Why Did God Inspire 1st and 2nd Chronicles?

Thank you, Dr. Ost, for having me. It's wonderful to be here. It's not my first time in Atlanta. I remember when I was a child, Dr. Ost mentioned going to the Atlanta Braves, the very first major league baseball game. My father ever took me to was the Atlanta Braves right here in Atlanta, and it was Hank Aaron's, if not his last season, it was next to or close to his last season playing. And I actually got to see Hank Aaron up to bat right here in Atlanta. It was my very first major league baseball game, and it made a huge impression on me. And for those of you my age and older will know who Hank Aaron is. Some of you may not have any idea who that is, but possibly one of the best major league baseball players. Definitely one of the best, maybe the best. I certainly liked Hank Aaron, so it's great to be here. For time's sake, I'll get right into the message, and the title of today's sermon is, Why Did God Inspire First and Second Chronicles? Why did God inspire First and Second Chronicles? It's going to be a bit of a nerdy sermon today, but I think you'll appreciate the point at the end.

Now, in the United Church of God, we have a very set tradition of leaning heavily on the Scriptures, and we based our messages on the Scriptures. Mr. Talbot based his sermonette this morning on Scriptures. So I'm going to start this message by telling a story, and you're not going to hear a lot of Scriptures, but don't worry. I will respect and honor our tradition. The message will be based on Scripture. You're just going to get those Scriptures at the end when you get the point. So the Scriptures are coming at the end. I have to tell you a story first, and then we'll get to the point. So why did God inspire the books that we call books, first and second chronicles? First and second chronicles often get overlooked because they seem to be a repeat of the content of first and second Samuel and first and second Kings. If a person already read Samuel and Kings, why would you read chronicles? I mean, honestly, why is it even in the Bible? It's the same story repeated. Why did God do that? This is the question that many people ask, and therefore they don't read it. But that would be a mistake. Because first and second chronicles are not just a repeat of Samuel and Kings. In fact, not by a long shot. Here are some facts about the book, or what we call books, of first and second chronicles. Originally it was one book.

Now it's two books. Probably broke it up so that we would read it in bite-sized chunks, which is fine. These facts come from BibleCharts.org. The book was written after the return from the Babylonian captivity and was possibly written by Ezra the scribe. In the Hebrew Bible, first and second chronicles were one book, not two. Although the perspective is different, the time period covered in first and second chronicles is the same time period of Jewish history or Israelite history described in 2 Samuel and 2 Kings. But 2 Samuel and first and second Kings give a, this is important, political history of Israel and Judah and were written from a prophetic and moral point of view. What does that mean? In other words, what people did, how God responded to it, and what the consequences were of their actions. That's first and second Samuel, first and second Kings. Prophetic and moral point of view.

Chronicles was not written from that perspective. Samuel and Kings go through a brief history of every king of the northern country Israel and the southern country Judah. They list how the people of God disobeyed God and often, sometimes they obeyed him but not very often, and in first and second Samuel and first and second Kings, God shows incredible patience with the people. You read that over and over again. Wow, God was patient! You and I would have wiped them out long before God did. Even the most patient among us, God is incredibly patient and tolerant. And they also show that God has justice. Both kingdoms of Israel and Judah are punished into exiles of other nations. I will stop and just mention really quick, that's one of the proofs of the Bible, by the way, that the Bible is authentic. Because there is no other nation around that actually writes of their defeat by their God and exile. Nobody does that. Not Egypt, not Babylon, not Assyria. Oh, they write how they conquered Israel, but they do not write anything about how they were conquered and punished by their gods and wiped out. But Israel did. Israel gave an honest history of their account. So, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings are written from a political point of view and from a prophetic and moral point of view. Chronicles is different. 1 and 2 Chronicles, they give a religious history of the divinic dynasty. In other words, King David's line. And it is written from a priestly and spiritual perspective.

What does that mean? For example, to show how Chronicles ignores human politics of ancient Israel, one could note that 1 Chronicles only gives one and a half chapters, which is part of chapter 9 and part of chapter 10, to King Saul, the first king of Israel.

Most of the rest of the book, or you could say books, focus on David. And both 1 and 2 Chronicles focus on two things heavily. King David and his line and the temple. Those two things. Keep that in mind. King David's line and the temple. Really important. So what's the big deal? What's the difference? Why is 1st and 2 Chronicles in the Bible? That's what I want to answer today in the sermon by reviewing one of the most important stories in the Bible.

Let's go all the way back to the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. And God makes a promise to Abraham that through his descendants all people would be blessed. This is the promise of a Savior, a Messiah, of Jesus Christ. The promise was not subject to the behavior of the descendants of Abraham. That's important. It was just a promise.

God made a promise. Whether the people obeyed or didn't obey, this was a promise from God. Through time, some of those descendants would obey God, but many times, in fact, most of the time, the descendants of Abraham did not obey God. The promise that God made to Abraham would still be carried out no matter what.

If the Israelites obeyed, God would keep his promise to Abraham. If they disobeyed, God would still keep his promise that he made to Abraham. This fact plays a huge role in the purpose of writing the book of Chronicles, or what we call first and second Chronicles. The next few books of the Bible after Genesis tell the story about Abraham's descendants became a family of a man whom God named Israel. Jacob, he changed the name to Israel. That family moves to Egypt, and they grew up to become a very large nation.

They were so large that they actually became a threat to their host country, Egypt. And so they were enslaved by the Egyptians, and then God miraculously sets them free. We all know this story. This is important. Through a man named Moses, God gave this nation a set of laws. These laws could not be paralleled by any set of laws that any other nation had ever seen. They were so fair and balanced. Without those laws, God gave the children of Israel, or with those laws, he gave the children of Israel a warning.

And we just heard the warning in the sermonette. In Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 15, or at least it was alluded to, he says, See, I have said before you today life and death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God and walk in His ways and keep His commandments, His statutes, His judgments, that you may live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.

But if you turn away so that you do not hear and are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan and you go into possess. I call heaven and earth as witness against you today. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them.

Now notice how Moses ties the promise of Abraham to the land that they're going to live in. And the children of Israel knew this verse very, very well. God promised that He would kick the descendants of Abraham out of this promised land if they did not obey God.

But let's notice what God did not say through Moses. God did not say that when the children of Israel disobeyed, then He would take the promises to Abraham away, that all nations would be blessed. God never says that one time. Therefore, even when the people disobey and leave God, God keeps His Word. Now here's the point of the sermon today, and I'm going to repeat it. God finishes what He starts. That's the point. God finishes what He starts. After Moses, God led this new, brand new nation of Israel back to the land that God gave to Abraham, through a successor named Joshua, and God helped them conquer the land. But throughout the history, most of Abraham's descendants would not obey God. In fact, they wouldn't even keep the Holy Days for many, many years. Generations would go by, and finally someone would uncover the book of the law, and they would restore the Passover, which means they weren't keeping it before. Through the books of Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, and many of the books that we call the books of prophecy that you find at the end of your Old Testament, we see how the people would disobey God, and then God would send an invading army in to punish them, and then God would send a messenger to warn the people to repent.

Then after the invading army oppressed the Israelites, the people would repent, and God would give them peace and prosperity. And this cycle of disobedience, invasion, repentance, and deliverance happened over and over and over again. Chronicles doesn't cover that. During this period of ancient Israel, God sent prophets to tell that there was a Messiah to come. And this was the promise that God had given to Abraham, and the same promise was eventually passed down to a man named David, who became the king. From there, from him, there would be an error that would save and bless the whole world, and thus this error of King David would reign forever. The people of Israel, both of the northern tribes and of Judah, they knew these prophecies well. They knew Isaiah chapter 2, chapter 9, chapter 11, and chapter 60. They knew Zechariah chapter 14. King David is very important to what we're studying today in 1st and 2nd Chronicles. Remember, 1st and 2nd Chronicles almost completely ignores the kings of Israel to the north. Chronicles only gives them passing mention when they come into contact to King David's line. That is very significant. After David died during the reign of Solomon, King David's son, a kind of religious freedom, was allowed in Israel. And so, altars to pagan gods were set up in high places all over God's promised land, just polluting the land with all kinds of pagan practices. God was so displeased after Solomon's death that the nation of Israel split into two nations, Israel to the north and Judah to the south. The northern kingdom would turn from God and get completely destroyed by a world-dominating superpower called Assyria. The southern kingdom would obey God periodically, sort of. They kept God's true religion and very, very importantly, they maintained the true temple of God, the place where people could go and meet God and get atonement for their sins. And they always kept one of King David's heirs on the throne as God had commanded. Now Judah did that, Israel did not. It was to be through one of King David's heirs that God would fulfill this great promise to Abraham. But eventually, the southern kingdom called Judah would become so rebellious to God that God had them conquered and taken out of the promised land and they became slaves in a country called Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah says about, for the reason for Judah's fall, let's go to Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 6. I told you there wouldn't be scriptures.

There'll be a couple up front. Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 6. The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, have you seen what backsliding Israel had done? Now Israel was the northern kingdom and this is addressed to the southern kingdom Judah. And God said, have you seen what the northern kingdom has done? She has gone up to every high mountain under every green tree and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, returned to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah, now that's the southern kingdom, saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which the backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I put her away, giving her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass through her casual harlotry that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stones and the trees. And yet for all this, her treachery sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart. But in pretense says the Lord. Then the Lord said to me, backsliding Israel shows herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. That should be a warning for us in the church today. Some people have completely left the truth, and they do not keep God's Word. But other people can keep God's Word, keep the true temple, the true Holy Days, and yet be more treacherous in God's eyes, more of a stench in his nostrils than those who have completely departed. We should take warning from this, and we need to note what happened to Judah because it plays right into why the book of Chronicles was written and what lesson we can draw from it today. So the southern kingdom that kept one of King David's heirs on the throne ended up being worse in obeying God than the northern kingdom, which was wiped out first. That had completely disobeyed God from the start. Everything that I just told you, you can find if you read the Bible in chronological order from Genesis to the book of 2 Kings. Israel as a nation was conquered, the land, you know, they went in and they took the land with Joshua. You can read all the way to 2 Kings, and these books are a lesson of how God deals with human behavior, both good and bad. But Chronicles isn't about how God deals with human behavior.

Chronicles is about what God does despite human behavior, and this is really neat to me. If you're nerdy like me, you'll really like this.

Those books, let's say Joshua to 2 Kings, they show how merciful God is, how willing he is to forgive. No matter what sin has been committed, as long as you repent, he's merciful. These first books of the Old Testament also tell that God will punish those who disobey him because he loves them too much to let them get away with living a horrible life. So he's loving either way. Whether he's showing mercy or he's punishing, he's doing it out of love. These books are awesome, but Chronicles is different. These... Joshua through 2 Kings were written almost at the time that their events happened, either at the time or just after the events occurred. And they were often a retelling from eyewitnesses. These were eyewitness accounts of the behavior of the children of Abraham. But then we come to this other set of books that seem to repeat the same story. Right in the middle of your Old Testament is the book of Chronicles, or our Bible splits into 1st and 2nd Chronicles, remember originally one book. Why do you think God had the whole story repeated? Chronicles, when you read it, starts all the way back with Adam. Half of the first book is a genealogy, very important, of the people of God that God worked through all the way down to King David. And then Chronicles stops the genealogy and it follows the family of King David, practically ignoring the northern kingdom of Israel. And it also closely follows what happens to the temple. Those two things are very important, as I've mentioned before. So what is the purpose of Chronicles? It is a very important book about the salvation of mankind, but most of us probably just think it's a repeat in the Old Testament. Sort of a, let's do a light historical overview just to make sure you got the point. And that is not why Chronicles was written.

Because history, or looking back, has nothing to do with the book of Chronicles.

As we will see, Chronicles points to the future in a very dramatic way. The other books look back at what happened from a historical point of view and give moral lessons. Chronicles is not about looking back. Chronicles looks forward. Very important. I would like to help us have a little bit better understanding of where First and Second Chronicles fits in the Bible and give us the reason why it's such an important book or set of two books, depending on how you look at it.

To start to understand it, we have to consider the time in which First and Second Chronicles was written. Unlike the books of Joshua and Judges and First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings, the Chronicles were not written while Israel existed as a nation. They were written long after Israel had been destroyed and long after the Temple had been destroyed. Even though God warned Israel that they would be removed from the land if they disobeyed Him, it must have been devastating to the people to actually see the Temple of God destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. So many people. The promises of God must have seemed to be absolutely failed. God's promises failed right before their eyes, and why the failure was because of them. Because they sinned, and they were warned over and over and over again, and all of a sudden their access to the great Creator God was cut off. There was no Temple. There was no access to God. Therefore, there was no way for the people to have atonement for sin. This was a huge problem. People were cut off from the mercy of God. They were cut off from salvation. Where were the promises that God gave to Abraham now? Where was the promised King that would always sit on David's throne? From a human perspective, which is almost always wrong, it must have seemed to have been all gone, all for nothing. No Temple, no air on the throne, all seemed to be lost. And it was their fault. They knew they were to blame.

This is the setting of when the books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles were written.

This was the mood in which it was written. The Chronicles were written about the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. In fact, many scholars believe that Ezra the scribe was the one who wrote the book. And, you know, it doesn't really matter who wrote the book. But, in fact, this particular chronicle skips over many of the events in the Bible that are very, very famous because it's not about morals. Let me give an example.

Chronicles skips things like David's great sin against God with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the Hittite. You will not find that in the book of Chronicles. The book of Chronicles doesn't mention Solomon's sins against God with all the pagan wives.

And many other things that are the focus from Joshua through 2nd Kings. But rather, Chronicles focuses tightly on those two things, the Temple and the line of David, who would be the heir to come. The Temple of God is where mankind would come to get forgiveness, and David's descendants were put in charge of building that temple and maintaining and protecting access to God.

That was a promise that God made to Abraham that was supposed to be fulfilled. But after the temple was destroyed and David's line was cut off, all hope of the promise given to Abraham would have seemed to be lost. That promise of mankind would be blessed through the seed of Abraham would have seemed to have been a failed promise. Now, instead of God ruling Israel, these huge world-ruling empires like Assyria, Babylon, Persia, they called the shots on what religion was allowed and what religion was denied.

Then, after Babylon, the Persian emperor Cyrus gives a decree. The temple of God of Israel was to be rebuilt. And after this decree, a man returned from captivity back to the land that God had promised Abraham. That man was likely Ezra, but it's not important who it was. And that man, guided by God, went through the records of ancient Israel and ancient Judah and chronicled the story of God's salvation plan for mankind. And what the book of Chronicles is, it starts with Adam and it draws a line through the people that God worked with to bring about his awesome plan. I'd like to read a quote from Bible Project.com titled Chronicles, Not Just to Repeat, How God Views Israel's History. Quote, The chronicler was living at a time when the Jewish people had long resettled Jerusalem after returning from Babylonian exile.

Things were okay, read Ezra, Nehemiah, or Malachi for a flavor of daily life in the period. But there was a growing awareness that God's ancient covenant promise to Abraham, Moses, and David, which were reaffirmed by the prophets, had not yet come to pass.

They awaited a messianic king of Isaiah who would rebuild the temple and invite all nations into the kingdom of God. But where is the new David? End quote.

At the very end of Chronicles, we are left with a message of hope.

In chapter 36 of 2 Chronicles, we read of the fall of Judah and the destruction of the temple. Let's pick it up in verse 17. 2 Chronicles chapter 36 verse 17. Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their young men with a sword in the house of the sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin.

On aged or weak he gave them all into his hand.

Verse 18. And the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord, the treasures of the king, and of the leaders, all these he took to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God, broke down the walls of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia.

To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath's, as long as she lay desolate to keep the Sabbath to fulfill 70 years.

Verse 22. Now in the first year of King Cyrus, King of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia.

So they made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, also put in writing, saying, Thus says King Cyrus, King of Persia, all kingdoms of the earth, the Lord God of heaven has given to me.

Now that was not a wrong statement. Cyrus pretty much controlled the known earth at that time.

Reading on, he says, and he has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Who is among you of all his people? May the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. What an interesting question that God put into the mouth of the Persian king.

You see, Chronicles is a bridge between the destruction of the temple, the removal of the line of David, and the rebuilding of the temple.

The chronicle shows that God will finish what he starts. Even if people disobey him, and they will disobey him, God will complete his plan. Mankind, you and I specifically, we get off track. But God never does. He never gets distracted. He never loses focus of his plan. No matter what we do, he never breaks a promise that he makes. And this should give us great hope.

But wait a minute. What about the line of King David?

The chronicle doesn't mention its restoration.

It doesn't mention it because David's line had not been restored yet when this book was written. The temple was about to be rebuilt, but David's line was not on the throne. The other half of the story isn't picked up until the book of Matthew. And it's very similar to the way Chronicles is written. The book of Matthew starts with a genealogy, the genealogy of a man named Abraham.

And here's the dramatic part in my view. I realize I'm a nerd, but I think this is really awesome. The book of 1st and 2nd Chronicles are the last two books in the Jewish canon of the Old Testament.

And in Romans chapter 3 and verse 2, the Apostle Paul gives credibility to the Jews being the keepers of the Old Testament, where he says that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

So the apostles give the Jews credit for retaining the Old Testament.

So if 2nd Chronicles is the last book of the Old Testament, not Malachi as we have it, then the Old Testament ends with a question. The last words of the Old Testament are a question from a Persian king named Cyrus, which are, who is among you of all his people?

May the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. The purpose for him going up is to build that temple. The last statement in the Old Testament is, who is among you from all his people? The answer to that question amazingly is in the very first statement of the New Testament.

The Old Testament ends with a question. The New Testament begins with the answer. And just like the chronicler, it starts with a genealogy.

We read the answer to Cyrus's question. According to the Jews, in the last statement of the Hebrew Scriptures, the question is, who among you of all his people?

Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1. Here's the answer. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now drop down to verse 17.

So all generations of Abraham to David are 14 generations.

From David until the captivity of Babylon, 14 generations.

From the captivity of Babylon until Christ are 14 generations. And now the lines are connected. It could be said that the book of Chronicles is actually completed by the first chapter in the book of Matthew. Jesus Christ is the descendant of David.

He did become our savior at his death, and he now sits at the right hand of God on a throne. He is in the process of building the true permanent temple, his church. You and I are part of that temple. Let's read that.

1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16. Paul encourages the Corinthian congregation. Do you not know that you are the temple of God?

And that the Spirit of God dwells in you? When they rebuilt that temple coming back from the Babylonian captivity, when Cyrus let them go to rebuild the temple, God's Spirit never reentered that temple. Because that was not the temple that was going to be the permanent temple. You are. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are.

Thus, through Jesus Christ, both promises given to Abraham and to King David are fulfilled.

And all of this happened despite the fact that ancient Israel disobeyed God and had to be punished going into exile, losing the temple, which was their access to God, and losing the promised permanent line of King David. Or so they thought. But God finishes what he starts.

No matter how we behave, he is faithful. Right in the middle of the Old Testament are the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles. And at first glance, they seem to be a simple repetition of the story of the children of Abraham. Like, hey, you just read this story. So, just to make you really bored in the Bible, I want you to read it again. But when you consider when the books were written and what it focuses on, we start to understand that this book is about the salvation of mankind.

And it shows that God finishes what he starts. So, 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings show God is very patient with a very disobedient people. And it's a warning as we look back that God will intervene and punish those who disobey him so that he might save them for all of eternity. And that's what we get out of those books. But 1 and 2 Chronicles take those same exact events and instead of looking back, propels our vision forward, looking for the fulfillment and the promise that God made to Abraham in spite of mankind's sins.

God finishes what he starts. I don't know if I said that already. And no one can ever get in his way.

He will deal with our sins and correct us when we need to be corrected. Deuteronomy 8 and 5.

So God's punishment, in other words, the trials that we often go through, are done out of love for us. But sometimes, brethren, sometimes, those trials can make you feel like God has forgotten you. Maybe you messed up too much this time.

You know God is good, but maybe you're just too bad. Too worthless. We humans tend to despair like that sometimes in a sense of self-loathing, self-pity, if you will. You know, no. Our sins do not change the nature of God. Not one bit. He loves us. Even when he's punishing us, he's doing it out of love. You don't go through trials because you're worthless. Just the opposite, in fact.

You go through them because you are very special, very loved, a precious son or daughter of God.

James chapter 1 verse 2. I'm going to read this from the English Standard Version. It's more American conversational. James 1 verse 2. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. That's what God wants.

You're not worthless. God wants you, lacking nothing, to live in his family forever.

And when the ancient Israelites were banished and the temple was destroyed, it must have felt like they were too disgusting to be loved. That God has changed his mind about them.

The chronicle shows us that God never does that. James chapter 1 verse 17. Every good gift and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. God won't change his mind about you. So when you feel that you are being punished, repent. Be sorry and turn back. Don't get angry with God and self-loathing toward yourself. It's not the solution. God is a faithful God. 1 John chapter 1.

1 John chapter 1 verse 8. First, I barely had any scriptures. Now I'm throwing scriptures at you like it's a machine gun. 1 John chapter 1 verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, listen to this statement and believe it.

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from, hear this, all unrighteousness.

You're not worthless to God. Your sins, yes, they will be punished, but not because you're disgusting. He's not disgusted with you, only with your sins. Only the things that make you, his very special son or daughter, dirty. So his punishment is just him cleaning you back up.

It's kind of like taking a bath. God has started something in you. You are the temple and God will finish his work in you. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

If you ever doubt that, read Chronicles and remember God always looks forward.

He keeps his promises and he always finishes what he starts.