Route 66: 1 Chronicles - God's Covenant Faithfulness

Thank you, micah.

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.

So we'll spend today and next week on Chronicles.

So we'll spend today and next week on Chronicles.

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.

Chronicles is such an underappreciated book.

I think many of us would acknowledge that.

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.

So some of us may think you know, why do I have to read Chronicles?

And Chronicles comes after Samuel and Kings, and so by that time you probably are tired and so I want to move on.

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.

By the way, I want to say that throughout this message.

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.

So let's go to God in prayer, the Father himself.

So let's go to God in prayer.

Incline our hearts to you, father.

Father, open our eyes that we may behold the wondrous things that you have set forth in your law.

Unite our individual hearts so that we fear your name and satisfy us this evening that we may enjoy your steadfast love.

Father, glorify your name through this study of your word.

Tonight.

We pray this in your son's name Amen, amen.

Turn to 1 Chronicles.

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?

What's the name of the newspaper there?

Chronicle, san Francisco Chronicle, right?

How many of you visited Houston?

Or from Houston, texas?

I know Josh and Carol, but they're not here tonight.

They're from Houston.

What's the name of the newspaper there?

Houston Chronicle, right?

You know where I'm going with this.

And people from Augusta, georgia.

They know their newspaper it's the Augusta Chronicle.

They know their newspaper it's the Augusta Chronicle.

So when you think of the word chronicle.

It's probably, you probably think of that, it's a very common name for a newspaper, right?

It's a way that the reporter journals the affairs of a community, of a city or a town, right?

Well, the Book of Chronicles were written not just to report the historical facts.

In fact, the Book of Chronicles is a divine commentary on the history of Israel.

A divine commentary.

I'll get into this a little bit more.

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.

First and Second Chronicles was one book in the Hebrew Bible, well, the Hebrew language.

However, when it's written, the language is written without any vowels.

It's a consonantal language.

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.

So you have twice the volume of the written language.

So you need two scrolls to hold all of Chronicles.

So since then we've had two books of Chronicles.

So who wrote Chronicles?

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.

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.

Jehoiakim was the one who was taken into captivity.

Eight generations after him were recorded, still okay, and so it records that line even after they return from their exile.

We'll get into more of that.

If you take and estimate every generation being about 25 years, that's about 200 years.

Well, when did the Israelites return?

When did the remnant, the first remnants, come back to the land of Jerusalem, their homeland?

Well, they first left when Cyrus made that decree and we'll get into this more in 538 BC, all right.

And then another wave followed, ezra in 458 BC.

And then Nehemiah brought the third and final wave of returned exiles in 445 BC, of returned exiles in 445 BC.

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.

That's roughly when we think the Chronicles were written.

So, as I said, chronicles is a divine commentary.

It's a spiritual commentary on the history of the southern kingdom of Judah.

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.

You will also observe that Chronicles seems to put a good light on the kings of Judah.

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.

For example, david running away from Saul is not mentioned in Chronicles.

David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba not mentioned in the Chronicles.

Nor is his accompanying murder of Bathsheba's husband not mentioned.

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.

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.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible actually places the book of Chronicles as the very last book of the Hebrew Bible.

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.

Well, chronicles was the last book of the last section of the Hebrew Bible.

It was the last book in the writings.

In contrast, samuel and the kings are part of the prophets' section.

They were quite separate, they were different.

Well, let me ask you then, why did Chronicles appear to be written in this way, so differently from Samuel and Kings?

The writer of Chronicles, probably Ezra, was very well versed in Samuel and the Kings, right.

Why did he choose to write the Chronicles in this way?

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.

Well, if we look at when Samuel and the kings were written, samuel was written probably during the times of the divided monarchy.

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.

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.

Actually, the two tribes, okay, were together in the southern kingdom.

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.

So all the ugliness was left in the kings, so that they can see why they were taken into captivity.

God punished them for their failures, for their sins.

Now the Chronicles Chronicles was written after they came back from exile.

They were in exile for their sins.

Now the Chronicles Chronicles was written after they came back from exile.

They were in exile for 70 years.

They've come back and it's probably during Ezra's ministry that Chronicles was written.

Chronicles was written to a group of people who had to find a new identity for themselves.

They had come back to a homeland.

That's very, very different.

They were no longer probably over the fact that they had sinned so much that caused them to go into captivity.

Here they're now coming back to reestablish themselves as a nation.

So let me there are several things that they actually have found themselves seeking as a nation a new, a returned nation.

First of all, they're thankful that they came back to their homeland.

That's at least one of the few blessings that they came back to.

But they found that the land, jerusalem, had no security, so they had to rebuild the wall.

Nehemiah came to rebuild the wall.

They had no temple.

The temple was destroyed.

But Zerubbabel attempted to rebuild the temple a pretty meager-looking temple by comparison to Solomon's temple.

But they tried to rebuild the temple and they did, with some difficulty though, built the temple.

And they did with some difficulty, though they also found themselves needing a lot of encouragement.

They had no temple, they had the city walls all destroyed.

They didn't have their former kingdom's wealth and, worst of all, god's divine presence was no longer with them.

God's presence, if we look back in Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel, in chapters 8 to about 11, god departed from Jerusalem.

He left them, he left the people.

He left them, he left the people.

That was a sorry cry for the people of Israel.

So this is the setting in which Chronicles was written.

They were looking for encouragement, they were looking for a place to where to place their hope.

They also were wondering there's no Davidic king ruling right now.

They had only a governor from Persia sitting there.

Where's the Davidic king?

What happened to the Davidic covenant.

Well, let me go over some of this now and move into more of 1 Chronicles.

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?

So Chronicles covers a history beginning with Adam.

Now turn with me to 1 Chronicles, chapter 1.

1 Chronicles 1 · chapter mention

1 Chronicles 1.

You see that it says Adam, seth Enosh, kenan, mahaleo, jared Enoch, methuselah, lamech, noah, noah's sons, shem Ham and Japheth.

We recognize these names.

It begins with Adam right and it ends in 1 Chronicles ends with the reign of David.

The chapters 1 to 9 here in 1 Chronicles reports the genealogy of the tribes of Israel.

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.

Chapters 11 to 29, which is the end of 1 Chronicles, is all about David's reign.

Now, if you look at chapters 1 to 9, beginning with Adam, chapters 1 to 9, it covers over 3,300 years of history.

And then, if you look at David's reign, chapters 11 to 29, david's reign Now, this is David's reign in Jerusalem.

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.

You see the focus right.

Now let's look at 2 Chronicles.

Okay, 2 Chronicles reports on the reign of Solomon, the first descendant following David as king.

That covers chapters 1 to 9.

In 2 Chronicles.

Solomon's reign was for 40 years.

Then it continues on with the rest of the kings of Judah, from chapters 10 through 36.

That covers 345 years, okay.

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.

Right, this is the scope in which we're going to cover today and next week.

When we look at the genealogical records of chapters 1 to 9 in 1 Chronicles, they highlight two groups of people.

Go back, you see, in chapter 3?

.

Well, let's go.

Chapter 1, you see the beginning genealogies of Adam to Abraham.

It talks about the Edomites, from Esau, I should say.

Chapter 2 talks about now begins with Israel's sons.

What's interesting, you see here, is that it begins after it talks about Israel's sons.

You know, he lists the 12 sons of Jacob, israel, but he talks about Judah first.

Right, judah comes first.

The rest of that chapter.

Judah is all about Judah.

Chapter 3 is about David's descendants.

Remember, david is in the line of Judah.

He was a son of Jesse.

All of chapter 3 is about David's descendants.

The last section of chapter 3 is about David's line after they returned from exile.

3 is about David's line after they returned from exile.

So you see there is more of David's line that continued on.

It was not broken.

There were times when that line could have been broken, but David's line continued on, even through the exile.

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.

So if Chronicles is so focused on the Davidic line, why did it just stop there?

If Chronicles were written even earlier, even later, why didn't it mention any more of David's line?

So that's a hint when Chronicles was actually written.

But anyway, chapter 4 goes on with more of Judah's descendants.

Judah, judah, judah, right, and then chapter 5 and on talks about the other tribes of Israel.

We have Reuben and the Levites, simeon.

Let's see Gad.

You know the rest of the 12 tribes, but let me get to so the Levites.

The Levites is a very big chapter, chapter 6.

The Levites is another big, big chapter.

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.

So David's line, specifically the kings.

Then you have the priests and the Levites, descendants of Aaron and the other Levitical families, and they functioned in the temple.

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.

So before I get into talking more about the key themes of Chronicles, let's turn to 1, chronicles 17.

I think this is the most pivotal chapter in Chronicles.

Turn to 1 Chronicles, chapter 17.

1 Chronicles 17 · chapter mention

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.

You see, david is now pretty much enjoying his new palace.

He has a brand new palace, a glorious palace that he had built for himself, for his family.

And he's feeling, you know, pretty cush, right, but he's feeling a little guilty.

He says, while the ark of the Lord's covenant is still under tent curtains.

So Nathan told David in verse 2, do all that is on your mind, for God is with you.

Nathan is thinking what David is thinking.

David wants to build the Lord a temple.

Nathan says to him go ahead, do what you think is on your mind, god is with you.

And then verse 3.

But that night the word of God came to Nathan.

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.

Go further down, verse 7.

So now this is what you are to say to my servant, david.

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.

I have been with you wherever you have gone over my people Israel.

I have been with you wherever you have gone and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.

You see, he's pretty cush.

Now he has peace on every side.

Then it says I will make a name for you like that of the greatest on the earth.

I will designate a place for my people, israel, and plant them.

Ooh, I will designate a place for my people, israel, and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again.

Hmm, something about our current day situation too, I don't know.

Anyway, it's an interesting side point.

Evildoers will not continue to oppress them as they have done Ever since the day I ordered judges to be over my people, israel.

I will also subdue all your enemies.

Furthermore, I declare to you that the Lord himself will build a house for you when your time comes to be with your ancestors.

I will raise up after you your descendant, who is one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

He is the one who will build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever.

You know this account is also in 2 Samuel, chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

This is known as the Davidic covenant.

This is the covenant God made unilaterally to David.

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.

It's a play on words there A house, temple, a house, a dynasty.

So Chronicles is about these two houses.

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.

So in other words, the Davidic covenant gave rise to two institutions.

We see the Davidic kingly line, the monarchy, and we also see the temple.

These are the two institutions that came right out of the Davidic covenant.

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.

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.

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.

So all that's for next week.

So the first theme God's commitment to the house of David.

Let's make a few observations first.

So bear with me, because I'm going to have you turn to different parts of Chronicles, okay.

So first let's go back to Chronicles 1, chronicles 1.

I think we already read a little bit about that, so I made the point just so that we save some time.

From the beginning of 1 Chronicles, the chronicler really focused on David.

David as he traced the genealogy from Adam to Abraham, then from Abraham through the 12 tribes.

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.

Reuben is the firstborn.

Reuben has the birthright, he has the rights of being the firstborn right.

In the Jewish culture, the oldest gets the birthright and much of the inheritance and blessings from the father.

Why did this not happen to Reuben?

Well, there's a couple things.

I mentioned that the chronicler wanted to focus on the people who were the center of his theological history, right?

Well, that's one reason.

But there's a stronger reason.

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.

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.

So you can see that prophetic blessing from Genesis 49 is actually being fulfilled here in the Davidic covenant.

Now it's an interesting observation.

Another observation turn to chapter 3.

I think I mentioned this too.

In chapter 3, we have David's children and the royal descendants.

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.

So you have the general genealogy of Judah in chapter 2, the general genealogy of Judah in chapter 4.

Chapter 3 is all about it's sandwiched to highlight David's line.

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.

That's the Davidic line there.

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.

Turn with me to chapter 10.

1 Chronicles, chapter 10.

1 Chronicles 10 · chapter mention

All this chronicler had to say really about Saul's reign was that it's actually in verse 13 and 14.

Verse 13, chapter 10, verse 13.

Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the Lord, because he did not keep the Lord's word.

He even consulted a medium for guidance, but he did not inquire of the Lord.

So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse.

This is the same account.

The factual parts of it earlier in chapter 10 are also seen in 1 Samuel 31, the last chapter in 1 Samuel.

But what's not said is why Saul's kingdom was taken away.

This is an example of the divine commentary I told you about.

There's a special commentary on the actual historical facts.

So this chronicler wanted to provide the context why Saul's reign was taken away from him and that dynasty was only Saul.

There was no furtherance of that kingly line was there.

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.

He's setting up the chronicles to be about David and the kings that followed him, david's line of kings.

So this is what we're going to focus on today now.

Okay, so back to our major theme God's commitment to the house of David.

We can see this in three ways First of all, by God placing David on the throne.

By God placing David on the throne.

Secondly, by God promising to David an everlasting dynasty.

And the third thing, by preserving God, preserving David's dynasty, placing David on the throne, promising an everlasting dynasty.

And thirdly, preserving that dynasty.

So the first one, placing David on the throne.

How does the chronicler bring this out more?

Well, let's now turn just right over to the next chapter, 1, chronicles 11.

We see, hereid lived a life that honored god.

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.

Look at first, chronicles 11, verse 2.

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.

Now, who said this?

Let's look at verse 1.

This is actually very interesting.

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.

Here we are your own flesh and blood.

Even previously, when Saul was king, you were leading Israel out to battle and bringing us back.

The Lord, your God, also said to you All of Israel knew what God had said to David.

Isn't that interesting?

They knew what God told David.

They're acknowledging and affirming David because they received that divine understanding that David is their new ruler, their new leader.

It said all Israel came together to David at Hebron and said here we are your own flesh and blood.

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.

The third thing, let's look at chapter 12.

Look at chapter 12, verse 23.

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.

Another affirmation David is to be king.

Let's look at another piece of evidence.

Turn to chapter 14.

David obeyed God's commands and the Lord gave him victory and God caused the nations to fear him.

Verse 16 says so David did as God commanded him and they struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.

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.

That's another affirmation.

And one more David patiently trusted in the Lord and was rewarded for this.

Look earlier in the same chapter, chapter 14, verse 2.

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.

David knew he was to be king Now.

He was convinced.

He knew this.

How did David know this?

It's because the way David lived his life, he lived his life close to God.

No wonder he's called the man after God's own heart.

He was reassured.

He knew that God established him as king and gave him a kingdom.

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.

If you look at first chronicles, 19 chapters in first chron, basically from chapters 11 on to 29, they concern David's reign.

12 of those chapters are centered on preparations for the temple and we're going to get into that.

So the temple is very important in Chronicles.

The Davidic covenant is a much more dominant, overarching, perpetual covenant that God had made with David.

Let's go back to 1 Chronicles 17.

1 Chronicles 17,.

The chapter about the Davidic covenant, verse 10, the second half of verse 10,.

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.

I will raise up after you your descendant, who is one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

He is the one who will build a house for me and I will establish his throne forever.

I will be his father and he will be my son.

I will not remove my faithful love from him, as I removed it from the one who was before you.

If you look at these three or four sentences, you find eight promises listed.

You know the Lord will build a house for you, for David, and then it says I will raise up after you your descendant.

Then he says I will establish his kingdom.

And then he says he's the one who built a house for me.

And it goes on to say I will establish his throne forever.

He says I will be his father.

He promises that he will be my son.

And then he says I will not remove my faithful love from him.

These promises are very significant.

They're very, very significant.

There are three reasons.

The first king Saul lost his dynasty because he disobeyed the Lord.

Saul's dynasty was only one king himself.

The second reason the northern kingdom had 10 dynasties over a brief 200 years.

10 dynasties over 200 years.

10 dynasties.

But the Lord declared that he would never remove his steadfast love from the Davidic dynasty, the one dynasty, david's dynasty.

David and the line of Davidic kings, judah, had only one dynasty that lasted over 400 years.

That's a long time.

That's only a temporary vision of what that dynasty is.

Jesus Christ, the messianic king, is the fulfillment of an everlasting Davidic King.

So that's the significance of these promises.

I'm going to move a little faster.

Lastly, so we've seen God's commitment to the house of David is shown by putting David on the throne.

We've seen the promise to David for an everlasting dynasty and finally preserving David's dynasty.

David's lived to see the initial fulfillment of God's promise to him.

David crowned Solomon to be his successor.

In 1 Chronicles 28, verse 5, david assembled all the leaders of Israel to commission Solomon to build his successor.

1 Chronicles 28:5

In 1 Chronicles 28, verse 5, david assembled all the leaders of Israel to commission Solomon to build the temple.

1 Chronicles 28:5

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.

So this verse brings out the central truth that, although every king might sit on the throne of the Lord's kingdom over Israel.

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.

It's the Lord's kingdom over Israel.

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.

However, neither Solomon nor any other Davidic king was completely faithful, yet each king was succeeded by his son.

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.

So this obedience will bring about covenant blessings and disobedience, as you know, brings about covenant curses and eventually, exile.

So we'll talk more about this next week.

But the assessment was based on the king's ability to maintain proper worship in the temple.

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.

And as punishment, god sent enemies to attack or a disease to kill.

A couple of Judah's kings were assassinated.

Regardless of how Judah's kings died, god always made sure that the next son was in line and was put on the throne.

Let's look at an example of King Jehoram, a very evil, evil king.

This is in 2 Chronicles 21.

He was a very, very wicked king.

God punished him with several rebellions against him.

There was also a personal rebuke by the prophet Elijah.

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.

Despite Joram's sin, god did not turn his love away from David's house.

The Chronicler wrote in 2 Chronicles 21,.

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.

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.

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?

God's answer is very clear in Chronicles.

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.

God always has been faithful to the Davidic dynasty.

Yahweh does not forget his promises.

So it's no surprise that Chronicles is the last book, and therefore conclusion, of the Hebrew Bible.

That's where it sits.

Our Bible kind of got it wrong the English Bible.

It has great theological implications for the Jews as they anticipate the Messiah For us.

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.

He will execute judgment on unbelievers and grant a final reward to believers, who then will live in the new heavens and new earth.

This triune God will reign and be worshipped in a never-ending kingdom.

So, in summary, the two major themes that Chronicles tell us are, first of all, god's commitment to the house of David.

Secondly, god's temple and his presence in the worship of his people.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So next Sunday we'll look at the temple worship in Chronicles.

This is the second major theme in the books of Chronicles.

So let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you are a covenant-keeping God.

You keep your promises, even though we fail to keep our promises.

Father, your compassion to us is endless.

Your faithfulness is great.

Thank you for showing us clearly that Jesus Messiah is the ultimate son of David, who sits on the throne forever.

Thank you for the hope that we have in sharing an inheritance with him.

Thank you, father Amen.

Thank you for the hope that we have in sharing an inheritance with him.

Thank you, father amen.