Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 20-23.

Today’s passage discusses the plague which descended upon Israel following David’s census.  I struggle with how to express my thoughts about the ending of the plague because the wording the writer uses to describe what happened is less than completely clear.  There was some kind of event which happened at the threshing floor of Araunah.  This event led David and his advisors to build an altar there and begin offering sacrifices.  What is not clear to me is whether we are to understand that the plague stopped there before or after David made an offering there.  One way of reading this passage is that David bought the threshing floor, built an altar upon it, and began making offerings there because the plague stopped there.  Another way of reading this is that God directed David to buy the threshing floor, build an altar upon it, and began making sacrifices there and that the plague stopped when David followed those instructions.  Whichever way we are supposed to understand these events, something clearly happened at the threshing floor because the passage tells us that David was unwilling to go past it to go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle and the altar which travelled through the wilderness with it were set up.  The passage says that David and his advisors saw an angel with a drawn sword extended over Jerusalem.  The passage also tells us that Araunah and his four sons saw the angel as well.  Perhaps the reason the passage seems to indicate both that the plague stopped before David offered sacrifices at the threshing floor and that the plague stopped because David sacrificed at the threshing floor is because the writer realized in hindsight that the plague had stopped before the sacrifices were made but that David and those around him did not know that when they made those sacrifices.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 17-19.

I am torn about whether to write about what God tells David about his idea for building a temple along with David’s prayer of response, or about the timeline of David’s conquests.  I am going to start with what God told David through Nathan and see where this goes.  First, God tells David that He will provide a place for His people so that they have a home where wicked people will not oppress them.  As I read that I think both of modern Israel, which is a home for the descendants of Jacob, and the new Heaven and new Earth which God has promised to those who follow His Son.  The latter is very definitely a fulfillment of this prophecy.  Modern Israel as a home for the Jewish people of today represents a foreshadowing of that much greater home which the new Heaven and Earth will be for all of God’s people.  God shows us again and again throughout history that until all people bow to His son, wicked people will arise again and again to oppress His people.

God goes on to tell David through Nathan that He will raise up one of David’s sons who will build a house for God.  God says that He will establish this son’s kingdom and will set this son of David over God’s house and God’s kingdom forever.  Now most would interpret this as referring to Solomon, and I think we are to understand this prophecy as being fulfilled by Solomon.  But we are also to understand that it was not truly fulfilled by Solomon.  For Solomon only lived for a normal lifespan, and upon his death, the kingdom of Israel was divided.  So, clearly this prophecy also applied to another descendant of David, who would be able to forever  rule over God’s house and God’s kingdom.  That prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus Christ who built a different house for God, a house composed of those who accepted Him into their hearts, and allowed His Spirit to transform them into God’s likeness, as God had intended from the beginning.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 13-16.

The first thing which struck me in today’s passage was that David left the Ark of the Covenant in the house of Obed-Edom for a mere three months.  Yet, that was long enough for people to note the way in which Obed-Edom and his family were blessed.  It took just three months for people to notice the difference which having the Ark of the Covenant made for Obed-Edom and his family.  The thing I am noting is not that the Ark of the Covenant was magical.  No, what I am noting is that being in the presence of God transforms us in a positive way.  So, when we turn to God, it does not take long for us to begin experiencing the blessings that come from being in His presence.

The other thing I took note of is that David’s two primary priests were Zadok and Abiathar.  At the end of David’s life, Abiathar supported Adonijah when he tried to make himself king when David could no longer govern, while Zadok opposed Adonijah and supported Solomon.  Now, very little of that is in today’s passage, but what is in today’s passage is that, after bringing the Ark into Jerusalem, David assigned Zadok to continue making offerings at Gibeon, where the tabernacle was set up.  So, Adonijah administered to the Lord in Jerusalem, the capital of David’s kingdom, while Zadok did the same in Gibeon.  By being in Gibeon, Zadok was away from the court intrigue which is prevalent in any capital.  I don’t know how much this had to do with Zadok and Abiathar being on opposite sides when Adonijah attempted to make himself king, since it appears that Zadok had moved to Jerusalem by the time Absalom tried to overthrow David.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 10-12.

In yesterday’s passage, at the beginning of chapter nine, it tells us that all Israel was taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.  Today’s passage begins with an account of Saul’s final battle, where he died.  It tells us that he died because he was unfaithful to the Lord.  Then it begins its account of David’s kingship.  It gives a short summary of how he became king and conquered Jerusalem in order to put his capital there.  Then it lists out the many mighty warriors who fought under his banner.  It starts by listing the Three and the Thirty, which appear to have been elite fighting units, but also appear to have been among his earliest supporters.  Then it lists men who came to follow him while he was in Ziklag, in Philistine country.  For whatever reason, the writer then gives a list of warriors who joined David’s warband while he was in the fortress in the wilderness, before he went to Ziklag.  It then goes back to mention some men who joined David when he marched with the Philistines to fight against Saul (and makes a note that David and his men did not join the fight against Saul because the Philistine leaders were afraid to have him and his men in their order of battle against Saul).  Finally, the writer lists the number of warriors sent from the various tribes to support making David king over all of Israel in place of King Saul.  I think the writer is making two points with this list of warriors who came to support David.  First, he tells us that David had a core group of men whose loyalty to David pre-dated him having any power, who began loyally following David when he was on the run from King Saul.  Second, the writer tells us that, from the beginning David had a larger army than Saul had for most of his reign.

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

ay, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 7-9.

Chapter seven lists the descendants of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, and Asher.  I assume the listing for Manasseh is intended to be for the half of the tribe which settled west of the Jordan River, since the half which settled east of the Jordan was listed previously.  I found it interesting that for some of these tribes it lists the number of fighting men which had been counted in a census, but not for all of them.  Additionally, it does not give us any idea when that number of fighting men from these various tribes was  obtained.  Once the list of tribal genealogies was finished the passage gives the family tree for Saul, both his ancestors and his descendants.  When it completes that it tells us that they were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.  Then the passage gives us a list of the first to return from the Babylonian Exile, which gives us an idea about when this book was compiled.  While it is clear that this book was compiled after the Israelites began returning after the Persian conquest of Babylon, it also seems clear to me that it was compiled from various records which they brought back with them.  In fact, this part reads as if the reason for making this compilation was that the records they were sourcing were partial and they were putting the information from those partial records here because they were afraid that if they were not combined those records would be lost.  The writer references other records which he seems to believe were more complete than the records he was compiling here.  Records which have since been lost, supporting his fear that these records might be lost if he did not put them all together.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 5-6.

Reading this list it seems to me that it exists, at least in part, in order to provide a baseline to which those who returned from Exile to connect the genealogical records which they had to those Israelites who lived in the land before the Exile.  It starts off by pointing out that Reuben forfeited his rights as firstborn and that those rights were passed on to Joseph.  In making that point it also says that this change impacted both of their descendants.  The other thing which struck me is that it makes a point of identifying from among the towns given to the Levites which ones were cities of Refuge, where someone guilty of accidentally killing another man could go to avoid the revenge of the dead man’s family.  The command to create Cities of Refuge is one of those which it is unclear from reading elsewhere if it was followed.  The fact that those who compiled the books of Chronicles knew which cities were Cities of Refuge indicates that it most certainly was followed.  It is also one of those things which acts as a counterpoint to those who claim that the Israelites were not a people distinct from the Canaanites.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 2-4.

The first thing I noticed today was that the list of Judah’s descendants at the beginning of chapter two only lists those who descended from his sons by Tamar.  It is only in chapter four, at the end of the list of Judah’s descendants, just before it discusses Simeon’s descendants, that there is any mention of Shelah’s descendants.  I don’t know if that is significant, but I took notice of that fact.  Also of interest is the mention of Jabez is verses nine and ten of chapter four.  There is a book written about Jabez, which to my mind makes more of these two verses than the text supports.  What I find most interesting about Jabez is that he is mentioned in a list of genealogies, but neither his father nor his sons are mentioned.  Even the reference to his brothers does not list them by name.  So, who was Jabez?  We don’t really know.  The passage tells us that he was more honorable than his brothers, but, since the passage does not tell us who his brothers were, that does not tell us much.  However, the passage also tells us that he asked God to enlarge his territory and that God granted his request.  So, while the book about Jabez’ prayer makes more of it than the passage supports, we can learn something from Jabez.  He was honorable and therefore when he asked God to bless him and expand his territory, God  granted his request..  So, if we are honorable in our dealings, we can be sure that God will bless us as well.

I use 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.

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.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 24-26.

So, as I have previously mentioned, passages such as today’s tend to make my eyes glaze over as I read them.  They are the perfect example of why I need to write this blog.  Since I need to write something about such passages, from time to time I notice things I might not otherwise notice.  Today, I took notice that the descendants of Obed-Edom were listed among the Levites.  I find that noteworthy because when Obed-Edom was mentioned as the person into whose care David put the ark of the covenant, it called him a Gittite.  Based on the other places where Gittite is used in the Old Testament, I had always assumed that a Gittite was a Philistine from Gath.  My first thought was that perhaps the Obed-Edom mentioned in 2 Samuel was a different person than this one.  However, this passage makes a point that God had blessed Obed-Edom, which is very similar to the wording of that David was told about the Obed-Edom in 2 Samuel.  So, I am confident that the Obed-Edom mentioned here is Obed-Edom the Gittite.  This leads me to conclude that Gittites were not necessarily Philistines.  Perhaps Ittai the Gittite who led the 600 warriors from Gath who joined King David at the beginning of Absalom’s rebellion was not a Philistine, or perhaps he was.  I will add that in King Saul’s first major victory over the Philistines, Hebrews who were in the Philistine army switched sides to ensure his victory.

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