helper–existing somewhere out there beyond the vast reaches of space. Rather it means we can say that he is my God, my Savior, my Judge, and my helper in every need. This kind of knowledge comes about when we consider what God has done for his people. (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 292-293)
The spirit of knowledge (ru[a]h daat), which was to be one endowment of the messianic descendant of Jesse (Isa 11:2), was closely allied with wisdom and understanding, a sense which daat has elsewhere (cf. Job 42:3; Ps 119:66). The verb yada described a process of learning by instruction (cf. Lv 5:1) or by observation (cf. Jgs 13:21), the recognition of an acquaintance (Gn 29:5), the character of instinctual knowledge (Job 28:7), and the experience of a specific situation such as bereavement (Isa 47:8) or grief in general (Isa 53:3). In a negative sense yada was employed in Pharaoh’s refusal to recognize the attainments of Joseph (Ex 1:8). A common and important usage of “know,’” “knowledge” was in a sexual context to describe coition (Gn 4:1; 1 Kgs 1:4), sometimes of an immoral nature (Gn 19:5). A wide variety of skills and professional abilities was expressed by the verb yada (cf. Gn 25:27; 1 Sm 16:16; 1 Kgs 9:27), as well as the idea of caring (or not caring) for someone because of knowing that person, whether referring to God (cf. Gn 18:19; 1 Sm 2:12; 2 Sm 7:20; Amos 3:2) or to a person (cf. Ps 79:6; Jer 4:22; Hos 5:4). (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 48)
What does David desire for his son, his subjects and for us to know about living a life of worship?:
I. Worship integrity begins with following God’s commands (1 Chr 28:8; see also: 1 Jn 2:3)
David’s speech repeatedly highlights obedience as a crucial element of the ongoing success of the kingdom. God will perpetuate Solomon’s kingdom as long as the young king remains faithful (28:7, 9). Yet the imperative of obedience extends to the entire nation. As long as the people maintain their strong relationship with the Lord, He will bless their lives in the land He has given them, and the land will be an inheritance to their descendants (28:8). (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quick Notes Vol. 4, 50)
As far as the earthly kingdom and earthly dynasty of David was concerned, the promises of God were conditional, just as the promise to adopt the people of Israel as his own had been conditional under the covenant that God made with them on Sinai (Ex 19:5). “If you obey,” said God, “then you will enjoy my favor.” Obedience brought great earthly blessings; disobedience brought God’s wrath and earthly disaster. This becomes a theme David will repeat in this exhortation, and a theme the Chronicler will develop in the second part of his book. “Be careful to follow all the commands of the LORD…then you may possess this good land” (v. 8). The fortunes of God’s people in the promised land would rise and fall depending on their loyalty to the true God and their faithful adherence to the law of Moses. (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 289-290)
The survival of Solomon’s kingdom depends upon faithfulness in following God’s word. Intriguingly, however, the verbs in 28:8 are plural: it is not Solomon but the leaders addressed in this speech who are commanded, with God and the entire assembly of Israel as witnesses, to “observe and search out all the commandments of the LORD your God; that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.” Quite probably, the Chronicler is addressing his own community here, and calling them to faithfulness. They knew all too well what faithlessness had ultimately cost Solomon’s descendants. (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation, First and Second Chronicles, 107)
David wanted all of God’s people to be faithful, not just Israel’s king. True, the king could have a great influence for good or ill upon the rest of the nation, as the book of 2 Chronicles makes clear. Bad leaders would lead them astray; good leaders would bring them into the green pastures of God. But the people could not look at their king as being solely responsible for their spiritual state. They, too, had a charge from God to “be careful to follow all the commands of the LORD” (verse 8). (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 290)
II. Worship integrity is completed with whole-hearted devotion to God (1 Chr 28:9; see also: Dt 4:29; 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 13:3; 26:16; 30:2, 6, 10; Josh 22:5; 1 Sm 12:20, 24; Prv 3:5-6; Jer 29:13; Mt 22:37; Mk 12:30-33; Lk 10:27-28)
Solomon’s success will depend on his wholehearted devotion to God, including his thoughts and motives. It appears, however, that later in life Solomon needs to verify this fact for himself. The book of Ecclesiastes, usually attributed to Solomon, describes the author’s search for fulfillment through building projects, books, studies, material possessions, pleasure seeking, and more. None of those pursuits bring the joy he desires. The author’s final conclusion is, “Fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 NASB). (Dr. Tremper Longman, Quick Notes Vol. 4, 50)
The reason for David’s insistence on sincere devotion was that God searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts (28:9). Divine omniscience served as a reason to obey out of proper motivations (compare Ps 139:1; 1 Sm 16:7; Jer 11:20). In the ancient Near East, kings often boasted of their temple buildings. Propagandistic inscriptions honored kings for these accomplishments. Solomon could easily have constructed a temple in Jerusalem for his own self-aggrandizement. David warned him, however, that God knew his motivations. (Richard L. Pratt, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 193)
David adds a reference to the omniscience of God. Every motive is under His scrutiny. Sometimes we hoodwink ourselves, and try to hoodwink God, that our service is wholehearted, when in reality it is obviously less than that. Of course, so complex is our psychological make-up and so pervasive is our fallen nature that lesser motives tag along with our noblest endeavors. The best one can do is never quite good enough. What God asks of us in this situation, I suggest, is that our main intent be Godward. At times we are too hard on ourselves, and God’s greater insight as the master psychologist can be a consolation, for He knows our frame (see 1 Jn 3:19, 20). More often perhaps we need to hear the message of God’s insight as a challenge. A dire example is the attempt of Ananias and Sapphira to deceive the church and God (Acts 5:1-11). (Leslie Allen, Mastering the Old Testament Volume 10, 181)
The comprehensiveness of our contentment is another measure whereby we may judge whether we really know God. (J. I. Packer; Knowing God, p. 27)
III. This kind of integrity springs from knowing God and as a result knowing ourselves as created in His image. We must earnestly and continually seek the Lord (1 Chr 28:9; see also: Jer 29:13; Mt 7:7)
We have then two glimpses into the heart of God in relation to men, revealing how much he has committed himself to their cause and well-being. It may be helpful to think once again of the early chapters of Genesis. When God made man in his image (Gn 1:26) it was not a case of making a replica of himself, but rather one who would have a relationship with him which would be in every way mutual. This means that, by virtue of the creation-commitment, God’s heart naturally goes out to man (seeking), and finds rest only when he finds rest. God’s activity in v. 9 is therefore the seeking of a responsive heart (which inevitably embraces the ideas of “searching” and understanding). The possibility of Solomon’s being “cast off for ever” is not, therefore, a meaningless or vindictive threat. It arises from the fact that the only right, or even conceivable, relationship on the part of the human party as well as on God’s side. The word translated “cast you off” means, more precisely, “reject you as abominable”. (The root-meaning of the word suggests something evil-smelling.) The translation “cast you off” misses the fact that something is being said about the object of the casting off, not just the subject. The one who does not seek God is unworthy, in the strongest possible sense, of God’s commitment to him, because he does not conform to God’s own ancient and enduring decree concerning what constitutes true humanity. (J.G. McConville, I & II Chronicles, 99-100)
Mankind is enjoined not to glory in wisdom, might, or riches, but in the privilege of knowing God (Jer 9:23f.). God was the supreme reality to believers of the OT era, even though at times they experienced difficulty in understanding the dispensations of His providence (Job 19:25f.). Occasionally the Almighty was pleased to reveal Himself by signs and wonders in order that those who did not belong to the covenant people might become cognizant of His power (Ex 7:17). He resorted to similar means to strike the conscience of His backslidden people, answering the plea of Elijah when the prophet prayed that fire would come down from heaven and consume the sacrifice he had prepared, thereby assuring Israel that the Lord, not Baal, was the living and true God (1 Kgs 18:36-39). God’s judgments on Israel were for the purpose of bringing the nation back to the realization that He alone is God (Ez 11:11). To know the Lord goes beyond a reaching out for Him with the mind. For example, it involves embracing His concern for the poor and needy (Jer 22:16). Just as the key to Israel’s decline was the refusal to retain God in its knowledge and in its acknowledgment (Jer 4:22), so the key to the nation’s renewal is its acknowledgment that the Lord is the nation’s God and that there is no other (Jl 2:27). (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 48)
The fall affected the entirety of human nature. Human beings no longer, as at creation, thought God’s thoughts after Him, willed to do the known will of God, or loved their Maker with their whole being. The fall, however, did not totally destroy the competence of human reason; although no universally shared system of truth and/or morality survived mankind’s rebellion to their Maker and were continually in revolt against light. The knowledge of God that continually penetrates the human mind and conscience even in sinful rebellion (Ps 19:1 [MT 2]; Rom 1:18ff.; 2:14f.) is attributed biblically to the universal revelation of God and to mankind’s divine creation in the image of God. (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 49)
CONCLUSION/APPLICATION: What does this message have to do with Christ, me and seeking worship integrity?:
A- This kind of obedience and devotion is not natural but supernatural. You must seek God and truly know Him for you to obtain this kind of supernatural commitment. (see: 2 Chr 15:2; Isa 55:6-10; Mt 7:7; Lk 11:9; Rom 1:18-25; 1 Cor 2:6-16; 13:12; Col 1:9)
When a person knows God in this way, he has the power to serve God “with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind” (verse 9). God has a right to expect the undivided loyalty of a believer’s heart. This is exactly what the believer wants to give to the God he now knows as his Savior. (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chr, 293)
The believer’s service is marked by a holy awe and a reverent heart. The God with whom we have to do is the God of all power, the God of all knowledge. He “searches the heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts” (v. 9). We can hide nothing from him: no godless impulse, no loveless thought. We do well, therefore, to walk in his presence “with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Yet there is something we possess that transforms the raw terror of the sinner into the reverent awe of a believer. It is the consoling knowledge that “If you seek him, he will be found by you” (v. 9). (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 294)
Apart from the knowing that comes from God’s revelation, there can be no knowledge of God. There is only a hopeless groping after something uncertain. The true God remains unknown (Acts 17:23). Anyone who tries to find him by pursuing his own thoughts will never succeed. Anyone who abandons God as he graciously reveals himself to us in Scripture can never hope to find him anywhere else. “If you forsake him, he will reject you forever” (v. 9). We hear David’s words resound again in the NT’s stern declaration, “Whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 294-295)
In a statement that could be regarded as the “golden text” of Chronicles, David assures his son, “If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will abandon you forever (28:9). The double edge of promise and threat in this text is, as we have often seen and will see again, the Chronicler’s theme. A Christian reader will doubtless be reminded of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Mt 7:7). However, the assurance of God’s presence to the sincere and earnest seeker is in Chronicles joined to a grim warning that faith, once laid aside, may not lightly be taken up again. In the NT, this warning is sounded in the terrifyingly harsh words of Heb 6:4-6: “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened…and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt” (see also Heb 10:26-31). Of course, these hard words are mollified by other texts, in both testaments, which give assurance of God’s forgiveness. But it would be a mistake to gloss over the harsh tones of wrath and finality, either in Chronicles or in Hebrews. For the Chronicler, as for the preacher of Hebrews, faith is no casual matter! The believer is called to commitment, in absolute terms. (Steven S. Tuell, Interpretation, First and Second Chronicles, 107-08)
To forsake is to do the opposite of ‘seeking’. To forsake God was to violate the covenant by finding help in someone other than the Lord . . . . David warned Solomon that failure to serve with sincerity can lead to divine wrath. It was even possible that God would reject [him] forever (28:9). (Richard L. Pratt, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 193)
Christian knowledge, despite its reality and richness, is limited in its scope during one’s earthly life. Perfection in this area belongs to the age to come (1 Cor 13:9f.). (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 49)
The Bible teaches that truth has its ontological ground in God Himself (Ps 31:5 [MT 6]; Isa 65:16; cf. Jn 14:6). All human knowledge is dependent upon God, who is the source and stipulator of truth. Divine revelation is identified as the truth of God, and the gospel especially is characterized as revealed in truth. Apart from divine revelation all merely human affirmations about God and His purposes reduce to conjecture. Legitimate and authoritative pronouncements about God therefore presuppose God who makes Himself known. (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 49)
Since God is the source and stipulator of truth, all human knowledge is dependent upon Him. Divine revelation is the source of truth and the human mind a created instrument for recognizing it. Human knowledge of the cosmos, as well as other selves, rests on the ontological significance of reason. The Creator has fashioned a Logos-ordered and nomos-structured universe, one meshed to the categories of understanding implanted in mankind at creation. (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 49)
In sharp contrast to the Greek view of prophecy, that mankind is endowed with a divine spark that one may fan into flame, the biblical view regards all truth as mediated by the Logos of God. Even Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, for all his reception of special divine revelation, emphasized that “now we know in part” and that only in the future eschatological age will we “see face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). Yet divine revelation vouchsafes a knowledge to which human beings cannot otherwise attain, knowledge of God and of His will. This is given universally in general revelation (Rom 1:20, 32; 2:15) and in the special redemptive disclosure conveyed to and through the Judeo-Christian prophets and apostles. The Pauline characterization of Gentiles as those who do not know God (Gal 4:8) speaks of their culpable ignorance of Him; even the demons, as James says, “believe and tremble” (Jas 2:19). (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume Three, 50)
B- Never forget all is a result of God’s grace. And God desires for you to intimately know Him. (see also: Jer 31:31-34; 1 Cor 15:10)
. . . Knowing God is a matter of grace. It is a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God—as it must be, since God is so completely above us and we have so completely forfeited all claim on His favor by our sins. We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us. Paul expresses this thought of the priority of grace in our knowledge of God when he writes to the Galatians, ‘now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God . .(Gal 4:9). (J. I. Packer; Knowing God, 36)
Really knowing God only comes through experience as He reveals Himself to you. (Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King; Experiencing God, 5)
David’s confidence in the power of God’s pardoning love was such that he could urge his son Solomon to imitate his life of faith. (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 290)
What did the Chronicler intend to say to his original audience with this account? Though David’s earthly throne was gone, God’s promise to David remained. Though the first temple had been destroyed, a second temple had been built in its place. The Chronicler wanted David’s words to ring down through the centuries and touch his people’s hearts, “Be faithful to your faithful God. Obey him and keep his commandments. Imitate David, the righteous king. Live in God’s grace as he did. God will not let his promise of a Savior fail. He will send you another Son of David to be your King forever. He will restore the glory of God’s house.” Similarly the holy writer urges use who live in these evil last days, “Do not falter in your faith. Hold fast to the promise of the King’s appearing. Pursue righteousness. Walk in his love!” (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 291)
For God’s people of all ages, the periscope points to that basic tension between God’s free grace–amply illustrated here in the form for the induction into office with its “I am with you” and the use of the election concept–and the necessity for human response and obedience seen in the call for obedience to the law and the concept of retribution in general. This is in fact the same tension that exists throughout the OT between those covenants that are unconditional in their formulation, such as those with Abraham and David, and those that are conditional, such as that at Sinai. But, as Paul will argue later, God’s grace–represented in his covenant with Abraham–always comes first, and that grace alone is determinative for salvation. The human response must, however, follow out of loving response to God’s grace (Gal 3:1-14; Eph 2:8-10). (Roddy Braun, World Biblical Commentary, 1 Chronicles, 276)
C- You simply cannot know God except through Jesus. (see also: Jn 8:12-32; 14:1-6; 1 Jn 5:20)
Anyone who sees Jesus is looking into the heart of God (Jn 14:9). Looking at Jesus, we know that God’s heart is a boundless ocean of love for us. This knowledge sets us free from our guilty fears and gives us eternal life (Jn 17:3). (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 294)
David’s statement that God “chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever” must refer, not to him personally, but to his “family,” i.e., his dynasty (cf. vv.5,7), which would culminate in Jesus Christ, who would reign forever (17:14). (Frank E. Gaebelin, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 4, 435)
Worship point: If we only really knew God . . . we would not need to be concerned about our worship. When you know God you can do no other but to worship God.
Spiritual Challenge: Seek the Lord with all your heart. Endeavor to know the Lord better and more intimately than you know anything in the universe.
Quotes to Note:
The emphasis on Solomon as the “chosen…son” among David’s children leads naturally to the understanding that God’s kingdom and David’s kingdom are inseparably linked. In one sense, God “adopts” Solomon as his own son (28:6), and the Davidic throne is also the “throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel” (28:5). Hints of this relationship between God and the Israelite king are already embedded in Nathan’s oracle establishing Davidic kingship (17:14). As Selman has observed, with the disappearance of the Davidic monarchy, the temple remains “the chief symbol of the continuing reality of the kingdom of the Lord” for the Chronicler and his audience–hence his emphasis on the personnel and the worship rituals associated with that institution. Perhaps most important as David “passes the baton” to his son Solomon, he exhorts Israel to look to God for their hope and help–not to himself or even his dynasty (28:8). (Andrew E. Hill, The NIV Application Commentary, 1 & 2 Chronicles, 324)
It remains simply to notice that the idea of God’s commitment to humanity in creation comes to its ultimate expression in the Incarnation. There is a sense in which the Incarnation is not a new intensity of commitment to humanity on God’s part. The radical nature of that commitment was implied in the act of creation itself. It is because creation is for relationship that it brings in its train such possibilities, on the one hand, for enjoying God, and on the other–by the refusal to respond to him–for causing him offence. (J.G. McConville, I & II Chronicles, 100)
The fact that we find in the Chronicler such clear evidence of an understanding of the royal throne being in effect the divine throne suggests both a certain idealizing of kingship in a period when kingship no longer existed, but also a clear recognition that the rule of the king is the rule of God. For the Chronicler, with his attempt at clarifying the position of the people of God, such an affirmation is important as suggesting that the embodiment of the ideals of Davidic kingship in an age when kingship cannot be a political reality is to be seen in the acceptance of the reality of divine rule, in a theocratic ideal. (Peter R. Ackroyd, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, 90)
But before we jump to conclusions as to the spiritual lesson of the detailed nature of God’s plan, it is worth noting two further facts. One is that Solomon, though a man of brilliance and flair, at no point in this narrative seems to find it irksome to fit in with someone else’s plan. The building became known as ‘Solomon’s temple’, and he clearly left on it the imprint of his own imagination; so either the plan handed down to him accorded exactly with what he himself wanted to do anyway, or else the details laid down left him sufficient freedom to express the exuberant mind which the older history attributes to him (1 Kgs 4:29-34). The other fact to note is that the later temple, the one built after the exile and known to the Chronicler and his readers, actually differed in many details from Solomon’s. Yet the Chronicler, though he dwells at length on the earlier construction, nowhere seems to be hinting that the later one ought to have been built (or ought now to be rebuilt) according to the original specification. (J.A. Motyer, The Message of Chronicles, 110-11)
We need the reminder that detail does matter to him; indeed, that in NT terms the very hairs of our head are numbered. He who is concerned with the grand over scheme is concerned equally with all that goes to make it up. On the other hand, it can be spiritually unhealthy to imagine that in every single circumstance of life there is just one choice which is right and all others are wrong. There must be many of God’s servants who are haunted by the fear that at some point they may, perhaps unwittingly, have got some crucial detail wrong, and been relegated from then onwards to God’s ‘second-best’ will. A biblical view of the process of Christian maturing would seem on the contrary to allow for areas in which particular choices are genuinely left to the ‘temple-builder’, who thus (again in NT terms) has his ‘faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil’. (J.A. Motyer, The Message of Chronicles, 111)
In describing David’s plans for building the temple, Chronicles has paid special attention to portray David as a second Moses and Solomon as a second Joshua. In “Accession of Solomon,” Williamson shows in detail how that was done. So does Dillard in “Chronicler’s Solomon.” Their arguments go as follows. In spite of many achievements by both Moses and David, neither one finished the task. Moses did not lead the people into the Promised Land, nor did David build the temple. Furthermore in both cases it was God who prohibited them from completing the work. Since the task fell on their successors, Chronicles depicts Solomon as a second Joshua by noting several resemblances between the two: (1) both were chosen privately and declared the support of all the people; (2) both received the support of the people without resistance or opposition; (3) both were magnified by God; (4) both led God’s people into “rest.” Aside from these similarities, the languaged used in describing these events is striking: (5) both were told, “Be strong and courageous” (Dt 31:6; 1 Chr 22:13); “The LORD your God goes with you” (Dt 31:6, 8, 23; Josh 1:5, 9; 1 Chr 22:11, 16); and “He will never leave you nor forsake you” (Dt 31:6, 8; Josh 1:5; 1 Chr 28:20). These similarities show Joshua and Solomon as the ones chosen by God to finish the great work of their predecessors. (SBM) (Frank E. Gaebelin, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 4, 435)
The Chronicler notes that the aged king rose to his feet (verse 2) to speak to the congregation. He prefaced his remarks by reminding all how God’s will had overruled his heart’s desire, and yet how God’s grace had proceeded to give him more than his heart could have imagined: “I had wanted to build a house for the ark; God instead built an eternal house for me, and chose my son Solomon to be his own and to build his house.” These words were the mature reflections of a man who looked back at his life and saw it whole as a revelation of God’s love–not only for himself, but for all who ever hoped for God to deliver them from sin. (Paul O. Wendland, The People’s Bible, 1 Chronicles, 289)
Yet in a deeper sense what David acknowledged was not his own kingship but “the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.” He, and all of earth’s rulers, are but vice-regents, deputies who act as representatives of God to uphold his standards (29:23; 1 Sm 12:14; Rom 13:1-6). (Frank E. Gaebelin, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 4, 436)
Solomon did build God’s “house” (v.6; 2 Chr 5:1); but as far as being “established” (v. 7), or being “chosen to be” God’s “son” (v. 6) are concerned, v. 7 states an explicit condition: “if he is unswerving in carrying out my laws”–which Solomon was not (1 Kgs 11:1-11). Moreover between God’s words “Solomon…will build my house” and “I have chosen him to be my son,” the full prophecy, through Nathan, had originally included an intervening statement that shifted the point of reference beyond Solomon to the more distant future, i.e., “and I will establish his throne forever” (17:12). That is, the fulfillment of true sonship to God the “Father” was not achieved by Solomon; it was “an ideal that actualized only in Christ” (Payne, Prophecy, 226). (Frank E. Gaebelin, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 4, 436)
Why is Solomon to reign? Not because he is his father’s favorite, but because God has providentially so ordained. Contrast this idyllic pronouncement with the horrible facts in I Kgs 1:1-2:46 (unmentioned by the Chronicler) concerning the palace intrigues, the murderous violence, through which Solomon secured to himself the throne. Here we are made conscious only of David’s profound faith in God and serene trust in a loyal and united people. (George Arthur Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible Volume III, 435)
Christ:
to know him is to be devoted to him
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