2nd Evangelical Free Church

The Chronicles of the Kings: Responding to aggression with prayer.

1 Chronicles 14

As David began to rule over all of Israel, the Lord blessed Him with prosperity. The children he has were one sign of this as were the good relations he enjoyed with Hiram. But his old enemies the Philistines saw him as a threat and they attacked. David did not react in the heat of the moment. He had learned that the first thing he had to do was consult the Lord and discern His will. He knew that if the Lord did not approve of his plans, any attack would fail. The battle is the Lord’s for it is His reputation which is at stake. His people have been hurt.

Now, in the world, the response one makes to an attack is usually a counterattack, often made immediately in the heat of the moment without thinking about consequences or even if one has the ability to achieve victory. In our city streets we often see gangs and drug dealers reacting in this way. They fail to realize that they have no right to take life or exact justice or that they will get caught. Even nations react in this way, though if they are wise, they will stop and count the costs and build up their resources so that the attack will have a greater chance of success.

It would be nice if we all reacted to attacks as David did. Let the Lord decide what we should do rather than act in the way the world thinks appropriate or to satisfy our flesh. Too often when we pray, we ask the Lord to bless the plans that we have already made, plans that are not His. This is disobedience for we are the Lord’s servants. Any attack on us is His fight, not ours. We need not seek revenge to punish the insult to our reputation. The Lord will take care of us.

The Chronicles of the Kings: Prayer before action.

1 Chronicles 13

The Chronicler relates the events surrounding the entry of the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The Ark, as we recall, was a sacred object because it was the symbol of Yahweh’s sovereign rule as it represented His throne, His dwelling place with His people. Thus it was vital that it be brought to the capital city to confirm God’s blessing on David as His anointed King. Yet David made a grave error when deciding to transport the Ark. He consulted the people and the Levites, but not the Lord. All failed in their responsibility to consult the Lord to determine what was the right way to transport the Ark. The will of the people prevailed and disaster struck.

Perhaps they did not realize the full importance of the symbolic nature of the Ark. The people did not treat it with the respect, awe and holiness that the Lord deserves. If they had realized how holy and awesome God is and how sinful they were, they would have kept their distance. The lesson I see here is the necessity of consulting the Lord in prayer and in His revealed word before we act, especially when we act in the Lord’s name to do His work. Democratic means can and do often lead us astray as we humans are prone to selfishness and carnal desires. In governing our congregation we should always pray before we make decisions concerning the church. In that way we can beseech the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance. If we act in the flesh and refuse to heed His will, we will suffer the consequences.  

The Chronicles of the Kings: No way but Jesus.

1 Chronicles 12

The Chronicler continues to focus on the theme of loyalty by covering the coronation of David as King. All of the 13 tribes are represented here as pledging their allegiance to David as the Lord’s anointed. Amasi spoke for all of them as the Spirit of the Lord filled him with wisdom and He blessed David. God has made a covenant with him as He did with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. As with them, all who aid David will be blessed because David was God’s man and he had remained faithful to God in the midst of adversity. Saul, we must recall, did not remain loyal to the call of the Lord and so he lost his blessing and his life.

In today’s world we Christian are often called to pledge our loyalty to the Lord. Our culture promotes relativism and political correctness. Our national culture declares that there is no absolute truth when it comes to spiritual beliefs. One may believe in any spiritual higher power (even the divinity of the self) for they are all the same. Jesus is equal to any god or goddess or spiritual entity or higher power. Thus there are many ways to reach God. Sin is relative and is defined by the individual. The only absolute cultural “sin” is to say that Christianity or any religion is the only one true faith, that all others are vain and empty.

We Christians are daily called on to stand up and declare our loyalty to Jesus. He alone is God and any other god is either not real of demonic, thus not equal to Him in any way Him. To say that other religions contain a pathway to the same God, as some Christians claim to do, is the same as calling God a liar. Jesus declares He is the way, the truth and the life. And we must agree. Yet though we say this at a great cost of opposition, anger, and loss, those who oppose Christianity will lose out on a great blessing of eternal life. We are not really helping them by confirming their misguided beliefs.

The Chronicles of the Kings: The Gospel unites us.

1 Chronicles 11

As the Chronicler proceeds to tell us about David’s reign we realize that we have read most of his history in Samuel. Yet there are differences. What the Chronicler focuses his attention on addresses a specific spiritual need for the Jews returned from exile. The people are disillusioned and apathetic. The kingdom is gone and there seems to be no leader to unite them. They think they are merely a group of individuals with nothing to unite them except that they are subjects of a pagan king. “Not so!” says the Chronicler. Those who first came to follow David when he was fleeing Saul were individuals drawn from all the tribes. These men remained loyal to David and so loyal to the Lord who bound them together as His victorious fighting force.

The people who have retuned from exile must realize that the survival of the community depended on mutual loyalty to each other as well as to Him via those leaders whom the Lord had chosen. This is true for we who are Christians. We are also bound by ties of loyalty to the Lord and so to each other. We are not just a group of individuals who are separated by race, class socio-economic status, or denominational affiliation. All Christians are our brothers even those who disagree with some of our favorite theological opinions. Our survival as a church depends on a joint response to the demonic attacks coming from our culture. We must realize we must band together with all true believers to preach the gospel, not our pet doctrines. Only as we preach the truth that Jesus is God can we bring the light of Christ into the lives of those living in darkness.

The Chronicles of the Kings: You really can’t serve 2 masters.

1 Chronicles 10

The genealogies seem to end rather abruptly as the Chronicler takes up the history of the Kingdom of Israel. He wants to focus on David, but he must precede this with a brief mention of Saul. Essentially, Saul was defeated and his family line wiped out because, like Israel, he was unfaithful. He was called by the Lord to destroy the Philistines but they destroyed him instead. He spent too much time and resources on chasing David around rather than doing God’s work. He ignored God and failed to pray to discern His will. Instead, he consulted a medium in an attempt to circumvent the will of the Lord. As a result the Israelites lost more territory than they had gained. 

The Chronicler speaks to us of the dangers of divided loyalties. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 no one can serve two masters. He will invariably hate one or the other and if you serve self, as we see in the example of Saul, you will not be serving the Lord. Saul, like many of us, claimed to be the Lord’s man, but his life and deeds said otherwise. We too often claim to serve the Lord but we have one foot in the world. We copy the world’s way of doing things. We support the media and approve of what our culture teaches. We drink to excess, party and spend money on material goods all for our own benefit. And then we go to church one day a week and pretend that God approves of what we are doing. The person who wants to remain loyal to the Lord must honor Him by following Him in all things even when it is costly or looks foolish in the eyes of the world. 

 

The Chronicles of the Kings: God perseveres in His mercy.

1 Chronicles 9

Right in verse 1, the Chronicler reminds us that the reason for the destruction and exile of Judah was the sin of unfaithfulness. This means that the Jews worshipped gods other than Yahweh, which, of course, were  not real gods, but entities which either do not exist or are demonic. It also could mean that they worshipped Yahweh in name only. They prayed to Him but they had a different concept of who He was, a concept drawn from selfish desires, pride, ego and/or pagan idolatry.

Such a concept is quite popular today in our western culture. When people talk about God they do not mean God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible or in creation. They have redefined God so that His chief aim is not His glory, but the glory of the individual. The god worldly people like to worship wants them to be happy and self-fulfilled. The god people worship wants them to be free from guilt so this god has few rules and there are few sins. In the Christian Church, God also has been redefined as one who wants His children to be rich, successful and problem-free as well as one who fulfills all our desires. 

If those who are guilty of unfaithfulness are blessed, they will experience the Lord’s discipline. They will be given a second-chance as the Lord gave to the returning exiles. They will be entrusted with leadership roles and gifts as were the Levites. This will happen even though they have sinned. This is because the Lord delights in showing mercy giving those He loves a second chance, or even a third or fourth. Those shown mercy, as the gatekeepers here, will respond with humility and zealously take on more duties in a desire to exalt the Lord. Mercy is God’s delight. This is more than we can say of human beings who rarely extend mercy toward anyone though they demand it for themselves. 

 

The Chronicles of the Kings: God walks with us in our trials.

1 Chronicles 8

The genealogy in this chapter covers the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe is given prominence because it is so closely related to Judah in terms of loyalty to the Kingdom of Judah and its geographic location. The city of Jerusalem was located in its territory. The Benjaminites formed part of the core group of returning exiles and were instrumental in the reconstruction of Jerusalem, the Lord’s temple, and the national identity. In addition, the theme of the Benjaminite history is that of hope through adversity. There are 4 incidents alluded to here that indicate calamities: deportation (6); divorce (8); King Saul’s death (31-33); and the warriors of Ulam who have fallen (40). 

The Chronicler takes pains to remind his audience of the bad things that caused suffering and pain and that resulted in setbacks. The lesson is that the Lord stayed with Benjamin in the midst of these adversities and did not desert the people. He is the same God, so in the midst of the setback they are enduring now, the loss of their kingdom, they must realize that the Lord is still with them. And for us it is vital that we too understand this. We endure heartache and pain and we wonder why. We wonder where is God in this. Why doesn’t he step in and save us? The Jews who endured the Holocaust wondered the same thing. Many of them turned away from God and became atheists or agnostics. They could not believe that a loving, caring and all-powerful God would allow His own people to suffer so. Yet God does allow suffering for reasons He does not have to explain. Often the reasons deal with our sinfulness though not always. Rather than blame God we must take heart in the realization that He walks with us in the midst of our troubles. We should not expect life to be easy and we should ignore those preachers who insist that if we only had enough faith we would have no problems. 

 

The Chronicles of the Kings: The past was not as good as we might think.

1 Chronicles 7

This genealogy covers the rest of the 12 tribes with the exception of Zebulun and Dan. In their place, in order to preserve the ideal number of 12, the Chronicler has added Ephraim and Manasseh both members of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel included in the exiles returned from Babylon. The list appears to have been based on a military census, probably the one that David took which ended in disaster (2 Sam. 24). The number of fighting men gives the impression of the former glory and strength of Israel, perhaps of nostalgia. The purpose of the Chronicler, however, is to get the people focused on reality. The nostalgia is tempered by the reminder that all this was lost due to idolatry. 

Many times humans look at the past with nostalgia. We look at the glory and/or simplicity of the past, of the days when we were kids, or when our grandparents were kids, or the days of our forefathers. In America it is quite common to look at the past history of the nation and idealize the lives and values of the founding fathers or the important personages of our history, or the deeds and accomplishments of our valiant armies. Nostalgia usually forgets about the hard times, the evil, the racism, the fear, the sickness, the sinfulness, the suffering, and the cruelties of war.  We forget that the glory was always tarnished by sin.

In my own life, I recall the innocence of childhood, of growing up in the fifties. I look back fondly with thoughts of holidays and celebrations. Yet my nostalgic wistfulness is tempered by the reminder of the real threat of nuclear annihilation that gripped our lives back then as well as the lies I was told, and the spiritual abuse I suffered at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. We must avoid looking back at an idealized version of the past lest we forget the lessons that the sins of the past teach us that we need to grow into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. Then indeed we will find real glory in being one with Him.

 

 

The Chronicles of the Kings: The authority of the minister.

1 Chronicles 6

Since the royal authority of that tribe was inoperative following the return from exile in Bablyon, the primary leadership role in Israel fell upon the tribe of Levi. The Chronicler noted the importance of Levi by detailing the genealogy in full as he had done with Judah. The most important thing to note is that the priest and Levites held the responsibility for the proper and continued teaching of the Law as well as offering sacrifices to make atonement. They were now the mediators of the covenant between God and man. The Levites were also in charge of the music. Apparently music was a major aspect of worship, not as important as sacrifices perhaps but something which enhanced the glory of God and inspired the hearts of the people toward Him.

As leaders the Levites and priests had to properly uphold the Law and the sacrificial system. This role was key to the health and survival of the people. They held an awesome responsibility because they were the agents of the Lord. They were to be accorded respect in keeping with their great office and were entitled to be financially supported by the people of God. Yet they had to be models of godly behavior and proper worship to the people. After all, they spoke the words of God and had to be sure they did not speak from the flesh or use God’s word to build up their own kingdom. 

The leaders of the Christian church are role models. Yet we must admit that they are not perfect nor should we expect them to be. However, when they handle the word of God they should do it to exalt Him and not the self. As long as they remain honest, loving and humble the Lord will honor them. True worship of the Lord then demands we respect those He honors.   

 

The Chronicles of the Kings: God walks with us in our trials.

1 Chronicles 8

The genealogy in this chapter covers the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe is given prominence because it is so closely related to Judah in terms of loyalty to the Kingdom of Judah and its geographic location. The city of Jerusalem was located in its territory. The Benjaminites formed part of the core group of returning exiles and were instrumental in the reconstruction of Jerusalem, the Lord’s temple, and the national identity. In addition, the theme of the Benjaminite history is that of hope through adversity. There are 4 incidents alluded to here that indicate calamities: deportation (6); divorce (8); King Saul’s death (31-33); and the warriors of Ulam who have fallen (40). 

The Chronicler takes pains to remind his audience of the bad things that caused suffering and pain and that resulted in setbacks. The lesson is that the Lord stayed with Benjamin in the midst of these adversities and did not desert the people. He is the same God, Therefore so in the midst of the setback they are enduring now, the loss of their kingdom they must realize that the Lord is still with them. And for us it is vital that we too understand this. We endure heartache and pain and we wonder why. We wonder where is God in this. Why doesn’t he step in and save us? The Jews who endured the Holocaust wondered the same thing. Many of them turned away from God and became atheists or agnostics. They could not believe that a loving, caring and all-powerful God would allow His own people to suffer so. Yet God does allow suffering for reasons He does not have to explain. Often the reasons deal with our sinfulness though not always. Rather than blame God we must take heart in the realization that He walks with us in the midst of our troubles. We should not expect life to be easy and we should ignore those preachers who insist that if we only had enough faith we would have no problems.