Ideal Kingdom 2: 2 Chr 1-9
2 Chronicles 1:1-9:31
Solomon Worships at Gibeon
Solomon the son of David established himself in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.
2 Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to all the leaders in all Israel, the heads of fathers’ houses. 3 And Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon, for the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness, was there. 4 (But David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.) 5 Moreover, the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of the Lord. And Solomon and the assembly sought it out. 6 And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
Solomon Prays for Wisdom
7 In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.” 8 And Solomon said to God, “You have shown great and steadfast love to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9 O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?” 11 God answered Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king, 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have the like.” 13 So Solomon came from the high place at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem. And he reigned over Israel.
Solomon Given Wealth
14 Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 15 And the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 16 And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders would buy them from Kue for a price. 17 They imported a chariot from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. Likewise through them these were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.
Preparing to Build the Temple
Now Solomon purposed to build a temple for the name of the Lord, and a royal palace for himself. 2 And Solomon assigned 70,000 men to bear burdens and 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 to oversee them. 3 And Solomon sent word to Hiram the king of Tyre: “As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedar to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me. 4 Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the Lord my God and dedicate it to him for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him, and for the regular arrangement of the showbread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and the new moons and the appointed feasts of the Lord our God, as ordained forever for Israel. 5 The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6 But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? 7 So now send me a man skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to be with the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. 8 Send me also cedar, cypress, and algum timber from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon. And my servants will be with your servants, 9 to prepare timber for me in abundance, for the house I am to build will be great and wonderful. 10 I will give for your servants, the woodsmen who cut timber, 20,000 cors of crushed wheat, 20,000 cors of barley, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil.”
11 Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in a letter that he sent to Solomon, “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you king over them.” 12 Hiram also said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given King David a wise son, who has discretion and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.
13 “Now I have sent a skilled man, who has understanding, Huram-abi, 14 the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your craftsmen, the craftsmen of my lord, David your father. 15 Now therefore the wheat and barley, oil and wine, of which my lord has spoken, let him send to his servants. 16 And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, so that you may take it up to Jerusalem.”
17 Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600. 18 Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work.
Solomon Builds the Temple
Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. 3 These are Solomon’s measurements for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. 4 The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, equal to the width of the house, and its height was 120 cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. 5 The nave he lined with cypress and covered it with fine gold and made palms and chains on it. 6 He adorned the house with settings of precious stones. The gold was gold of Parvaim. 7 So he lined the house with gold—its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors—and he carved cherubim on the walls.
8 And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length, corresponding to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and its breadth was twenty cubits. He overlaid it with 600 talents of fine gold. 9 The weight of gold for the nails was fifty shekels. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
10 In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim of wood and overlaid them with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim together extended twenty cubits: one wing of the one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub; 12 and of this cherub, one wing, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, also of five cubits, was joined to the wing of the first cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. The cherubim stood on their feet, facing the nave. 14 And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and he worked cherubim on it.
15 In front of the house he made two pillars thirty-five cubits high, with a capital of five cubits on the top of each. 16 He made chains like a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars, and he made a hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains. 17 He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south, the other on the north; that on the south he called Jachin, and that on the north Boaz.
The Temple’s Furnishings
He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. 2 Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. 3 Under it were figures of gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast. 4 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward. 5 Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths. 6 He also made ten basins in which to wash, and set five on the south side, and five on the north side. In these they were to rinse off what was used for the burnt offering, and the sea was for the priests to wash in.
7 And he made ten golden lampstands as prescribed, and set them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. 8 He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south side and five on the north. And he made a hundred basins of gold. 9 He made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court and overlaid their doors with bronze. 10 And he set the sea at the southeast corner of the house.
11 Hiram also made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of God: 12 the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals on the top of the pillars; and the two latticeworks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; 13 and the 400 pomegranates for the two latticeworks, two rows of pomegranates for each latticework, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars. 14 He made the stands also, and the basins on the stands, 15 and the one sea, and the twelve oxen underneath it. 16 The pots, the shovels, the forks, and all the equipment for these Huram-abi made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the Lord. 17 In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah. 18 Solomon made all these things in great quantities, for the weight of the bronze was not sought.
19 So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God: the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the Presence, 20 the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary, as prescribed; 21 the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of purest gold; 22 the snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and fire pans, of pure gold, and the sockets of the temple, for the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and for the doors of the nave of the temple were of gold.
Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.
The Ark Brought to the Temple
2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. 3 And all the men of Israel assembled before the king at the feast that is in the seventh month. 4 And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. 5 And they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up. 6 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. 7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. 8 The cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. 9 And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. 10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt. 11 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; 13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever,”
the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
Solomon Blesses the People
Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 2 But I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.” 3 Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. 4 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying, 5 ‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there, and I chose no man as prince over my people Israel; 6 but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ 7 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. 9 Nevertheless, it is not you who shall build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ 10 Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made. For I have risen in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 11 And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”
Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication
12 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 13 Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven, 14 and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart, 15 who have kept with your servant David my father what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day. 16 Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father what you have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.’ 17 Now therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you have spoken to your servant David.
18 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! 19 Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, 20 that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have promised to set your name, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 21 And listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen from heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
22 “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, 23 then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants, repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
24 “If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and they turn again and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers.
26 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, 27 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.
28 “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemies besiege them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, 29 whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hands toward this house, 30 then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind, 31 that they may fear you and walk in your ways all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers.
32 “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for the sake of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this house, 33 hear from heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.
34 “If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.
36 “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near, 37 yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ 38 if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity to which they were carried captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 39 then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. 40 Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.
41 “And now arise, O Lord God, and go to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might.
Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.
42 O Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one!
Remember your steadfast love for David your servant.”
Fire from Heaven
As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord‘s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
The Dedication of the Temple
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord. 5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6 The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his steadfast love endures forever—whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets, and all Israel stood.
7 And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat.
8 At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt. 9 And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the prosperity that the Lord had granted to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.
If My People Pray
11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 17 And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, 18 then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’
19 “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”
Solomon’s Accomplishments
At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, 2 Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hiram had given to him, and settled the people of Israel in them.
3 And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and took it. 4 He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the store cities that he built in Hamath. 5 He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, 6 and Baalath, and all the store cities that Solomon had and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 7 All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, 8 from their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed—these Solomon drafted as forced labor, and so they are to this day. 9 But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work; they were soldiers, and his officers, the commanders of his chariots, and his horsemen. 10 And these were the chief officers of King Solomon, 250, who exercised authority over the people.
11 Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”
12 Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built before the vestibule, 13 as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. 14 According to the ruling of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions at each gate, for so David the man of God had commanded. 15 And they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries.
16 Thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.
17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom. 18 And Hiram sent to him by the hand of his servants ships and servants familiar with the sea, and they went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and brought from there 450 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.
The Queen of Sheba
Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 2 And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her. 3 And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 4 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
5 And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, 6 but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report that I heard. 7 Happy are your men! Happy are these your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 8 Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God! Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” 9 Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
10 Moreover, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones. 11 And the king made from the algum wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers. There never was seen the like of them before in the land of Judah.
12 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.
Solomon’s Wealth
13 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 14 besides that which the explorers and merchants brought. And all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land brought gold and silver to Solomon. 15 King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of beaten gold went into each shield. 16 And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; 300 shekels of gold went into each shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 17 The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. 18 The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were attached to the throne, and on each side of the seat were armrests and two lions standing beside the armrests, 19 while twelve lions stood there, one on each end of a step on the six steps. Nothing like it was ever made for any kingdom. 20 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 21 For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram. Once every three years the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
22 Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 23 And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 24 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and of gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. 25 And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 26 And he ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. 27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 28 And horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.
Solomon’s Death
29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are they not written in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat? 30 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. 31 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
This transcript has been automatically generated
Well, good morning everybody.
What I’m going to try and do is give us one verse to have as a kind of key verse each morning. And if yesterday’s morning was, whoever is among you of his people, may the Lord his God be with him, arise, then today’s verse is chapter 29, verse 9. Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely. David the king also rejoiced greatly. It’s a beautifully crafted verse.
The people rejoiced, David the king rejoiced. They had given willingly, they had offered freely. With a whole heart.
I spent some time again on the calculator over the preparation for this talk. I believe gold is currently just over £143 a troy ounce, let’s call it, sorry, £943, let’s call it £950. Silver, £10 to £12 an ounce. David funded the building of the temple from the civic treasuries of the kingdom. You can see that in verses 1 and 2.
But in verses 3 and 5 of chapter 29, he also provided his personal wealth. 3,000 talents of gold is 3,600,000 ounces, and in today’s prices, he gave £3.4 billion to the building of the Temple. Notice the reason there in verse 3, because of my devotion. So here is a king who gives himself absolutely and unreservedly, selflessly and sacrificially, to the work of God’s temple. It is his great project and his greatest achievement.
With what response? Then the people rejoiced, because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely. To the Lord, David the king also rejoiced greatly. And what I wanted to see this morning is that our editor, aka Ed, has laid out for us a cause worth getting out of bed for. There is a project worth sinking all our assets into.
And his aim in chapter 10 of 1 Chronicles through to chapter 9 of 2 Chronicles is, if you like, to showcase God’s kingdom for us by showing us God’s king David and the aspects of the ideal kingdom which he wants his readers to focus upon and get behind, supremely the work of the Temple. Which in our terms is the Church of the Living God. And so what does it mean to arise? Well, today we’re going to begin to see. And for anybody who wasn’t here yesterday, let’s just put up those slides for a second.
In chapters 1 to 9 of 1 Chronicles, the Chronicler lays out for us in these genealogies the chief concerns of the whole work through his genealogical record. And the concerns are royalty, that’s King David, divinity, that is the temple and God’s presence, and thirdly, the unity of God’s people. And then from 1 Chronicles chapter 10 through to 2 Chronicles chapter 9, we have, if you like, the golden age. And it really was the golden age. I mean, just reading that, You can see it was the golden age.
The wealth and splendour and glory of the kingdom is extraordinary. And so in these 2 mornings, they’re really important mornings for us, I hope we will be thrilled afresh with the glory of God. And then for slide 3, from 2 Chronicles chapter 10, 11, What happens is the Chronicler then charts the divided kingdom, focusing primarily, in fact really only, on Judah. But we learn lessons from the mistakes and successes of a series of 20 kings. We’ll be looking at that on Tuesday and Wednesday.
And then comes the exile and the final chapters of 2 Chronicles, which we’ll be looking at on Thursday morning. But of course the book finishes with Cyrus’ edict summoning the people to come back up to Israel, and that’s slide 6, the edict, arise. And our author is writing 500 years— sorry, 100 years beyond that. So our author is writing in 438, 400 BC to the people who had arisen and had come up and summoning others from the scattered nations who had not yet arisen and come up. And so what we’ve got in 1 and 2 Chronicles is a, is a 2,400-year-old book that is looking back 500 years to the Golden Age, to the divided kingdom, and to the exile, and calling on God’s people to arise.
Well, today it’s a big ask, and I had to make a decision as quite where to put David’s plans for the temple, either with tomorrow or with today. And I’ve gone for today because it’s early in the week. And we’re going to cover 20 chapters. It’s the most stretching of all our talks. And the chapters are divided essentially into 3: chapters 10 to 12, the king and his kingdom; chapters 13 to 16, the king and his God; and chapters 17 to 29, the king and the temple.
We’ll just touch briefly on the last. Section. First then, the king and God’s kingdom. If you’d turn back now to chapter 10 of 1 Chronicles.
And straight away what I’ve done is given us, I hope, a little bit of an insight into our editor’s office. So we’re in his studio in that box there under point number 1, the king and his kingdom, chapters 10 through 12. And you will see that the editor has sliced or slashed out Saul’s decline and fall, the struggle after Saul and the 7-year rule in Hebron. So 1 Samuel records over 22 chapters of the struggle between Saul and David prior to Saul’s death. There’s none of that here.
And 2 Samuel sees a significant struggle following Saul’s death before David is enthroned. There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, is what Samuel says. And there’s none of that here. And 2 Samuel records David’s 7-year reign from Hebron before he went up to Jerusalem, and there’s none of that here. What our author is concerned with is the heart of God’s ideal king, that is the king, the bullet point there, the job description of God’s ideal king, that is the shepherd, bullet point 2, And the capital city, his secure stronghold, the city.
So let’s have a look at the king first, the king and his heart. The reign of Saul in chapter 10, verses 13 and 14, is compressed into just, well, the reign of Saul is compressed into just 14 verses in chapter 10. His epitaph is there in verses 13 and 14. It’s very depressing. Saul died for his breach of faith.
He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. Faithless, disobedient, self-sufficient, independent. What kind of king, then, is required for the kingdom of God?
Well, one who is faithful, one who is obedient, one who is dependent. I think instinctively we know that. You know, we baulk at the self-serving corruption of the Malaysian or Zimbabwean governments. We find MPs’ expense scandals scandalous. And we are repulsed by a Berlusconi and other sordid abuses of power in Hollywood and Westminster.
The king and his heart. For the kingdom of God, an obedient, dependent, faithful king is what’s required. The king’s job description is given in verses 1 to 3 of chapter 11. And in the booklet I’ve given this the title, The Shepherd. Chapter 11, verses 1 to 3 move from the failure of Saul to the coronation of David.
And here we find a surrendered people, a conquering Saviour, a royal Shepherd. It’s a divine appointment. And, you know, it’d be lovely to spend the whole morning just on these verses. It is beautiful. The people are surrendered.
Verse 1, all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron and said, behold, we are your bone and flesh. We are your bone and flesh. Not only is the king one of them, he is their bone and flesh, but they are surrendered to him. We are your bone and flesh, a surrendered people. But he is also their shepherd-saviour.
Verse 2: In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And to lead out, in biblical terms, is to lead out in battle, and to bring in is to bring back in victorious. So that’s beautifully put, isn’t it? It was you who led out and brought in even under Saul. We always knew you were the king in waiting.
You are the captain of our salvation. And then the image of shepherd is used of God by Jacob. Remember God before whom my fathers walked? God has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. The Lord is my shepherd, David’s psalm.
But now it’s used of David himself in the second half of verse 2. And the Lord your God said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel. So David is not only one with his people and his people one with him. David not only does battle for his people and leads them back in victorious, he cares for and is committed and watches over and saves his people as he conquers their enemies. And supremely, God’s appointment.
The Lord your God said to you, verse 2. Verse 3, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel. And notice the unity of the people, which is a recurring theme. All the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them at Hebron. And then we have the city of the king, in verse 4 following.
So what happens is the author skips over 7 years of history and he describes for us, in just a few verses, the taking of Jerusalem. But he gives Jerusalem the 4 names by which Jerusalem is known: Jebus, the historical site; Jerusalem, the eternal city; Zion, the spiritual centre; the city of David, the fortified stronghold. David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, you will not come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.
And you can see immediately what our author is doing. And to the original reader in 400 BC, disillusioned, dispirited, having returned to the land following Cyrus’s edict in 538, returned to a degree, having built the temple, well, after a manner, and having constructed the walls of Jerusalem, well, sort of, ruled now by King Artaxerxes I and II, dispirited, disillusioned, disheartened, scattered still amongst the nations. You have a king, just look at him. Shepherd king, victorious king, dependent king, faithful king, king after the Lord’s heart. Well, what is needed if there is to be this kind of re-established kingdom, if the golden age is going to be restored?
What is needed? A faithful, dependent, obedient, King, one who conquers God’s enemies, who shepherds his people, a man of God’s appointment, a spiritual secure centre, Jerusalem. And so I think these verses provide for us, you know, I said when we’re teaching the Old Testament we should come away with a much richer view of Jesus with which to approach the New Testament, so that when we read the New Testament suddenly we see things much more deeply, we’re not just reading superficially. The New Testament without the Old Testament you just read skin deep. But now we see the King that we’re waiting for, and it is glorious.
And we’re given, if you like, a blueprint, the architect’s drawings, the benchmark, the plumb line, the means by which to identify God’s man. Oh, leaders, well, they come and go as well, don’t they? Trump and Putin and Xi and Kim Jong-un and Boris and Jacob and Theresa and Jeremy. And we place such hopes in them, and there will be many, many people placing their hope in Jeremy even as we speak. And the world bigs them up, and there are literally millions in this country who would think we might be able to get a great leader in our next human government.
But our author is saying, look, what we’re actually looking for is a man who, when tested, is able to say, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And who, when at the greatest point of trial, facing his greatest enemy and humanity’s greatest enemy, will say to God, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. And who will be able to say, all who came before me were thieves and robbers. I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And who, on the eve of his victory over our greatest enemy, will be able to say with absolute truth, now is the judgement of this world, now is the prince of this world driven out.
And one of whom God will declare, this is my beloved Son with whom I’m well pleased. Spend a lot of time in this little passage, won’t you, when you’re in your personal prep, because I hope it will refresh our love and admiration and delight in the Lord Jesus. So we have here the King. But as we saw yesterday, simply to have God’s man, the King, is not enough if God’s kingdom is to be established. And so from chapter 13 through 16— I’ve just missed a whole section, I’m so sorry, we’ve nearly missed the mighty men.
Let’s backtrack, we’ll come to that in just a second, I’m so sorry. But he doesn’t simply describe the job of the king. What the author does in chapter 11, verse 10 to the end of 12, which we so nearly missed out, is to move material that comes at the end of David’s reign into Samuel 23. So if you look at the box at the top there, the author has actually spliced, moved and added to the material on the mighty men. In 1 Samuel 23, 2 Samuel 23, there it is at the end of the reign.
Now here it is right at the start of David’s reign. And if you want a summary of the mighty men, have a look at chapter 12, verse 18.
Then the Spirit clothed Amasai, chief of the 30, and he said, we are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse, Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for your God helps you. And if you want another summary, it’s there in verse 28— 38 of chapter 12. All these men of war, arrayed in battle order, came to Hebron with a whole heart to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind, to make David king. I love the Chronicle.
I mean, it’s very kind of, are you listening? All, all, all, all, single mind, single mind, and so forth. And I love the list. Give some time to it. Benaiah, for example, chapter 11, verse 22 and 23, the son of Jehoiada, was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds.
He struck down 2 heroes of Moab, and also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. Why did he do that? And why is it there? I don’t know. Was the lion called Clarence?
Possibly. Anyway, we don’t know. Or the Gadites, chapter 12, verse 8. I love the Gadites. From the Gadites there went over to David at the stronghold in the wilderness mighty and experienced warriors, expert with shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions.
And who were swift as gazelles upon the mountains. Or the men of Issachar, 12:32, of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do. And Zebulun, verse 33, with singleness of purpose. And everybody’s there. It’s really interesting.
Here we’ve got the men of Dan, 28,600, they’re there. So, in your personal study, as you get towards the end of this point, I want you to turn, if you’re studying this, whoever you’re studying with, some of us will be studying it with husbands or wives and some of us will be studying with a friend or whatever. Well, if you’re studying with your husband or wife, I want you to turn to your wife and I want you to say to her lovingly, darling, you have the face of a lion. And it’s a compliment, it’s a compliment. You know, these are ferocious men who are standing for the Lord.
It’s absolutely wonderful, isn’t it? And I think it stirs the heart. I hope it stirring yours. And any PCC or church council or whatever, with the men of Issachar who had an understanding of the times to know what ought to be done, isn’t that glorious? And we ought to pray for such.
And of course, when you come through to the New Testament and you see those who seek to serve the Lord with a whole heart, they’re described in very similar terms. Of course, the kingdom of Jesus is not of this world. The warriors Jesus seeks are not those who fight physically. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the powers of the air. But we read of men who strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.
I have no one like him, a soldier, a servant of the Lord. And may there be many, many, many such. In the city ministry. So we have here the king. But as we saw yesterday, simply to have God’s man, the king, is not enough if God’s kingdom is to be established.
And so from chapter 13 to 16, we find David seeking God’s presence. And here is the second big concern of the Chronicler coming to the fore. Point 2 on your sheet, the king and God’s presence. And once again our editor has been busy.
Now, if you take— I shouldn’t bother doing it, but when you’ve got more time, turn to 2 Samuel 5 and 6 and you’ll see that Samuel has it, 2 battles against the Philistines, the Ark and an attempt to take it to Jerusalem which fails because Uzzah stretches out his hand and is struck down, he does it unlawfully, And then the successful journey of the Ark to Jerusalem, which is covered in 4 verses. And then there are 18 chapters of David’s reign, 2 Samuel 7 to 24. Ed has done a number of things. Instead of starting with the 2 successful battles, he begins with the failed attempt, as Uzzah stretches out his hand.
He then gives us the 2 successful battles with an explanation why they were successful. David inquired. He then gives us the journey of the Ark to Jerusalem with an explanation of why the journey of the Ark to Jerusalem was successful. David inquired. And we then have this glorious song of praise.
So, what is he stressing? He’s stressing that David sought the Lord, that David inquired of the Lord, that David was marked by an earnest desire to have God dwell amongst his people according to God’s Word. The Ark of God’s Covenant was a small chest, 1 metre by 0.7 of a metre by 0.7 of a metre. It was overlaid with gold. Think IKEA stacking box, though that is entirely inappropriate kind of language to to use of the Ark of God’s Covenant.
What made it significant, however, was what it symbolised. 2 stone tablets with the 10 Commandments, God’s Covenant, were within. And it was known as the Ark of the Covenant, or the Ark of the Presence, because God’s active presence dwelt there. And therefore, God’s active presence amongst his people on the basis of the Covenant with Moses, was symbolised by the Ark of the Covenant. Remember Moses pleaded, we cannot go up without you.
And now in chapter 13, verses 1 to 4, David has a similar concern. He consulted, chapter 13, with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with every leader. And David said to all the assembly of Israel, if it seems good to you and from the Lord our God, let us send abroad to our brothers who remain in all the lands of Israel, as well as to the priests and Levites in the cities that have pasturelands, they may be gathered to us. Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
You could almost write it yourself, couldn’t you, by now, as we’re beginning to get this theme. Chapter 13:5-14, Uzzah stretches out his hand and touches the ark. And the Ark was holy. God dwelt there in all his purity. To stretch out and to touch the Ark was categorically forbidden.
Chapter 14 records the 2 victories. There in verse 10, 14:10, David inquired of God, and 14:14, when David again inquired of God. And then chapter 15 gives us the successful bringing of the Ark, with the reason why it’s successful. Look at verse 12: You are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourself, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.
Because you did not carry it the first time, The Lord God broke out against us because we did not seek him according to the rule. The point, I think, again is plain. God will only dwell amongst his people as his king seeks him in dependence and obedience to the Mosaic command. But with God at the heart of his people, led by the king who seeks God, God’s active presence is amongst his people and there will be victory, enemies defeated, his presence there.
And to the original reader in 400 BC, surely these verses leave him or her longing for the active presence of God. And for Simeon and Anna, Anna in the temple, Longing for the One who would say, as a 12-year-old, I must be in my Father’s house. Who would not only say, seek first the Kingdom of God, but would actually do it. Who would go up on the mountain and pray all night before establishing, if you like, the foundations of His Kingdom. Who will say to His disciples, watch and pray.
And would Himself succeed where they failed. And of whom it could be said, the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only One who is from the Father.
And the response we find in chapter 16 is, is just not there in 2 Samuel. And what the Chronicler has done is to plunder the Book of Psalms, and rather than give us the 18 chapters of David’s reign, he just breaks out in praise.
And what the Chronicler has done is to take Psalm 105, Psalm 96, and then Psalm 106, a bit of.
Psalm 105, and again I hope you’ll spend a lot of time here in your prep. Psalm 105 is a great psalm of praise calling on God’s people not only to delight in God, but to seek Him, to glory in Him, to speak of Him, to rejoice in him. Just look at the imperatives, the commands that is, in the first few verses, 8, 9, 10, 11. Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people, sing to him, tell of all his wondrous works, glory in his name.
Rejoice! Seek him, seek him, remember him.
And then we’re given a rendition of the mighty works of the Lord. Look at his faithfulness to his covenant promises, 14 to 18. Look at his protection of his people, 19 to 22. Remember him, seek him, call on him, glory in him, tell of him, sing of him, rejoice in him, praise him.
The City Summer School is a great time to press the reset button. Recalibration. And I hope you might find, as we meditate on the King in all his majesty, and now God in all his glory, that this morning will be a time, as we consider the Golden Age, of recalibration, reset. As we think of our God. My computer has a reset button.
You techies will understand why, because you have to deal with ignorant peasants like me all the time. And I’m constantly having to ring up David Monteith, who is one of the most long-suffering men in the entire universe, and say to him, look, I’m terribly sorry, David, but, you know, I’ve fallen into the sea with my mobile in my pocket. Oh, never mind, brother, you haven’t done— you know, people normally replace their mobile every 6 months or so. Just press the reset button.
Or whatever it is, and then, I’ve been fishing, David, I’m terribly sorry, it came over my waders and my telephone got wet and, oh, just press— and then trashing the computer and all the rest of it. And this is a moment to reset, to reset Christianly, to go back to Psalm 22 and to spend some really good time rejoicing in our glorious God. And then Psalm 96, which begins in verse 23. The Chronicler cuts off Psalm 105 at verse 15. And then chops across, or cuts across rather, to Psalm 96.
And this is a summons not just to the people of God to praise God, but now to the whole earth. So, sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day! Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples! Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens; splendour and majesty are before him, strength and joy are in his place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the people, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. We have a, down on the farm where I come from, there’s a valley. And when the kids were little, we used to take them, you know, walking up the hill, you know, with small kids, a pain in the neck.
You always have to stick them on your neck. It’s such a relief not to have to do that anymore. But anyway, Good luck to all of you lot who’ve got them. And halfway up the hill we would always stop and you’d sit on the, sit on the side and that one of the games they love, used to love playing was the echo game. And we were very imaginative in our family because we’d shout, echo, like that and you’d hear echo, echo, echo, echo all the way across the valley.
And that’s what’s going on here. As we meditate on God and then we tell of God and then the nations are summoned to, if you like, repeat in echo, in actually gathering, gathering, heaping up of praise. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the people, glory and strength, the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him. It’s very interesting, isn’t it, that God’s presence amongst his people, he’s never meant to be a selfish little thing that we hold to ourselves.
It’s for the whole wide world. And you come across some sorts of expression of Christian faith that think the temple and everything the temple is about and the presence of God is actually about us as a little group of people and all inward looking. But they, the use of Psalm 96 makes it very, very clear that God’s presence amongst his people is for his people to declare it far and wide. And that the idea of worship in the temple is not me having a whoopee hype-up with a group of 10 or 15 people and a banjo. It’s about the temple and God’s people declaring God’s praises to the ends of the earth.
And really evangelism is the outbox of God’s presence dwelling amongst his people. So Psalm 105 and Psalm 96, is a summons to seek the Lord, to long for his presence and to declare his praise. And it seems to me this is acutely relevant to us. You know, we look around here, what are we, 70, 80, 90, 100 people, all of you with faces like lions, if I might say that, rightly understood in context. And we were talking yesterday afternoon about making God known in the city and plans to declare the Lord’s goodness in our offices and so forth.
But what is needed supremely is the presence of God in the midst. And the people here are longing, left longing, for the golden age where God dwelt amongst his people. And I just wonder if one of the damaging impacts of the charismatic movement hasn’t been to lessen an emphasis in our generation on deliberately seeking the active presence of God. Because of the excesses of Pentecostalism, Pentecostalism and charismatic theology, I think there has perhaps been a danger that we fail to emphasise a radical dependence on and seeking the Lord. We will never succeed in any endeavour without the spiritual fervour of a 1 Chronicles 16:8-36.
And notice, all, all, all, all, every one of the people engaged in it. I’ve been doing these interviews, secret interviews with Dick for an hour and a half at a time, and of course telling nobody about it. And it’s striking, isn’t it, when he talks about the early days. And Jeremy gave me all Dick’s Christmas letters from 1976, I think it was. Jeremy must have joined St Helen’s when he was in short trousers, but anyway, there you go.
From 1976 through to 19-whatever it was, 80-something, and every single one of them urging prayer, seeking to gather prayers for the work, a real urgency. Of course, his presence is amongst us by his Spirit through his Word, But we need to ask Him urgently for that to be really so.
And then what the author does is, rather remarkably, he cuts the last verse of Psalm 96, I think it’s the last verse, and he inserts one of his favourite phrases there in verse 34. We’ll come to this tomorrow. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And we’re going to find that that is the great, kind of, catchphrase of the Chronicler, which is needed when you’ve been in exile.
Yes, God is full of steadfast love and it endures forever. And he finishes with Psalm 106:47-48, save us. God’s presence amongst His people has a salvation purpose. Well, what I want us to do, we’ll, I hope, have a really rich time. And I said in the questions, pause at this point and praise God.
Please do, do that. You know, spend some time just thanking God for all the things that we are to thank him for. And not least that he has fulfilled on his promise to dwell amongst us. In and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who made his dwelling amongst his people. What I want us to do is just to very briefly, because otherwise there’ll be a big chunk missing, to push forward to the next 13 chapters.
And I want to show us this, that it is King David who desires, prays for, designs, and pays for the temple. King David. Is the one who desires, prays for, designs and pays for the temple. Well, it’s God’s design actually, but I’ve asked myself, why is it that the emphasis is so resolutely on one man? You know, in 1 Kings the temple is built by Solomon and there’s no mention of David paying for it or planning it.
I mean, David longs for it, But here we have detailed explanation as if it’s David’s temple. Why?
And I wonder if at the end of the Old Testament the author is wanting us to be looking, kind of, not for any man but for one man, not for several men but for one man, not for an ordinary man but for God’s man. And that the Chronicler’s readers were therefore to look for and anticipate a man from David’s line, the Davidic king, and one man from David’s line, God’s King. That this extraordinary individual would be the faithful Lord, the Shepherd Prince, the victorious Saviour, who seeks God and his presence according to Moses’ covenant. And whose primary concern is the business of the Temple. So we’re going to miss out God’s covenant with David in chapter 17.
The vast bulk of the material is given to David’s instruction to Solomon and the institution of the Temple. And I asked Will to read chapter 22, verse 6, and 22:17-19, because that’s showing that actually it’s David giving the instructions It contains the single longest uninterrupted insertion of material in all of 1 and 2 Chronicles, which is fascinating. It’s all about the temple, and it concludes in chapter 29. So whiz across to chapter 29, and here we’ll finish.
Chapter 29, verses 1 to 3. And David the king said to all the assembly, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the palace will not be for a man but for the Lord God. So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx, stones for setting, antimony, coloured stones, all sorts of precious stones, and marble. Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the Holy House, I have a treasure of my own gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God, I give it to the house of my God— 3,000 talents of gold, and so forth. So I spent a bit of time on the calculator again.
£950 an ounce, £10 to £12 an ounce for silver. David funded from the state coffers the vast majority of the temple, but then he added from his own 3,600,000 ounces of gold, £3.4 billion. And notice the reason. Devotion. Costly, selfless, wholehearted devotion.
And the book concludes with David’s glorious prayer in verse 10. Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly, and he said, Blessed are You, O Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all.
It’s a great prayer to learn. I learned that a number of years ago and used to use it on a daily basis. First thing in the morning, I always say the Lord’s Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
And then I would just use that to start the day off. It’s a great prayer to commit to memory.
But then, verse 9, the people rejoiced because they’d given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. What then does it mean to arise? You know, people say, well, yes, arise. What does it actually mean to arise?
It means to rally to this glorious King. So what is it that the tribes said to him back in chapter 12? We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse. Peace to you, peace to your helpers, for your God helps you. It’s to come to him.
And it’s a summons to people from all over the scattered people of Israel to come to the King. And to rally to him and to fight for him. What does it mean to arise? Oh, it means to delight in the living God who dwells amongst his people, chapter 16. And what does it mean to arise?
Oh, it means joyfully, willingly, freely, wholeheartedly, to give to this one project with our all, because this project, the Golden Age, is what it’s all about. Let’s pray together.
Psalm 86, Unite My Heart. Our Father in heaven, we pray that You would do that. We pray that as we consider Jesus and as we meditate on You, the living God, You would unite our heart. And we ask, our Father in heaven, that You would graciously Give us a whole heart, one heart, not split-apart hearts. And we pray that we would therefore be people that are full of joy and free and willing devotion, giving ourselves to You in service as we follow King Jesus.
For Your name’s sake. Amen.
