April 7, 2024 - 1 Chronicles 1-9

I think that most people, after finishing Kings, find Chronicles to be merely redundant.  Of course, the history is the same but the reports are different.  The first nine chapters of Chronicles are all chronology from Adam to Saul.  Thereafter, all of 1 Chronicles tells the story of David's reign, and all the rest of the history of the monarchy is told in 2 Chronicles.

From 1 Chronicles, I guess what so impresses is the intense interest in and focus on the historical family lines that converge in David.  And this makes sense, for the story of the Bible, ultimately, is the story of the Messiah, who is the direct descendant of David, and before him, a descendant of Adam.  He is the very one foretold in Genesis 3:15, a descendant of Adam and Eve, who would defeat Satan and sin and death.  It’s an amazing story, and one that never gets old.  The history, the stories, are all there, sweeping us along through the history of Israel to the exile and the return of the people to the land:  “So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel.  And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.  Now the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities . . . ( 9:1-2).  And at the center of it all is the kingdom and the king, David.  Matthew begins his gospel:  “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).  Jesus is the son of David, the eternal King, Redeemer.

Born thy people to deliver,

born a child and yet a King,

born to reign in us forever,

now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal spirit

rule in all our hearts alone;

by thine all sufficient merit,

raise us to thy glorious throne.   –Charles Wesley (1792)