A good principle of Bible study is to correlate passages. Here’s what I mean:

1 Chronicles 16:7-22   === Psalm 105:1-15

1 Chronicles 16:23-33 === Psalm 96:1-13

1 Chronicles 16:34-36 === Psalm 106:1,47,48

David has quite the song of thanksgiving in chapter 16, as seen above. He also has quite the prayer in chapter 17. From these two chapters, it’s easy to see why God calls him a man after his own heart. He’s grateful, and he’s humble, even after all his military victories and years of leadership.

I must say I love 17:16. “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” I ask that same question…quite often. It blows me away when I sit before the Lord and reflect on my life, just how far He’s brought me, just how much He’s blessed me. And He doesn’t have to. That’s the crazy part. He is not a debtor to me in any way. But I am totally indebted to Him. Yet, He blesses.

I guess I’ll close with this. I hope when my life is said and done, that people will say of me what they said of David: “The Lord gave victory to David/Omer wherever he went.”

These three chapters revolve around one thing, the return of the ark of God to Jerusalem.

The backstory goes like this: The Philistines and Israelites had been fighting. The Philistines were winning, wiping out about 4,000 men in one particular battle. So, the Israelites go back to base, regroup, and in their own wisdom, decide they need the ark of the covenant. That will surely bring victory. So, the ark is delivered to them at their base camp, and they go into battle again. This time, they suffer even greater casualities, such that 30,000 Israelites were killed in battle. The ark was captured and taken into Philistine territory.  Around that time, people started saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” “There’s no glory,” “Where’s God?”

The Philistines have some trouble with the ark being in their territory. Instead of bringing blessing, it brings curses, in the form of tumors. So, seven months later, they send the ark away from their territory, back to Israel. The place where it returns is called Beth-shemesh. When it arrives, some men look upon the ark and are struck dead. This causes more grieving, and they start asking, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?”

The people move the ark to the house of Abinadab and consecrate someone to watch over the ark, Eleazar. The ark remains there throughout the rest of Samuel’s life and throughout Saul’s life. It’s basically ignored.

So David, upon becoming king and moving into Jerusalem, decides to bring the ark back to the golden city. This is where the Chronicles account picks up, and if you read through it, you come to find out that the transportation of this ark was no small thing. In fact, another person is struck dead for transporting it the wrong way. This puts fear in David’s heart, thus he leaves the ark at a man’s house for three months. In the meantime, he learns how to transport it the right way. He also has two battles with the Philistines, in which he seeks God’s instruction, God tells him what to do, and he is granted victory. Thus his fame spreads, he builds houses, he prepares a place for the ark of God, and now, he feels ready to move the ark since he knows how to do it the right way. This time, the move is a success.

The moral of the story should be obvious by now: You approach God on His terms, not on yours. And you seek Him for direction, no one else.

In chapter 10, we see the event of Saul’s death, then the interpretation of Saul’s death. Or you may argue, we see reality, then ultimate reality. Our reality, then God’s reality.

In chapter 11, God tells David what he’ll become. The next verse, that comes to pass.

Now we know, if we read the rest of the Bible, it didn’t happen so quickly, nor so conveniently. And it’s the same way in life today. God tells us something and we want it now, but God takes his sweet time. He acts like He has all the time in the world or something.

On our end, we’re wanting Everest in a day. If it takes two, we lose interest. So somewhere, in all that waiting, toiling, and being faithful in the days of small things, God teaches us what we need to know so we can become who He says we’re supposed to become. Our reality, God’s reality.

And maybe, just maybe, if we keep at it long enough, we can become mighty men like those in chapter 11 & 12.

Mighty warriors

Chief men

Heads of fathers’ houses

Those seem to be the key phrases of the section. You get the idea, if you aren’t using your brain, that it was just a bunch of men back in those days. But don’t be mistaken, there were plenty of women, because all of these men had to come out of somewhere. That’s the sad part though, the women were really only seen as baby makers. And while it’s true they do a darn good job at that, women can and do fulfill many other roles. We must remember, this was written many, many moons ago in a distant land.

Also in this section, we see a brief interruption to make note of a robbery on Ephraim and his family’s livestock. It seems random, but perhaps it gives us a clue into how infrequent crimes of theft were in those days.

We also see, starting in chapter 9, that Judah was taken into exile because of their breach of faith. Which makes me think: In Christian pop culture today, we think God is with us no matter what. He will never let go, no matter how bad circumstances are, no matter how bad we are. If we sin, He will still love us, bless us, pamper us, because after all, we are the King’s kids.

But what about discipline? Chastening? A little smack from His rod and staff? If we discipline our kids, will not the Lord do the same with His? He disciplines those whom He loves and He does it for our benefit, just as we love our kids and discipline them for their benefit. It may not seem like it at the time, but afterward, it yields good fruit. Surely, for Judah this was the case.

Perhaps, even more difficult, is answering the question: will we be disciplined as a nation for our sins? Think on that for a bit.

In closing, may it be said of us as it was of Phineas, the Lord was with him. And like those in the latter 1/2 of chapter 9, may we too find our place of service in the Lord’s house.

Does it ever occur to you that this book wasn’t written in the 21st century, the 20th century, nor even the Middle Ages? It certainly wasn’t written in English. Just look at those names: Idbash, Hazzelelponi, Haahashtari, Jekuthiel.

You may recognize one name in there, especially if you were a Christian in the early 2000s. The name: Jabez, in 4:9. His prayer was turned into a book and was a best seller. Millions in the bank for some guy named Bruce, who stumbled across this name Jabez, and his prayer, in some obscure genealogies.

It has been many years since I read The Prayer of Jabez, but I must say I like his prayer. I even pray it myself sometimes. “Lord, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I might not cause pain.” You can try it too. God just might hear it and do something about it, like he did for Jabez.

In closing, I want to be like the potters of Netaim and Gederah–who lived in the King’s service. I also want to find a land like the guys in 4:34-40: a rich land, good pastures…a broad, quiet, peaceful land.

2.26.13

Bob Dylan wrote an autobiography called Chronicles. Right now, it looks much more appealing than these first 9 chapters. Names, names, and more names.

One time, I counted them all up, or at least a good portion of them. I’ll find that stat and post it in the near future. But, for the sake of simplicity, so we don’t become bogged down at the start, let me lay down an outline.

• Chapter 1: Adam to Jacob
• Chapter 2: Jacob to David
• Chapter 3: David to Captivity

Special notes:

• Nimrod was the first to be a “mighty man”
• In Peleg’s days the earth was divided
• Er was evil in the sight of the Lord and God put him to death
• Achan was the troubler of Israel who broke faith in the matter of devoted things
• Hezron was married at age 60. His son Jar had 23 cities in Gilead. Let’s just say 2:21-24 is messy
• Seled died childless. So did Jether
• Sheshan had only daughters, but he arranged for a male slave and daughter to marry. They have a child, a son
• Jeconiah was a captive

Why do these first nine chapters of Chronicles matter? All these genealogies affirm, in painstaking detail, the line of Christ.