1 Chronicles 23 | 1 Peter 4 | Micah 2 | Luke 11

In 1 Chronicles 23, David actively reshapes the worship of Israel by redefining the roles of the Levites in temple service. The rationale for all of what David does is found in 1 Chronicles 23:25–26: “For David said, ‘The LORD, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and he dwells in Jerusalem forever. And so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service.’” Remember that the chief role of the various clans of the non-priestly Levites was their work in moving the tabernacle and all its holy things from site to site, as Yahweh led his people in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Num. 3–4). But with the permanent establishment of the temple in Jerusalem, those duties are no longer required. David, then, assigns new responsibilities to the non-priestly Levites: from this point forward, the Levites will assist the priests with cleansing the temple and preparing to make the offerings, and the Levites will offer praise and thanks to Yahweh whenever the priests make sacrifices (1 Chron. 23:28–32).

We should see here a shift toward greater involvement of all God’s people in worship. Previously, the priests were really the only people involved in worship at all, but now, the rest of the Levites not only assist the priests but they are also assigned the duty of praising and thanking Yahweh during the sacrifices. And, while the remaining Israelites are still relatively passive in worship at this point, this shift anticipates a day when all God’s people would be actively involved in worship. Since Jesus has offered himself as the final sacrifice and as our great high priest, we no longer need other priests who mediate between us and God. Instead, our pastors and elders are called to lead us in worship—not to perform worship in front of us as we passively watch, but to lead us into active engagement in worship. So, just as the Levites were involved alongside the priests, we also ought to be engaged when we come before the Lord in worship.

Ask yourself these questions: Are you prayerfully listening to the reading of the word and actively listening to the sermon while your pastor preaches, or do you permit your mind to wander? Are you singing out loud, or do you simply listen to others sing? Do you offer your own heart up during the congregational prayers, or are you simply letting the words wash past you? We have a great privilege—and therefore, a great responsibility—to involve ourselves in the worship of Yahweh. Why, then, do we treat worship as though we were spectators, consumers, or critics? For the glory of Jesus Christ and the sake of your soul, worship the Lord this week in spirit and in truth.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 22 | 1 Peter 3 | Micah 1 | Luke 10

A new section begins with our reading today from 1 Chronicles 22, where we will start reading even more explicitly about the reforms David makes to Israel’s worship. Over the next few chapters, David will organize the Levites, the priests, the musicians, and the gatekeepers in the temple, but he begins by charging his son Solomon and the other leaders of Israel to set their minds to the task of building a temple in which Yahweh will dwell in their midst. From this chapter, we learn two important principles surrounding the theology of the temple that we have not previously seen.

First, we find out why David has been so involved in preparing for the building of the temple up to this point: he is worried about the youth and inexperience of his son Solomon, since the house in which Yahweh will dwell must be “exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands” (1 Chron. 22:5). This is important, since it shifts the credit for the temple away from Solomon and places it on David. Of course, the important point isn’t to glorify David but rather that this directs Israel’s hope beyond the first son of David to the ultimate Son of David who would eventually become the dwelling place of God among his people.

Second, we learn the reason why Yahweh did not allow David to build the temple: he had shed too much blood (1 Chron. 22:8). Instead, Yahweh wanted to give the building of his temple to a man who had rest from his surrounding enemies (1 Chron. 22:9). More than that, David urges Israel’s other leaders to dedicate themselves to the task of building the temple because of the fact that Yahweh had given his people peace on every side from their enemies through the blood David had shed (1 Chron. 22:18). Just as Yahweh had dwelt generally with his people in the Promised Land when he gave them rest on every side from their enemies during their conquest of Canaan (Josh. 21:44, 23:1), so now the temple in Jerusalem becomes the specific place where he will dwell with them through the peace David has wrought.

And yet, we know already that this temple will be destroyed by the Babylonians. The theology of the Chronicles, then, isn’t pointing forward to a new temple that would be just like the old one. Rather, the Chronicles teach us that there would be a better temple than what Solomon built for us, built by Jesus Christ, who did not shed the blood of others but who gained rest from his enemies by rising from the dead after his own blood was shed. This new temple, then, would not be built with gold, silver, and bronze but with something far more precious: with the people whom Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood (1 Cor. 3:10–17).

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 21 | 1 Peter 2 | Jonah 4 | Luke 9

In today’s reading from 1 Chronicles 21, we find the major exception to the way that the Chronicles avoid mentioning David’s sin. And yet, even here we find two key differences from what we read in 2 Samuel 24 in the way this story is told. Most significantly, we read in the very first verse of this story that it was Satan who “stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel” (1 Chron. 21:1). In 2 Samuel 24:1, however, we read this: “Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” So, which is it? Did Satan incite David, or did Yahweh? Is this an error or a contradiction in the Bible, or is something else going on here?

In fact, everything we have studied so far helps us to see exactly what is happening here. In the narratives of Samuel and Kings, we saw Yahweh building his case against his people before sending them off into exile as judgment for their sin, so it is no surprise to see that Yahweh is angry with David and with Israel in 2 Samuel 24. God himself does not tempt anyone to sin (Jas. 1:13), but we must not forget that the greatest possible punishment for sin is to be handed over into deeper sin. We may reconcile these two seemingly contradictory versions of the same story, then, by recognizing that Yahweh is handing his people over to judgment when he permits Satan to tempt David.

But the other detail that the Chronicler adds in this account of the story comes in the additional information we gain about the threshing floor that David buys from Ornan the Jebusite in 1 Chronicles 22:1: “Then David said, ‘Here shall be the house of the LORD God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel.’” In other words, this story isn’t included to demonstrate David’s guilt so much as to provide the backstory for the eventual location of the temple. Even when we read of David’s sin in the Chronicles, the Chronicler ties those actions to the larger story of Israel’s worship.

This has much to teach us about what it means to live by grace in the new covenant. Under the new covenant, we learn that because Jesus took upon the wrath of Yahweh for us at the cross, then we are no longer on trial. To be sure, there are still consequences for our sins as our heavenly Father disciplines his children, but even the consequences for our sins are opportunities to return to the once-for-all, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, where we may find complete pardon, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God. When you sin, flee to David’s greater Son Jesus, that you might be washed clean and reconciled with your Father in heaven.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 19–20 | 1 Peter 1 | Jonah 3 | Luke 8

As we have seen in our reading from 1 Chronicles, sometimes the significant factor of a story is not so much in the included details as in the excluded ones. In 1 Chronicles 17, we saw how the Chronicler left out the statement about disciplining the son of David with rods for his iniquity. In our reading for today from 1 Chronicles 19–20, several critical details are again excluded deliberately.

The stories in 1 Chronicles 19 of how the Ammonites shame the servants of David and how the Israelites respond by defeating the Ammonites in battle are also found in 2 Samuel 10, and the details are largely similar. But the first story we find in 1 Chronicles 20 about capturing Rabbah doesn’t take place until the end of 2 Samuel 12, and the story of fighting with the Philistines doesn’t happen until 2 Samuel 21. So, what stories from 2 Samuel 11–12 and 13–20 does the Chronicler skip? In fact, those are the chapters where we read about David’s sin with Bathsheba, as well as the rebellion of David’s son Absalom. The account in the Chronicles skips David’s great sin and the consequences of that sin entirely.

Furthermore, the account of the battle with the Philistines in 1 Chronicles 20 leaves out the critical detail from 2 Samuel 21 that, during the battle, the aging King David grows weary, so that Ishbi-benob tries to kill him until Abishai the son of Zeruiah comes to David’s rescue. After that battle, David’s men swore to him, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel” (2 Sam. 21:17). Where 2 Samuel had vividly illustrated the limitations of David, the retelling in the Chronicles removes any suggestion that the lamp of Israel might ever be quenched.

But why? It isn’t as though the Chronicler is trying to sanitize David’s story to present a historically revised version of the authentic, sinful, and weak David. Instead, the retelling here is not written to look backward at David but to look forward to the story of the coming Messiah. The Chronicler tells a different story than the author of the books of Samuel and Kings, even though he uses the same histories to tell his story.

All of this, then, is written to announce the glory of Jesus Christ, who would not fall into sin and whose lamp would never be quenched—not even by death itself. The reign of Jesus is like the reign of David, but it extends so much further than David’s so as to bring the glory of David to nothing in light of the spotless, eternal glory of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, gaze upon the story of King David from the Chronicles so that you may there behold your true King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 18 | James 5 | Jonah 2 | Luke 7

In many ways, Yahweh’s covenant with David that we read about yesterday in 1 Chronicles 17 is the heart of the theology of the books of Chronicles, but not only because Yahweh swears in this covenant to establish David’s kingdom forever. Additionally, it is David’s desire to build Yahweh a house of cedar—that is, a temple (1 Chron. 17:1–2)—that leads Yahweh to swear a covenantal oath to him in the first place. David’s preparations for the building of the temple will consume much of the remainder of this book.

Even though David does not himself build the temple, the Chronicler gives us extensive information about the temple’s construction that we have not previously read. After only a few stories of David’s great military victories, nearly half of the narrative of David’s life in 1 Chronicles focuses on David’s preparation for the temple’s construction and his reordering of Israel’s worship in 1 Chronicles 22–29. Specifically, we learn in the Chronicles that although Solomon will be the one to build the temple, it is David who makes virtually all the preparations.

And even in our reading from today in 1 Chronicles 18, the stories of David’s warfare aren’t provided for their own sake—instead, these stories serve as records of how David acquires the raw materials for building the temple through his victories in battle. So, David procures from the cities of Tibhath and Cun bronze with which Solomon would eventually make “the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze” (1 Chron. 18:8). Then, David dedicates to Yahweh (i.e., to the eventual construction of the temple of Yahweh) articles of gold, silver, and bronze that he gains from Hadadezer, king of Zobah-Hamath, as well as from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalek (1 Chron. 18:10–11).

In the New Testament, Paul explains that the church is the temple of the great Son of David, Jesus Christ, where each believer is fitted together into a great structure, joined together with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, so that the Spirit of God dwells within us corporately (Eph. 2:19–22). But, Paul also describes us as the captives whom Jesus Christ is bringing back from war in his triumphal procession, spreading the fragrance and knowledge of him wherever he leads us (2 Cor. 2:14–16). In other words, we are the precious materials that Jesus Christ has looted from the nations in his great victory over sin, death, and the devil, and he is using us to build up his temple so that he may dwell within us by his Spirit.

“Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in the triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14)!

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 17 | James 4 | Jonah 1 | Luke 6

As we have seen already in our study of the Chronicles, this retelling of Israel’s history centers on the person of David. The heavy emphasis on David does not suggest that David himself is the high point in the history of Israel, so that everything following David’s life is downhill; rather, the emphasis on David points forward to the new David, the offspring of David—one of his own sons—whose kingdom would be established forever, as Yahweh promises here in 1 Chronicles 17:11–14.

Now, if you compare 1 Chronicles 17 side by side with 2 Samuel 7, you will see small variations in the wordings, but for the most part, this is an identical retelling of the story—except for one crucial detail. In 2 Samuel 7:14–15, the description of Yahweh’s covenant with David included a promise that Yahweh would chasten David’s son but that he would never withdraw his covenant love and faithfulness from David’s son completely: “When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.” In 1 Chronicles 17, however, only part of this statement is included: “I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you” (1 Chron. 17:13). Why?

The omission of this statement about Yahweh’s discipline lines up with what we have already seen of the Chronicler’s account of David—his interest is not compiling all the evidence necessary to build a case against David and his house, as in the books of Samuel and Kings. Rather, the emphasis here is on the future Davidic king who would not need to be disciplined for his iniquity. The Chronicler, therefore, isn’t revising history in order to whitewash David—rather, he is presenting David in such a way as to anticipate the great, final David, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would know no sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and who would therefore need no discipline.

Nevertheless, both tellings of the story are essential. Where the narrative of Yahweh’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7 foreshadowed the work that Jesus Christ came to do at the cross, where he was disciplined, beaten with rods, and hanged on a tree to die, bearing the curse for our iniquity, the theology of the Chronicles anticipates the eternal kingdom that Jesus would establish by the work of his life, death, and resurrection. Therefore, let us trust in the finished work of Jesus at the cross as we live daily in dependence on the kingdom that dwells in our midst now, even as we await the eternal kingdom that Jesus will usher in at his second coming.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 16 | James 3 | Obadiah 1 | Luke 5

As the festivities in worship grow during the settling of the ark of the covenant in the city of Jerusalem, we learn more about Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, three men whose names we find prominently featured in another book of the Bible: the Psalms. So, who are these men, what are their roles in the worship of God’s people, and what does that teach us for our own worship today?

Heman, Asaph, and Ethan are Levites, so to understand their context, it is important to refresh our understanding of the three clans of Levi, formed from the descendants of Levi’s three sons: Gershon (sometimes spelled Gershom), Kohath, and Merari (Ex. 6:16; 1 Chron. 6:1, 16). Each of these clans had different roles in the transportation of the tabernacle: the Gershonites carried the fabrics (tent screens and coverings), the Kohathites carried the holy furniture, and the Merarites carried the frames, bars, pillars, bases, pegs, and cords (Num. 3–4).

These three men, then, are representatives for each clan. Heman is a Kohathite, a descendant of the rebellious Korah who opposed Moses in Numbers 16 (1 Chron. 6:33–38). Then, Asaph is a Gershonite (1 Chron. 6:39–43), and Ethan is a Merarite (1 Chron. 6:44–47). In 1 Chronicles 6, the chapter containing the genealogies of the Levites, Heman seems to be the leader, with Asaph at his right hand (1 Chron. 6:39) and Ethan on his left hand (1 Chron. 6:44). Then, in 1 Chronicles 15:16–17, David commands the Levites to appoint for themselves musicians, and these three men become the leading musicians for their respective clans. Finally, David appoints Asaph and the Gershonites to minister before the ark (1 Chron. 16:4, 37) and sends Heman and Ethan to sing at the high place in Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39, 41–42).1 These men were great worship leaders who all contributed songs that are still preserved for us in the Book of Psalms. Heman, the son of Korah, wrote Psalms 42, 44–49, 84, 85, 87, 88; Asaph wrote Psalms 50, 73–83; and Ethan—who also seems to go by the name of Jeduthun (1 Chron. 16:37–42, 25:1, 3, 6)—wrote Psalms 39, 62, 77, 89.2

Still today, we need worship leaders who will lead us in praising Jesus Christ. Worship leaders, however, are not merely musicians. These worship leaders wrote profoundly deep songs that ought to guide our own hymn-writing and serve as the criteria for selecting the songs we sing on a weekly basis. And more than that, our own worship ought to be steeped in the inspired lyrics of the Psalms. Let us therefore read psalms, preach psalms, and sing psalms as we exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, who declares himself the fulfillment of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44).

1 Although high places eventually became a place of idolatry and wickedness throughout the reigns of the later kings, Yahweh had neither forbidden high places nor appointed Jerusalem as the only place for his people to worship him during the days of David, or even during the early days of Solomon (1 Kgs. 3:3–4).

2 Probably. The different names makes this difficult to track, but 1 Kings 4:31 may identify Ethan as “Ethan the Ezrahite,” the name used in Psalm 89. All the other psalms in this list were written under the name Jeduthun.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 15 | James 2 | Amos 9 | Luke 4

As we start getting deeper into 1 Chronicles, we begin to see the ways that the Chronicler writes about the events from the books of Samuel and Kings from a different perspective and with a different goal. In 1 Chronicles 15, we see our first major retelling of a story—the entrance of the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem—which provides two new pieces of information that change the tenor of the story from what we read in 2 Samuel 6.

First, the version of this story we read in 2 Samuel 6 exclusively emphasized the way that Yahweh had struck down Uzzah for reaching out to steady the ark, since the Israelites had brought the ark in on a cart pulled by oxen (2 Sam. 6:1–15). Now, we do find that same story recorded for us in 1 Chronicles 13:5–14; however, here in 1 Chronicles 15, after a brief acknowledgement of what happened with Uzzah (1 Chron. 15:13), we find entirely new material about the second (and successful) transportation of the ark into Jerusalem, when the Levites carry it according to Yahweh’s commandment from Numbers 4:1–15. Here, David insists that “no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the LORD had chosen them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister to him forever” (1 Chron. 15:2). These passages in 1 Chronicles 13 and 15 do point out David’s error in initially carrying the ark on a cart, but we also see his willingness to repent and lead the people of Israel according to the Mosaic law.

Second, David also commands that the Levites should sing and play loudly on musical instruments (1 Chron. 15:16–24, 28). David’s organization of the Levites (especially to play and sing music) is one of the significant emphases of this book (see 1 Chron. 23–26), despite the fact that we read nothing about David’s role in this in 1 and 2 Samuel. Furthermore, we read nothing whatsoever in the Mosaic law commanding that the Levites should play music, suggesting that this arrangement is something David himself instituted, acting as a new lawgiver, as discussed in yesterday’s meditation.

This story, then, reflects a critical principle for understanding Christian worship in the light of Jesus. We do believe that Jesus has fulfilled and therefore abolished certain aspects of worship (e.g., the sacrificial system) and also that Jesus has commanded the continuance of other aspects of worship (e.g., singing, but also prayer and the reading and preaching of God’s word). Jesus’ reformation of worship, then, is not about getting rid of the “bad” and replacing it with “good,” but rather about fulfilling what merely pointed forward to him and then continuing all that still serves a purpose. As we gather weekly, we worship our great Messiah with the elements he himself has established for us.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 13–14 | James 1 | Amos 8 | Luke 3

Thus far, the author of 1 Chronicles has not only reviewed the entire history of the people of Israel, but he has also reshaped it around the person of David—not to exalt David himself, but to point forward to the coming of a new David. We looked yesterday at the way this new David would be a new kind of military leader, and today we will begin to look at the way this new David will reform Israel’s worship.

At the beginning of 1 Chronicles 13, David consults with all his leaders, saying to the assembly, “If it seems good to you and from the LORD our God, let us send abroad to our brothers who remain in all the lands of Israel, as well as to the priests and Levites in the cities that have pasturelands, that they may be gathered to us. Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul” (1 Chron. 13:2–3). Essentially, David is here establishing a special feast for all the people of Israel. The law of Moses commanded that the men of Israel should appear before Yahweh three times a year for specific feasts (Ex. 34:23; Deut. 16:16), but David now adds a new feast and calls all Israel together. David here acts as a new lawgiver.

But while acting as a new lawgiver is remarkable in itself, the following verse is even more surprising: “All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people” (1 Chron. 13:4). Recall the theme verse from Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). The judges had utterly failed to reform Yahweh’s people from their idolatry, but here, under the leadership of David, it is the true worship of Yahweh that is right in the eyes of the people.

Now, Chronicles has already acknowledged that the reforms of the first David will not last and that Judah will eventually go into exile in Babylon (1 Chron. 9:1). Therefore, this depiction of David once again points forward to what only the new David will be able to do—he alone will act as the new lawgiver to fulfill in himself the old system of worship and to install, in its place, pure worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). And still today, as we gather together week after week in worship, we look forward to the day when we will be gathered together to the great Son of David once and for all. Then, our eyes will be made forever right in our resurrected bodies so that we will seek nothing but God himself for all eternity. O Lord, haste the day!

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Chronicles 11–12 | Hebrews 13 | Amos 7 | Luke 2

In today’s reading from 1 Chronicles 11 and 12, we arrive at the story of David himself. Everything up to this point has revisited the story leading up to David or has looked beyond him, but here we come at last to the main attraction: the great King David. In many ways, it seems at first that we are simply reading more lists of names just like the genealogies of the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles, but this list of names documents David’s warriors rather than his descendants. So, we read about David’s mighty men in 1 Chronicles 11:10–47, as well as the divisions of troops in 1 Chronicles 12. Still, these chapters represent more than simple rosters of military personnel—the description of David’s army transcends the description of merely human militaries in two ways.

First, the chief warrior of David’s thirty mighty men, Amasai, speaks with a prophetic oracle about David in a way that goes beyond merely human leadership: “Then the Spirit clothed Amasai, chief of the thirty, and he said, ‘We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you’” (1 Chron. 12:18). David is more than an ancient near-eastern warrior king—he is the covenantal, anointed shepherd of Yahweh’s people, Israel (1 Chron. 11:1–3). Where Yahweh has been the king of Israel thus far (aside from the reign of Saul, briefly mentioned in 1 Chronicles 10), we see him now knitting his people to a human king. And in doing so, Yahweh paves the way to unite his people eternally with another human king who arises from the line of David—Yahweh’s own Son, Jesus Christ.

Second, the Chronicler describes the vast numbers of people who join up with David in terms that go beyond merely human warriors: “For from day to day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like an army of God” (1 Chron. 12:22). Again, we are seeing something here that expands beyond a simple band of warriors in the desert. Remember, we have already met the commander of the army of God in Joshua 5:13–15, and that commander was himself Yahweh, as evidenced by the fact that Joshua fell down at his feet to worship him (Josh. 5:14). Now, however, it is David who is described as the commander of the army of God.

Here too, these comparisons are not meant to exalt David beyond an appropriate level. Instead, they are meant to point forward to a new David, the Son of David, who genuinely is knit to his people covenantally and who does command all the armies of Yahweh. This new David will certainly be more than a military leader, but not less.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.