Bible Reading Challenge Blog

We get to see the reign of Solomon, and boy what a reign it was. Israel is so well ruled that the queen of Sheba comes along to see if the stories that she heard were actually true. Not only were they true, but Scripture says that she was crestfallen because Solomon’s rule was even greater than what she had heard. There is one way in which she describes his rule which I think is very telling. Basically she exclaims to Solomon that everyone is happy! From the lowest servant to the highest ruling person, everyone is happy because they know what their role and what their job is. That speaks a lot to the person who is in charge, that everyone is happy.

We do not read of a single instance in Chronicles where Solomon disobeys the Lord or does anything against the will of God. Unfortuantely, once his rule is over his son doesn’t do a great job. In fact, from the very first decision that he makes: “My finger is larger than the loins of David.”, the writing is on the wall. I know David, and you are no David.

The rule of Solomon begins, and it begins well. We all know the story of how God asks him what he might want. Solomon says that God has been so faithful to him that he really has all that he needs or would want materially, but since he is given such a large responsibility, to reign over God’s people, WOW, that is a lot, that he would ask for wisdom so he doesn’t mess it up. Those are my words and not his, but it is basically what he is thinking. I remember when I began pastoring in Palatka, Florida and my predecessor was an excellent pastor and beloved. I remember stepping in as a 29 year old and thinking, just don’t mess this up.

He begins building God’s temple. Notice he begins the temple before he begins building his own house. I assume that the people noticed that too and understood that his priorities were such that he put God first before anything. That had to be respected. We see that he also won the favor and the respect of the surrounding nations as well. Basically, he was a really good guy and a really good king.

Psalm 72 is a prototypical royal psalm. It speaks about asking a blessing upon the king. We see at the end of the psalm that it was considered the last of the psalms of David. It makes sense. If he was asking for a blessing upon his succesor, then that would have been Solomon. It is very likely that this psalm was written and sung by David as a tribute to his son who was about to take on the reigns of the kingdom. That gives us a little more personal touch.

Sometimes there is too much good stuff to include it all in what I write. I learned something while reading Chronicles. I had no idea that once David figured out that God had not reserved for him the joy of building the temple, that it was going to be his son Solomon who eventually was able to do it, that he set to work to ensure that when Solomon decided to build it he would have everything he needed. David squirreled away everything that might be needed for the building of the temple. What we find in the end of Chronicles is the importance of the logistics and the details in creating a space where God is able to be glorified. It may seem as if it is second nature to just praise God, but if the setting in which you find yourself, and if the accoutrements are distracting, then worship will be hard to come by. David knew the value of detail and he had it all laid out for his son so that all he had to do was say go and everyone knew what they needed to do and they had what they needed to do it. Pretty cool, also very controlling on David’s part.

Psalm 32 is awesome. It is the one where we find a wonderful combination of lament and the realization of all the promises that God has made. All of it is wrapped up in one Psalm. We go from: “My body wasted away from all my groaning all day long…” to “You are a hiding place for me, you preserve me from trouble, you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.” A bit of a whiplash which reminds us that God is faithful, period.

Then proverbs reminds us that if we do not discipline our children they will probably not turn out the way we would want or the way that God would want. A little known secret is that even if we do discipline our children they still may not, probably will not, turn out the way that we expect. Just be faithful in following what the Lord has put before you and trust that how they turn out, whether it is what you want or what they want or neither, is the way that the Lord wants them to turn out. That’s a lot of trust, but it is necessary.

Here we have a very clear story of David sinning, but there is no real understanding of the motive for his sin except maybe he wanted to know how big and powerful her really was. So he told his underlings to take a census, which had always been something that had told him in no uncertain terms to ever do. But for some reason, and this is a bit puzzling to me, he clearly goes against God’s will for no real reason and for no real benefit. He even had an underling who told him that this wasn’t a good idea. This underling, Joab, refused to do a census for the Levites because he was furios that David had told him to do something that was clearly against God’s wishes.

Now that this is behind him, this sin, he sets to work to get things ready for his son Solomon to build the temple. We then get another geneology of the Levites. Why is this? Because it was the Levites who were in charge of the worship and in charge of all that took place in the Temple. This chapter focuses on the temple and here we have those who would be crucial in all things Temple.

Psalm 127 has a favorite quote where we read: Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. The house that is mentioned is the house of the Lord. The Temple has always been seen as the house of the Lord. This Psalm addresses that clearly. But we use it often to describe what we mean in our own homes or in churches. Again, we don’t believe that God lives in a building, but the buildings have always mattered.

We continue to look at the life and times of David and his kingdom. We see that David is a bit perplexed that he is able to live in a beautiful house made of cedar, but God, in the ark of the covenant, is still living in a box with a moveable tent. He beseeches God that he be allowed to make him a house worthy of who he was. But God says no, you will not build a house for me. But you will have a son and he will be the one who will build a house for me. David continues to defend the kingdom. He has a close friend in a fellow king who dies. He sends consolation to his son, but the son listens to his advisors who tell him that David wasn’t actually sending condolensces, but rather checking out the strength of their kingdom. That wasn’t the case, but they were determined to teach David a lesson. They humiliated the messengers of David.

Well, David wasn’t excited about that and wiped them out. Yeah, so that happened, and another chronicle takes place. Don’t sleep on Psalm 29. Powerful.

We continue to see a repeat of the stories that we have heard in Kings which describes the relationship between David and Saul and which is very fraught. Upon the death of Saul David takes over and takes on wives, priority #1, moves the ark of the covenant, priority #2, and establishes himself definitively, priority #3. He may have had his priorities wrong, but he does listen to the Word of the Lord and even takes the advice of God on military matters. These chapters are meant to solidify who David was and the authority with which he governs.

Psalm 28 provides another opportunity to hear the assurances that the Lord will always be our strength and our shield. This assurance, this promise which we heard in Psalm 28, seems to be impingent upon, however, our faithfulness. A bit of a dangerous proposition, but one that we see repeated over and over again in Scripture. God’s love for us has no limits. But our sins do have repercussion.

Arguably Psalm 27 is my favorite Psalm. A fair warning is that I have a number of favorite psalms, but 27 is on the very, very short list. The quote that I can’t keep out of my head is seen in verses 13-14: “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” That means here on this earth people. Do we believe that we will see God’s hand at work here and now, or are we relegating God’s work to the promise of eternal life. This Psalm tells us that we ought to believe, and blessed is he who believes, that we will see the glory of the Lord here and now. But then we are given a hint on how to experience the glory of the Lord. It is quite simple, look at vs. 14: “Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage, wait for the Lord.” Nothing quite as exquisite in all of Scripture as what we find here.

Chronicles does Chronicles, and ends with the death of Saul and the coronation of David. Not much narrative of import besides that.

There are very few places in Chronicles where you find a narrative. Some of the places in these chapters you will find the infamous prayer of Jabez, Chronicles 4, where culturally it has become a pseudo-prosperity Gospel. But there is nothing wrong in praying that the Lord would protect us and keep us. There is also a narrative dealing with in chapter 5 which describes the apostasy, so what’s new, of the Israelites and how as a result of the apostasy God abandoned them and allowed them to be taken into captivity. What we can’t forget in what might feel like somewhat mundane recitation of names is that the nation of Israel’s building block is built around memory and never forgetting who the Lord is and how the Lord has brought us this far. This memory has to be instilled and built up over the centuries. This recitation of names is more than just that, it is also a reminder of the constant faithfulness of the Lord. God has been faithful to me and to all those who preceeded me, is what is meant by these names.

Proverbs can pretty much be summed up with this one verse that we find in 12:1b – “those who hate to be rebuked are stupid.” I have never thought that calling something stupid was either a good argument or a way in which God would want us to talk. But here we have a real dichotomy of good vs. evil and the author has no hesitation in calling that which is evil stupid. There is also a strong sense that those who work for their living are really doing that which the Lord would consider righteous. There is so much back and forth between good and evil, the wise and the foolish, that which is blessed by God and that which is cursed. The path, if you were only to read Proverbs, seems pretty clear and pretty straightforward. But I think we know better. The good aren’t always blessed, actually they seem to be, at times, less blessed than the bad.

Titus has a few jewels tucked away in its three chapters as well. He makes a distinction between those who profess the faith and those who actually live the faith. That is a truth which is very applicable to today. There is an encouragement that our lives would reflect the piety that is required by God for anyone who calls himself or herself a disciple of Jesus.

I had forgotten what happened at the end of Esther, and I’m kinda wishing I had kept forgetting it. So, yes, the Jews are saved which is really the point of the story that Esther was able to, in her position as Queen and a Hebrew woman, save her people because she was willing to risk her life. But then the roles are reversed where the Jewish people not only are saved, but they go on a rampage against their enemies. I know Old Testament, right, but this one line really bother me and reminds me of what happened in the worst of times in Christian history. Look at Esther 8:17 where we read that many professed to be Jews, even when they weren’t, because they were afraid of the people of descendants of Abraham. Now this is troubling. Does God really want people who aren’t really His followers but rather are only professing to be His people because otherwise they just might be killed. I would think not.

So Esther ends with the people of God killing all of their enemies and this celebration has been passed down to generations to even today. I didn’t realize this dark side of the story of Esther or this dark side of the story of Purim, which would be the decimation of the enemies. Is there no in between instead of full peace or full destruction? It seemed like here there wasn’t. It does remind me a bit of what is happening in Gaza today. History certainly does have a way of repeating itself.