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- [00:05]
A
Hey, welcome back to A Year in the Bible With Daily Grace. Don't forget to follow or subscribe so you can walk through the Bible all year long with us. We're starting the book of 2 Chronicles today, Scott. We just wrapped up first Chronicles, and now we're jumping into 2 Chronicles. We mentioned this before, but these books were originally one book. But there's still some things we can probably keep in mind as we start two Chronicles. Right?
- [00:30]
B
Yeah, this was one long book, like you said, kind of like Samuel and Kings. And so pretty much everything I said about First Chronicles in that very first episode about that book applies here. But, you know, we'll cover that again, too, in case you're just hopping in. So essentially, first and Second Chronicles, this super long book, is a retelling of Israel's history for the Jews who'd returned to Jerusalem from exile. So decades earlier, because of their sin, God sent the Babylonian empire to destroy Jerusalem, carry its population into exile, into Babylon. And now they are back, some of them have come back and they're starting to rebuild their lives there. And that includes rebuilding a temple. But there's a lot of discouragement in this community for a few reasons. The temple, the new one, is way, way smaller than Solomon's temple was. Life is just hard being back. And, you know, they're still not free. They're part of the Persian empire still. So they don't. They. They can't govern themselves. And there's no king on David's throne any. And so, you know, just what we see from the Bible is this is kind of a hard time for these people. They're just struggling with a lot of despondency, despair. But Chronicles is an attempt to push back against that negativity and to inspire these people. And so, like I said, it's a positive retelling of Israel's history that's just meant to encourage them to make worship of God front and center in their lives. And it's a book that holds out hope, too, that a king from David's line is still coming, that is still in the future, a king who will make all things right. And so there's this big focus in Chronicles on Israel's kings and on the Temple as well. And Chronicles is really an extended reflection on what the previous generations in Israel got right. And that's meant to, in turn, inspire the present generations of exiles who are rebuilding their lives in Jerusalem. And so, incidentally, you know, just to jump to the very, very end. I love how 2 Chronicles ends with the king of Persia's declaration that the Lord has appointed me to build him temple in Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up and may the Lord his God be with him. And so for the original audience hearing this or reading this, this last scene really brings history up to their current moments. By ending here, it's like the author is saying, okay, you're back. What are you going to do? How are you going to live now that you're back in the land? And all of Chronicles has sought to show them how to live. And we're going to continue seeing that in Second Chronicles.
- [03:03]
A
Man, that makes me really excited to, to walk through this book and build toward that moment at the end. All right, so let's talk about today's chapters. In light of all of that, we're going through First Chronicles one through. Or, sorry, Second Chronicles. We already finished First Chronicles, Second Chronicles one through three. What's happening in these chapters, Scott?
- [03:22]
B
Yeah, so this is a pretty well known moment, for the most part, from Solomon's life. So after becoming king, he goes up to Gibeon, where the tabernacle is to offer sacrifices to God. This is where God appears to him and says, hey, what? He promises to grant whatever Solomon asks for. And you know, Solomon, he doesn't ask for riches or power. He asks for wisdom so he can lead God's people well. And I just, I love that he recognizes the weight of the task he's been given and his inability to do it well on his own strength. And so he just, he leans on the Lord for support, which is so, so cool. Something I really like about chapter one, verse nine is that you see God's covenant with David and his covenant with Abraham kind of intersect. So that says, for you have made me king. So there's kind of that element of the Davidic covenant, Solomon speaking here, you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. That's an interesting comment, because back in Genesis, God had promised to make Abraham's offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth. And so it's worth remembering too, that the great nation of Abraham was going to bless all the nations of the earth. And so when you combine these covenants, I think what you can say is that the nations are going to be blessed not just through this people, but through the king of this people specifically. And I love in, in Psalm 72, which is actually written by Solomon, it talks about Israel's king ruling over many, many nations, which I think is so cool, because that's exactly what you see Jesus doing now, reigning at God's right hand and gathering disciples from all nations into his kingdom as they place their faith in Him.
- [05:02]
A
That was a great connection, Scott. I love that that you pulled that through. I think my takeaway from these couple of chapters you know, we see Solomon ask God for wisdom and you talked about how that in and of itself was a wise thing for him to do. Immediately what came to mind for me was 1 Corinthians 1:24 where it says that Christ is called the wisdom of God. And so we see Solomon seeking wisdom in the Lord. But then I started thinking about us and not only do we have Christ who is the wisdom of God, but we are in Christ who is the wisdom of God. And so that is just an amazing thing. We see Solomon acting in wisdom and we know that we have access in Christ to His wisdom. So thanks for walking us through these first three chapters and introing this book. We're gonna keep walking through second chronicles starting tomorrow.
- [05:55]
C
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