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.