In Chronicles, David is King

1 Chronicles
If you will recall my post from May 10, you will see that I talked about the focus of 1 Chronicles, noting that the author was keenly interested in King David, more so than the other kings of Israel/Judah.  We have now come to the end of 1 Chronicles, and the main point of this book has certainly been David.  The book started with many lists of names, leading up to an extremely brief narrative of Saul's reign, and then headlong into David's tenure as king.  Moreover, we didn't really hear about any of the negative aspects of David's time as king, such as the fights between him and Saul before he became king, or his murder of Uriah, husband of Bathsheba.  It was mainly a rosy picture of how God blessed David and prospered him on the throne.  It remains to be seen how things turn out in 2 Chronicles, now that David has passed on.

A temple for God

1 Chronicles and Psalms
Psalm 132 relays how David had exclaimed that he would build God a house on earth.  Knowing what a psalm of ascent is, this psalm really makes sense because it is all about God’s temple in Jerusalem.  It’s
also interesting to see how in 1 Chronicles 17, also in today’s reading, we can read again of David’s desire to build God a temple.  He wanted to honour God by giving him a beautiful and wonderful place to reside.

I don’t always think of my body being a temple, but if we have received Jesus into our hearts and placed our trust in Him, we are all temples!  David never got the chance to build a temple, yet he continually strove to honour God with all his heart.  I have a temple of the Lord right here, and what am I doing with it?  Am I honouring God?

Neverending genealogies with a purpose

1 Chronicles
I'm not going to lie - after now having read 7 chapters of genealogy in 1 Chronicles, I'm a little bored...  The Chronicler sure liked to chronicle things!  However, I understand that there is a point to all the names.  He is showing the lineage and heritage of the great kings of Israel - David and Solomon.  God made a number of promises to King David, stating that he would always have someone from his line on the throne.  God keeps his promises!  Nonetheless, it seems that maybe the information could have been presented in a more interesting manner.
Here's a fun fact, though.  The Chronicles tell roughly the same story as 1 and 2 Kings, but the focus is different.  In Kings, the author seems keen on showing how the Israelites failed to follow God's commands and subsequently, God would punish them, show love to them again when they started obeying, and then punish them when they fell back into pagan, sinful ways.  In Chronicles, I believe we will see how God's promises to King David came true.  Track along with me as we read continue to read the Chronicles and we'll find out!