Ted Lee: Thank you, micah.
Ted Lee: You know we've been continuing our journey through Route 66, the books of the Bible, and we are now landed in the books of Chronicles, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
Ted Lee: So we'll spend today and next week on Chronicles.
Ted Lee: I'd like to spend half our time today laying some groundwork on the books of Chronicles and then spend the second half of our time beginning to delve into the themes, the major themes, of Chronicles.
Ted Lee: Chronicles is such an underappreciated book.
Ted Lee: I think many of us would acknowledge that.
Ted Lee: You know, we've looked at, you know, samuel, especially the period of time from 2 Samuel through 1 and 2 Kings, and it's exactly the same period of time that the books of Chronicles cover.
Ted Lee: So some of us may think you know, why do I have to read Chronicles?
Ted Lee: And Chronicles comes after Samuel and Kings, and so by that time you probably are tired and so I want to move on.
Ted Lee: But I want to underscore the fact that Chronicles offers us a very special perspective in the Old Testament that points us forward to Christ and that you'll understand through part of today, as part of the reasons why Chronicles was written.
Ted Lee: By the way, I want to say that throughout this message.
Ted Lee: I may be using the title God interchangeably with the personal name of God, yahweh, and I will be going back and forth using that, obviously referring to God, the Father himself.
Ted Lee: So let's go to God in prayer, the Father himself.
Ted Lee: So let's go to God in prayer.
Ted Lee: Incline our hearts to you, father.
Ted Lee: Father, open our eyes that we may behold the wondrous things that you have set forth in your law.
Ted Lee: Unite our individual hearts so that we fear your name and satisfy us this evening that we may enjoy your steadfast love.
Ted Lee: Father, glorify your name through this study of your word.
Ted Lee: Tonight.
Ted Lee: We pray this in your son's name Amen, amen.
Ted Lee: Turn to 1 Chronicles.
Ted Lee: While you're turning, let me just ask you well, let me ask how many of you are from San Francisco or have visited San Francisco?
Ted Lee: What's the name of the newspaper there?
Ted Lee: Chronicle, san Francisco Chronicle, right?
Ted Lee: How many of you visited Houston?
Ted Lee: Or from Houston, texas?
Ted Lee: I know Josh and Carol, but they're not here tonight.
Ted Lee: They're from Houston.
Ted Lee: What's the name of the newspaper there?
Ted Lee: Houston Chronicle, right?
Ted Lee: You know where I'm going with this.
Ted Lee: And people from Augusta, georgia.
Ted Lee: They know their newspaper it's the Augusta Chronicle.
Ted Lee: So when you think of the word chronicle.
Ted Lee: It's probably, you probably think of that, it's a very common name for a newspaper, right?
Ted Lee: It's a way that the reporter journals the affairs of a community, of a city or a town, right?
Ted Lee: Well, the Book of Chronicles were written not just to report the historical facts.
Ted Lee: In fact, the Book of Chronicles is a divine commentary on the history of Israel.
Ted Lee: A divine commentary.
Ted Lee: I'll get into this a little bit more.
Ted Lee: First and Second Chronicles was originally one book, as was First and Second Samuel, as David had mentioned, and First and Second Kings, that Bob had mentioned earlier.
Ted Lee: First and Second Chronicles was one book in the Hebrew Bible, well, the Hebrew language.
Ted Lee: However, when it's written, the language is written without any vowels.
Ted Lee: It's a consonantal language.
Ted Lee: But when the Greeks came to translate it into what's known as the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint well, the Greek language inserts vowels.
Ted Lee: So you have twice the volume of the written language.
Ted Lee: So you need two scrolls to hold all of Chronicles.
Ted Lee: So since then we've had two books of Chronicles.
Ted Lee: So who wrote Chronicles?
Ted Lee: The text in Chronicles doesn't say who wrote it, but Jewish tradition strongly favors that it was Ezra, prophet Ezra, who wrote it, and the writing of this is probably around 400 BC.
Ted Lee: There's a lot of supporting evidence to point to this, one of which is that when we get into the genealogy, the first chapters of Chronicles, we'll see that the listing of the descendants, the kingly line of Judah of David, goes eight generations from Jehoiakim.
Ted Lee: Jehoiakim was the one who was taken into captivity.
Ted Lee: Eight generations after him were recorded, still okay, and so it records that line even after they return from their exile.
Ted Lee: We'll get into more of that.
Ted Lee: If you take and estimate every generation being about 25 years, that's about 200 years.
Ted Lee: Well, when did the Israelites return?
Ted Lee: When did the remnant, the first remnants, come back to the land of Jerusalem, their homeland?
Ted Lee: Well, they first left when Cyrus made that decree and we'll get into this more in 538 BC, all right.
Ted Lee: And then another wave followed, ezra in 458 BC.
Ted Lee: And then Nehemiah brought the third and final wave of returned exiles in 445 BC, of returned exiles in 445 BC.
Ted Lee: So when you look at all this, when you look at the number of generations and the number of years it may be around, it's certainly probably in the ministry of Ezra and probably around 400 AD, the late fifth century before Christ.
Ted Lee: That's roughly when we think the Chronicles were written.
Ted Lee: So, as I said, chronicles is a divine commentary.
Ted Lee: It's a spiritual commentary on the history of the southern kingdom of Judah.
Ted Lee: In contrast, samuel and the kings are a more factual, a chronological and a political record of the history of both the northern and southern kingdoms kingdoms.
Ted Lee: You will also observe that Chronicles seems to put a good light on the kings of Judah.
Ted Lee: They're focusing on the kings of Judah, but they put a particularly good light, they almost clean up the reputation of some of these kings.
Ted Lee: For example, david running away from Saul is not mentioned in Chronicles.
Ted Lee: David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba not mentioned in the Chronicles.
Ted Lee: Nor is his accompanying murder of Bathsheba's husband not mentioned.
Ted Lee: So it leaves out the accounts of the kings of the northern tribes, the northern kingdom, because they didn't really contribute to the positive purpose of the book of Chronicles.
Ted Lee: One other thing I forgot to mention is that if we feel that the book of Chronicles is redundant, we have to think about where it's located.
Ted Lee: In the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible actually places the book of Chronicles as the very last book of the Hebrew Bible.
Ted Lee: The Hebrew Bible is broken up and even Jesus Christ mentions this when he was walking with the two men walking to Emmaus at the end of Luke, that the law, the prophets and the writings, that was the Hebrew scripture.
Ted Lee: Well, chronicles was the last book of the last section of the Hebrew Bible.
Ted Lee: It was the last book in the writings.
Ted Lee: In contrast, samuel and the kings are part of the prophets' section.
Ted Lee: They were quite separate, they were different.
Ted Lee: Well, let me ask you then, why did Chronicles appear to be written in this way, so differently from Samuel and Kings?
Ted Lee: The writer of Chronicles, probably Ezra, was very well versed in Samuel and the Kings, right.
Ted Lee: Why did he choose to write the Chronicles in this way?
Ted Lee: Well, one thing I want to mention is that, since we've learned in Pastor Doug's ABF class, context, context, context is so important.
Ted Lee: Well, if we look at when Samuel and the kings were written, samuel was written probably during the times of the divided monarchy.
Ted Lee: Remember Saul, david, solomon were kings of the united monarchy, but because of their failures as kings, the monarchy was divided From Solomon's son, rehoboam.
Ted Lee: There became a breaking of the kingdom into two the northern kingdom, where the 10 tribes went up to, and the southern kingdom of Judah, judah and Benjamin.
Ted Lee: Actually, the two tribes, okay, were together in the southern kingdom.
Ted Lee: Well, samuel was written during that earlier time, during the divided monarchy, early during the early exile time, during the time that they were taken into Babylon and probably written during that time Now, they were probably thinking and repenting over what led them to be taken away into Babylon, over what led them to be taken away into Babylon.
Ted Lee: So all the ugliness was left in the kings, so that they can see why they were taken into captivity.
Ted Lee: God punished them for their failures, for their sins.
Ted Lee: Now the Chronicles Chronicles was written after they came back from exile.
Ted Lee: They were in exile for their sins.
Ted Lee: Now the Chronicles Chronicles was written after they came back from exile.
Ted Lee: They were in exile for 70 years.
Ted Lee: They've come back and it's probably during Ezra's ministry that Chronicles was written.
Ted Lee: Chronicles was written to a group of people who had to find a new identity for themselves.
Ted Lee: They had come back to a homeland.
Ted Lee: That's very, very different.
Ted Lee: They were no longer probably over the fact that they had sinned so much that caused them to go into captivity.
Ted Lee: Here they're now coming back to reestablish themselves as a nation.
Ted Lee: So let me there are several things that they actually have found themselves seeking as a nation a new, a returned nation.
Ted Lee: First of all, they're thankful that they came back to their homeland.
Ted Lee: That's at least one of the few blessings that they came back to.
Ted Lee: But they found that the land, jerusalem, had no security, so they had to rebuild the wall.
Ted Lee: Nehemiah came to rebuild the wall.
Ted Lee: They had no temple.
Ted Lee: The temple was destroyed.
Ted Lee: But Zerubbabel attempted to rebuild the temple a pretty meager-looking temple by comparison to Solomon's temple.
Ted Lee: But they tried to rebuild the temple and they did, with some difficulty though, built the temple.
Ted Lee: And they did with some difficulty, though they also found themselves needing a lot of encouragement.
Ted Lee: They had no temple, they had the city walls all destroyed.
Ted Lee: They didn't have their former kingdom's wealth and, worst of all, god's divine presence was no longer with them.
Ted Lee: God's presence, if we look back in Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel, in chapters 8 to about 11, god departed from Jerusalem.
Ted Lee: He left them, he left the people.
Ted Lee: That was a sorry cry for the people of Israel.
Ted Lee: So this is the setting in which Chronicles was written.
Ted Lee: They were looking for encouragement, they were looking for a place to where to place their hope.
Ted Lee: They also were wondering there's no Davidic king ruling right now.
Ted Lee: They had only a governor from Persia sitting there.
Ted Lee: Where's the Davidic king?
Ted Lee: What happened to the Davidic covenant.
Ted Lee: Well, let me go over some of this now and move into more of 1 Chronicles.
Ted Lee: We'll cover 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles today and next week, so I'm going to lump 1 and 2 Chronicles and call that the books of Chronicles, okay?
Ted Lee: So Chronicles covers a history beginning with Adam.
Ted Lee: Now turn with me to 1 Chronicles, chapter 1.
Ted Lee: 1 Chronicles 1.
Ted Lee: You see that it says Adam, seth Enosh, kenan, mahaleo, jared Enoch, methuselah, lamech, noah, noah's sons, shem Ham and Japheth.
Ted Lee: We recognize these names.
Ted Lee: It begins with Adam right and it ends in 1 Chronicles ends with the reign of David.
Ted Lee: The chapters 1 to 9 here in 1 Chronicles reports the genealogy of the tribes of Israel.
Ted Lee: Chapter 10, I'm going to go quickly over this Chapter 10 is the only chapter that talks about Saul and it reports on Saul's death.
Ted Lee: Chapters 11 to 29, which is the end of 1 Chronicles, is all about David's reign.
Ted Lee: Now, if you look at chapters 1 to 9, beginning with Adam, chapters 1 to 9, it covers over 3,300 years of history.
Ted Lee: And then, if you look at David's reign, chapters 11 to 29, david's reign Now, this is David's reign in Jerusalem.
Ted Lee: He started off in Hebron, remember, for seven years, but in Jerusalem he reigned for 33 years, 3,300 years, chapters 1 to 9, only 33 years from chapters 11 to 29.
Ted Lee: You see the focus right.
Ted Lee: Now let's look at 2 Chronicles.
Ted Lee: Okay, 2 Chronicles reports on the reign of Solomon, the first descendant following David as king.
Ted Lee: That covers chapters 1 to 9.
Ted Lee: In 2 Chronicles.
Ted Lee: Solomon's reign was for 40 years.
Ted Lee: Then it continues on with the rest of the kings of Judah, from chapters 10 through 36.
Ted Lee: That covers 345 years, okay.
Ted Lee: And it ends with the decree of the Persian king, cyrus, who makes a decree to permit the Jews to return back to their homeland and rebuild their temple.
Ted Lee: Right, this is the scope in which we're going to cover today and next week.
Ted Lee: When we look at the genealogical records of chapters 1 to 9 in 1 Chronicles, they highlight two groups of people.
Ted Lee: Go back, you see, in chapter 3?
Ted Lee: .
Ted Lee: Well, let's go.
Ted Lee: Chapter 1, you see the beginning genealogies of Adam to Abraham.
Ted Lee: It talks about the Edomites, from Esau, I should say.
Ted Lee: Chapter 2 talks about now begins with Israel's sons.
Ted Lee: What's interesting, you see here, is that it begins after it talks about Israel's sons.
Ted Lee: You know, he lists the 12 sons of Jacob, israel, but he talks about Judah first.
Ted Lee: Right, judah comes first.
Ted Lee: The rest of that chapter.
Ted Lee: Judah is all about Judah.
Ted Lee: Chapter 3 is about David's descendants.
Ted Lee: Remember, david is in the line of Judah.
Ted Lee: He was a son of Jesse.
Ted Lee: All of chapter 3 is about David's descendants.
Ted Lee: The last section of chapter 3 is about David's line after they returned from exile.
Ted Lee: 3 is about David's line after they returned from exile.
Ted Lee: So you see there is more of David's line that continued on.
Ted Lee: It was not broken.
Ted Lee: There were times when that line could have been broken, but David's line continued on, even through the exile.
Ted Lee: Now, if you note eighth generation, that descendant called Anani, that very last person there of the eighth generation, we think that you know that's the eighth generation.
Ted Lee: So if Chronicles is so focused on the Davidic line, why did it just stop there?
Ted Lee: If Chronicles were written even earlier, even later, why didn't it mention any more of David's line?
Ted Lee: So that's a hint when Chronicles was actually written.
Ted Lee: But anyway, chapter 4 goes on with more of Judah's descendants.
Ted Lee: Judah, judah, judah, right, and then chapter 5 and on talks about the other tribes of Israel.
Ted Lee: We have Reuben and the Levites, simeon.
Ted Lee: Let's see Gad.
Ted Lee: You know the rest of the 12 tribes, but let me get to so the Levites.
Ted Lee: The Levites is a very big chapter, chapter 6.
Ted Lee: The Levites is another big, big chapter.
Ted Lee: So if you flip through the rest, through chapter 9, the two main groups of people that are talked about in the genealogy section are the Davidic line of kings and the priests and Levites, the ones who functioned in the temple.
Ted Lee: So David's line, specifically the kings.
Ted Lee: Then you have the priests and the Levites, descendants of Aaron and the other Levitical families, and they functioned in the temple.
Ted Lee: So these two genealogical groups actually foreshadow the development of the major themes that we're going to see in Chronicles the Davidic dynasty, his line of kings as one major theme, and temple worship, temple worship, and you'll see this develop through the rest of 1 and 2 Chronicles.
Ted Lee: So before I get into talking more about the key themes of Chronicles, let's turn to 1, chronicles 17.
Ted Lee: I think this is the most pivotal chapter in Chronicles.
Ted Lee: Turn to 1 Chronicles, chapter 17.
Ted Lee: 17, verses 1, I'll read there when David had settled into his palace, he said to the prophet Nathan look, I am living in a cedar house while the Ark of the Lord's Covenant is under tent curtains.
Ted Lee: You see, david is now pretty much enjoying his new palace.
Ted Lee: He has a brand new palace, a glorious palace that he had built for himself, for his family.
Ted Lee: And he's feeling, you know, pretty cush, right, but he's feeling a little guilty.
Ted Lee: He says, while the ark of the Lord's covenant is still under tent curtains.
Ted Lee: So Nathan told David in verse 2, do all that is on your mind, for God is with you.
Ted Lee: Nathan is thinking what David is thinking.
Ted Lee: David wants to build the Lord a temple.
Ted Lee: Nathan says to him go ahead, do what you think is on your mind, god is with you.
Ted Lee: And then verse 3.
Ted Lee: But that night the word of God came to Nathan.
Ted Lee: Go to David, my servant, and say this is what the Lord says you are not the one to build me a house to dwell in.
Ted Lee: Go further down, verse 7.
Ted Lee: So now this is what you are to say to my servant, david.
Ted Lee: This is what the Lord of armies says I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, to be ruler over my people Israel.
Ted Lee: I have been with you wherever you have gone over my people Israel.
Ted Lee: I have been with you wherever you have gone and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
Ted Lee: You see, he's pretty cush.
Ted Lee: Now he has peace on every side.
Ted Lee: Then it says I will make a name for you like that of the greatest on the earth.
Ted Lee: I will designate a place for my people, israel, and plant them.
Ted Lee: Ooh, I will designate a place for my people, israel, and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again.
Ted Lee: Hmm, something about our current day situation too, I don't know.
Ted Lee: Anyway, it's an interesting side point.
Ted Lee: Evildoers will not continue to oppress them as they have done Ever since the day I ordered judges to be over my people, israel.
Ted Lee: I will also subdue all your enemies.
Ted Lee: Furthermore, I declare to you that the Lord himself will build a house for you when your time comes to be with your ancestors.
Ted Lee: I will raise up after you your descendant, who is one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
Ted Lee: He is the one who will build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever.
Ted Lee: You know this account is also in 2 Samuel, chapter 7.
Ted Lee: This is known as the Davidic covenant.
Ted Lee: This is the covenant God made unilaterally to David.
Ted Lee: His servant, david asked to build God a house, a temple, but Yahweh God said and responded and said that he would build David a house.
Ted Lee: It's a play on words there A house, temple, a house, a dynasty.
Ted Lee: So Chronicles is about these two houses.
Ted Lee: It's about how God raised up the Davidic dynasty as a promise of hope, and it is also about how David's royal house constructed and maintained the temple Temple of Yahweh.
Ted Lee: So in other words, the Davidic covenant gave rise to two institutions.
Ted Lee: We see the Davidic kingly line, the monarchy, and we also see the temple.
Ted Lee: These are the two institutions that came right out of the Davidic covenant.
Ted Lee: So the key themes of Chronicles are, first, god's commitment to the house of David and secondly, god's temple and his presence in his people's worship.
Ted Lee: So I'm going to spend the rest of our time this evening focusing on the first theme, god's commitment to the Davidic dynasty.
Ted Lee: Then I'll focus our time next week on how the chronicler highlights God's temple, yahweh's dwelling place among his people and the people's response in worship.
Ted Lee: So all that's for next week.
Ted Lee: So the first theme God's commitment to the house of David.
Ted Lee: Let's make a few observations first.
Ted Lee: So bear with me, because I'm going to have you turn to different parts of Chronicles, okay.
Ted Lee: So first let's go back to Chronicles 1, chronicles 1.
Ted Lee: I think we already read a little bit about that, so I made the point just so that we save some time.
Ted Lee: From the beginning of 1 Chronicles, the chronicler really focused on David.
Ted Lee: David as he traced the genealogy from Adam to Abraham, then from Abraham through the 12 tribes.
Ted Lee: And I mentioned to you that in 1 Chronicles 2, if you turn there, that the chronicler starts off by talking about Judah, the tribe of Judah, rather than Reuben.
Ted Lee: Reuben is the firstborn.
Ted Lee: Reuben has the birthright, he has the rights of being the firstborn right.
Ted Lee: In the Jewish culture, the oldest gets the birthright and much of the inheritance and blessings from the father.
Ted Lee: Why did this not happen to Reuben?
Ted Lee: Well, there's a couple things.
Ted Lee: I mentioned that the chronicler wanted to focus on the people who were the center of his theological history, right?
Ted Lee: Well, that's one reason.
Ted Lee: But there's a stronger reason.
Ted Lee: Back in Genesis 49, I think it was, yes, genesis 49, when Jacob or Israel was soon to die, he offered his blessings onto his 12 sons.
Ted Lee: He didn't offer really good positive blessings on Reuben, the eldest, or Simeon or Levi, the first three, but Judah, for Judah, the fourth son he poured out immense blessings on.
Ted Lee: So you can see that prophetic blessing from Genesis 49 is actually being fulfilled here in the Davidic covenant.
Ted Lee: Now it's an interesting observation.
Ted Lee: Another observation turn to chapter 3.
Ted Lee: I think I mentioned this too.
Ted Lee: In chapter 3, we have David's children and the royal descendants.
Ted Lee: This takes up the central part of Judah's family list, because Judah's list began in chapter 2, but all of 3 is specifically David's children, david's children, and then after chapter 3, it goes on more, going back to the general descendants of Judah, the tribe of Judah.
Ted Lee: So you have the general genealogy of Judah in chapter 2, the general genealogy of Judah in chapter 4.
Ted Lee: Chapter 3 is all about it's sandwiched to highlight David's line.
Ted Lee: To highlight David's line I think you remember that, this squeezing structure that Pastor Doug talked about, this maybe a chiastic structure that center part of it seems to be more important.
Ted Lee: That's the Davidic line there.
Ted Lee: Anyway, the fourth observation I wanted to point out I mentioned this before that this chronicler, probably Ezra, almost entirely passes over the Saul's reign right.
Ted Lee: Turn with me to chapter 10.
Ted Lee: 1 Chronicles, chapter 10.
Ted Lee: All this chronicler had to say really about Saul's reign was that it's actually in verse 13 and 14.
Ted Lee: Verse 13, chapter 10, verse 13.
Ted Lee: Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the Lord, because he did not keep the Lord's word.
Ted Lee: He even consulted a medium for guidance, but he did not inquire of the Lord.
Ted Lee: So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse.
Ted Lee: This is the same account.
Ted Lee: The factual parts of it earlier in chapter 10 are also seen in 1 Samuel 31, the last chapter in 1 Samuel.
Ted Lee: But what's not said is why Saul's kingdom was taken away.
Ted Lee: This is an example of the divine commentary I told you about.
Ted Lee: There's a special commentary on the actual historical facts.
Ted Lee: So this chronicler wanted to provide the context why Saul's reign was taken away from him and that dynasty was only Saul.
Ted Lee: There was no furtherance of that kingly line was there.
Ted Lee: So looking at all these observations taken together, we can see that the chronicler is setting up the book in these first nine chapters, these first nine chapters of genealogy.
Ted Lee: He's setting up the chronicles to be about David and the kings that followed him, david's line of kings.
Ted Lee: So this is what we're going to focus on today now.
Ted Lee: Okay, so back to our major theme God's commitment to the house of David.
Ted Lee: We can see this in three ways First of all, by God placing David on the throne.
Ted Lee: By God placing David on the throne.
Ted Lee: Secondly, by God promising to David an everlasting dynasty.
Ted Lee: And the third thing, by preserving God, preserving David's dynasty, placing David on the throne, promising an everlasting dynasty.
Ted Lee: And thirdly, preserving that dynasty.
Ted Lee: So the first one, placing David on the throne.
Ted Lee: How does the chronicler bring this out more?
Ted Lee: Well, let's now turn just right over to the next chapter, 1, chronicles 11.
Ted Lee: We see, hereid lived a life that honored god.
Ted Lee: His rise to the throne was not anything that he did, nothing that he did specifically, but it was because god ordained it to happen.
Ted Lee: Look at first, chronicles 11, verse 2.
Ted Lee: Actually this, the second, the second half of verse 2 the lord, your god, also said to you you will shepherd my people, israel and you will be ruler over my people, israel.
Ted Lee: Now, who said this?
Ted Lee: Let's look at verse 1.
Ted Lee: This is actually very interesting.
Ted Lee: All Israel, all Israel, came together to David at Hebron and said so all Israel, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron.
Ted Lee: Here we are your own flesh and blood.
Ted Lee: Even previously, when Saul was king, you were leading Israel out to battle and bringing us back.
Ted Lee: The Lord, your God, also said to you All of Israel knew what God had said to David.
Ted Lee: Isn't that interesting?
Ted Lee: They knew what God told David.
Ted Lee: They're acknowledging and affirming David because they received that divine understanding that David is their new ruler, their new leader.
Ted Lee: It said all Israel came together to David at Hebron and said here we are your own flesh and blood.
Ted Lee: So not only do we see God has ordained David to be king, it was affirmed because all Israel accepted and acknowledged that too, right.
Ted Lee: The third thing, let's look at chapter 12.
Ted Lee: Look at chapter 12, verse 23.
Ted Lee: It says the numbers of the armed troops who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul's kingdom over to him Hebron to turn Saul's kingdom over to him, according to the Lord's word, were as follows and he lists the tribes, every tribe, and he lists the number of military men of those tribes they came to David to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him.
Ted Lee: Another affirmation David is to be king.
Ted Lee: Let's look at another piece of evidence.
Ted Lee: Turn to chapter 14.
Ted Lee: David obeyed God's commands and the Lord gave him victory and God caused the nations to fear him.
Ted Lee: Verse 16 says so David did as God commanded him and they struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.
Ted Lee: Then David's fame spread throughout the lands and the Lord caused all the nations to be terrified of him, caused all the nations to be terrified of him.
Ted Lee: That's another affirmation.
Ted Lee: And one more David patiently trusted in the Lord and was rewarded for this.
Ted Lee: Look earlier in the same chapter, chapter 14, verse 2.
Ted Lee: Then David knew the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been exalted for the sake of his people, israel.
Ted Lee: David knew he was to be king Now.
Ted Lee: He was convinced.
Ted Lee: He knew this.
Ted Lee: How did David know this?
Ted Lee: It's because the way David lived his life, he lived his life close to God.
Ted Lee: No wonder he's called the man after God's own heart.
Ted Lee: He was reassured.
Ted Lee: He knew that God established him as king and gave him a kingdom.
Ted Lee: So God's commitment to the house of David is shown not only by his sovereign placement of David on the throne, but it's also by promising David that he will have an everlasting dynasty.
Ted Lee: If you look at first chronicles, 19 chapters in first chron, basically from chapters 11 on to 29, they concern David's reign.
Ted Lee: 12 of those chapters are centered on preparations for the temple and we're going to get into that.
Ted Lee: So the temple is very important in Chronicles.
Ted Lee: The Davidic covenant is a much more dominant, overarching, perpetual covenant that God had made with David.
Ted Lee: Let's go back to 1 Chronicles 17.
Ted Lee: 1 Chronicles 17,.
Ted Lee: The chapter about the Davidic covenant, verse 10, the second half of verse 10,.
Ted Lee: I'll start reading Furthermore I declare to you that the Lord himself will build a house for you when your time comes to be with your ancestors.
Ted Lee: I will raise up after you your descendant, who is one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
Ted Lee: He is the one who will build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever.
Ted Lee: I will be his father and he will be my son.
Ted Lee: I will not remove my faithful love from him, as I removed it from the one who was before you.
Ted Lee: If you look at these three or four sentences, you find eight promises listed.
Ted Lee: You know the Lord will build a house for you, for David, and then it says I will raise up after you your descendant.
Ted Lee: Then he says I will establish his kingdom.
Ted Lee: And then he says he's the one who built a house for me.
Ted Lee: And it goes on to say I will establish his throne forever.
Ted Lee: He says I will be his father.
Ted Lee: He promises that he will be my son.
Ted Lee: And then he says I will not remove my faithful love from him.
Ted Lee: These promises are very significant.
Ted Lee: They're very, very significant.
Ted Lee: There are three reasons.
Ted Lee: The first king Saul lost his dynasty because he disobeyed the Lord.
Ted Lee: Saul's dynasty was only one king himself.
Ted Lee: The second reason the northern kingdom had 10 dynasties over a brief 200 years.
Ted Lee: 10 dynasties over 200 years.
Ted Lee: 10 dynasties.
Ted Lee: But the Lord declared that he would never remove his steadfast love from the Davidic dynasty, the one dynasty, david's dynasty.
Ted Lee: David and the line of Davidic kings, judah, had only one dynasty that lasted over 400 years.
Ted Lee: That's a long time.
Ted Lee: That's only a temporary vision of what that dynasty is.
Ted Lee: Jesus Christ, the messianic king, is the fulfillment of an everlasting Davidic King.
Ted Lee: So that's the significance of these promises.
Ted Lee: I'm going to move a little faster.
Ted Lee: Lastly, so we've seen God's commitment to the house of David is shown by putting David on the throne.
Ted Lee: We've seen the promise to David for an everlasting dynasty and finally preserving David's dynasty.
Ted Lee: David's lived to see the initial fulfillment of God's promise to him.
Ted Lee: David crowned Solomon to be his successor.
Ted Lee: In 1 Chronicles 28, verse 5, david assembled all the leaders of Israel to commission Solomon to build his successor.
Ted Lee: In 1 Chronicles 28, verse 5, david assembled all the leaders of Israel to commission Solomon to build the temple.
Ted Lee: He said and out of all my sons for the Lord has given me many sons he has chosen my son, solomon, to sit on the throne of the Lord's kingdom over Israel.
Ted Lee: So this verse brings out the central truth that, although every king might sit on the throne of the Lord's kingdom over Israel.
Ted Lee: So this verse brings out the central truth that, although every king might sit on the throne over Israel, the kingdom still belonged to God.
Ted Lee: It's the Lord's kingdom over Israel.
Ted Lee: And the Lord said to David in 1 Chronicles 28, 7, 1 Chronicles 28.7, I will establish his kingdom forever if he perseveres in keeping my commands and my ordinances, as he is doing today.
Ted Lee: However, neither Solomon nor any other Davidic king was completely faithful, yet each king was succeeded by his son.
Ted Lee: The Davidic covenant will stand forever, but the experience of the Davidic rule depended on the king's obedience obedience to the law of Moses.
Ted Lee: So this obedience will bring about covenant blessings and disobedience, as you know, brings about covenant curses and eventually, exile.
Ted Lee: So we'll talk more about this next week.
Ted Lee: But the assessment was based on the king's ability to maintain proper worship in the temple.
Ted Lee: So the Chronicles reports on how God maintained his promise to David, even though he had to punish kings who were disloyal to the true king of Israel.
Ted Lee: And as punishment, god sent enemies to attack or a disease to kill.
Ted Lee: A couple of Judah's kings were assassinated.
Ted Lee: Regardless of how Judah's kings died, god always made sure that the next son was in line and was put on the throne.
Ted Lee: Let's look at an example of King Jehoram, a very evil, evil king.
Ted Lee: This is in 2 Chronicles 21.
Ted Lee: He was a very, very wicked king.
Ted Lee: God punished him with several rebellions against him.
Ted Lee: There was also a personal rebuke by the prophet Elijah.
Ted Lee: And thirdly, there was a disease God placed on him, a disease of his bowels that was so severe that the scripture says they came out.
Ted Lee: Despite Joram's sin, god did not turn his love away from David's house.
Ted Lee: The Chronicler wrote in 2 Chronicles 21,.
Ted Lee: He writes but for the sake of the covenant the Lord had made with David, he was unwilling to destroy the house of David, since the Lord had promised to give a lamp to David and to his sons forever.
Ted Lee: So the readers of Chronicles needed to know that God made his covenant with David an everlasting promise that he would never fail to keep his word.
Ted Lee: There was no Davidic ruler on the throne in Jerusalem when the chronicler wrote these words, though, so the people would have naturally wondered what about the status of the Davidic covenant then?
Ted Lee: God's answer is very clear in Chronicles.
Ted Lee: The genealogies in 1 Chronicles 3 show that God protected David's descendants and brought them back from exile ready to rule again when God decreed it to be the right time.
Ted Lee: God always has been faithful to the Davidic dynasty.
Ted Lee: Yahweh does not forget his promises.
Ted Lee: So it's no surprise that Chronicles is the last book, and therefore conclusion, of the Hebrew Bible.
Ted Lee: That's where it sits.
Ted Lee: Our Bible kind of got it wrong the English Bible.
Ted Lee: It has great theological implications for the Jews as they anticipate the Messiah For us.
Ted Lee: When we turn to the next page, we see god's fulfillment of a davidic king, jesus christ, who had come the first time to bring salvation to all nations and who will come a second time as a conquering king.
Ted Lee: He will execute judgment on unbelievers and grant a final reward to believers, who then will live in the new heavens and new earth.
Ted Lee: This triune God will reign and be worshipped in a never-ending kingdom.
Ted Lee: So, in summary, the two major themes that Chronicles tell us are, first of all, god's commitment to the house of David.
Ted Lee: Secondly, god's temple and his presence in the worship of his people.
Ted Lee: Both of these themes are derived from the Davidic covenant that God would build David a house, establishing his throne forever, and David's descendants would build Yahweh a temple and maintain it.
Ted Lee: God committed to the house of David by first placing David on the throne, second, promising David an everlasting dynasty and thirdly, preserving David's dynasty.
Ted Lee: God's covenant faithfulness to David and his royal line is ultimately fulfilled in David's greatest son, the Messianic King, our Lord Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne forever.
Ted Lee: So the purpose of Chronicles was to call the community of returned exiles to learn from the best of the past and to see God always as one who is holy, who is sovereign, who is gracious and always faithful, being true to his word.
Ted Lee: As they anticipated the messianic king To you and me, chronicle reminds us of God's everlasting faithfulness to his children all throughout history, pointing us to Christ, and in response we must seek the Lord humbly as we worship him daily in private and as we gather together corporately.
Ted Lee: So the Chronicle was very effective in journaling the events of David and his royal descendants and pointed the whole community of returned Jewish exiles and us to hope in the messianic king Jesus Christ.
Ted Lee: So next Sunday we'll look at the temple worship in Chronicles.
Ted Lee: This is the second major theme in the books of Chronicles.
Ted Lee: So let's pray.
Ted Lee: Father, we thank you that you are a covenant-keeping God.
Ted Lee: You keep your promises, even though we fail to keep our promises.
Ted Lee: Father, your compassion to us is endless.
Ted Lee: Your faithfulness is great.
Ted Lee: Thank you for showing us clearly that Jesus Messiah is the ultimate son of David, who sits on the throne forever.
Ted Lee: Thank you for the hope that we have in sharing an inheritance with him.
Ted Lee: Thank you, father Amen.
Ted Lee: Thank you for the hope that we have in sharing an inheritance with him.
Ted Lee: Thank you, father amen.