1 Chronicles Explained

​You see, David is that beautiful picture of a shepherd boy who ultimately is pointing us to the shepherd man, Jesus, who's the ultimate shepherd of his people, Israel, who is the ultimate expression of God's heart, and who ultimately lays down his life for all of us, which is why the Davidic covenant still stands. The kingdom and the throne of David is established forever because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, and he is the one who will rule and reign forever and of his kingdom, there shall be no end. Hallelujah. And amen.

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Hello, and welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible podcast, where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. My name is Bode Quirk from youcanlearnthebible. com here with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. What's up, Joey? Recording on a Friday. How are you feeling today, my friend?

Yes, Bodie, I'm doing, I'm doing well. My spirit is peaceful today, bit of a, of an overcast rainy day in New Jersey, but, I am excited to open up the pages of scripture and chronicles is the new book we're in, and so, I, I believe we're going to hear some good summaries today, some good new truths to focus on, and, Bodie, when we do this together, we actually stir one another up toward love and good works even as we talk this thing through doesn't it?

Right. Yeah. What you don't get to hear is all the fun prep that Joey and I get to do to really try and prepare these and how edifying they are, and it's a challenge to summarize these books, but that's our goal is to really put the work in, in a way that really sets you up for success, and so

I am excited today, Joey. First Chronicles Explained, Episode 19. We're going to offer a seven part framework to equip and to inspire your Bible study. So Joey, what is our framework? What are the pieces that we want to offer to people today, if they may not be familiar with this book?

Yeah, that's a good idea, Bodie to give them the chronicles of what we do in our podcast. This is, is our chronicles, really. We have a seven part framework that we've been using to equip you and inspire you.

And basically what we do is we talk about the essentials of every book. Like what are the, the who, what, when, where, why, how it's kind of of the book.

And then we get into our storyline. Like where does this fit in, in the flow of the Bible? Cause the Bible is telling a bigger meta narrative. But then we also get into number three, the themes. and ideas of each book. We're going to talk about the key things you're going to learn and that the book focuses on.

Then we get into the structure of the book. Like how would you outline a book of the Bible? We give you a pretty good structure to follow when you want to dive into each book of the Bible. And then we make it very personal. We'd love to bring out the truths of the nuggets of divine revelation that teaches you about God, and also teaches you about your Christian walk, about us.

And then we, you and I like to share some of our favorite verses or themes or, personal, favorite passages and parts of the book, and so we get to give you all seven of those things every time we give an episode on a book of the Bible.

Exactly. Yeah. The goal is to really try and accelerate your progress so you can really in one shot really understand what the book's about, how it fits, how it functions. Yeah. So that's what we're going to do today. Awesome, Joey. Thank you for that.

And in line with that, we actually offer a couple ways that you can experience this episode other than just the The audio, so you're probably listening to the audio right now. If you would like to watch the video version, we do record them and put them on YouTube as well. And we offer a one page summary of all of the key insights and ideas. So if you want that, if you want the notes, we're going to give you a link at the end of the episode, the video versions on YouTube and the audio is of course in your audio podcast app, but we really try and make this as approachable for you as possible.

And so let's get into it, Joey. Let's get started with number one, the essentials. Let's start right at the beginning. What do we need to know first if we want to study first Chronicles, well?

Well, once again, like the previous books we've been studying, which has been 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings. As we go into Chronicles, once again, this was really one book in the Hebrew Bible.

Remember, the Hebrew Bible is known for having 22 books, whereas our Old Testament has 39, but they're actually the same books, it's just that the Jewish Bible likes to pair up books together. So chronicles, this is the part one of two parts and what we're going to be looking at is the history, not just of the whole nation of Israel because Israel kind of gets a little bit more ignored in this book, but focusing on the southern kingdom of Judah.

It covers the history of 450 to 425 BC, when it was written, sometimes we give you a history of when the book happens, but this is when the book, was written, because it was a compilation. Probably the priests That were in the temple in Jerusalem contributed to much of their archived history and Ezra was probably the scribe that edited it.

We don't know that for sure, so it is an unknown author, but that's important to mention. We're talking about the setting of a post exilic period, so we're going to be focusing on the life of David all the way up to Cyrus, with an emphasis on the overview in Judah. That's the purpose of the book. And, the real purpose within the purpose, as we look at the, at Judah is to focus on the true worship of the true and living God and how important it is to stay true to him.

And that's what the whole purpose of the book is going to be about. The audience of this book is not only national Israel, but always, the generations of faith, everybody who believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should take note to the lessons and the summaries that are in this book. And so that's what first Chronicles is really all about

Yeah. And I like how you called out, Joey, the fact that this was one book and it actually, we don't see it this way in our Bibles, but Chronicles was in, was the last book of the Hebrew Bible, meaning it was intended to really summarize everything that came before it. So this episode is designed to be kind of part one, looking at first Chronicles, but know that the book of Chronicles is really a summary of the entire story of Judah, literally all the way back to Adam, which we'll talk about in a second. So that is great, Joe. Thank you for some of the essentials on there.

Number two is the storyline. So you already mentioned that Chronicles is different because when it was written is kind of as important as the events that it contains, because it is an overview summary type book, but where does First Chronicles fit in the storyline? You already said we are in, it's a complete summary of Judah's history.

So we haven't gone through the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, the events of those particular books yet in episodes, but this book was writing from that point in history, and the idea was to summarize the entire history of God's covenant faithfulness to Judah. So what they're doing is he wants , the exiles to remember that their history goes all the way back to Adam and some of the key parts through it.

But like you already said, Joey, an emphasis. It's not a neutral history. It's focusing on Judah and how, even though they've been exiled for 70 years out of their land, they have not been in Judah. God is still keeping this people. He's still faithful to Judah. And so right now, Jerusalem is inhabited by outsiders, the restoration project, meaning the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, this fraught with problems and Judah now is in the time where they're returning home and they're rebuilding their land.

And we will get to those when we look at Ezra, Nehemiah, and some of the last prophets of the old Testament. But that's the point in the story that Chronicles works backward from, and it's very much a Chronicle, a series, summary of the whole section, Joey, anything you want to say about the moment where we're at in the storyline before we jump to some of the themes in the book?

Well, no, I think, I think you set it up really well as we think of the storyline, perhaps I would just say, and I love that you brought up how Chronicles would fit in the end of the Jewish Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, so that you get this good summary of the book. I think one thing that we want to really recognize is you see how prominent, let's say King David is.

And why Jesus is referred to as the root and offspring of David, because, to have an entire summary that focuses really on a Southern kingdom, we don't have a whole book summary on just Israel, but we do have it for Judah and Jerusalem, which tells us this is where our eyes most need to be. You'll see throughout the entire Bible, eyes are being pointed to Jerusalem.

Remember, Daniel will pray toward Jerusalem with his window open. We see, um. The prophets point us to keep looking to Jerusalem and how one day Jesus Christ will return and reign in Jerusalem. So perhaps I just want to emphasize that Jerusalem focus and that Judah emphasis that we have through Chronicles, because that's where God most wants us to zoom in on when we think about the narrative of God in the big picture of the Bible.

I love it. And Judah has been such an important key thread throughout this whole section of the biblical narrative, which is great.

And that leads us right now into the themes and the ideas, because the Judah focus is going to be prominent in these themes and ideas, Joey. So now we're on to number three, what major biblical concepts do we have in First Chronicles? Walk us through some of the key themes of this book, if you would.

Yeah. So diving into this book, First Chronicles, remember you're focusing on Judah. You got to keep saying in your mind, Judah, Judah, Judah. That's, that's what we're focusing on. This is a retelling of Judah's family history. So we're going to be looking at the kings of Judah, not the kings of Israel.

So those are two key. themes that we're going to be seeing throughout the whole of the book. But notice the highlights will be on one particular king the most, which is David. In First Chronicles, particularly, we're looking at David's life and reign. We're also going to see David's administrative priorities as a king.

You're going to really see how David ordered his life. What he emphasized in life and what he was most looking forward to, namely, building a temple, which he didn't get to do, but he certainly gives us the plans for the temple. So you see the centrality of the temple for worship, another key theme.

Another key theme is God's sovereign order in the distinct roles of those who serve him in the temple and around Jerusalem. And then we're going to see the theme of, and I love this theme, always true to the life of David. David's praises, David's heart of Thanksgiving, and then, of course, his ability to take whatever's going on in life and to go to our blessed hope, so we're going to see Judah's future hope in this book.

And then finally, the last theme that we're going to really focus on is God's enduring faithfulness to Judah. Remember, God is a covenant keeping God and he is faithful to his promises. So those are the key things we're going to be looking at as we study through the book of First Chronicles.

Yep. And I think, Joey, how much would they need this encouragement, this focus on God's covenant faithfulness, because they have been out of their land for beyond 70 years, and so this book is really meant to reconnect them to their incredible covenant lineage, and so these highlights, these themes that you just walked us through are going to be so important as we go into our next section, because now we want to understand how the book functions, what's the the structure of the book?

So thank you for those themes. That was awesome. So let's see now how those themes work inside the structure of the book. So, number four is what are the major sections of first chronicles? And then, so let's talk about that first. And then once we go into each section, we're going to then ask, what do we learn about God and what does this offer our Christian life? So we'll get to those in a second.

Let's talk about the structure of the book. So, First Chronicles has a pretty simple structure. There are three parts. Chapters one through nine is a focus on genealogy, and the genealogy is from Adam to the post exile Judah that we just talked about. It's an overview of how this post exilic people has been preserved all the way back from creation, all the way back to Adam and all the way up through David's line. So there's a continuity, of this genealogy for this people. So that's the first section, chapters one through nine is a genealogy, Adam to post exile Judah.

Section two is chapters 10 through 21, and that is narrative, and there we see The story of David retold, but we don't see a recap of everything that we get in and Samuel and Kings. Do we, Joey? This is a positive retelling of the life of David, so it's focused on the key moments of his life and mostly God's covenant faithfulness through the Davidic covenant, which we'll review it a little bit later.

So part one is genealogy, part two is a narrative where we get the story of David retold, and then part three chapters 22 through 29 is temple order, a very strong focus on the temple in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. So part three, temple order, preparation and transition. That's where David sets order to temple life. He prepares his son Solomon to take the throne and then he gives his final blessings before he passes. Then of course 2nd Chronicles starts with Solomon and moves on.

So you've got genealogy in part one, narrative in part two, temple order in part three. Joey, anything you'd like to add on this larger structure before we go into part one and kind of look at its subsections?

No, I think that's, this is a great way for everybody to remember that. Genealogy, narrative, and temple order, and, you're probably gonna notice in the first eight chapters, it's a bunch of list of records and chronological, historical family history. I want to just say this as we dive into this first section of chapters one through nine These chapters may seem a little tedious for you, I don't really want to read through this.

Maybe you won't want to read through it from an applicational standpoint, but you need to know this God inspired these chapters to be included In the book of chronicles because wherever there are genealogies in the Bible, whether it's genesis chapter five or Matthew's Gospel chapter one or in Luke chapter two, when we see these histories, these genealogies, it's reminding you, these are real people, real places that can be archaeologically confirmed, and they usually are, and it's important for you to know this is exact, precise, and summarized retellings of what took place in the past, and so let's dive into this next section of the genealogy section.

The first really eight chapters, but also, chapter nine. When you look at the breakdown of these chapters, chapters one and two is the genealogy that focuses up to David because remember David's a key figure, it starts with him. He's from the tribe of Judah, which is why chapters two through four are going to give you the genealogy of David, but with an emphasis on Judah, his line is traced first chapters five through eight. We got to know about the other tribes. So it adds that in there. And then chapter nine is not genealogy, but it's now focusing on Jerusalem.

So now we go from David to Judah to Jerusalem. The exile is over and the inhabitants are back. And those who stayed in Jerusalem are there too. And then it goes into Saul's line to try to get us right back to the narrative life of David. So perhaps that just helps you to understand why there's these nine chapters. In the book of first chronicles. Anything you want to add with that Bodie?

Well, Joey, I liked how you mentioned the function of genealogies in the Bible as a whole, because when we read the Bible, so often people will get to these genealogies and they will just skip right past them, because they've never been taught their role and their purpose. But I think also, Joey, if my name was in one of those genealogies, you better believe I would be searching, combing through it to find it.

But we feel like we're so disconnected because it's not about me. And friends. The Bible is a book about God. So we want to read first Chronicles saying, why would God care so much to Chronicle for these persons? I may not know them and they may be hard, difficult Bible names, But that's kind of me reading, saying, it's boring to me, or it's not relevant to me, me, me, me.

What if we approach 1 Chronicles and said, what can I learn about God from these genealogies? And it is hard reading, but that's why we want you to understand their function. The function of them is to talk about God's incredible preservation of the people of Judah from the very first man, Adam, all the way through the great king of Israel, all the way after they lost their nation and they're now planning to return.

That's an incredible thing. It might feel tedious and boring, but it is an incredible thing that God has kept this people alive and preserved since the beginning of time. That's what I think one of the major things that we want to see in this first section. Anything you want to add in this section on chapters one through nine?

One thing I'll add, and you'll see this in different geologies, that there's always a little nugget of something in there that kind of like, seems like, Oh, interesting. They didn't just add the names, but they added a little extra, and, one of the well known little extras, In this section of genealogies, is it found in chapter four, where we have the very famous or well known prayer of Jabez.

You might remember Jabez, his name means sorrow or trouble, or actually more literally, he will cause pain. And his prayer is brought up as one who, let me just say the prayer. He prays this beautiful prayer. He says, Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, that you would keep me from evil.

So that I may not cause pain. And so here's, you have a guy that has his name in Hebrew means causing pain, but he's saying a prayer to God that his life would be more than just his name would actually, in this case, not be bound up by his name, but that God, as you rightly said, Bodie, who's central to our lives, it's not about us.

It's about God. He's actually praying back to God that his life will count for something bigger than himself, that his life would not cause pain, but cause blessing. So I think that's just a worthy thing to point out, and that's in this genealogical section.

Oh, that's so good. Well, and think about it, too. Like, how often do we feel that our own family name plays a role in our own personal identity, right? Where we come from, who we are. And that's what's so incredible about being in Christ is that we are given a new primary identity. It doesn't take away our ethnic lineage or our parents or where we're from or any of that, but it does recontextualize them.

And I think that's, what's so important here is they're trying to keep the covenant focus in mind and how God is not given up on Judah, even though they're in exile and friends for us, like you are a new creature in Christ and your past and your name quote, to kind of connect to what Joey just said is not who you are now.

You are redefined, but you are a new creature in Christ, and so even though genealogies can feel kind of stale and tedious, know that they are talking about God's covenant faithfulness over centuries. Yeah.

Amen. Well said, Bodie. So

yeah. So we're going up to David. We're going from David and Judah. We're looking at the different tribes and we, now we're going to transition Joey, from those who were at the time of the writer, when they're getting back into the land of Judah, and now we're going to go into part two on the narrative section.

So let's look at part two. So we got the genealogy part and kind of how they function. Section two is narrative. So part one, genealogy. Part two is narrative, the story of David retold. So what we have is here is not a complete recap of David's life from Kings. We have a positive retelling of David's life that focuses on key moments of his life and God's faithfulness to his covenant.

So let's go into section two, knowing that now we're transitioning from a genealogy focus to a narrative focus. Here are some of the smaller subsections in chapters 10 through 21. In chapter 10, you basically have Saul's failed reign. It's a recap of Saul. It's a summary of his life. really though, as a transition to set up David. In 11 and 12, you have a focus on David's mighty men. So it kind of summarizes that.

In 13 through 16, these are really important chapters. We're going to come back to, because this is basically David's kind of his high points, right? His victory over the Philistines, his family, the ark of the covenant, returning to Jerusalem and this incredible song of Thanksgiving. In 17 through 20, following that you have covenant of God and a lot of David's military victories.

David was a prominent military leader among many other things, but he was not a perfect man, and it actually ends kind of on a sour note in chapter 21 where David takes this census and he, there's the kind of a judgment from the Lord. And that really is going to be the transition to part three on Solomon.

But knowing that we have this recap of David's life, Joey, why should we even care to read this? Why don't we just go back and read Kings or Samuel? What does this offer that the other books don't?

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, some things are repeated in this book, so it's not like everything is brand new, but there is some ways that things are said, and some ways in which things are summarized that is helping you to see it from a God perspective of what he wants you to most take out of the life of David.

So to me, although you don't get all the details that let's say first and second Samuel gave us about David, maybe what we are getting here is a bit more of a, Hey, these are the prominent things you cannot forget, about David, since this book is calling us to learn from the time in which David was on the throne, that he's reigning.

I'll give you an example. In 1 Chronicles chapter 11, David's kingdom reign was likened to a shepherd. So we read in 1 Chronicles 11 verse 2, it's, God is speaking to him saying, you shall shepherd my people Israel. And be ruler over my people, Israel. Notice the emphasis on shepherd and then it's God's people, not David's people.

Okay. Another thing that God wants you to point out and remember is this is summarizes David's life so well is chapter 11 verse nine, which says, so David went on and became great, cause he did. And then it also says, and the Lord of hosts was with him. Do you know what really makes greatness possible in the human life is God working in the human life.

God being with us, God being present. Just like in the story of Joseph and Genesis, how the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph. Well, the Lord was also with David and that's why we're getting such a strong summary recap of his life. So I think that's really important to point out of what is unique about this whole section of narrative in David's life.

And, you know, we also get some emphasis on the mighty men in chapters 11 through 12, as you already said, Bodhi, we get to focus on David's mighty men and how the spirit of God was coming upon them to do some pretty amazing things. In fact, in chapter 12, verse 18, it says, then the spirit came upon Amasai.

He was Chief of the Captains, and this is what he says. We have this little quote from him. We are yours, O David. We are on your side. O Son of Jesse. Peace. Peace to you and peace to your helpers for your God helps you. What a statement your God helps you. That just summarizes why we're looking at the life of David, because God was helping David.

God had anointed David. God was fighting David's battles. God was giving him wisdom when he needed it. God was helping him so long as stayed close to his Lord, that really happens all the way throughout David's reign. He's staying close to the Lord, except, uh oh, when he had the downfall of doing things without prayer, without being close to the Lord.

We know about his downfall with Bathsheba in Samuel, but in chapter 21, we see a downfall of David with the way he did a census and didn't consult God. And some of that was for David's own pride, wasn't it, Bodie? So those are just some quick overview reflections. What do you want to jump in there with this in this second?

Yeah. Well, remember that this whole book is designed to be a collection of highlights and moments, right? Even the genealogy parts. But I think, Joey, what we can't forget is that of all the people in this whole series, section of salvation history, David was the only one to whom God made a specific covenant with.

Now, God, of course, made a covenant with Abraham, you know, a hundred or thousands of years earlier, same with Moses. But the Davidic covenant is recalled in chapter 17. And I think it'd be good right here to pause and remember and read some of these verses because these verses, I think, summarize this whole book so well.

So in first Chronicles 17, 11 through 14, friends, don't miss this because it's, it says when your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons and I will establish his kingdom. Now that's, of course, speaking about Solomon, David, son. Now we know, and we're going to get to in part three, the role and the function of the temple in first Chronicles, because it's huge.

But keep this covenant promise in mind right here at this spot, and as we go into the next part, here's what God says, he will build a house for me. I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love for him as I took it from him who was before you, that would be Saul.

But I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne shall be established forever. So Joey, somebody might read this and they say, well, This is wrong. This is weird. Solomon doesn't live forever.

So this is a moment where we really need to pause and not miss the meta narrative moment that's happening in First Chronicles 17. Joey, What is happening? Whose throne is this? And why are we pausing to really focus on this? This is good. Walk us through why, why this matters so much if you would.

Yes. It's so important that we highlighted this moment in the book because this is the Davidic covenant restated proclaimed, and why David is perhaps one of the most important kings of Israel is because David's the one that God chose, because he was a man after God's own heart, but because David still was a man and therefore had the heart of a man and could fail, he points us to the one who was called the root and offspring of David, namely, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the true king. of Israel. He is the true king of Jerusalem, and he is the one in whom David is pointing to. If you look at David's worship, it points to Jesus. If you look at David's psalms, he's prophetically writing about Jesus. When David even expresses his emotions in psalms, sometimes he's even expressing God's voice, without even perhaps knowing it, the exact feelings of Jesus when he's on the cross, like in Psalm 22, when he writes, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

You see, David is that beautiful picture of a shepherd boy who ultimately is pointing us to the shepherd man, Jesus, who's the ultimate shepherd of his people, Israel, who is the ultimate expression of God's heart, and who ultimately lays down his life for all of us, which is why the Davidic covenant still stands. The kingdom and the throne of David is established forever because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, and he is the one who will rule and reign forever and of his kingdom, there shall be no end. Hallelujah. And amen.

Oh, Joey, I love it. It's so good, and this friends is why the gospels open with a genealogy because they're connecting or saying, Hey, remember that promise? That the line of David would last forever. Well, David died, his son, Solomon died, but Jesus fulfills, and he sits on the throne because Jesus is of the line of David. He comes from this line. So you can see the beautiful tapestry of connected ideas throughout scripture and how the unity of scripture across centuries is one of its primary evidence is that it is divinely inspired and comes from God.

Oh, so good, Joe. But this was why people don't read First Chronicles because they don't know what's at stake with a lot of these things. If God had given up on Judah, we would have never had the Messiah. That's the background of this book. 17, friends, recapitulates the Davidic covenant, which without it, we have a savior who is from the line of David, and has an eternal established throne forever. Oh, it's awesome. It's so good. Um, anything, Joe, that you want to add on that or anything that if we go back

into just this section two on the narrative story of David, we're told any final thoughts before we go into part three?

One last thing is in the final chapter of this section in chapter 21 after we've heard about the Davidic covenant, we've heard how, but in a sense, we just highlighted how it points us to Jesus. It's really sad, that David almost takes the eternal kingdom and he tries to limit it to just time on earth, and one of the reasons why this is a big downfall for David is we actually have, and this is only given to us in Chronicles, not emphasize it in Samuel so much, but in the first verse of 1 Chronicles 21, it says, Now Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. So this added chapter is telling us what Samuel didn't.

It was in the heart of David to do the census as we read in Samuel, but Chronicles wants to point out Satan was putting this thought in David and

Hmm.

it. prideful.

Right. Incredible. Yeah.

And we can begin to think we're doing it all in our own strength. And so what you have here is David makes a command to number Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and to get the entire number of all of his military men, and even his own servants, even his close men, like Joab or like David.

Right. What are you

on our side. We don't really need to know how big our army is. But David is trying to lean on his own understanding, rather than trusting God with all of his own heart. Satan puts this thought in. Much like when, in the New Testament, Peter says about Jesus, how you shall not be crucified, and Jesus has to say to Peter, get behind me, Satan, because Satan is influencing Peter's mind.

Well, in this case, Satan is influencing David's mind. And so what happens here is he does do the census. God is displeased in verse seven. So he strikes Israel, and as a result, many people. in a sense are plagued and even put to death, and David has given this option of what kind of punishment is he going to have.

And he's given three options. You can have three years of famine. You can have three months of bloodshed in battle, or you can have three days of a plague from God. And David actually says, I'd rather fall into the hands of you, God, rather than my enemies. So he lets God do a plague, trusting in the mercies of God.

And the compassion of God. And that's what happens. And eventually David lifts up his eyes in verse 16, sees the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven with a drawn sword over Jerusalem, and eventually, the plague comes in the plague stops. So I just wanted to point that out, how susceptible David, even David was to the attack of the enemy. If you don't have your guard up and you're not careful, that's an important part of this chapter.

it. is good. And even though Chronicles is mostly a positive retelling, it's interesting that it ends on this, negative note. And the reason why is because it's honest and it's true, but it's also a function of transition. Isn't it Joey to part three, because now David can't build the temple he wants to build, but David does everything he can to prepare it for that person who will build that temple, and that is Solomon.

And that takes us into our third part of the episode, which is getting back to the structure. So part one is genealogy. Part two is narrative. The story of David retold and now chapters 22 through 29 is part three. Temple order preparation and transition. So it's not just that he's going to hand it off to Solomon.

The whole heart of this section is the importance, the beauty, the order, and the magnitude of the temple itself. And this is one of the key things, as we said earlier in our themes, that sets this book apart. We don't get this strong emphasis in some of the other historical books, but we get it here.

So let's look into this third section. Let's talk about some of the sub parts here. So in chapters 22 through 29, here's how this kind of breaks down. So first you've got David's plans in chapter 22, and this is where he kind of just really begins to set in motion and prepare the way for the temple to be built. That's chapter 22. But then in chapters 23, all the way up to 27, you have everything that David arranges.

So things like the Levites, the priests, the musicians, the gatekeepers, 23 through 27 is four straight chapters of David ordering the temple and arranging the temple. So that in the last two, 28 and 29, The transition to Solomon can happen. This is where, you know, he hands it over to Solomon. There are the final provisions that we see.

Solomon becomes king and David dies, and that's kind of where the book ends. But if we don't pause and look at the very strong emphasis of the temple and worship, we will do this book a disservice, Joey. So why did these, what did these sections offer our listeners?

Well, when we come to this final section, we've now zoomed in exactly where God's heart is the most. You know, we look at David and his tribe of Judah. We look at the history of his life, but now we're getting right into Jerusalem and even more specific, the temple, the temple that's going to be built by Solomon in the next book.

Which is second Chronicles. And what we really see is the order that's being set up. God is a God of order. And we're really seeing how God is setting an order to the priesthood. We see there's a division of the Levites. The Levites are the helpers to the priests coming from the tribe of Levi. They had to be actually directly from that tribe to even take part in the temple practice at this time.

And something else that I think is really important to note, you know, if you Understand the book of Psalms well, you'll remember that after the longest psalm, which is psalm 119 all on the word of God and abiding in the law and the commandments and the statutes of God chapters 20 all the way to 34 are 15 psalms called the songs of ascent.

Well, these songs of ascent are ascending up into, the mountains of Jerusalem and the temple, which is where the priests do their practice. And I want to just highlight, you know, one of those Psalms, one of those song of ascents, which is the sixth one in Psalm 125 says in verses one and two, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever as the mountains surround Jerusalem.

So the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore. See the scepter of wickedness is not, going to rest on the land allotted to the righteous in Jerusalem. See, God is saying, I'm going to keep my covenant here. I'm going to keep my promise here. So the reason why this last section is so important is because God cares about what, Bodie?

He cares about his house. Where he dwells, he cares about his people who he's going to eventually dwell in, and he cares about there being true worship. We remember in John 4, the father seeks true worship, and true worship is done by those who worship in spirit and in truth. So what you really see in this final section of 1 Chronicles, in chapters 22 to 29, is an entire recap of why God It's so interested in Jerusalem, the city of the great King and why worship must be pure and why order must be there and why every single detail and division is ordained by God.

So I want to just bring all that out first. , isn't that interesting Bodie? I mean, right. That's, that's what's so key in all of this.

Yeah.

What do you want to bring out

the worship in Jerusalem even comes up with, with Jesus and the woman at the well, when she asks him, well, are we going to, are we supposed to just worship on this mountain or on another one? Like We have a hard time recognizing as kind of, yeah, as, as, and she was from, she was a Samaritan woman.

She was from the area that was Northern Israel, a place that Jews didn't want to go. And she says, Hey, do you have to worship in this spot or can we worship anywhere? Kind of idea. And so in the background, the reason I bring that up is because everybody knew how important in central Jerusalem was.

Jeroboam didn't want the Northern empire to go there. So he built the golden calves as alternates. Jerusalem is absolutely central to the point that Jesus himself says that he is going to return to the Mount of Olives, which is in Jerusalem and looks down on this very spot, which today is called the Temple Mount. But this spot, Joey, is so important, and I'm so glad you talked about how the function of Jerusalem connected with the idea of true and pure worship is an essential part of 1 Chronicles. I love it.

Yes. Amen. Bodie so well said and I love that you brought up the woman at the well, that's a beautiful parallel to the importance of Jerusalem as a place of worship. But of course worship is going to change in the new covenant We're not there yet. We're only in the old covenant right now, since worship is going to be done not just in a temple made with hands, but we will become the temple of the holy spirit But before that happens This is the highest place of worship that can be the temple in Jerusalem.

And remember David couldn't even build the temple. Why? Because his hands were too filled with bloodshed. He was a man of war and God wanted to keep the temple pure. The only one. Who will be able to shed blood who can truly build the temple will be Jesus who builds the ultimate temple on his blood.

But could I read out one passage that I think is worthy here in chapter 28 the final section because I think that there's a couple things here that are worth Noting for those of you who are going to dig into this book and study it with us Is that in chapter 28 in verse nine, as instruction is being given to Solomon for the building of the temple, we read these words as for you, David says, my son, Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind.

I love that a loyal heart and a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. You see, this is a great warning for all of us who want to take true worship, seriously.

We must be loyal in our heart to God, and we must do it with a willing mind where our thoughts and the intentions of our heart are matching. So we can be true worshipers of God. And I love how the last chapter in chapter 29 is the result of what a loyal heart and a willing mind looks like because David gives a beautiful praise to God, doesn't he, Bodie?

In chapter 29, in verse 10, it says, Therefore, David, blessed the Lord before all the assembly. And David said this, can I just read these words? This is so rich for our listeners to hear again today. A beautiful praise to God. He says, Blessed are you, Lord, God of Israel, our father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness.

The power and the glory, the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth are yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor came from you, and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand, It is to make great and to give strength to all now, therefore, our God, we thank you.

We thank you and praise your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this for all things come from you and of your own we have given you for we are aliens and pilgrims before you. And. As all of our fathers, our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope.

Oh, Lord, our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and all. Is your own. Wow. I just love that. And he keeps going with some more things, but I just think that summarizes the beauty of praise and the heart of David who loved to worship God.

And may we dear brothers and sisters listening to this podcast. May we become true worshipers of God who worship him every day in spirit and truth much like this as we see David doing. Hallelujah.

Oh, Joey. I love it. Thank you for sharing those verses. So, so, so good.

Well, friends, that's going to pretty much close out our episode. Let's review the structure we just went through. So one through nine is genealogy from Adam to post exile Judah. 10 to 21 is narrative, the story of David retold.

Chapters 22 through 29, temple order for preparation and for transition. And Joey, I just love the emphasis of worship in this book and we've seen a lot of it. In fact, if we were to go to our last question,

anything that we haven't already said, what do we personally love about this book?

I'll go first and I'll let you kind of wrap up and we'll close the episode. I love David's song in first Chronicles 16, because what happens is the ark returns to Jerusalem and I don't just love that David is, singing and celebrating. What I love in 1 Chronicles 16, 8, it says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord.

Call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples. And what's interesting. And then he goes on, verse nine, sing to him, sing praises to him, sing the glory in his holy name, seek the Lord. But then it says, verse 12, remember the wondrous works that he has done and the miracles and the judgments Oh, offspring of Israel and, Israel's servant, children of Jacob, the chosen ones.

Now, why do I call that out? Because I think today, Joey, we don't think of worship in terms of God's work through history. We think of worship as how I feel, how God makes me feel right now. And so much about worship today. Sadly in churches is about me and my emotions, but worship here is about God and his work through preserving this people and inviting us and reminding us that his steadfast love endures forever So friends as we go into our churches today, we may we not use our emotions as the guide of whether we feel like worshiping.

May we use God's great work in history and in our own lives as the root of our worship. I love that David models that in 1 Chronicles 16. Joey, any final things that you have that are favorite things and we'll close up?

Well, Bodie, I just say amen, brother, to what you just said. That was beautiful. Our worship is for God. It's not for us, and you just did a wonderful job summarizing that. And I would just add, this is perhaps my favorite thing as a whole. When I look at this book in the big picture. Is that we've become the temple of the Holy Spirit and the principles of the New Testament are often beautifully illustrated in the stories of the Old Testament.

when I read the details of the dedication of the temple that we'll see from Solomon or the preparation of the temple that we see from David, I really see that God is so interested in a pure heart. The Bible says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God you really do get some beautiful new covenant truths kind of hidden and contained through the worship in the temple and the preparation of it.

For example, I'll just leave you with a couple last thoughts. In chapter 28, it says in verse 12 that the plans for this temple was done by the Spirit. It was done by the spirit. It actually says that. And so you realize that. In the end, everything that's going to be pleasing to God, it has to be in Jesus and carried out by the spirit.

And you see even the preparations of this temple is emphasizing the same thing. The plans that were in David's heart was by the spirit. The spirit was giving him revelation and was helping him in the preparation, and then when we come into the worship where we actually do the actual thing, that pleases the heart of God so much, which is our hearts singing praises to Him and loving Him and obeying Him.

see that this is going to take courage, dear saints. That's why at the end of chapter 28 in verse 20, it says, And David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and of good courage and do not fear. Nor be dismayed for the Lord God, my God, will be with you and he will not leave you nor forsake you until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, until our dying breath, let's praise the Lord. Let's worship him to the very end. All that we are. All that we have and all that we can give, let us give it to God because our life belongs to him and he is worthy of it all. Amen. That's what I would say.

Amen. Oh, Joey, I love that you just landed the plane like that. So friends, we hope that this episode was helpful in maybe a book that you may not have read otherwise.

That was our seven part framework, for First Chronicles . If you would like a summary, a one page PDF summary of this whole episode, cause there was a lot here. YouCanLearntheBible.com/Notes is where you'll need to go. That is YouCanLearntheBible.com/Notes.

If you are able or willing to leave a comment on our podcast, it really helps other people discover the show. If you find this valuable either on YouTube as a comment or an Apple podcast or Spotify, we would appreciate that just so much.

But Joey, we, we said that this was part one, so we got to. finish the Chronicles, and that's what we're going to do on our next episode. Episode 20, second Chronicles Explained a seven part framework to equip and inspire our Bible study. What is one thing that our audience should look forward to in our next episode?

Well, we're going to see the shift from David to Solomon and we're going to see the temple actually being built, established, and what that means as we see the dedication of that which has been prepared for God being given to God. And I pray it's going to bless your heart because we're going to just stay where we've left in Jerusalem, but we're going to just explore the beauty of true worship to God with a loyal heart and a willing mind. So we're going to see you next time in Second Chronicles.

Yep.

Looking forward to it.

Amen. All right, friends, be blessed. Stay in the Word. As always, we believe that you can learn the Bible, and we will see you in Episode 20, 2 Chronicles Explained. Until then, grace and peace, and we'll see you later.

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