WWUTT 579 Introduction to 1 Chronicles?

In our study of the Old Testament, we have seen the people of Israel exiled to their enemies. Now we're going to skip ahead to a time in which they've been restored to the land and they're looking back on where they went wrong and God made right when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When We Understand the Text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. It is Thursday when we do our Old Testament study. Last week, we finished up 1 and 2

Kings, so where are we next in the order? 1 and 2 Chronicles. But this is going to go a little bit different than our read through 1 and 2

Kings. Why is that? Well, for a couple of reasons. This will still be exegetical, but I'm not quite going to go verse by verse through this.

Number one, because some of the events that we're reading in 1 and 2 Chronicles, we've already read in 1 and 2

Kings. So it's not necessary for me to read it again, but I'll summarize the event and then include the details that we didn't get in 1 and 2

Kings. Second reason why I'm not going to go verse by verse through this, and it should be the obvious reason,

I'm not going to read every single name in these genealogies, especially in these opening dozen chapters or so of 1

Chronicles, where it's almost nothing but names. Today, we're going to end up knocking out about 9 or 10 chapters, because I'll summarize the reason for the names, why they're being given in the way that they are, and also some of the other events and details that are kind of sprinkled throughout the lists of the genealogies.

But going through all of this name by name is not going to be all that interesting for you, especially if you listen to this podcast while you're driving in the car, it will put you to sleep.

And I'm not so great on pronouncing the names anyway. So we'll give a reason and an occasion for why the names are given, and if you want to read it name by name, verse by verse, then

I would encourage you to open up your Bible and do so. I did that before sitting down to explain what's going on here in 1 and 2

Chronicles. So let's talk about the background a little bit. What is the reason and the occasion for this book?

Why is it or how is it different from 1 and 2 Kings? Well, of course, there's the list of names, which we don't get as much in the books of the

Kings or in 1 or 2 Samuel or in Judges for that matter. So why these names?

What's the reason for listing the fathers and the sons all the way through these generations that are given?

Well, this was written during a post -exilic period. This is after the time of Israel's exile.

So you have Judah and all the tribes of Israel were exiled out of the promised land because they had sinned against God.

They had worshipped the false gods of the pagans. So God punished them by turning them over to the hands of their enemies.

They've served the time of their exile, and now they have returned to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.

And then 1 and 2 Chronicles was written shortly after that. Now Jewish tradition would hold that the books of the

Chronicles were written during the time of Ezra, and in fact, he may have even had his hand in writing it.

But later scholarship doesn't necessarily accept that as the case. Why? Because there's a few passages in both 1 and 2

Chronicles that include passages from Ezra and Nehemiah. So that would suggest 1 and 2

Chronicles were written after that. Plus, you have a list of post -exilic

Davidic descendants in 1 Chronicles 3. And the only explanation for that would be that either 1

Chronicles was amended or revised at a later time, or the most likely explanation is that 1 and 2

Chronicles was just written later. That would put its writing sometime around 400 BC, which is about 30 years after Nehemiah.

And the point of this work, the reason why it was written and compiled, and includes all the names that it does, is to point out the significance of the

Davidic covenant as the hope of Israel. Why were they not destroyed while they were in exile?

Why were they allowed to come back to this place and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and also the temple?

And so you now have the second temple period. Why did God allow them to do that?

Because he is fulfilling the promise that he gave to his servant

David. And since the Davidic covenant is the central theme to the book of 1 and 2 Chronicles, it's necessary for us to be reminded what that covenant is.

You can read the full covenant in 2 Samuel chapter 7, but let me give you the summarized covenant as it is illustrated in 1

Chronicles chapter 17. And I will appoint a place for my people

Israel, and I will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.

And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people

Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I will declare to you that the

Lord will build you a house. 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.

He shall build a house for me, and 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 from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.

Now understand something about the Davidic covenant here. That's not talking about Solomon. The Davidic covenant is not about Solomon, just like the

Proto -Evangelium was never about Cain. Do you understand what I mean by that? So in the book of Genesis, and all of this is relevant because we actually go all the way back to Adam at the start of 1

Chronicles 1. In Genesis 3 is where we read about the fall of man.

Adam and Eve sinned against God, Eve was tempted by the serpent, and so God curses all three. And in the curse to the serpent, in Genesis 3 .15,

God says this, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. This is referred to as the

Proto -Evangelium, because it is the first declaration of the gospel, the good news that God will provide a deliverer through the offspring of the woman.

Now Eve thought that deliverer was Cain, her firstborn son, because that was her offspring.

But then Cain killed Abel, and she realized that he was not the one who was going to deliver mankind from the devil's schemes.

In Genesis 4 .25, it says, And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name

Seth, a name which means God appointed. For she said,

God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.

This is, these are the words of a mother with a broken heart. Not only has evil come about in her sons as a result of the fall, because she knew that she and Adam had sinned, but also because neither

Cain nor Abel were the deliverer that God had promised. It would be through the line of Seth.

He would be the promised seed, not the firstborn son, but now the thirdborn son. And from Seth, you get to eventually

Noah, the only righteous man on earth at the time that God had destroyed all of mankind in their wickedness in the worldwide flood.

Noah was spared along with his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives, eight people aboard an ark with a bunch of animals.

And then when the ark ran up, ran upon Mount Ararat, everybody came off the ark.

All of mankind started over afresh. It is through the line of Shem that God would eventually bring about Abraham, who would be the father of many nations.

Abraham's first sons were Ishmael, the illegitimate born son, and then

Isaac. The promised seed was Isaac. Then Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau.

Esau was the firstborn, and he was the favored by Isaac. But God had intended that the promised seed would be through Jacob.

Jacob had many sons. His favorites were Joseph and Benjamin, the sons that were born from his favorite wife, who was

Rachel. His oldest son was Reuben. Not only would Joseph and Benjamin not be the promised seed, but the oldest son

Reuben also would not be the promised seed. That would be Judah, the fourth born son.

And it is from the line of Judah we would eventually come to the Messiah. All of this is relevant. All of this relevant to First and Second Chronicles.

So again, going all the way back to the Proto -Evangelium in Genesis chapter three, Cain was not the promised seed.

Neither was Abel, but it was Seth. And so then you fast forward all the way through to the

Davidic covenant. When God gave that covenant to David, it was likely assumed that Solomon was the one who was going to be the fulfillment of that covenant.

And he indeed was one of the most successful kings ever in Israel. Even more successful than his father

David, for he got the chance to build the very temple of God. Israel experienced decades of peace, and Solomon was a wealthy and a wise king.

Probably the wealthiest and wisest king there ever was anywhere. But then

Solomon fell out of favor with God when he started worshiping false gods. He had many wives.

Many of those wives were pagan. And so his heart went after his pagan wives and their pagan gods.

And he erected temples to those false gods. And so God took

Solomon's inheritance away from him. And he would not be removed from the throne, but the kingdom would split among Solomon's sons.

And then you would have the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom was Judah, and the throne of David would continue there.

But because Solomon started worshiping false gods and fell out of favor with God, that made it evident that Solomon was not the fulfillment of the

Davidic covenant. There would be another whose throne God would establish forever.

And I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, meaning

Saul. But I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.

Clearly that's not Solomon. Whose throne is established forever? Jesus Christ.

And so the reason why Judah was not destroyed during their exile, but was allowed to come back and rebuild

Jerusalem and the temple, was because God was showing his faithfulness to the promise that he made to David.

And that covenant promise had not yet come to fulfillment. And so this becomes the theme of 1 and 2

Chronicles because it is the hope of Israel. They are still looking forward to a king who is the fulfillment of the

Davidic covenant. That's the theme to 1 and 2 Chronicles. Now we know because we know the

Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we know the fulfillment of or the apex of this story is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. So we know that that is the fulfillment of the promise. But at this particular time, the people of Israel and Judah don't know that.

They're still anticipating that fulfillment. And they are rejoicing in God that he has been faithful to his promises and indeed restored them back to the land, even though that's not what they deserved.

They deserve to be destroyed in their exile. But they are praising God that he has been faithful to them, even though they were not faithful to him.

So as the history of Israel and Judah are being recounted here in 1 and 2

Chronicles, there is this explicit theme of either seeking

God or forsaking him. And seeking God means to orient one's life toward him in active faith and obedience, diligent in fulfilling the commands that God has commanded his people to follow.

That's seeking after God. So when we read in Romans 311 that no one seeks God, it means that in our fallen state, if left to ourselves, we would not want to orient our lives around God.

And that's what ended up happening with Israel and Judah. They did not want to seek a life that was focused entirely upon God.

Instead, they wanted self -serving gods, which was what they they worship, the false gods of the pagans that were around them.

So because that became the attitude of the people, God turned them over to their enemies. 1 and 2

Chronicles is a little bit more populist than 1 and 2

Kings was. That's in the very name. So in 1 and 2 Kings, we were focused mostly on the kings.

In 1 and 2 Chronicles, it's going to be more about the people and that their very hearts needed to be turned toward the

Lord. Or we'll be talking about hearts that had forsaken God so that the people of Israel would not repeat the same mistakes and instead would love the

Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, as God had instructed them to do all the way back in the law in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

So our main themes are the Davidic covenant and also the people of God or the people of Israel.

And then finally, the third main theme is the temple. The temple is going to loom large in 1 and 2

Chronicles just like it did in 1 and 2 Kings, but probably more so. And we'll talk about that a little bit more as we go on.

So I mentioned here that we're going to brush through a few chapters here very quickly. I'm already 15 minutes into the program that was just talking about the main central themes behind 1 and 2

Chronicles. So yeah, let's blow through a few of these chapters real fast. So some of this I've already explained.

We start in 1 Chronicles chapter 1 with Adam. That's the very first word. That's the very first name.

We start with Adam because the chronicler means to show how God has always preserved for himself a people and that the people of Israel are the people that God chose from the very dawn of man to be his people, to be set apart from all other people.

This was so the people of Israel would celebrate and rejoice in being the people of God and understand their significance in God's plan.

Because remember, the Davidic covenant is going to be a central theme here. This is a fulfillment of the plan of God, his faithfulness to his own promises.

So we start with Adam. We go through all the way to Noah and then

Shem, Ham, and Japheth. You have the sons of Japheth. You have the sons of Ham, which would eventually lead to Nimrod.

You've got the whole Tower of Babel saga that would happen there. Also, you would have the Egyptians that would be descended from there.

Then you've got Canaan, the Canaanites. And then in verse 17, you get to the sons of Shem.

So it's kind of like it mentions all of the other people that lead to tribes and other nations before getting to the one of the most significance.

And that's going to be the son that God chose, the promised seed that would eventually lead to the place where the people are now.

So then you have the sons of Shem. And then you've got

Abraham mentioned in chapter or I'm sorry, verse 24. Then you have the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, and their genealogies are given.

Verse 34, Abraham fathered Isaac, the sons of Isaac, Esau and Israel. Then you have the sons of Esau.

And then you go down until you get to the Edomites, which were the descendants of Esau.

And then the chiefs of Edom, even mentioning the kings of Edom, closing verses of chapter one.

Then you get to chapter two, and it's the listing of Israel, Israel being another name for Jacob.

These are the sons of Israel. Then you've got the tribes that are listed there. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

And then you have the sons of Judah. So now we're getting into the specifics of the tribes of Israel.

The first one that's mentioned is Judah. And then the next one, Judah goes all the way through like three chapters here.

Chapters two, three and halfway through four. And then you've got Simeon or the remnant of Simeon that kind of gets merged in with Judah.

And that's in the latter half of chapter four. Then in all of chapter five, you've got the trans

Jordanian tribes, which would be those tribes that were to the east of the Jordan River.

And then you've got Levi, the tribe of Levi in chapter six occupies all of that chapter. And then you've got the northern tribes in chapter seven.

And then you've got Benjamin in chapter eight. So the main emphasis here in these list of names in the genealogies that are given are

Judah, Levi and Benjamin. The most amount of space is committed to those three tribes.

Why would that be? Well, again, the Davidic covenant is a central theme in First and Second Chronicles.

And David was of which tribe? Judah. So that southern kingdom where the throne of David is there in Jerusalem, Benjamin was part of that southern kingdom.

Simeon also kind of got merged in with them. And the tribe of Levi is the spiritual heart of the nation of Israel.

So spiritual restoration is going to be dependent upon Levi during a post -exilic time, which is, again, when

First and Second Chronicles was written. And so there's emphasis given to the tribe of Levi because of their importance to Israel's spiritual restoration.

When we get to the genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin in chapter eight, it's actually presented as a genealogy of Saul.

And that's important to the whole concept of the Davidic covenant, because remember, Saul is mentioned in that covenant.

Because remember, in First Chronicles 17, 13, it says, I will be to him a father. He shall be to me a son.

I will not take my steadfast love from him as I took it from him who was before you.

So since that's an important aspect of the Davidic covenant, then

Saul gets mentioned again in First and Second Chronicles. Now, he's not as central a figure as he was like in First Samuel, but you have the genealogy of Saul as the genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin in First Chronicles chapter eight.

And then you have the genealogy of the returned exiles in chapter nine.

And so again, that kind of creates this picture of we're looking back at something. The chronicler is definitely not trying to present to us a story in the present tense.

But we have already been returned to our land from exile. And here is the genealogy of those who returned from exile.

That's chapter nine. And then at the end of chapter nine, we have Saul's genealogy repeated before we get to the death of Saul and his sons in chapter 10.

And that kind of becomes the narrative portion or that begins the narrative portion of First Chronicles.

So that's where we're going to go next week. I'm going to jump back through these chapters that I have just brushed over real quickly.

I'll grab some individual verses that I consider to be significant, and then we'll get into the narrative portion of First Chronicles chapter 10.

So what do we take away from what we've studied today as far as an overview of First and Second Chronicles is concerned?

Well, let me read this to you from Second Timothy, chapter two, beginning in verse eight. The Apostle Paul writes,

Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David as preached in my gospel, for which

I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

The saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

The nation of Israel was the nation that God chose for himself out of all the other nations on earth, which were descended from one man,

Adam. And even when this people that God had chosen were faithless against God, he remained faithful to them because of his promise that he had made to himself.

He cannot deny himself. So God was faithful to his servant David and the covenant promise that he made with David and restored the people from the time of their exile.

And so this is the case with you and me as well. You have been blood bought by Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave.

You belong to him and God will be faithful to himself. Since you are sealed in the

Holy Spirit of God, you cannot fall out of favor with God. That is a wonderful, blessed assurance.

So rejoice in that today. The land that you have been given is not some plot that exists on the eastern portion of the

Mediterranean Sea, but it is a heavenly kingdom that you have been guaranteed as a fellow heir with Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

As Todd Friel concludes his program, Wretched Every Day, go and serve your

King. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.