1 Chronicles / chapter 29 (read the chapter)
1 Chronicles 29 recounts the story of David’s “passing the baton” to his son Solomon. In his final speech, he challenged Solomon and the people to remain true to the Lord, and then there was a large celebration with music, feasting, and joy. But tucked away into the description of the festivities was, I thought, a very important lesson about God. Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 28 (read the chapter)
I hope I don’t offend anyone by saying this (or maybe you’ll just think I’m ignorant, and that’s okay), but the more I get into this pregnancy, the more I believe that evolution is just wrong. From the heart that is fully functional and begins to beat by five weeks to the whole development process, it’s hard for me to understand how people (especially doctors who know the intricacies of pregnancy) can believe that there is no design involved in human development. Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 27 (read the chapter)
To me, there is a troubling trend in modern Western society. I see it happening in schools with children, as well as in the general workplace with adults. I’m not sure what has caused this trend to appear in our culture. Perhaps it has its roots in the feminist movement or the civil rights movement. Regardless of where it came from, however, the trend has become that everybody must be seen and considered as equal in most every way. Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 26 (read the chapter)
There are so many things in Scripture that I don’t believe are coincidences. So many things that have layers of meaning—literal to symbolic and everything in between. And I found one of these things in this chapter of Chronicles that further outlined which Levites were in charge : “Shelomith and his relatives were in charge of all the treasuries for the things dedicated by King David . . . Some of the plunder taken in battle they dedicated for the repair of the temple of the Lord. And everything dedicated by Samuel the seer and by Saul son of Kish . . . and all the other dedicated things were in the care of Shelomith and his relatives.” (vs 26-28) Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 25 (read the chapter)
How many ways does God have to communicate to us? The possibilities must be endless. He is not limited by time, space, language, or even the prior ability to talk (remember Balaam’s donkey?). I think this is something we would guess to be true about God, but it’s nice to see it in the Scriptures. Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 24 (read the chapter)
In this chapter, we encounter once again the Hebrew practice of casting lots. This time, it was used to create the divisions of priests who would work in the temple: “A larger number of leaders were found among Eleazar’s descendants than among Ithamar’s, and they were divided accordingly: sixteen heads of families from Eleazar’s descendants and eight heads of families from Ithamar’s descendants. They divided them impartially by casting lots, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar.” (vs 4-5) Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 23 (read the chapter)
Of everything written in this chapter of 1 Chronicles, this stuck out to me the most: “[The Levites] were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same in the evening and whenever burnt offerings were presented to the Lord on the Sabbaths, at the New Moon feasts and at the appointed festivals.” (vs 30-31) Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 22 (read the chapter)
Just before Solomon ascended to the throne, his father made all the necessary preparations for the building of the temple. David had wanted to build the temple himself, but God had decided that Solomon would build it instead. This was because Solomon would not be a warring king, as his father had been. In fact, Solomon’s very name was related to the Hebrew word for peace. It seems that God wanted the idea of peace to be an integral part of His dwelling place on Earth. Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 21 (read the chapter)
Even after David repented of his sin involving Bathsheba and Uriah, he was still struggling with the issue of being in control as king. Thus, though he knew he shouldn’t do it, he asked Joab to take a census of the army. Joab was disgusted by the request, but did it anyway. For some reason, David apparently wasn’t ready to place his full trust back in the Lord, and he wanted to make sure he could “walk softly and carry a big army” . . . just in case. Continue Reading »
1 Chronicles / chapter 20 (read the chapter)
In English (especially colloquial English), we have two sets of famous Rs. More specifically, the three Rs. There is one set of Rs to describe the main subjects in school: reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic (math). Of course, these three words don’t all begin with the letter r, but all of them begin with the sound of the letter r. More recently, a second pair of three Rs has been coined and made famous by the environmental movement, as a reminder for what we should do to protect the Earth: reduce, reuse, recycle. Continue Reading »
