2 Chronicles 9

Solomon is known for two things. He is supposed to be ‘wicked’ smart and ‘wicked’ rich.  In US politics, he is the JFK of the old testament.  He was born into an aristocratic family and had the good fortune of being on the correct side of the most influential book ever written.  History has no choice but to place him in the winner column.  Is that really why we care? Do we read about Solomon because he has all the trappings of the world?

The Queen of Sheba certainly found it attracting.  From far away in her kingdom, she heard about this king who seems to have it all going on for him and came check him out.  She brought a whole bunch of gifts and swooned as Solomon “[mans]plained to her everything she asked about, and there was nothing so obscure that Solomon could not explain it to her” 2 Chron 9:2.  He kindly accepted all of her gifts and then because he could, returned the gesture in fold.  The queen, flushed, replied, “I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes that not even the half of your great wisdom has been told to me.” 9:6) Not only does Sheba stand in awe of Solomon and Israel, the whole world does! “And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, that God had put in his heart” 2 Chronicles 9:23.  This is part where we all put on our yarmulkes and start chanting “L’Chaim!”

In the famous words of Shakespeare, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”[1].

The Queen of Sheba came because she did not believe all that God was doing.  She was blessed because she came to see.  Like all major ideas in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus takes them captive and transforms them to His own purpose.  Jesus is the new embodiment of all the greatness our Chronicles writer is trying so hard to convey about Solomon.  Jesus himself takes disbelief head on.  After Jesus’ tomb has been found empty and He appeared to two women, one of the disciples, Thomas, refuses to believe their story.  Later, in a locked room where all of the disciples were meeting, Jesus shows up and does the biblical version of a smack down on Thomas.  Thomas saw Jesus and believed he rose from the grave. Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” (John 20:29). 

Here we have two stories about two different kingdoms.  One kingdom is dripping masculinity, like the bench press in a Gold’s Gym.  The other, affirming female testimony and showing Christ’s followers the blessings of believing and not seeing.  The message we should take away is the development between the two.  God takes our hearts from one kingdom that loves hyper-masculinity, riches, and wisdom and moves it to a place that loves Him.  We read these stories, laughing and making fun of the farse of Solomon’s absurdity.  But in the end, we must realize that the story is about us.  Our lives are a sad parody until Jesus shows up and we follow Him, not because we see, but because we believe. 

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[1] Hamlet, By Shakespeare

Most good stories begin at night. In a quiet dark corner with hushed voices discussing the terms of some agreement. One offers to do a favor in return for something else. The terms are agreed upon and they separate as if they never were there. In the light of day, the world awakens and gets to work. Our story is just like this.

On a dark night, King Solomon has a vision discussing terms with God about ruling his kingdom. As dawn breaks, Solomon begins on God’s great temple. He imports fine wood, precious metals, and jewels for the building. All of the work is described in great detail, with gold pomegranates on chains, giant gold angels, and ornate stone work . When the day of dedication finally arrives, this new structure inspires splendor and awe in the assembled masses. Everyone’s hopes are high that something huge is going to happen. A procession of finely dressed priest leads the Ark of the Covenant to its final holy resting place between two massive golden angels and that is when stuff starts to get real. Smoke slowly begins to build around the Ark as one priest looks at another. Then smoke begins to pour out of every corner of the temple and the priest are tripping over each other to escape.

King Solomon climbs up the steps and gives an impassioned prayer crying out to God. As his voice hits a dramatic climax yelling “Lord God, do not reject the plea of your anointed, remember the devotion of David, your servant”, the skies crack. Fire rips down to consume the prepared offering. (Everyone poops their pants.) For seven days they slaughter 144,000 oxen and sheep at a rate of 14 per min. You can’t kill these animals fast enough! And then its over… Everyone goes home and back to their lives.

Sometime later, Solomon is sleeping during the evening and God comes to him in a vision. God lays out the promise He made with Moses and David one more time. And then He makes a curious comment. He leaves Solomon with a prophetic image. This brand-new temple God just smoked out is going to be destroyed, “because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they embraced other gods, bowing down to them and serving them. That is why he has brought upon them all this evil.” (2 Chronicles 7:22) This whole endevore began with a conversation with God and that’s how it ends.

How can this be? If we had an event in our history where a building started smoking, fire came down from heaven, and the nation went on a non-stop seven-day psycho butcherfest; wouldn’t we make it national priority one not to screw with God? In the 500 years from the dedication to the destruction people clearly forgot about priorities. The writer is making a case from the beginning to the end that this is a two-way street. Follow God and He shows up, don’t and He doesn’t. The point is turn back to God.

This is not the place to dig into deep theology about God bringing evil on Israel. Old school is the best school not because it’s easy to understand, it’s the best because of brutal truths. You and I are not God. The point is simple; if you are far from God, turn back to him. You may be mad or confused, but you are at least going in the right direction.

2 Chronicles 1

When I was in college, one of the buildings had the words “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom” inscribed high on a main entry way. I remember liking it because as a public university it recalled a time when universities did not look at the church with defensive animosity. Today, those words chiseled into the building are safe only because no one recognizes them as Proverbs 4:7.

Most people know two stories about Solomon, one God came to him and told him he could have anything he wanted. When he asked for wisdom, God was so pleased He gave him everything else in addition to wisdom. The second is the baby chopping story to discern the true mother. (If you have no idea what I am talking about don’t worry we will get to it at another time.) The point is always Solomon’s wisdom and talents as an administrator far surpassed everyone else. Solomon was a great king and it is easy to identify him as someone to emulate and seek wisdom.

Wisdom is great. Plato, Socrates, and Confucius all made wisdom a pinnacle of their teachings. The problem is the Bible is not a wisdom book, it is a relationship book. It is a book that describes our relationship to God and vice versa. With this in mind what, why is God so pleased that Solomon asked for wisdom? Solomon is a young king and has a huge kingdom to administer. He is asking God to help him in his new job. Wisdom being the main tool for the job. God is pleased, not because he asked for wisdom specifically, but because he wanted to serve his kingdom well. Solomon is asking to enhance his relationship with his people and the people relationship with God.

Christians can be confused by all the entrapments of the world; lusting for wisdom and knowledge is no different. God calls us to care about people around us, not wisdom. The Bible has a whole section entitled wisdom literature, which is actually longer than the gospels. This does not mean that wisdom is more important. It means that our wisdom is different from other people. Our wisdom can be summed up in one verse, Proverbs 10:9 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Our relationship with God is the beginning of wisdom and everything else flows from it. Solomon understood this and was blessed. Put God first in your life and you will be as well.

Ironically, if you followed the directions of that verse on the University’s building you would do a U-turn and go to church. I don’t know if that’s what they intended…

1 Chronicles 29

If you had to choose for the rest world one event that defines America history which would you choose? Would it be the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the storming of the beaches of Normandy, or might it be landing a man on the moon? This is the same question posed by the writer of Chronicles. For him, there was only one clear choice: The Temple.

For five hundred years from 1000BCE-500BCE, the Temple in the City of David made the Jewish people unique in their eyes and in the eyes of God. After its destruction, our writer is living as an exile in a foreign country, present-day Iraq. The founding of first Temple and our writer are actually separated by 500 years. Did you catch that? He is describing in great detail speeches uttered and resources gathered all the while being removed from the event by half a millennium and over 650 miles, in a world lit by animal dung! This is like a 2020 Catholic in the Bronx raving about the party thrown at the St. Peter’s Basilica groundbreaking.

We can look at Chronicles in one of two major ways. One, we can see it as something so huge and impactful that 500 years after the fact, the people are still talking about it. This certainly could be the case. After all we believe this is the first time in human history the true living God actually had a temple built by man. Or two, we can take it to mean something more. It is a beacon calling the Jewish people to God. He is writing to Jews all over the ancient world, who have forgotten what it means to be Jewish. A nation set aside for God. A nation with an identity different from the pagan culture surrounding it.

The Temple is like a lighthouse to a ship on dark night. It does not tell you where to go, but it keeps you from crashing into the land. As Christians, we can do well to respect this and look to Jesus the same way. He does not always tell you where to go or show the path is in front of you. But, when you are lost out at sea, the light house is a beacon of hope. It functions as guidance only to the extent that it shows the boundary of land. The Temple and Jesus remind us that we are different from the rest of the world, we are God’s people.

All of America will die away someday. The cities and towns we love will change and might be gone. The first temple lasted a staggering 500 years, but even it was eventually destroyed. If the writer of Chronicles is so passionate about this event, how much more should we be, having Christ as a living temple, that will never be lost.

1 Chronicles 28

It’s always bothered me that Jesus only did his ministry for three years. This is supposed to be the most pivotal event in all human history and the main character is only on stage for three years. Imagine if Steven Spielberg wrote Saving Private Ryan like this. You sit through an hour and a half of war, blood, and drama only to finally rescue Private Ryan and he takes a bullet to the head. Movie credits. It would be terrible! Yet in Gods cosmic movie this is basically what He does. He has two millennia of build-up to this Messiah character and when He finally arrives on set, he is gunned down before any of the real story happens. What the heck God?

Reading 1 Chronicles 28 might give us a small amount of understanding. The scene is this. David is at the end of his life and the pressure of death is leading him to amass supplies needed to build the temple. There are huge quantity of stones, gold, silver, and bronze. The plans are drawn and the builders are ready. David is handing Solomon everything he needs to build the temple. All he has to do it assemble it. The message is clear, this is a big deal and Solomon is going to build it.

How does any of this relate to Jesus? Well before Jesus was the Messiah, He was the prophet. This is how His followers saw Him and how He behaved. This behavior was His main means of communication. A prophet not only tells the word of God, he literally acts out the word of God. Knowing this, it is not hard to understand why Peter quoted psalm 118:22 “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” in describing Jesus. The life Jesus led prepared the way for a new temple. He lived His ministry preaching in the physical temple, but to the prophet Jesus, He was living example showing how the Temple is much, much more. This is why Jesus answered the temple leaders cryptically saying, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). Jesus lived all of His life as a live action play communicating God’s will for his people.

(Dad-You took one confusing idea and answered it with another confusing idea. Thanks)

So, let’s look at this. David does all of the work collecting up the resources needed to build the temple. The people are all assembled for him and Solomon can begin doing the work. Jesus likewise does all of the work assembling the people, demonstrating their resources, telling them about this “counselor” who is going to help them. Just as when David teed up Solomon, Christ is teeing up His church. He is not going to do it for them, they are going to do it themselves. He is demonstrating at the end of His short ministry that they are going to build the Temple. They are going to build His Church. They are the place that God will dwell just as He did in Solomon’s temple. To the very end of His life on Earth, Christ lived out the movie scene with a precision that makes you walk away saying, “I get it now”.

It will always bother me that Jesus had such a short time preaching. Nor did He didn’t write anything down. It all just seems so unfair. But He left us all the tools needed to build the kingdom and we get to make our mark on the kingdom. For that I am grateful.

1 Chronicles 22–28

Jewish writing has a long tradition of internal debate and seeking truths within the same story. Our writer in Chronicles is writing to an exiled Jewish audience in Babylon. He is making a patriotic plea for the people to return to Israel by telling the same story already told in Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. His retelling of this story brings new color, because he is writing for completely different reasons. If you merely read through Chronicles without this comparison in mind, the beauty of the story is lost.

In 1 Chronicles 22:5, the author begins with David saying, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced; but the house that is to be built for the Lord must be made so magnificent that it will be renowned and glorious in all lands. Therefore, I will make preparations for it.” Conversely, in 1 Kings 2:3, there is only personal instructions to Solomon: “Be strong and be a Man! Keep the mandates of the Lord, your God, walking in his ways”. Why does Chronicles care so much about building this house? The answer may lie in the chapters following.

Chronicles devotes five long chapters listing the jobs conducted in the execution of this new house and specifically, who is going to do them. Each family is listed by name. Some have a short lineage, going back to Joseph or Moses or Aaron. The focus is on the people supporting this new national project. The author is writing a story his audience already knows, but he is telling them that they are a part of the story in a way not told before. He is telling the exiled Jewish people; they all have a place in this great project. This was not a royal temple built by a king, but rather it was their temple, built by the God of Abraham.

In the new testament, Paul communicates this idea of one people working towards a common purpose in 1Corinthians 12:12, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” Paul is not making this idea up. Nor is it anything new to Jewish teachings. Christ has one Church and one people working for one purpose. Your vocation matters not if you are in Christ, you are part of Christ’s temple project. Jesus’s story is a retelling of the Jewish story, but He tells it in a way we have never heard before. And that is beautiful.

Matthew 7:24

In preparation for the upcoming Temple our current 1 Chronicles story line, I decided to jump ahead to a bit of foundation talk by Jesus.

In Matthew 7, Jesus harnesses his background as a laborer. He illustrates a building project and likens it to having a good moral foundation in your life…. Just kidding. That’s not what Jesus is talking about at all, but the number of sermons to the contrary make my head spin. (A good rule of thumb is to assume Jesus is always talking about something other than what you think he is talking about.)

A little context is helpful. The period in which Jesus is preaching, a massive overhaul of the Temple complex has been completed with the finishing touches ongoing. This is the defining new symbol of the Jewish people. Herod, the local king, has managed to appease Rome by keeping the locals happy with this ornate undertaking. All of the people are very proud of this national building project.

Jesus tells this parable about a builder who builds his rock on the sand as opposed to one who builds his house on rock. The builder who builds his house on rock, is the one who listens to Jesus and acts on his words. The man who builds his house on sand is the man who listens to Jesus, but does not do what he says. When rough weather comes the house collapses.

Jesus is staking a claim against this new fancy temple the people are looking to. He is saying in not so many words that this national identity in the temple is not the way for Gods people to live. It will lead to trouble and ruin for them. (As it has in the past.) Instead, He is offering a different path that will endure in times of trouble. At the same time, He is admonishing them for merely listening to Him. He is telling them to get their back-end in gear or Rome is going to crush you. The difference between success and failure in His Kingdom is action.

The closing lines, “the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” are perfect. Partly, because they are as confusing as the rest of the parable, but more precisely because they reflect the sentiment of the audience. Jesus is stomping on their version of the Statue of Liberty and they are amazed at Him in the same way your mother would be if you came home cursing like a sailor.

Jesus is saying that He is foundational and is not about politics. He expects his people to follow Him through actions. By doing so Israel’s foundation will stand when the rough times come. It is an extraordinary claim made in an extraordinary time. But the people are not. We are just like them, if not more so. Jesus is calling your life to be one not about politics, or national identity, but a life about him. A person who acts in response to his call is going to weather the storm when it comes. Is that you?

1 Chronicles 21

Part II

Which is better — to be in fear or to be safe? Most people would argue safe. They point to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and say things like, “We advance as a society, if we are safe”. These days the parting phrase ‘stay safe’ is on everyone’s lips. And FDR’s famous line, “the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself” just feels good, doesn’t it? The problem is God disagrees with all of them. King David learned this lesson personally.

In the first half of this story, we see how God impacts His people on a corporate level. But in the second half, God gets personal. He sends a vision to David of an angel of death standing between heaven and earth, the angel’s sword drawn over Jerusalem. David is commanded to go to a threshing floor, buy it with his own money, and give a sacrifice to God. The owner, Ornan, offers to give it to him, but David refuses and instead pays an exorbitant fee. After making the appropriate offerings the angel returns his sword to the sheath. Interestingly, the story ends not with David being happy to have saved a bunch of lives, but instead refusing to go near the presence of God.

David literally had the fear of the Lord put into him. This fear was missing from him earlier, when he commanded the census be taken of Israel and it cost him dearly. David had not realized how dangerous God could be. He had turned God into the lamb version of Christ. You know him, “nice guy” Jesus who loves everyone and everything. Completely ignoring the Lion of Judah, who refuses to give an inch of righteousness. Nothing about God is safe, He makes no promises to be safe and its not really in His “DNA”. Instinctively, we don’t like this. But He is good and fear is an appropriate feeling when dealing with God’s goodness. Fear keeps us on our guard, it heightens our senses, it makes us forget everything superfluous. Fear makes us listen. Fear makes us move!

Conversely, safe makes you stay put. Safe homes shelter you from the storm. Safe jobs keep you from looking for the next one. Safe keep us from growing. We sit in safe’s inviting embrace and are happy, like a child not wanting to change a diaper. It may smell bad, but it’s mine and it’s warm.

God wants us to grow. More than anything, He wants us to grow in a relationship with Him. Our greatest fear and the greatest movement should be in our dealings with Him. Our safety is something He cannot abide. He went to great lengths to make David move. Embrace a fear of the Lord and everything else will start moving in your life.