READ IT! - Introduction to 1st Chronicles 20-26

Readings for this week

Monday: 1st Chronicles 20
Tuesday: 1st Chronicles 21
Wednesday: 1st Chronicles 22
Thursday: 1st Chronicles 23
Friday: 1st Chronicles 24
Saturday: 1st Chronicles 25
Sunday: 1st Chronicles 26

Introduction to 1st Chronicles 20-26

Chapter 20 

Joab besieged Rabbah and David took the plunder. War broke out with the Philistines and David and his men killed the giants. 

Chapter 21 

Satan led David to count the Israelites. God sent a plague and a destroying angel. David bought Ornan's field and made offerings and the plague ended. 

Chapter 22 

David told Solomon: "The LORD has said that you will build his temple. I have provided materials." He ordered the leaders to help. 

Chapter 23 

David made Solomon king over Israel. He organized the Levites into the sons of Gershon, Kohath and Merari to serve in the temple. 

Chapter 24 

The sons of Aaron were priests. David organised the sons of Eleazar and Ithamar by lot. The rest of the Levites also cast lots. 

Chapter 25 

The sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun prophesied with music. 288 were trained in singing to the LORD. They cast lots for duties. 

Chapter 26 

The sons of Obed-edom, Meshelemiah and Hosah were gatekeepers. Ahijah, Zetham, Joel, Shubael and Shelomith oversaw the treasuries.

READ IT! - Introduction to 1st Chronicles 13-19

Readings for this week

Monday: 1st Chronicles 13
Tuesday: 1st Chronicles 14
Wednesday: 1st Chronicles 15
Thursday: 1st Chronicles 16
Friday: 1st Chronicles 17
Saturday: 1st Chronicles 18
Sunday: 1st Chronicles 19

Introduction to 1st Chronicles 13-19

Chapter 13 

David said, "Let us bring the ark back." As they carried the ark Uzzah steadied it and was struck down by God. David was angry with God and he took the ark the home of Obed-Edom.

Chapter 14 

We then hear that David had more children. Also, the Philistines attacked again and David inquired of God and when he heard the sound of marching in the trees he defeated them. 

Chapter 15 

David told the Levites to carry the ark. Heman, Asaph and Ethan were the musicians. The ark was brought into the city of David. 

Chapter 16 

They made offerings and David appointed singers. "Give thanks to the LORD; He is greatly to be praised!" Asaph ministered each day. 

Chapter 17 

The LORD said to Nathan, "Tell David: I will establish your house; your son will build my house." David prayed, "Who am I, O LORD?" 

Chapter 18 

David defeated the Philistines, the Moabites, King Hadadezer, the Arameans and the Edomites. He reigned over Israel with justice. 

Chapter 19 

The King of Ammon humiliated David's servants and hired the Arameans for war. Joab defeated them and David defeated King Hadadezer.

READ IT! - Introduction to 1st Chronicles 6-12

Readings for this week

Monday: 1st Chronicles 6
Tuesday: 1st Chronicles 7
Wednesday: 1st Chronicles 8
Thursday: 1st Chronicles 9
Friday: 1st Chronicles 10
Saturday: 1st Chronicles 11
Sunday: 1st Chronicles 12

Introduction to 1st Chronicles 6-12 

Chapter 6 

The book continues on with the genealogies, and we then get to Jacob’s third-born son, Levi. And we hear that Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath and Merari. The famous musicians Heman and Asaph were also Levites. We hear how Aaron's sons made offerings, and that the Levites were given cities rather than broad swaths of land. 

Chapter 7 

We then move on to the tribe of Issachar's whose numbers were 87,000.

We then move on to Benjamin, Jacob’s last son. Benjamin's sons were Bela, Beker and Jediael.

We then move on to Naphtali and the other half of Manasseh’s split tribe, before going to Ephraim’s clans, and we hear again that Ephraim's line led to Joshua.

We then move on to the tribe of Asher whose numbers were 26,000. 

Chapter 8 

We then jump back to Benjamin, where we narrow in on the records of Saul, Israel’s first king. We hear that Benjamin was the father of Bela, Ashbel, Aharah, Nohah and Rapha. We then get a list of the clans of Benjamin, and we learn that from Ner's line was Kish, the father of Saul, the father of Jonathan. From Jonathan’s line came the sons of Ulam were known as mighty warriors. 

Chapter 9 

We then learn that Jerusalem was resettled by Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh, and we are given a list of priests and Levite gatekeepers.

We then jump back again to the genealogy of Saul, son of Kish. 

Chapter 10 

The narrative section of Chronicles begins here with the death of Saul. We learn that the Philistines fought Israel and Saul fell on his sword. The Israelites fled, and Saul died for his unfaithfulness against the LORD. These events are also recorded in 1st Samuel. 

Chapter 11 

The elders anointed David king, and David conquered Jerusalem. He made Joab his general. We then hear about David's mighty men who included the three who brought him water from Bethlehem. Joab’s brother Abishai became their commander and killed three hundred men in battle. Another man named Benaiah killed a giant Egyptian and fought a lion in a pit on a snowy day.

Chapter 12 

We then learn that the Benjaminites and Gadites went over to David at Ziklag, and David made them officers. And more and more people kept coming over to join David until there was a great army.

READ IT! - Introduction to 1st Chronicles 1-5

Introduction to 1st Chronicles 1-5

The Chronicles narrative begins with Adam and the story is then carried forward, almost entirely by genealogical lists, down to the founding of the first Kingdom of Israel (1 Chronicles 1–9). The bulk of the remainder of 1 Chronicles, after a brief account of Saul, is concerned with the reign of David (1 Chronicles 11–29). 

Originally a single work, Chronicles was divided into two in the Septuagint, a Greek translation produced in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. It has three broad divisions: 

The genealogies (1 Chronicles 1-9) 

The reigns of David and Solomon (1 Chronicles 10 – 2 Chronicles 9)
The story of the divided kingdom (2 Chronicles 10-36) 

Within this broad structure there are signs that the author has used various other devices to structure his work, notably through drawing parallels between David and Solomon (the first becomes king, establishes the worship of Israel's God in Jerusalem, and fights the wars that will enable the Temple to be built, then Solomon becomes king, builds and dedicates the Temple, and reaps the benefits of prosperity and peace). 

Origins 

The last events in Chronicles take place in the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC; this sets the earliest possible date for the book. It was probably composed between 400–250 BC, with the period 350–300 BC the most likely. The latest person mentioned in Chronicles is Anani, an eighth-generation descendant of King Jehoiachin according to the Masoretic Text. Anani's birth would likely have been sometime between 425 and 400 BC. The Septuagint gives an additional five generations in the genealogy of Anani. For those scholars who side with the Septuagint's reading, Anani's likely date of birth is a century later.

Chronicles appears to be largely the work of a single individual, with some later additions and editing. The writer was probably male, probably a Levite (temple priest), and probably from Jerusalem. He was well-read, a skilled editor, and a sophisticated theologian. His intention was to use Israel's past to convey religious messages to his peers, the literary and political elite of Jerusalem in the time of the Achaemenid Empire.

Jewish and Christian tradition identified this author as the 5th century BC figure Ezra, who gives his name to the Book of Ezra; Ezra was also believed to be the author of both Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah, but later critical scholarship abandoned the identification with Ezra and called the anonymous author "the Chronicler". One of the most striking, although inconclusive, features of Chronicles is that its closing sentence is repeated as the opening of Ezra–Nehemiah. The latter half of the 20th century saw a radical reappraisal, and many now regard it as improbable that the author of Chronicles was also the author of the narrative portions of Ezra–Nehemiah. 

Genre 

The translators who created the Greek version of the Jewish Bible (the Septuagint) called this book "Things Left Out", indicating that they thought of it as a supplement to another work, probably Genesis-Kings, but the idea seems inappropriate, since much of Genesis-Kings has been copied almost without change. Some modern scholars proposed that Chronicles is a midrash, or traditional Jewish commentary, on Genesis-Kings, but again this is not entirely accurate since the author or authors do not comment on the older books so much as use them to create a new work. Recent suggestions have been that it was intended as a clarification of the history in Genesis-Kings, or a replacement or alternative for it. 

Themes 

The generally accepted message the author wished to give to his audience was this:

God is active in history, and especially the history of Israel. The faithfulness or sins of individual kings are immediately rewarded or punished by God. (This is in contrast to the theology of the Books of Kings, where the faithlessness of kings was punished on later generations through the Babylonian exile).

God calls Israel to a special relationship. The call begins with the genealogies (chapters 1–9 of 1 Chronicles), gradually narrowing the focus from all mankind to a single family, the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. "True" Israel is those who continue to worship Yahweh at the Temple in Jerusalem, with the result that the history of the historical kingdom of Israel is almost completely ignored.

God chose David and his dynasty as the agents of his will. According to the author of Chronicles, the three great events of David's reign were his bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, his founding of an eternal royal dynasty, and his preparations for the construction of the Temple.

God chose the Temple in Jerusalem as the place where he should be worshiped. More time and space are spent on the construction of the Temple and its rituals of worship than on any other subject. By stressing the central role of the Temple in pre-exilic Judah, the author also stresses the importance of the newly-rebuilt Persian-era Second Temple to his own readers.

God remains active in Israel. The past is used to legitimize the author's present: this is seen most clearly in the detailed attention he gives to the Temple built by Solomon, but also in the genealogy and lineages, which connect his own generation to the distant past and thus make the claim that the present is a continuation of that past. 

Chapter 1 

The book starts off with the genealogies, which start with the line from Noah, and the branches off with the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and founders of the nations.

We then focus in on the family of Abraham, and the children he had through Hagar, Keturah, and Sarah. We then focus in on his son Isaac and Isaac's sons Edom (Esau) and Israel (Jacob). There is then a list of the Kings who ruled in Edom. 

Chapter 2 

We then go back to Jacob (Israel) and his sons, starting with his fourth son Judah. Judah's line led to Obed, Jesse and David.

We also hear that Caleb was the son of Hezron (a descendant of Judah) whose firstborn son was Jerahmeel. And we learn that Caleb's line were the Kenites. Caleb’s relative Achar (or Achan) is also mentioned here as the one in the Book of Joshua who violated the devoted things and brought trouble on Israel.

Chapter 3 

We then jump back to King David whom we hear had six sons at Hebron, four by Bathshua (or Bathsheba) … and also nine others.

David’s son Solomon's line led to Jeconiah (or Jehoiakim) at the time of the exile to Babylon, and then later to the sons of Elioenai, who were of the royal line after the exile. 

Chapter 4 

We then get more lists of the clans of Judah and were learn that Reaiah's sons were the Zorathites.

We then briefly hear about how God blessed a man named Jabez when he prayed to be blessed.

Also, we hear that Shelah's sons worked for the king.

We then move on to the Jacob’s third-born son, Simeon, and his descendants, and we hear that Simeon's line moved away to Gedor to seek pasture. 

Chapter 5 

The book continues on with the genealogies, and we finally get to Jacob’s first-born son Reuben. We then hear about how Reuben lost his birthright, and how his sons lived in Gilead.

We also hear that the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh lived in Bashan until the captivity.

READ IT! - Introduction to James 4-5

Readings for this week

Monday: James 4
Tuesday: James 5
Wednesday: 1st Chronicles 1
Thursday: 1st Chronicles 2
Friday: 1st Chronicles 3
Saturday: 1st Chronicles 4
Sunday: 1st Chronicles 5

Chapter 4 

He then summarizes his main theme – the reward of faith. He starts with the issue of the prayer of faith, saying, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

He then discusses the issue of friendship with the world, saying, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace.”

And he quotes the Scriptures, saying:

“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”

He then discusses the humility of faith, saying, “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

He then gets into some more specifics, starting with a call to avoid worldly influences. He starts by addressing the issue of slander in the community, saying, “Do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”

He then addresses the issue of boasting about tomorrow, saying, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.”

And he adds, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” 

Chapter 5 

He then offers a warning to “wealthy oppressors”:

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”

He then talks about the patience of faith, saying, “Be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!”

He then offers some biblical examples of patience in suffering, saying, “Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”

And then he adds, “Above all, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ Otherwise you will be condemned.”

He then discusses the prayer of faith, saying:

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

He gives a biblical example:

“Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”

And he concludes his letter by saying:

“If one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”