God’s Providence

Ezra 7-8

            These chapters record an additional return of exiles, about 1200 more. The star of the show is Ezra, who is repeatedly described as learned in the law of the Lord.

            Ezra is a prominent figure in post-exilic Judaism. He is the prototype for what in the New Testament are called the scribes or the teachers of the law. Originally, it was the priests’ work to instruct the people in the law, and Ezra himself was a priest. Eventually that work lost some of its priestly overtones. Especially for Jewish populations away from Jerusalem (Galilee and other centers farther away), these teachers became the most prominent feature of their practice of the faith. Eventually, by about two hundred years after Jesus, they had become what we know as the rabbis, whose writings and traditions are recorded in the Talmud. That 600-year evolution can be traced back to Ezra.

            What stands out for me in these chapters is not just the introduction of Ezra, but the confidence in the Lord’s providence, that is, that the Lord would protect and provide in hidden ways. In this case, He provided through the favorable attitudes of the Persians. Whether any of the Persian kings actually “believed” in the sense of saving faith, is an open question. But the Persians proved themselves more enlightened rulers than either the Babylonians or the Assyrians before them. They returned populations to their ancestral lands; they were more religiously open-minded; they tended to ensure the obedience of their vassals more through generosity than through fear. And the Lord was working behind that to provide resources for His people.

            I see two takeaways, then, in these chapters. There’s always a place among God’s people for those who will teach His Word, especially pastors but dedicated and well-informed lay people, too. And, the Lord continues to provide. The return from exile was not as dramatic as crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, but it was no less the work of God. And we do well to recognize the hand of God, even when that hand is hidden in the ordinary workings of the world. 

What Wasn’t Said

Ezra 5-6

            Chapter 5 gives us a deep look at the controversy over the building of the second temple. Tattenai was not some local boss; he was the governor of the entire province. When he asked what you were doing and what your names were, you answered. And he dutifully referred the whole matter up to the emperor, Darius, and Darius, to his credit, looked into the matter. Cyrus’ decree, being found, was upheld. Permission was not just given to continue: resources were allotted to make sure the work was finished.

            And finished it was! Ezra notes the blessing of the Lord God and the cooperation of the Persian authorities, and he notes the celebration at the dedication of this second temple. (He also notes the celebration of the Passover; one gets the impression that ancient Israel went entire eras without celebrating their fundamental festivals…)

            Did you catch, though, what wasn’t said? Unlike Exodus 40:34 and 1 Kings 8:11, where the glory of the Lord filled first the tabernacle then the first temple, there is no indication here that the glory of the Lord filled the second temple. One also notes that there are no detailed descriptions of the second temple, either—not like in Exodus, Kings, and Chronicles.

            A scholar I deeply respect argues that Israel never felt like their exile ended, they never felt like all the promises of restoration had been kept. Politically they remained under the thumb of great powers for centuries. Their territory was just a fraction of what it once had been Their Davidic king was no king, except maybe in name. And religiously, their temple was a shadow of its former self, and the glory of the Lord never inhabited it. We’re going to have to wait a while to figure out why this matters, five hundred years in terms of Israel’s history, another nine months in terms of our reading schedule, until finally we come to the time of Jesus. Remember these things, though; they matter a lot eventually!

Construction on the Second Temple Begins

Ezra 3-4

            The exiles began work on a new temple quickly after their return, the seventh month according to 3:1—at least that’s when they began to rebuild the altar of burnt offering. As noted yesterday, faithfulness to the Law of Moses was high on their list of priorities, and they celebrated the Feast of Booths and all sorts of other regular observations, just as they had been commanded.

            Seven months later, they were ready to begin the temple proper. When the foundation was laid, we have the intriguing note that many of the old timers, the ones who had seen the original temple, wept aloud, and their weeping is distinguished from the shouts of joy of others. Why would they weep for sadness? Two reasons present themselves to me. It’s possible they are weeping for grief of the last 50 years losses and for the idolatry that led to those losses. It’s also possible that they wept because the new temple wasn’t going to be anything like the first temple. I tend to favor the latter reason, although, honestly, it could be a bit of both.

            As chapter 4 opens, we are told that the Israelites’ neighbors offer to help them build their temple, claiming to have been worshiping the same God for 200 years. I’m of two minds about this rejection. On the one hand, I think we’re supposed to see it as a good thing. After all those centuries of syncretism, the mixing of religions, they have finally learned not to mix religions. On the other hand, I mentioned yesterday that their emphasis on purity, in the centuries to come, would lead to self-righteousness and arrogance. I wonder if things might have gone differently in Israel’s later history, if these returnees had embraced the help and taken the time to teach them the proper worship of the Lord.

            Either way, their help rejected, those neighbors caused problems for the returnees, from the reign of Cyrus to the time of Darius, who began to reign in 522 BC. Here’s where things get complicated: the letter they write during the reign of Artaxerxes is a flash-forward; Artaxerxes doesn’t reign until 465 BC. That letter is really about the walls, not the temple, and it belongs to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, 60 years after the second temple is completed. So, the opposition to the temple does not delay its building until the reign of Artaxerxes. Instead 4:24 pulls us back to the narrative’s present (about 520 BC). The temple is delayed some 20 years. (I don’t know why the letter is in its current place, except maybe to show that opposition to the returnees is a long-standing problem.)

The Return Begins

Ezra 1-2

            Ezra (and Nehemiah, for that matter) is widely considered to have the same author as the books of Chronicles. Several stylistic reasons suggest this, such as, the phrases “heads of families” and “the house of God.” Additionally, all four books love lists, and the themes are similar, namely, that Israel after the Exile is still the people of God, that the Lord was restoring Israel in accordance with His promises, and that the new temple was a legitimate replacement for the first temple as evidenced by the festivals and sacrifices made there.

            Still, Ezra and Nehemiah narrate events from a new era in Israel’s history. She has been chastised for her idolatry, and she is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. In Ezra, we’ll note a prominent focus on purity. In this period, the faith of Israel begins to be known as Judaism, and while temple practice remains important, there is a noted emphasis on obedience to the Law. Part of this we see already today with the very extensive lists of returnees. Among these, I’d highlight in particular the notice that several temple servants and priests searched the records and could not prove decisively that they were descended from Levi and Aaron. The result was that they were excluded from Levitical and priestly service.

            Of course, such an emphasis on purity can be a double-edged sword, and over the centuries it developed into self-righteousness and exclusivity. These are always dangers of an over-emphasis on the Law. Lutherans believe that Law and Gospel belong together, the Law leading to repentance so that the Gospel may apply its comforts, and the Gospel creating new life so that the believer can keep the Law, at least in part. After the exile, Israel embraced the Law as a marker of their identity, but too often they did not embrace the Law as the thing that would drive them to the grace of God. The predictable result was an over-developed sense of their own righteousness and their own special place before the Lord. (We won’t see this fully developed until we start to read about the ministry of Jesus in the New Testament.)

            For us, may we receive blessings from Ezra, especially the confidence that we are indeed God’s people, even (especially!) when the evidence doesn’t support that assertion. And may we always see our standing before God as the pure gift that it is, given to us in Christ Jesus!

The End and the Beginning

2 Chronicles 36

            The Chronicler’s agenda is not to explain why the exile happened but to show that the post-exilic community was still the people of God’s promise. To that end, he condenses the story of the last four kings and the destruction of Jerusalem by about half. More than that, the things he adds advance his purpose. Notice, for example, verse 21, in which he suggests that the exile wasn’t punitive so much as purgative. That is, the exile was to purify the land and the people. Hence, the statement that the land finally enjoyed its sabbath rest, suggesting that the sabbath year (Leviticus 25) hadn’t been observed but the exile was a kind of “catch-up” time. Also, the ending is different than the ending of Kings. In Kings, the story ends with Jehoiachin being allowed to sit at the table of the king of Babylon, still very much in exile but honored. Chronicles skips ahead decades to the decree of Cyrus, in which the first of the exiles return to rebuild the temple. Beginning to end, the Chronicler never gives up his themes: God is faithful to His promises to the line of David, centered in the temple, and his post-exilic community is still the beneficiary of those promises.

Josiah’s Reforms

2 Chronicles 34-35

            Josiah is a good king, a faithful king. He may be a top-three king: David, Hezekiah, Josiah. As a boy, he dedicates himself to the Lord, and the Chronicler emphasizes how his eradication for the Baals and Asherahs extends to Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, highlighting his theme of “all Israel.” Josiah orders the rehabilitation of the temple, discovers the book of the Law, and receives an assurance that, although the Lord will bring disaster on Judah for its idolatry, it will not happen in Josiah’s day. Finally, Josiah celebrated a Passover unlike any since the days of Samuel. The Chronicler’s account of that Passover occupies 19 verses, as opposed to 3 in 2 Kings.

            Josiah’s one great failure is his interference in the war between Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. (The battle of Carcemish in 605 BC proved the decisive defeat of Assyria and marked the ascent of Babylon to dominance.) Strangely, Josiah received a word from God through the mouth of Egypt’s pharaoh. One can perhaps excuse Josiah for not taking it seriously. First, it was a word from God, not a word from the Lord—a significant difference because “god” can be a generic word for any number of deities. Second, the warning came from a pagan, not a prophet. Still, Josiah was warned. Frankly, he should have known from his predecessors that dabbling in the power struggles of the surrounding nations was never a good idea.

            The thrust of the Chronicler’s description of Josiah is that he was a good king, a faithful king, but that even his good example was too little, too late for a people who had repeatedly sullied themselves with idolatry.

Rehabilitating Manasseh

2 Chronicles 33

            To hear Kings tell it, Manasseh had no redeeming qualities: he was an idolater through and through. The Chronicler, though, finds something in him: towards the end of his life, he returned to the Lord God. Of course, he was pretty thoroughly chastised, having been hauled as a captive by the Assyrians to Babylon, but that humiliation had its desired end, and Manasseh repented his wicked ways. (It was too late to convince the people, and they continued in their idolatrous ways.)

            The history of the Assyrians was tumultuous. They had been a major power around the first millennium BC, being an innovator in the use of iron for weapons. Then, they had risen again in what’s called the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the period we read about them in the Bible. By the time of Manasseh, they were having a hard time holding their far-flung holdings together, and the Babylonians to their southeast were resurgent. Manasseh’s banishment to Babylon suggests that he may have made common cause with the Babylonians and been defeated. His restoration suggests that the flailing Assyrians were trying to shore up their southwest border against Egypt.

            Whatever the case, the Lord used the moment to call Manasseh to repentance and humility before Him. Unfortunately, it was too late to convince the people, and they continued in their idolatrous ways. It was too late also for Amon, Manasseh’s son, who never repented his wickedness and increased his guilt. Amon was assassinated only two years into his reign, reminding us to “seek the Lord while He may be found,” as the prophet Isaiah warned (55:6).

Sennacherib’s Invasion

2 Chronicles 32

            The Chronicler again carefully portrays the kings of Judah. Today he does it by omitting certain details that would make Hezekiah look bad. For example, he fails to tell that Hezekiah pled with Sennacherib for peace and offered him tribute. He also leaves out the detail that Hezekiah had an arrangement with the king of Egypt. (We’ve seen how the Chronicler feels about foreign alliances!) Even in the matter of Hezekiah’s illness, the king’s desperation and selfishness are left off. Now, he does record Hezekiah’s pride, but he also immediately says that Hezekiah repented of it and that Hezekiah was exceedingly blessed.

            We’ve talked about this before, how the Chronicler idealizes the kings of Judah. But it’s a prominent feature of Chronicles, so we have to point it out again. The Lord is faithful to the line of David, and the Chronicler explains it by emphasizing their good qualities. In this, he is a great example of the 8^th Commandment, as he tries to explain everything n the kindest way.

A Unique Passover

2 Chronicles 30-31

            The Chronicler’s account of Hezekiah’s Passover emphasizes his inclusion of all Israel. The invitation goes out to Manasseh and Ephraim especially, but to all Israel in general. For two reasons, Hezekiah moves the Passover from the first month to the second: first, because the priests and Levites are not yet ready for the celebration, and 2) unmentioned, but a factor nonetheless, is that the northern kingdom celebrated Passover in the second month.

            Why the emphasis on inclusion? In the narrative of Chronicles, the northern kingdom was not destroyed until sometime between chapter 31 and chapter 32, but an informed reader knows it’s coming. The inclusion of the north is an effort to reunify the nation, to bring the north back into the fold of the Davidic kings and the Temple worship. Outside the narrative, the Chronicler wrote after the exile, and in his historical moment he also wants to emphasize that the Lord’s promises remain for all Israel.

            I’m reminded of Jesus’ saying in John 10 that He has other sheep and of His parable of the one lost sheep that the shepherd goes to look for in Luke 15. The Church ought not give up on her lost. Even in Jesus’ famous account of church discipline in Matthew 18, when He instructs us to treat the steadfastly unrepentant as we would a pagan or a tax collector, we are gently reminded that it’s exactly the tax collectors who gathered around Jesus. The Church ought never give up the search for the lost, both those who have never believed and those who once believed but since have fallen away.

A New Solomon

2 Chronicles 29

            The Chronicler presents Hezekiah in glowing terms. In verse 2, he compares Hezekiah to David, and throughout the chapter he describes Hezekiah’s work on the temple in terms comparable to Solomon. Unlike his predecessors, Hezekiah begins his work on the temple immediately upon taking the throne—the first month of the first year. Hezekiah understands that refusing to worship the Lord as the Lord directed resulted in Judah’s troubles, and he assigns the right people, that Levites, to do the work of re-consecrating the temple. And when the time comes to restart sacrifices, Hezekiah gives the priests the responsibility for offering them, just as Leviticus had directed.

            My study Bible, NIV Study Bible (2020 edition), notes that Hezekiah’s likeness to Solomon keeps going. He will be honored by Gentiles, he will be wealthy, he will have an extensive domain (nothing like Solomon’s, mind you, but for his day…).

            Looking ahead, this makes the fall of Judah, about 100 years after Hezekiah’s death, all the more strange to me. Hezekiah was a faithful king; Josiah, his great-grandson was faithful. But even these two kings could not stay the Lord’s exhaustion with the idolatry of his people. Chronicles has clarified that the problem was not just the behavior of the kings but that the people themselves were idolaters. Perhaps Hezekiah’s reforms did not take root as thoroughly among the populace as they should have. Perhaps the Lord is not just looking at the present but the whole history of His people. For whatever reason, despite the glowing portrait of Hezekiah, Judah’s decline is imminent.

            The Lord is long-suffering, but then and now there does come a point at which his patience is exhausted. He will not reject us forever, the Scriptures are clear about that. But He will sometimes consign us to the consequences of our choices.

            That all seems a long way off from today’s reading but I think there’s a lesson there: the Lord wants faithfulness—not occasional faithfulness, just faithfulness. Ultimately our salvation rests on His faithfulness, especially to His promises of salvation fulfilled in Jesus, but that ought not blind us to what He wants from us: our hearts, souls, and minds.

Doubling Down

2 Chronicles 27-28

            Ahaz did things that no king of Judah had done since the days of Ahaziah, a good run of about 100 years brought to a screeching halt by a king who worshipped the Baals, burned incense at the high places, and even offered his children as burnt offerings. Having been defeated in battle by the Arameans, he doubled down on his idolatry and worshipped the gods of the Arameans, reasoning, “They helped them; maybe they’ll help me.” 2 Chronicles 28: 22 is telling, “In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.”

            Confronted with his own error and weakness, Ahaz redoubled his efforts to find his own way in the world. That happens, too. Some face life’s troubles and decide that the Lord can’t be relied on at all. The trouble is that their focus is too short; they want immediate results and don’t take into account that the Lord’s timeline stretches into life everlasting. Setback and trouble ought to drive us into the arms of the Lord. They ought to show us all the things that cannot be trusted for our ultimate good and push us to place our trust in the Lord, who alone can be trusted for good that lasts into eternity.

Amaziah and Uzziah

2 Chronicles 25-26

            The Chronicler continues to present the Judean kings in the best possible light, yet we’re seeing evidence that it’s not always easy. As he introduces Amaziah, he says, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.” He does take the Law into account and, in purging his officials of traitors, spares their children. He also dismisses the foreign mercenaries in his service. However, he worships the gods he captured, and he gets too big a head and starts a war the Lord tells him not to.

            Uzziah also started well, “but after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall.” His pride manifested itself in trying to usurp the role given to the priests. In most of the ancient Near East, the king was the high priest, so this is not just a turf war, but a flirtation with idolatrous practices.

            In all of this I am reminded of Paul’s language in 1 Timothy 4, Galatians 5, and 1 Corinthians 9, where he compares the Christian life to a race, and there is an implicit call to finish what we started. And I think that’s hard. We struggle against the same sins long enough, eventually we just learn to live with them. We strive for righteousness and finally just say, “This is as good as I get.” We see it in the kings of Judah; we can see it in ourselves. And we need the constant encouragement, “Let us not grow weary in doing good” (Galatians 6), and let us never grow complacent in loving our gracious God!

Joash

2 Chronicles 23-24

            The story of Joash is very similar to its telling in 2 Kings. One notable difference is the Chronicler blames Joash’s later idolatry on the people. In Kings, it is the kings who set the right (or wrong) example and bear responsibility for the spiritual well-being of the people. In Chronicles, we see the Davidic kings being led astray: Jehoram by his dalliance with Ahab, Joash by the influence of the people.

            The responsibility of those in leadership is a common theme in the Bible. For example, James lays down this warning, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1). But reality is multi-layered, and the Chronicler sees that. The people also have agency, and they often choose to go their own way. Ezekiel puts it this way, “When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself” (Ezekiel 3:18-19). Leaders may have more responsibility than others, but everyone has responsibility.

Too Much

2 Chronicles 21-22

            Just when we start to think that the Chronicler will do anything to minimize the defects of the descendants of David, along comes Jehoram and Ahaziah. The Chronicler finds nothing redeemable in them. Jehoram murders his brothers to secure his power. He marries into the house of Ahab and follows the idolatrous ways of that wicked house. His wickedness stands out so much that Elijah, surely near the end of his life, sends a letter threatening the Lord’s punishment. He’s not even buried with his fathers.

            Ahaziah becomes king because there is no one else left; he’s the only surviving son of Jehoram. He is, apparently, a grandson of Ahab, and he surrounds himself with advisors from that administration. Chronicles hasn’t much to say about him except that he was swept up in the revolt of Jehu and explicitly links his death to his assistance of Ahaziah, son of Ahab. So much for the charge that the Chronicler whitewashes the Judean kings’ faults!

Same Kings, Different Takes

2 Chronicles 19-20

            Here’s a weird thing: in Kings, Jehoshaphat is introduced in 1 Kings 15:24; we read the story of his alliance with Ahab in 1 Kings 22; and his story wraps up with 10 verses at the end of chapter 22. In Chronicles, his story occupies chapters 17 to 20. Further in Chronicles Elijah, who is ministering about the time of Jehoshaphat, is mentioned once, in passing (2 Chronicles 21:12), and Elisha is never mentioned. Israel’s great prophets are hardly mentioned in Chronicles, and we learn a great deal about a rather obscure but mostly faithful king. It has to do with the purposes of the two books. The author of Kings wants to explain the exile. His question is, “Why did the Lord cast us away?” So, he focuses on the rampant idolatry of Ahab, the prophetic challenge to that idolatry, and the stain on Jehoshaphat for dabbling in that idolatry. The author of Chronicles wants to demonstrate that the Lord is still with Israel after the exile, so he focuses on the faithfulness of the Davidic kings, the times they trusted the Lord, and the Lord’s faithfulness to them. He even shifts the blame: in Kings, the kings should have removed the high places and they are criticized for not doing it (cf. 1 Kings 22:43). In Chronicles, the kings often try to remove the high places, and they instruct the people in the ways of the Lord (1 Chronicles 19:10), but it is the people whose hearts turn away (2 Chronicles 20:33). Same kings; very different takes.

           Maybe the lesson is simple: people are complex; their motivations are mixed up; and their actions can seem inconsistent. The same king can be described in unflattering ways and in flattering ways. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that we are called on to judge slowly, because our temptation is to see only the good or only the bad in a person and we should strive to see the whole person…

Jehoshaphat

2 Chronicles 17-18

            Jehoshaphat is introduced as a faithful king. He also attempts to stamp out idolatry by removing the high places and the Asherah poles (19:3). More than that, he takes his rightful role as a proponent of God’s law by sending Levites and priests to teach the people. Jehoshaphat reigned from about 870 BC to 850 BC, and the Book of the Law was still known. I mention it because the Book of the Law was lost and forgotten by the reign of Josiah (640 BC), so we have some sense of how religious conditions unfolded in Israel.

            The larger part of Jehoshaphat’s story is almost identical to 1 Kings 22. Jehoshaphat, for all the emphasis on his righteousness and the security he gave Judah, is still the weaker king compared to Israel, and he makes common cause with Ahab, one of the few northern kings mentioned in Chronicles. The weaker position of Jehoshaphat is seen in Ahab’s ridiculous requirement that Jehoshaphat wear royal robes into battle while he, Ahab, is in disguise. Nothing like using your influence to make sure an underling takes the blame!

            I admit, I read ahead a few verses, because the story of Jehoshaphat and Ahab continues into 19:1-3. There a prophet of the Lord names Jehu spells out Jehoshaphat’s sin: he had helped one who hated the Lord. Faithful Jehoshaphat, who had removed the high places in Judah, had allied himself with unfaithful Ahab, the gold standard for idolatrous kings in the north. Jehoshaphat seems to have compartmentalized his faith, holding it dear but not letting it influence his politics. The lesson is to remember that our faith is not just one more thing in our life among many others. No, our faith is the center of our life, through which every other part of our life is directed to the things of God.

Abijah and Asa

2 Chronicles 13-16

            Abijah also gets a much more favorable review than he gets in Kings. Just before battle with Israel, he makes a moving speech about faithfulness to the Lord. It’s rather unexpected from a king about 1 Kings 15:3 says, “He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.” About that, the Chronicler has nothing to say.

            On the other hand, the Chronicler must have known about Abijah’s idolatry, because he reports that Abijah’s son, Asa, had to remove the altars to Baal and the high places. Asa is portrayed as a faithful king until his old age. For whatever reason, Asa’s nerve failed him in the 36^th year of his reign and he made an alliance with a foreign power. The Lord’s prophet confronted Asa, and Asa was angry.

            It was a fairly minor stumble, but it did make me think that a lot of these kings seemed to stumble or fall into idolatry later in their reigns. We usually think of people as sowing their wild oats in their youth and growing into maturity and faithfulness in older age. Sometimes I wonder if the pressures of the world around them just got too great for them. Then that makes me worry. I’m getting older, and, to be honest, I’m not sure faith is getting any easier. Young or old, it’s important to attend to Word and Sacrament so that faith may flourish all life long.

Rehoboam

2 Chronicles 10-12

            Rehoboam also gets a kinder treatment in Chronicles than he does in Kings. He’s still the arrogant young king who listens to his contemporaries instead of his wiser, older advisors. But he also fortifies Judah and attracts all the priests and Levites from the northern kingdoms. Just before battle with Israel, he makes a moving speech about faithfulness to the Lord. Again, the Chronicler knows Rehoboam’s weaknesses, but he starts by expanding on his strength.

            When the Chronicler does turn his attention to Rehoboam’s weaknesses, he does want to make a point that the Lord’s retribution follows swiftly. In chapter 12, he draws a bright, clear line from Rehoboam’s turning away from the Lord to the invasion from Shishak of Egypt. Similarly, as soon as Rehoboam humbles himself before the Lord, the Lord removes the threat.

            I feel like I need to say that we are talking about faithfulness to the Mosaic covenant here. It was that covenant, addressed to the nation of Israel at Sinai and binding until Israel had produced the Messiah, that had all the conditions in it. We are not bound by that covenant. There’s a place in our lives for a healthy fear of the Lord, to be sure, but the Lord doesn’t play the “if/then” game with us, not like that, at least.

Once More on the Idealized Solomon

2 Chronicles 8-9

            The Chronicler wants to highlight the good that the Davidic kings did. I talked about this a few days ago, He’s not being deceptive; he’s keeping the Eighth Commandment and explaining everything in the kindest way. In Solomon’s case, we hear again about his splendor, wealth, and wisdom. He overwhelms the queen of Sheba with it all. She gives him gifts and he gives her even more in return. (Sheba would have been in the Arabian Peninsula somewhere; it was representative of exotic nations in far away places. See Isaiah 60.) Here’s the significant thing: there is no mention of Solomon’s many wives nor of their misleading him into idolatry. The Chronicler gives us hints that he knows the dark secrets of the kings whose stories he tells; he just doesn’t tell them. And here he wants to emphasize one last time that Solomon, the great son of David, was the great patron of the temple and the worship that happened there.

God’ Gracious Condescension

I will be posting several days’ comments today.

I’ll be away from my desk for a few days.

 2 Chronicles 6-7

            “Condescending” is not often a good term. It’s usually a criticism we use to describe people who think too much of themselves and deign to help the little people. But the Lord condescends to be with Israel. Solomon states that his little temple couldn’t possibly contain the Lord of the universe, but God chooses to be present there, and He chooses to be present there in order to be gracious. The temple will be the focal point of God’s gracious presence. There’s the whole sacrificial system, designed as it is to deliver the forgiveness of sins. Then there’s Solomon’s prayer and the Lord’s answer, namely, that when Israel is in trouble, when the seek the Lord in the temple, when they call out to Him from the temple, He will answer.

            Too often we modern Christians separate the practice of prayer from the Divine Service, and it’s important that we hold them together. We are able to pray because we know the One to whom we pray as our Father in heaven. We know Him as our heavenly Father because the Son is present in Word and Sacrament to deliver forgiveness, life, and salvation, to us. In Divine Service, the relationship with God that enables conversation with God is created and sustained. It's not that our God doesn’t hear prayers in other places; it’s rather that there is something special about those times when we are in the presence of our gracious God, when we pray based on His words and promises just announced.

Solomon Builds the Temple

2 Chronicles 3-5

            The Chronicler portrays the temple as a long-anticipated building. He references David’s (mis)adventures in bringing the ark to Jerusalem, noting that the temple site was threshing floor of Araunah, where the plague had stopped (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). But he also references Mt. Moriah, “where the Lord had appeared to his father David.” That incident is no where mentioned in the Bible. The only other Biblical mention of Moriah is in Genesis 22, where it is the site of the near-sacrifice of Isaac. The irony there is thick: the site of Isaac’s, the requested, but not desired, sacrifice becomes the site on which Israel will make sacrifice henceforth.

            All the way back in Deuteronomy 12, Moses had talked about the place where the Lord would put His place to dwell. As the 40-year wilderness wandering came to an end, Israel looked for a more permanent home, and Moses anticipated a more permanent dwelling for the Lord on earth.

            Several ideas swirl. First, in yesterday’s and in tomorrow’s readings, Solomon himself understands that the Lord’s permanent dwelling is the heavens. No earthly temple can contain Him; He condescends to dwell among His people. No matter how ‘permanent’ the temple may seem over against the tabernacle, it’s still not the Lord’s permanent home. Further, the Lord’s plan for us is that we will dwell in His presence, so the vision of Revelation 21-22 is of a new heavens and a new earth, a situation that hasn’t happened since Genesis 3, in which the dwellings of God and of humans completely and totally overlap and we dwell in His presence forever. Of this, Hebrews 12 gives a hint when it speaks of a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a permantent home, so to speak.

Sanctifying Solomon

2 Chronicles 1-2

            The Chronicler introduces Solomon with his prayer for wisdom at Gibeon. In 1 Kings, Giben is described as the chief high place. There is no mention of the tabernacle or the Lord’s altar. In 1 Kings, the location is a bit of foreshadowing about Solomon’s later trouble with idolatry, and that fits that book’s agenda, which is to demonstrate that the only measure of a king of Israel is his faithfulness to the Lord.

            Here, we are told that the tabernacle was at Gibeon (1:3) and that not just any altar by Bezalel’s altar—the original from the wilderness—was there. Here we see the Chroniclers’ agenda, namely, emphasizing the faithfulness of Solomon. Just as he skipped over David’s trouble with Bathsheba, here he adds some details that minimize Solomon’s flaws. (Probably Gibeon was a mixed bag. Sure, the tabernacle was there but it was also identified as a high place. Probably both the Lord and Baal were worshiped there. That would certainly fit Israel’s problem with syncretism, about which we’ve talked.)

David’s Generosity

1 Chronicles 29

            1 Chronicles ends by relating David’s generosity, his personal generosity, toward the temple project. The previous lists of David’s donations seem to have been from his government coffers. Here David emphasizes that these gifts are from his personal resources. And they are substantial! More than that, he challenges the leaders of Israel to make similarly generous gifts, and they do! A lesson: those who would be leaders among God’s people will also be leaders in the matter of stewardship and faithfully and generously supporting the work of God’s kingdom. (We could talk about the tithe, the gift of 10% of one’s income, but let it suffice to say, it makes a handy reference for what generosity looks like.)

            Speaking of stewardship, that’s part of David’s confession, too. He spends the second half of the chapter talking about how everything we have is a gift from God. To quote the old hymn, “We give Thee but Thine own, Whate’er the gift may be; All that we have is Thine alone, A trust, O Lord, from Thee.” It’s good to be reminded that our stuff is not ultimately our stuff. God lends it to us to use for His purposes while we are on the earth. (The Bible reminds us a few times that our stuff is only good for this life; it’s no use in the next

Plans for the Temple

1 Chronicles 28

            Three things stood out for me in this chapter. First, we see David’s charge to Solomon, father to son. This seems a marked contrast to the distant father figure portrayed in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. Let’s not overdraw the contrast. David was hands-off with his older sons, especially Amnon, Absalom, and even Adonijah, but he did give some guidance to Solomon in the early narrative. But here, his advice is urgent, especially about faithfulness to the Lord.

            I am reminded of research that makes its way around the internet every so often about the outsize influence fathers have on the development of faith practices on their children. One such report, if a father does not attend church with his family, even if the mother does, only about 2% of children will remain lifelong churchgoers. And, if the father attends regularly, regardless of the mother’s participation, between 50-67% of those children will develop a habit of churchgoing. Now, I’ve dug in to some of the underlying research over the years, and I say those numbers are overinflated and misleadingly reported; I don’t trust the methodology that I’ve seen. Still, it, even if the numbers are exaggerated, they show how important a father’s influence is in faith development, and that’s worth pointing out.

            The second thing I saw in this reading is just how much preparation David did for the Temple, right down to the plans! I David’s claim that the Lord gave him the plans interesting, because it makes the whole thing parallel with the account of the Tabernacle in Exodus. There, the Lord gave Moses the detailed plans for the tabernacle’s construction. The Chronicler clearly wants us to see David as a worthy successor for Moses.

            Finally, a detail: David calls Solomon young and inexperienced, and I wondered, “Just how old was Solomon when he became king?” The blunt answer is, “The Bible never says.” However, we can ferret out some details and some up with a guess that Solomon was in his early to mid-twenties—not terribly old but hardly a child. I think the whole “young and inexperienced” thing should probably be understood more on the inexperienced side. Solomon, apparently, hadn’t been involved in the work of governance very much, and it seems certain he never had a co-regency with David, like so many other kings of Judah did. Solomon, it seems, is going to have to rely on the Lord and on on-the-job training to succeed.