1 Chronicles 26-29

1 Chronicles 26 and 27 continue in what may seem to us the same boring vein that is the Chronicler’s want. This section is all about David’s preparations for the worship of the future Temple. It is all about names, and tasks, and structures that no longer seem relevant to us. But perhaps there is a message in this section of Scripture for us; the message may be that there needs to be an ordered thoroughness about our own preparation to worship our Triune God. Then, once we have established the framework for worship, there can be, as Bible commentator Michael Wilcock says, freedom within the framework.

Wilcock, in his commentary on Chronicles, gives us this helpful summary of chapters 28 and 29….

With what might be called ‘the Second Assembly of Jerusalem’ the Chronicler completes his story of David, we reach the halfway mark in his book, and in a real sense the heart of his message is laid bare. The reason is this: David’s reign has been the age of great achievements, whereas the Chronicler’s time is ‘the day of small things’, as certain also of his own prophets have said.[1] When two periods of history are so very different from each other, what can the later possibly learn from the earlier? It is the Chronicler’s conviction that there are lessons to be learnt, and it is his task to interpret David to an age when there is no more David. His readers are still David’s people, and his object is to fill out for them the rich connection. Therefore this point in the story is of special interest. David is about to leave the stage. Every reader knows that the reign of Solomon is to follow, and that the glories of war will be succeeded by the greater splendours of peace. But the fact remains that it will be a world without David. And in that crucial respect it will have lessons of prime importance for these people of a later age, whose cry is precisely that the Davidic stories have no relevance for them because they too live in a world without David.[2]

So what are the lessons to be passed from David’s generation to that of Chronicles and even unto ours? Wilcock summarizes those lessons in this way:

Still the Lord is here to be acknowledged (28:2-8)
Still the plan is here to be followed (28:9-21)
Still the challenge is here to be accepted (29:1-9)
Still the joy is here to be expressed (29:10-22a)
Still the king is here to be enthroned (29:22b-30)

Wilcock ends his commentary on 1 Chronicles rather eloquently:

Through all the discouraging days for which our book is written, even when God’s people seem of small account, their God reigns. Even when there is no throne in Jerusalem, there is a throne, and it is the Lord’s. Even when the kingdom of David and Solomon is no more than a tale in a book of old chronicles, still the King will be here to be enthroned among his people. He is the greatest of all the continuities. He will always be here; for the Chronicler, if it is not David’s son, then it will be David’s Lord who reigns; for a later more blessed generation, it will be seen that the two figures merge, and that the true King will be miraculously both David’s Son and David’s Lord.[3]

Are we going through discouraging days at present? Do our lives seem of small account? Then perhaps it is time we lift up our heads and remember that our God still reigns.

[1] Zechariah 4:10

[2] Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1987, p. 108.

[3] Ibid, 118

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