1 Chronicles | The Ark, the Temple, and the Kings: What 1 Chronicles Teaches Us Today

1 Chronicles provides a focused account of Israel's history, especially emphasizing temple worship, kingship, and the genealogies of its people. Written for the post-exilic community, its purpose is to offer hope and spiritual guidance to those returning from Babylonian exile. By highlighting the importance of the temple and proper worship, the chronicler encourages the Israelites to re-establish their relationship with God. David's desire to build the temple, though unfulfilled, sets the foundation for Solomon's eventual construction, reflecting the necessity of holiness and preparation in honoring God's presence.

A significant theme throughout 1 Chronicles is the proper handling of God's presence, as seen in the story of Uzzah's death after touching the Ark of the Covenant. This event underscores the importance of obedience and reverence when approaching God's holiness.

The chronicler also shifts attention to Judah's kings, largely omitting the history of the northern kingdom of Israel. This reflects the chronicler's intent to encourage the post-exilic community to take pride in their spiritual heritage rooted in the southern kingdom and its focus on temple worship. The detailed accounts of Judah's kings highlight those who respected and upheld the temple, offering models of leadership aligned with God's commands.

The book also presents theological challenges, particularly in David's decision to take a census (1 Chronicles 21), which is attributed to both God and Satan in different accounts. This highlights the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, showing that while God is ultimately in control, people are accountable for their actions. The chronicler uses this story to emphasize the importance of obedience and repentance, reminding readers that restoration is always possible through seeking God's forgiveness.

Ultimately, 1 Chronicles is a message of hope for the exiled Israelites, encouraging them to rebuild not just their physical lives, but their spiritual connection to God. By focusing on temple worship, the leadership of David and Solomon, and the importance of genealogies, the chronicler offers a vision for restoration and spiritual renewal.

#BibleStudy #1Chronicles #Scripture #OldTestament #GodsStory #Worship #Temple #David #Restoration #FaithJourney

Transcript

 1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles

[00:00:00] Hey, everyone. You're listening to God's whole story this year. We're taking a book by book journey throughout scripture to see how God uses the story of scripture to accomplish his purposes. If you enjoy the content, we would love to partner with you. Look at the show notes to see how you can do that.

And we hope you enjoy this episode today. We are diving into first Chronicles. And I want to tell you guys right up front, prepare yourselves. This episode will be Less good than usual because our friend chelsea was not able to make it Um, this is just like probably don't lose too many people right at this point We'll see the drop off right away like no, there was six we had an incredible open rate for six seconds and play rate Uh, chelsea brings a ton to the podcast fear not she is not leaving or anything.

It's just that All of us are managing all of our own actual jobs. And the podcast is kind of what we try to do. Um, we try to fit it into the schedule of our lives, uh, wherever we can. And Chelsea's life and like, [00:01:00] uh, the things that she needs to do right now is ramping up. There's a lot on our plate. So Chris and I are trying to get ahead on a couple of episodes.

And so I guess actually to, Tell you even more, she probably won't be on at least the next two. Um, and we miss her and we recognize that she brings a lot to the podcast that we do not. Uh, so we'll do our best to try. We will try to see who's going to fulfill that role. Ryan, like who's going to call us on our silliness.

Um, no one. So actually, you know what, that means we can do whatever we want. So actually buckle up. This is gonna be wild. Okay. So with that. By way of introduction, we're looking at the book of first Chronicles and, uh, you know, when people go through the Bible, especially if you're reading it through chronologically, like we're going through it, you've gone through Kings 1st and 2nd Kings 8 Chronicles, and you're kind of like, Wait a second.

Haven't we already done this? Like, is it a little bit like Deuteronomy, [00:02:00] you know, is this just review that they want to make sure that they get this over, uh, again and again. Well, actually just like Deuteronomy, we have a different audience. We have a different setting. Uh, and so just to give you a little bit.

on that, it would be helpful if we can kind of put it into perspective. So if you haven't heard the King's episode, you can go back and check that out, but King's was likely, uh, it would have been written to the people that were in exile. So Jerusalem was destroyed. They were sent into exile. A lot of people lean towards it being written, uh, by Jeremiah and it's record recording the history of how they ended up in exile.

So it's very near. Future, uh, audience for when it is written. Chronicles is written a bit later. Uh, Chronicles is actually written to the exiles that return. So, uh, spoiler alert, when they go into exile, they're there for 70 years in Babylon, and then they get to come back. We're going to see that in a little bit.

And Chronicles [00:03:00] is. With those returning people in mind. So it's a lot more hopeful, it's a lot more positive. They wanna show that even though they've been judged, there is a future for this nation. Uh, and we can kind of even see this, that in the early part of First Chronicles, there's big, long genealogy.

And one of the things that is interesting is they include the list of the people who actually do return to the land. Uh, so. We, we know it has to be written after that because these people are included. Uh, it was probably written by a priest, the first and second Chronicles, cause there's such an emphasis on the temple.

Uh, and if you think about it, it's a priest would have been very concerned that as the people are returning, as they're going back, they need to rebuild a temple. They need to re institute their worship. And so one of the biggest things that the, Uh, focuses on is how do the kings treat the temple? How do they treat the priests?

Uh, and really it's going to highlight, uh, that, [00:04:00] that line of the presence of God returning, uh, and having a new temple. For example, uh, in the book of Kings, which is focused just on what actually happened, King Uzziah doesn't get hardly any treatment, just very brief. Doesn't say a whole lot, but Chronicles gives him a lot of text, a lot of treatment because he, he actually attempted to take the role of a priest.

He offered a sacrifice himself in the temple. And if you're a priest, that is like, put you on the most wanted list. I mean, that is about the worst thing that you can do. Uh, the other. The other unique aspect of Chronicles is they are only the kings of Judah that are going to be mentioned. Uh, the Book of Kings showed us the northern kingdom of Israel.

They went, taken captive, never to be seen from again. So really, the only ones who are left are when the people return to the land of Judah. Is Judah. So that's, that's what's going to be focused on. So Ryan, do you think of any other major differences between Kings and Chronicles? You're already, you're already doing a great job [00:05:00] highlighting like the, the high points, the things you need to know, I would say like just bigger picture, the audience itself, we would hope is going to be more receptive in general.

Like they, they have, they have been disciplined and the hope is that they're going to receive this, um, You know, essentially like a reminder of who they are and what their history is with more receptive eyes. Um, they did that with some success and without some success. Um, I would say too, another kind of hallmark of Chronicles is that it is, More positive in general than some of the stuff in Kings.

So one of the examples that I like to use for Chronicles is that the chronicler who you would say is Ezra. Is that correct? Uh, I've seen a lot of people think that it's could be Ezra. Ezra was a priest. Ezra is definitely present in this time because the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. the events that are happening around then.

Um, so I ha I do lean [00:06:00] towards Ezra, but I would, I would say even more than that. I think we can be very confident. It's probably a priest, somebody who's very concerned about the temple. So whoever the chronicler is, they omit some pretty key details that would make the main characters, the main characters.

Look less good, probably like the most notable one is Chronicles does not contain the story of David and Bathsheba at all. No, and just for, uh, the narrative of the Kings, it's a pretty important detail to skip actually, because Solomon is one of those Kings. Solomon comes from David and Bathsheba's relationship.

So it's, I think that detail proves. That the writer is purposely ignoring some of the less, um, whatever glorious details. And that is unique to scripture. Like scripture is actually very good in including all the bad stuff that's, you know, most histories of nations only talk about [00:07:00] the good. So I think we can also be confident that there was the, the chronicler had a purpose for doing that, really wanting to hit, uh, some of their history if, and of course that all the gory details.

to them. They have first and second kings. They have all the ones, the other histories that aren't included in scripture, the annals of the kings of Judah. Uh, so it's not like this information isn't there. I think that's a critical detail and I'm glad you're bringing that up because I have heard, uh, people use those details to question the authority of the Bible or like the The authenticity of the narrative, um, don't forget that these folks would have had access to these extra details.

So clearly the author, I would say clearly the author is trying to omit those details, but part of the reason could have been that they could find those details. Anyway, like it would have been, they would have been accessible and, um, the, the primary way that people would have transmitted their [00:08:00] history would have been verbally anyway.

So most likely that story was known. Um, so you're not highlighting the fact that David and Bathsheba is not in the Chronicles is not necessarily a giant scandal. I think it's just more recognizing that Like the nature of the book and what the author's trying to do. Um, I would also add just a side note, like if you've been listening to God's whole story for a long time, uh, you probably remember when we did the chronological reading and we did the King's readings and then the Chronicles readings, and it was like, Oh my goodness, we're just reading the same thing over and over and over and over.

Um, it, it's. It is interesting that this book, and you've already talked about this, but it's interesting that this book has a companion piece and you can get like to get the best picture of the narrative. You read both of these pieces together, like first and second Samuel, first and second Kings together with first and second Chronicles gives you like a huge picture of what's going on.

So that's a bit of an overview really for both First and Second Chronicles. First [00:09:00] Chronicles, it's really, it goes up through David and then we get the rest of the Kings in Second Chronicles that we'll be looking at next week. But First Chronicles, it's really following David. The story of the arc, the arc of the covenant returning to Jerusalem.

And then David getting the vision, the desire to build the temple. Of course, we know that he is not able to build it, uh, because of his warlike ways. And Solomon will eventually do that, but it's again, that lens that these events are being looked through is like, how do they treat the arc? How do they.

Move towards building the temple and then once the temple is there How do they treat the priesthood and and the temple? So there is one interesting story. Um that comes in first chronicles chapter 13 Uh that when they're bringing the ark up, there's the story of ouza Uh, that's is also in All the way back in Second Samuel.

Uh, but he actually, he reaches [00:10:00] out, touches the, the arc of the coven and he, he instantly is killed. And I know there's, there's a lot of people that have questions about that. Like the arc was falling, the arc was slipping. It it like, he just tried to steady and he died. Like it does read that so harsh.

Like it does read that way. It does. Um, so Ryan talked a little bit about, um, yeah, what, what's, what helps us understand why this was such a big deal. That's who's, uh, even touching the art, uh, resulted in his death. Uh, there's, there's a couple of ways we can come at this. Maybe we'll start with one and move on to another one at some point, but.

There, there are. I guess big picture. I think this story is talking about how we handle the presence of God because the arc was a very serious representation of the presence of God. There were very clear, um, directions for how to transport it and where to [00:11:00] transport it and when to transport it. And the reality is like when, when God reveals clear Commandments, like you want to follow them, you don't want to not do them.

Um, so I, I believe that they were not following the clear commandments. Um, most likely many of the people involved in the scenario actually understood that they were not doing what they should have been doing. Um, and in fact, he, he does touch the arc and he does die. Uh, but it's, I think probably a judgment on their.

Careless way of dealing with the presence of God, and I do think that there is modern day implications for that because we don't We don't transport arcs anymore. Like we carry the spirit of God in us. We are a temple of the Holy Spirit in our actual bodies. And we want to be sure that we're handling the presence of God well and with honor.

Um, because frankly, like when we don't, we can come under judgment. I think that is still very possible. Uh, obviously that does not. [00:12:00] Occur, or I think people would be dropping every other day all the time, right? That is a that shows God's grace. It does not show his lack of judgment It shows that he is gracious and merciful to us and he's long suffering with us I don't know.

What do you want to throw into this? Yeah, I mean they there definitely were a lot of like it was God clearly laid out the conditions for carrying the Ark at various places in the scriptures. Some things, uh, as simple as who does it, it's meant to be carried with poles. Uh, the only place it was wheeled around on a cart is when the Philistines did it.

Mm hmm. Uh, so that, you know, I don't know, do you obey God or do you follow the example of the Philistines? Uh, and Uzzah, he is, he's a Levite. So he would have known all of these details, all of these things. And so there is an element, uh, that he should have known better. That's one of the things that gets lost in translation.

Like you think he's just like some dude that got recruited and he's like, Oh, I don't want to drop, but he actually, or like the arc's about to fall. Somebody catch it. And yeah, Well, you were trying to save the [00:13:00] Ark. Yeah, he's actually involved in this mishandling of God's presence, and he is one of the guys who's supposed to know how it's supposed to be done.

Yeah, so, uh, I actually have a little bit of a quote here. Adam Clark, in his commentary on the Old Testament, he says, For the Ark should have been carried on the shoulders of the priest, and that neglect of this ceremony was the cause of the death of Uzzah. So he would definitely, uh, Tie it back to not following some of the rules, but I think there is, there is, uh, an element to that you've brought out of honoring the presence of God.

Um, what, what's, uh, what's an example today of how we can honor the presence of God? Like we're obviously not carrying it around on, on poles or wheeling it around on a cart. Yeah, I think so the, the Holy Spirit Is acting in a different way in our day. Uh, it's the Holy Spirit is not like some new thing.

Holy Spirit's been around since the dawn of all [00:14:00] things. Um, but it is even before that. Yes. Yeah. I was trying to think of how to thread that needle actually. Um, how to. The fact that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, we believe that we are filled with the Holy Spirit when we're believers, you cannot confess that Jesus Christ is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

And so that when, when you come to true faith in Christ, you carry the presence of God in your life. And I do think that Kind of a modern issue that we have is we're pretty careless about that at times. And I, I do understand that there's, there's so much grace. There's so much mercy. Um, and I, I guess my, my unedited perspective on this is sometimes we're a little bit too light on the discipline side and the expectation side.

Um, sometimes we're so concerned about being nice and being kind that we are very Very slow, uh, to offer correction to people who I believe are carrying the Spirit of God, but also are carrying the Spirit of [00:15:00] God Incredibly poorly. Um, I would, I would point to things like, um, hidden sin, like, like just regularly, uh, involving yourself in sin that, you know, is sinful that, you know, is against God.

Like, that's carrying the presence of God poorly. Um, I would say, Mis, mishandling scripture and how you teach scripture like, like intentionally false teaching that would be handling the presence of God poorly. Um, I guess I would even say like how we deal with unbelievers, like when we are interacting with people who are not Christians, um, We that should be something that's in our minds because we handle those situations a little bit differently.

Like you, you handle the church one way, you handle the outside the church a different way. Um, and there, there are times where you might be carrying the spirit of God poorly, uh, into those situations. So I, I think there's many examples of ways that this can be done, um, for, for, fun bible nerd extra credit Um, there are times in the new testament because sometimes people split old testament to new testament, which I understand But there [00:16:00] are times in the new testament where god Cast immediate judgment on people for carrying his spirit poorly.

I'm thinking of ananias and sapphira Um, so you can't actually point to this Uza thing and be like, Oh, that's an Old Testament thing because actually I believe a very similar thing occurred to Ananias and Sphyra, um, because they were trying to put themselves, they were trying to put their own honor above the honor of God and his people.

And because of that, God demanded their lives immediately. So this is a thing that continues past the Old Testament. And I would point to mishandling the presence of God as part of that thing. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's good. I, I was even thinking, um, there are some similarities in, you know, the way we treat people because people bear the image of God.

But then if you think about which all people do that, right? But then there, there could even be a case that's like, we need to, you know, Like really love one [00:17:00] another in a even greater way when it's believer in believer because we Of course, everyone's in the image of God, but then believers on top of that are carriers of the Holy Spirit Yeah, there could be lots of very practical And this is why I get so wound up about discipleship and how critical it is, um, because it's, it's very possible that many Christians have not even thought about what it means to carry the presence of God.

And many Christians would not even know who Uzzah is or why Uzzah is important to your daily Christian walk. And I think, You know, more seasons, believers, people who understand the Bible a little bit more, um, part of caring for other believers is actually ensuring that they are growing and maturing in their faith.

Uh, I think Paul alludes to this idea of like, they, they move from milk to more solid food. Like we want, we want to bring people up in, uh, in Christ. We want people to be firm in their faith. And part of that is helping people understand these kinds of [00:18:00] topics. I would say part of that is deep dives into first Chronicles.

I think it's very helpful in your discipleship journey. All of it reveals more about who God is and more about how we can honor Christ in our real daily lives. Like we're not interested in God's whole story just to give you like dusty old Bible history. We want you to see how what's going on. Head knowledge.

Yeah, exactly. Like, I mean, we're not against head knowledge, but that head knowledge needs to inform your Christian walk. So yes, we're doing kind of this examination of first Chronicles. Yes, we've done deep dives into first Chronicles, but please hear us. It's not so that you can get smarter and smarter.

It's so that you can live out in a more authentic Christian life. Uh, that is a blessing to other people. And the Chronicler definitely wanted this story in here because, uh, it involves the Ark, it involves the presence of God, it's, he's a priest, and so these, these, this is what's important, this is what he sees are important for the people.

So, uh, I was also thinking to jump a little bit towards the end of the book, uh, chapter 21 has a passage [00:19:00] that sometimes gets a little bit of, um, difficulty, It's chapter 21 is when David takes the sentence census, not sentence census. Uh, and in, uh, it's very similar to what, uh, is recorded in second Samuel chapter 24, uh, but the, one of the main differences here, and sometimes people will bring this up is that in second Samuel, God tells him to do the census.

Uh, and in. First Chronicles, it says that Satan actually incited David to do this. So who is it? Was it God? Was it Satan? Was this a translation error? Um, what's, uh, what do you think about this? Um, I do know for a fact, because I've had some interaction with some of these folks, there are people that will point to this instance and say that like, Hey, this is a reason you shouldn't believe any of it because in, in one instance from [00:20:00] one author, God did it in one instance from another author.

Satan did it. How could you possibly trust any of this when there's, because that's, I mean, if that's a miss, that's a, that's a pretty serious mess. Like, like if I go into work and I'm like, God told me to do this or I go into work and I say, Satan told me to do that. That's a very different, very different.

Um, so I think there's, um, There is a valid critique there, but I think there's some pretty sound answers there. Um, so one, I think it's important to know about this and, and recognize that it is very different. Um, two, I think it is not odd for the Bible, uh, and the biblical authors to recognize the fact that, um, everything that Satan does is within the Bible.

God's authority. God has authority over all things. And so even Satan cannot do things without God's permission. Is that okay to say permission? I'm, I realize I'm stepping into another theological, a strong word, but certainly awareness of awareness. [00:21:00] Um, I think about, uh, Job, like there's like this cosmic council where, where, uh, Satan has to basically like ask God's permission to do things.

Um, I w I was just reading through my wife and I do a daily Bible Podcast we call God's plan your part. We're going, we just finished up, uh, second Corinthians and there's a section in there. I think, I think it's second Corinthians 12. We talked about this before I turned it on, um, turn on the recording.

Um, Paul talks about how God gave him a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan. I'm not saying that word for word. That's like my loose translation. But even that is an example of like, well, yeah, Is it Satan doing stuff or is it God doing stuff? And I think the overall picture is that even when Satan does something, it's within God's sovereignty, which I recognize brings up another theological hotspot to figure out.

Um, but I think that I, I don't believe that, Chronicles is saying something different than Samuel is saying yeah, and I think we we [00:22:00] also have so it wasn't a sin for Censuses to be taken because there's plenty of those things happening, but there was something about What was David's motivation and wanting to take the census?

Uh, there's a lot of, uh, places that would suggest that there was some element of pride here that he wanted to see how big his armies were. And, when you look at then what happened after this census, there was a plague that 70, 000 people died. So, there's also maybe, you know, just, the perspective of the Chronicler looking back on this and seeing the fruit, so to speak, of 70, 000 people dying, that it's like, okay, Satan was involved in it.

That was, that was something evil. That was something that was not, not good. So I think, uh, that would be another way to look at it. But the reason why this story is here is because the, one of the, in the midst of this census and all these people dying, uh, this is actually the story of how the, you. Piece of ground that the temple is going to [00:23:00] be built on was purchased.

Uh, that's, this is where David then buys the threshing floor, which that's when, where the altar of the temple will be one day. And one of the things that is interesting that, um, a detail that we usually overlook in the midst of this, did God do it? Did Satan do it? Like this is actually saying the. The ground for the temple was acquired in the proper way.

David didn't exert any kingly rights. He paid full price for this ground. And so it's establishing even just the, some backstory of how the geography of the temple came to be, uh, which again, we said this several times, the chronicler being a priest, this would be very important, uh, to know, like, this is how.

They acquired that property. It's funny as we're, as we're talking about the, uh, acquisition of the temple mount, basically, um, even that is a detail that is different between Samuel and Chronicles because even the price that's paid for the threshing floor. Is very different in [00:24:00] one book versus another book.

And that has been used as like, listen, like these guys cannot get this account straight. Um, this is not necessarily an episode just about all the inconsistencies. Uh, but, but one thing to point out on that is that. Uh, one book records, I think, like how much he paid for like one immediate small place where the temple was eventually built.

The other book actually records what was paid for like this giant, you know, swath of land that ends up becoming really central to life and worship for the people. So it's another instance of like, The small details seem like they're against each other, but they definitely are not. Yeah, and it is, I think it is, we do often point out some of these things because it's some of the interesting passages to talk about some of the things that people stumble over.

Um, but there is, uh, we would both definitely affirm that scripture is very trustworthy. Yes. And I mean, there's a whole science with manuscripts and, uh, that, uh, There's just so many [00:25:00] manuscripts that, uh, are there for the Bible, which is one of the things that I, I kind of, my, the light bulb in my head went on recently.

If you compare the number of manuscripts for scripture versus some of the famous works of history that are never questioned, like Life and Times, Julius Caesar, the Iliad, the Odyssey. I mean, you never hear anyone say, well, I just don't know if we can trust the Iliad because there's only eight pages.

Manuscripts or something like that. There are literally 10, 000 manuscripts for the old Testament, or there's, I think there's even more than that, but there's literally tens of thousands. Um, but that never gets questioned. Uh, and with these little things, they, they are, they're not major doctrine things that they are usually some.

Prices numbers some the God and Satan thing is probably one of the bigger ones But I said that wouldn't be considered a major like it's not talking about the character of God It's not talking about how you want and there's so many instances in the biblical [00:26:00] narrative where where? Satan does do something within God's sovereignty, so it doesn't even Go against the full narrative of scripture even so there we go dive into some of the minor details by ryan and chris Chelsea couldn't pull us out.

Listen. We told you this would be less interesting Hey, thanks so much for joining us for first chronicles We are going to pick it up next week with second chronicles and start with solomon and journey through the rest of the kings of judah See you next week