Tag Archives: 1 Chronicles 27-29

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2023 Bible Study — Learning From The Absence Of Detail

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 27-29.

Once again today I noticed something which I would never have observed if I was not writing this blog.  The list of the leaders of the tribes of Israel listed in today’s passage leave out Gad and Asher.  That is, the passage lists leaders for each of the tribes of Israel, except for these two.  Interestingly, it lists a leader for each half of the tribe of Manasseh (those who settled east of the Jordan River and those who settled west of the Jordan).  I also noticed that in the list of tribal leaders there was a leader listed for the tribe of Levi, and a leader listed for the descendants of Aaron.  At the end of the list of tribal leaders the writer points out that Joab began counting the fighting men of Israel, but did not complete the count.  I am not sure if this is intended to explain why a leader for neither Gad nor Asher is listed, or just as a note about the census being incomplete.  I am sure there are those who would conclude from the absence of a leader being listed for Gad and Asher that during David’s reign those two tribes did not have a leader.  I think a better conclusion would be that no leader is listed for those two tribes because the compiler of this book did not have the information, either because it was not recorded or had been lost from the documents they used.  Which tells me that those who compiled this book honestly recorded the information they found in older sources.  If they had been making things up, they would have invented names for the leaders of Asher and Gad in order to make their document seem more complete.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2022 Bible Study — We Have Nothing To Give To God That He Did Not First Give Us

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 27-29.

Today’s passage starts with a continuation of the lists of people who ran things under King David. Unlike the last few days, I did not find anything interesting hiding in those lists.  I did however want to write about what David had to say during his commissioning of Solomon to build the Temple.  When the vast amounts of wealth (gold, silver, bronze, etc.) had been gathered for building and furnishing the Temple, David rejoiced at the generosity of the people.  However, he pointed out an important point; what had been given towards the Temple had come from God in the first place.  A point we should carefully remember, everything we have came to us as a gift from God, so we should never begrudge giving any of it back to His purposes.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2021 Bible Study The Lord Has Chosen You. Be Strong and Do the Work.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 27-29.

I had written a completely different blog than what follows, but it was not very helpful and as I wrapped it up I started the following.  We can learn from David’s commission to Solomon.  As part of that, David said to Solomon, “…the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”    Each and every one of us should listen to that because God has given us a task.  We also need to be strong and do the work.  However, like me you may be unsure what that task is.  Well, there are two parts of what David tells Solomon which provide us with guidance on that.  First, he tells Solomon, and us, “Be careful to follow all of the commands of the Lord your God.”  A little further on David says, “…acknowledge the God of your father and serve Him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind,…” He also tells Solomon, “if you seek Him, He will be found by you,…”  So, if we do not know the task which God has given us, David’s advice tells us that task is to follow God’s commands, acknowledge Him, server Him, and seek Him with devotion and a willing mind.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2020 Bible Study Learn to Know God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 27-29.

This passage lays out how David laid out his government of the Kingdom of Israel.  It lists those who commanded the forces he kept prepared against an unexpected attack (and probably sent out to deal with bandits who raided caravans on the trade routes) and those who he appointed to administer the various aspects of his government.  Perhaps the most interesting thing is how he included the leaders of each of the tribes into his government.  Certainly, that contributed to the division of the Kingdom when his grandson took the throne, but it also helped to make the people think of themselves as part of the Kingdom rather than just as part of the various tribes.

However, I want to spend a little time about something it relays from David’s instructions to Solomon.  Up until this point, most of what was written in this book was there to show how the Returned Exiles were connected to the Kingdom of David.  This was included as instruction on how they, and we, should live.  It includes a series of points which we should meditate on frequently:

  • Learn to know God intimately
  • Worship and serve Him with your whole heart and a willing mind
  • God sees every heart and knows every thought and plan
  • If you seek Him, you will find Him
  • If you forsake Him, He will reject you.

Part of me wants to expound on that, but everything I think to write seems to dilute the above.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2019 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 27-29.

The account given here of King David naming his son Solomon as his successor and commissioning him to build the Temple is, on the surface, inconsistent with the accounts of Solomon becoming king given in 1 Kings. However, despite the inconsistencies between these two accounts, they are not contradictory. The account in 1 Kings emphasizes King David’s frailty and the political maneuvering which surrounded the end of his reign. The account here emphasizes that King David chose Solomon as his successor and put the force of his reputation behind the legitimacy of Solomon as king. More importantly, I think, the writer puts King David’s support behind King Solomon building the Temple. I believe that the writer attempts to more closely tie the Temple to King David than the account in 1 Kings did.
Having said all of that, I think if we read both passages in light of each other we can see how both could represent what happened. I was tempted to go into a discussion of how these two accounts fit together, but I think the messages in this passage are of more value.

God had chosen David to rule over His people and He chose Solomon to rule after him. Wherever we find ourselves in life and whatever success we have result from the fact that God has chosen us for that lot and that success. God intends for us to serve His purposes. That is why we are wherever we are and why we have the successes which we do. If we worship and serve God with all of our being, He will grant us great joy in all of our life and take care of all of our needs. God does not do this for us as payment for our service, because He does not need us. God rewards us for doing His will because it pleases Him to do so. We suffer when we reject His will because He has designed the world that way.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2018 Bible Study — Those Who Seek God Will Find Him, But He Will Reject Those Who Reject Him

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 27-29.

    The passage continues on from yesterday’s listing of the duties assigned to priests and Levites to list David’s other officers and officials. We see that David carefully delegated his authority in order to efficiently administer his kingdom. David also managed to balance the advantages of a trained army ready to fight at a moments notice with the liabilities of keeping a professional army by having units which served for 1 month out of the year. This allowed him to have enough men on hand to deal with any sudden military necessities without the expense, and other problems, of keeping an army of warriors busy year round. In addition, it left him with a pool of trained men to call upon when a larger force was needed..

    Considering the way in which Solomon was crowned, I am unsure how much of the address this passage says King David gave at Solomon’s coronation reflects what David actually said. However, there are still important words in it for us. There is a promise contained within which God will honor. Those who obey God’s commands wholly and completely will be secure in their land. God knows all of our thoughts and plans, no matter how cleverly hidden they may be, even if we have hidden them from ourselves. If we seek Him, we will find Him. If we seek to do His will, we will learn it and find the strength to do so. But there is an important codicil to this, if we reject God, He will reject us.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2017 Bible Study — Recognizing That All We Have Belongs To God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 27-29.

    As he was turning over his kingdom and the task of building a temple for God to his son Solomon, David gave Solomon some instructions. At the core of those instructions was the statement that if we seek God, we will find Him. This is a theme which is all throughout the Bible: those who truly seek God will find Him. Before David got to that statement he said some things which give us an understanding of what it means to seek God. David told Solomon to worship and serve God with a whole heart and a willing mind. There are those who claim that they are seeking God, but they are unwilling to truly serve Him, or in other cases their hearts are divided and they have other loyalties. If we are such people we will not truly find God. If we forsake God for other loyalties, He will let us go. God will not force His love on anyone.

    When David finished giving Solomon and the leaders of Israel instructions he prayed a prayer of praise. In that prayer he made a point which goes closely with his instruction about seeking God. We cannot truly give anything to God because everything is already His. We only have the things which we have because God has chosen to loan them to us. If we truly recognize this as true we will realize that having divided loyalties is pointless, because those things which we put ahead of God are subservient to God. Everything of value which we can have, whether it be physical, spiritual, or emotional, comes from God. Therefore we should be willing and eager to give it back to God for His use. We have nothing which did not first belong to God and if we willingly return it to Him, He will replace it with something of even greater value. This is where we face one of those great paradoxes of the Christian faith. If we give to God because He will replace what we give with something of greater value, we are not truly willingly giving…and we will have missed part of the value which God is offering us. It is only by recognizing in our hearts and not just in our minds that all we have belongs to God that we can fully experience the joy and value which God wishes to give to us.

Daily Bible Study

May 17, 2016 Bible Study — Using What We Have To Serve God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 27-29.

    The account here of the events leading up to Solomon’s coronation implies a contradiction to the account given in 1 Kings. I can think of an explanation which do not require this account to be false (there are probably others). It seems likely that after the emergency coronation of Solomon in response to his brother’s attempt to seize the throne that a second “official” coronation was held after the leaders from more distant areas were summoned. While it is unlikely that the King David described in 1 Kings at the time of Solomon’s coronation would have given an address to the assembly, it is conceivable that the address recorded here was given on his behalf. There is no inherent contradiction between the two accounts of Solomon’s coronation and the events leading up to it. We just have two writers who chose to record different aspects of it.

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    Regardless of the above there are two wonderful, related points made in David’s prayer of praise. First, we can give nothing to God that He does not already have. No matter how much wealth we have, that wealth came from God in the first place. We should not expect credit for spending some of the wealth which God has given us to do God’s work. Second, we have only a short time on this earth to serve God. Let us take advantage of the wealth and time which God has given us in order to serve Him joyously.