Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then David said, “The house of the Lord God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
So David gave orders to assemble the foreigners residing in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed. He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted, for the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought large numbers of them to David.
David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it.” So David made extensive preparations before his death.
Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God. But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’
“Now, my son, the Lord be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God, as he said you would. May the Lord give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
“I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them. You have many workers: stonecutters, masons and carpenters, as well as those skilled in every kind of work in gold and silver, bronze and iron—craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the Lord be with you.”
Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon. He said to them, “Is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not granted you rest on every side? For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land is subject to the Lord and to his people. Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord.”

• 1 Chronicles 22:1-19

For a link to 1 Chronicles 23, click HERE.

For a link to 1 Chronicles 24, click HERE.

For a link to 1 Chronicles 25, click HERE.

For a link to 1 Chronicles 26, click HERE.

For a link to 1 Chronicles 27, click HERE.

 Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

1 Chronicles 22:1 ‘The place where God meets us’: “David was, for many years, searching for a site for the great temple that he purposed to build for Jehovah, his God. It had been ordained that the sacrifices offered to the one God should be offered by all Israel on one altar, but as yet the ark of the Lord was within curtains, near David’s palace, and the altar of burnt offering was situated at Gibeon. David watched and waited and prayed, and in due time he received the sign. Why was the threshing floor of Ornan to be David’s meeting place with his God and the spot where prayer was to be heard? Certainly it was a simple, unadorned place. It boasted no magnificence of size or beauty of construction. There was just the rock and, I suppose, a composition of hard clay or cement that the feet of the oxen might tread out the corn.  Yet when the temple with all its glory crowned the spot, God was never more conspicuously present than on that bare, ungarnished threshing floor. ‘Meet God in a barn?’ cries one. Why not? God met Adam in a garden, Abraham under a tree, and Noah in an ark. God has met with people in a dungeon, in a cave, and in a whale’s belly. When we have displayed all our skill in architecture, can we secure any more of the divine presence than the disciples had in the upper room? A tasteful building may be a way of showing our pious regard for the Lord; and, so far, it may be justifiable and acceptable; but we must take care that we do not regard it as essential or even important—-or we will make an idol of it. No chisel of mason or hammer of carpenter can build a holy place. Without either of these, a spot may be none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Chronicles 22:3 ‘iron … bronze’: “David would have acquired the iron technology from the Philistines (1 Sam. 13:19-21), and the bronze would have come from spoils of war (cf. 18:8).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 22:4 ‘cedar’: “This came from Lebanon, the heavily wooded and mountainous country north of Israel, and was provided by the residents of Sidon and Tyre, most likely under the leadership of David’s friend, King Hiram (cf. 14:1; 1 Kin. 5:1).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 22:5 ‘young’: “Solomon was born early in David’s reign (c. 1000-990 B.C.) and was at this time twenty to thirty years of age. The magnificent and complex challenge of building such a monumental edifice with all its elements required an experienced leader for preparation. magnificent. David understood that the temple needed to reflect on earth something of God’s heavenly majesty, so he devoted himself to the collection of the plans and materials, tapping the vast amount of spoils from people he had conquered and cities he had sacked (vv. 14-16).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

1 Chronicles 22:8-10 ‘The Prophecy Regarding Solomon’: “Much of 1 Chronicles 22:8-10 is a confirmation, recapitulation, and expansion of central aspects of the Davidic Covenant (see 2 Samuel 7:8-16). David, toward the conclusion of his life, charged his son and chosen heir, Solomon, to construct the Lord’s temple (1 Chronicles 22:6-7). It was the Lord’s expressed desire and purpose for His temple to be built through Solomon. Unlike his fathers blood-spattered career, Solomons reign would be characterized by peace.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Chronicles 22:14 ‘one hundred thousand … gold’: “Assuming a talent weighed about 75 pounds, this would be approximately 3,750 tons, a staggering amount of gold. one million … silver. This would be approximately 37,500 tons of silver.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 22:14 ‘Do what you can’: “The building of the temple is an admirable type of the building of the church of God. Many helped build the temple—David gathering the materials; Solomon, the master mason, by whose name the temple would afterwards be called; the princes helping him in the great work; strangers, foreigners, and aliens who dwelt throughout Israel and Judah took their share; and even the Tyrians and Sidonians had a part in the work. David did his part, although he might not build the temple. Let every man and every woman among us judge our life not merely from that little narrow piece of it which we ourselves live, for that is but a span, but let us judge it by its connection with other lives that may come after our own. If we cannot do all we wish, let us do all we can in the hope that someone who will succeed us may complete the project that is so dear to our heart. We will soon be gone—our day lasts not very long. Will it be said of us that we wasted our daylight; and then, when the evening shadows came, we were uneasy and unhappy and though saved by divine grace, we died with sad expressions of regret for wasted opportunities?”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Chronicles 22:19 ‘a believer’s life’: “Seeking the Lord is a description of the whole of the believer’s life. First, seek the Lord by endeavoring to obey him in everything. Let us test everything we do by God’s holy Word. Let us seek to fulfill not only commands that are plain but also those about which there is a question. In the service of God, nothing is little, and loyalty to the great God comes out in tenderness of conscience concerning little things. He who carelessly offends in trifles will fall little by little. The greatest catastrophes in moral life come not usually all of a sudden but by slow degrees. The dry rot enters into the timbers of the house of human character, and the house eventually falls with a shock. Seek the Lord also in the building up oi his temple. As David goes on to say, ‘Get started building the LORD God’s sanctuary’ (22:19). It ought to be the main business oi the lite of every Christian to build up the church. The target toward which our life‘s arrow should speed is the glory of the one who made us, who has redeemed us with his precious blood, and has created us a second time that we may be for him, and for him alone. Seeking the Lord also demands that we ‘determine in our mind and heart.’ The genuine believer has looked ahead and sees on what tack he ought to steer. And he will hold the tiller to that point over mountain waves or through the trough of the billows. He has looked to his chart, settled his course, and he is not to be turned aside.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Chronicles 22 ‘Reflections’: “Man was made to worship God. God gave to man a harp and said, ‘Here above all the creatures that I have made and created I have given you the largest harp. I put more strings on your instrument and I have given you a wider range than I have given to any other creature. You can worship Me in a manner that no other creature can.’ …
“The purpose of God in sending His Son to die and rise and live and be at the right hand of God the Father was that He might restore to us the missing jewel, the jewel of worship; that we might come back and learn to do again that which we were created to do in the first place-worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, to spend our time in awesome wonder and adoration of God, feeling and expressing it, and letting it get into our labors and doing nothing except as an act of worship to Almighty God through His Son Jesus Christ. I say that the greatest tragedy in the world today is that God has made man in His image and made him to worship Him, made him to play the harp of worship before the face of God day and night, but he has failed God and dropped the harp. It lies voiceless at his feet.”

• A. W. Tozer, Worship, The Missing Jewel

1 Chronicles 23:3 ‘thirty years and above’: “Numbers 4:3 establishes the age of recognized priests from thirty to fifty years of age. A five-year apprenticeship began at twenty-five (cf. Num. 8:24), and in some cases twenty (1 Chr. 23:24, 27). This number, 38,000, is four times greater than the early census in Moses’ time (cf. Num. 4; 26).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 23:5 ‘gatekeepers’: “First Chronicles 26:1-19 gives information on them. praised. First Chronicles 25 identifies and describes these musicians. which I made. David, a gifted musician, was not only the maker, but the inventor of musical instruments (cf. Amos 6:5).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 23:6 ‘divisions’: “The Levites were divided among the three groups with distinct duties, just as they were in Moses’ day (Num. 3:14- 37) and in Ezra’s day (6:16—30). The family of Gershon (2327-11), Kohath (23:12-20), and Merari (23:21—23) are each discussed.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 24:1 ‘Nadab, Abihu’: “Consult Leviticus 10:1-3 for their disgrace and demise. Eleazar. The line of the high priest would be through Eleazar’s offspring in accord with the priestly covenant made by God with Phinehas (Num. 25:11-13).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 25:1 ‘the captains of the army’: “David relied on his mighty men for help (cf. 11:10). Asaph … Heman … Jeduthun. David’s three chief ministers of music (cf. 6:31-48). prophesy. This is not necessarily to be taken in a revelatory sense, but rather in the sense of proclamation and exhortation through the lyrics of their music (cf. 25:2, 3). Prophesying is not necessarily predicting the future or even speaking direct revelation. It is proclaiming truth (v. 5) to people (cf. 1 Cor. 14:3), and music is a vehicle for such proclamation in praise (v. 3). David and the leaders selected those most capable (v. 7) of leading the people to worship God through their music.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 26:20 ‘treasuries’: “The Levites watched over the store of valuables given to the Lord. This is a general reference to all the precious things committed to their trust, including contributions from David and the people, as well as war spoils given by triumphant soldiers (vv. 26, 27).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Chronicles 27:24 ‘the chronicles of King David’: “Daily records were kept of the king’s reign. None was kept of this calamity because the record was too painful.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

 

My Thoughts

While Rev. MacArthur credits the Philistines, my steel making history records credit the Hittites, but the Hittites were part of the Canaanites.  Some Hittites are mentioned with the people of Judah, such as Uriah the Hittite, a mighty warrior that David had killed due to Bathsheba being pregnant.  We both could be right in that the Hittites may have taught the Philistines.  In fact, the history of the region showed the Hittite influence spreading to all nations as they wanted the iron and then the steel.

It is odd that they counted 3,750 tons of gold and 37,500 tons of silver, but the amount of bronze was immeasurable.

Note that some of this stuff was the spoils of war while other items were tributes to the greatness of David and the God of the Israelites.  And notice also that those spoils of war and great precious metals stores were used in building a temple in which to worship God.  What has been done for millennia since?  All of that was melted down to build more powerful weapons to keep the nation who gained those spoils safe.

Now the charge to Solomon to build the temple notes his shortcomings, young and inexperienced.  But it is blended with the Covenant God made to King David.  Solomon must not sin, but then he did.  Even then, David was not fit to build the temple due to the blood on his hands, but Solomon was promised a time of peace, and that is mostly what he had.  Yet, the charge to Solomon was that he had to have discretion and be careful not to sin.  He was to build the temple so that other nations would be in awe.  And he was to take the ark of the covenant and all the other things built for the tabernacle and move them into the temple.

Amidst the charge to Solomon was the note about the amount of gold and silver.  The Rev. MacArthur quote assumes 75 pounds of gold was one talent.  Other references differ from about 67 pounds to 129 pounds.  It was supposed to be considered near a year’s wages, but I came nowhere close to that and I was paid more than a lot of people.  Yet, with Rev. MacArthur’s estimate and today’s price of gold and silver (as of the day writing this), Solomon had 281.3 billion dollars of gold and nearly 35 billion dollars of silver.  And to think, we see the attacks on people believing in the true God as a recent thing, but the history books of the time are vague or do not even mention King David and King Solomon.  For being that wealthy and at a critical spot along the Fertile Crescent, the kingdom of Israel was a great nation.

First Chronicles 23 starts the accounting and reassigning of the Levites.  This activity was not as much a census as it was assigning people to their duties once the temple was built.  Some of the duties assigned to Levites in the time of Moses became moot.  There would be no breaking down of the tabernacle and construction of the tabernacle.  The temple stayed in one spot and did not move.  Yet, since there was a permanent structure, there were maintenance activities required.  Simple things like setting out bread.  The priestly line is defined, including that Nadab and Abihu died without male offspring.  Judges were also defined, along with gatekeepers and musicians.  Note that Obed-Edom’s blessings in 1 Chronicles 13 are carried through.  And we will see Asaph throughout the Psalms.

And note that prophesying in the sense of Asaph’s duties was to proclaim the glories of God, not necessarily tell the future or create a new book of the Bible.  It might be explanatory in one sense and praising and glorifying in another sense.  In other words, how do you describe a God who is beyond words?  With music we combine the intellect and the emotion to create what the world sees as a spiritual realm, but even that will fall short of what we experience when we are in God’s presence.

It is not just that the “David Team” gets their name in the Bible, many of these names are connectors to identify who a priest or gatekeeper was and was for many generations.  And the concept that King David was not one man, a man after God’s own heart.  No.  David was a team.  No successful president, of any country that has a president, accumulated that success by themselves.  There were many people behind the scenes.

Yet, there are interesting nuggets, other than the duty assignments were nuggets in themselves.  Rev. MacArthur points out that David invented some musical instruments.

But overall, the modern way of thinking of career paths in the USA, and some other parts of the world, is that you match the child’s interest and aptitude with a potential career path and guide him in that direction.  The child grows up doing what he was always interested in and his quality of life (if the world was perfect) is better for it.

I wanted to write, but my parents saw how so many people wanted to write and never made a career out of it, some starving along the way.  They saw that I was excellent in science and math.  I was pushed into engineering.  I personally chose the field of chemical engineering.  But then, when the army called me onto active duty, I rarely did chemical engineering calculations after that.  My career path was marked by one prevalent sign, DETOUR.

About thirty years ago, I read a book by Robert Bly, Iron John.  He kept weaving between a fable, parable, whatever and commentary on life today.  In one life-today segment, he said that the children of today would not follow in their father’s footsteps because all that they see is a tired frustrated man get out of the car far too late in the evening.  He hates his life.  He hates his boss.  He is always looking for another job.  But not even a century before the book was written, the father invited his son at an early age to come into the field where they each planted seed or, in autumn, they picked the harvest.  Mr. Bly said that if the child saw what the father did, that might change things.  Many schools have a day once each year where the child follows the father around.  (And mothers and daughters also, but in the case of the Levites, it went from father to son.)  In the ten years of my sons’ most development, I worked at a top secret facility, and I could not take them with me.  Most of the time, it was so secret, I did not even know what I was doing. … (just kidding, but I often wondered if my boss knew what he was doing.)

All of this career path discussion is because the Levites had no choice.  They were born into that family.  That is what they did.  But I think that the children, at least most of them, saw the love their parents had for their jobs, and the pride in doing a good job for the glory of Almighty God fueled the next generation to follow in their father’s footsteps.  But then, they did not follow God’s Law for many generations at a time.  Could job dissatisfaction have been a factor?  Of course, loving and trusting God would always be at the core of that question.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

1 Chronicles 22: 1. When have you ‘passed on the torch’ to a subordinate at work? To an heir in the family?
“2. What preparations have you made for passing on your life’s work or family values? Would you ‘arrange’ a child’s life, as David did for Solomon?
“3.Whal kind of a head start in life did you get, materially, from your parents?
“4. Imagine greeting your friends, children or colleagues with “The Lord be with you.” What would they take that to mean?
1 Chronicles 23:1-11 The Levites: 1. How hard is it to turn over power? For David? For you?
“2. David delegated extensively at this stage in his career. What are the modern equivalents for the offices appointed here? Could your town use four times as many pastors as police? Or would you recoil from such authority?
1 Chronicles 23:12-20 Kohathites: 1. What church tights or political debates would you be spared today, if leaders were appointed ‘for life’, as were the Hebrew priests?
“2. What lifelong duties or irrevocable callings have come your way?
“3. Where might the Kohath clan have struggled, in trying to maintain the fame resulting from Moses and Aaron? Can you empathize anywhere?
1 Chronicles 23:21-32 Merarites: 1. For you, is Sunday restful, workful, or worshipful?
“2. The Levites had two teams, and membership was a matter of birth, not performance. If you were the chief Levite, what pep talk of yours would get the most out of your team?
“3. Do you gauge such success by heart-stopping stories, as David could easily tell? Or by intimate and everyday service to God of the Merarites, of whom we have no recorded stories?
“4. At age 20, where were you in relation to an organized church: (a) Taking a four-year vacation’? (b) Attending when it was convenient? (c) Getting actively involved?
1 Chronicles 24:1-19 The Divisions of Priests: 1. How do you try to achieve fairness in distributing goodies within your domain: To family? To friends? To church groups?
“2. Who in your life is like the quiet competent scribe, Shemaiah, a ‘Gal Friday’ or ‘press secretary’? Who do you serve in that manner?
“3. Whether you were elected, appointed, or inherited your present job what difference does that make in your job security? In your incentive to excel on the job? What difference does it make knowing God was in that selection process?
1 Chronicles 24:20-31 The Rest of the Levites: 1. By what means do you distribute privileges or chores ‘evenly’ in the family? In church?
1 Chronicles 25: 1. in ancient Israel men of military and musical ability were needed to serve their nation. Today, what role does music play in military affairs: (a) Encouraging the morale of the troops? (b) Signaling troop movements? (c) Recruiting volunteers? (d) Encouraging loyalty back home’? (e) Prophesying and serving in places of worship?
“2. The prophesy of musicians in ancient Israel was key to certain military decisions. How does that compare to the relative importance attached to the music program of your school or church? What role do your musicians play in discerning or conveying God’s will for the church?
“3. What advantages and disadvantages do you suppose a Minister of Music in David’s era would have over today‘s music ministry? What would your church do with David’s 288 trained singers?
“4. Are you able to let go with voice and heart in joyful singing? Or do you feel bashful, untrained, unmelodic? What would it take for you to move from the bashful stage to the kind of leadership shown by Gedaliah, Izri and Joshbekashah? Optional: Try a group sing-along to see what joyful noises and gifted resources you can share.
“5. Assume you are leading a group study on the Bible’s view of the family and this is your first meeting. What points could you draw from this chapter? How would you apply them to families in your church? To your own family?
1 Chronicles 26:1-19 The Gatekeepers: 1. Of the guard duties listed in the OPEN questions, which ones incorporate some aspect of Israel’s temple gatekeepers?
“2. What security measures do your pastor, church officers, treasurer and janitor take which are akin to the function of these gatekeepers? Whose responsibility is it to guard church property? To guard polity and constitutional concerns? To guard confidences? To guard the gospel itself?
“3. What does your church look for in hiring someone to fill one of these ‘gatekeeper’ duties? How could your group prepare youth (and re-tool adults) for such caretaking duties in your church?
1 Chronicles 26:20-32 The Treasures and Other Officials: 1. Does David‘s method of hiding his stash give you any hints about what to do with your own jar of coins and bills?
“2. What view of the future promotes long-term financial planning in the church? What viewpoint retards such interest? What ideas about the future seem to lie behind David’s planning?
1 Chronicles 27:1-15 Army Divisions: 1. ln listing the physically powerful jobs last (ch. 27) and the artistic and liturgical jobs first (ch. 24-26), what does that suggest to young Hebrews who need heroes and role models? How satisfied are you with today‘s role models for children?
“2. How does your church ‘guard’ the faith? What qualities common to soldiers does your church education program try to develop?
1 Chronicles 27:16-24 Officers of the Tribes: Some jobs are better left undone, like Davids ill-advised census. What projects have you unwisely started and wisely aborted?
“2. Do you keep a ‘book of annals’? Does your church?
1 Chronicles 27:25-34 The King’s Overseers: 1. These good people began their careers entrusted with royal resources. Where did you begin your career? Where has it led you?
“2. What is your basic job description? Anything like these men? Who is your ‘friend’, counselor or protector?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Like the first nine chapters, there are a lot of discussion questions here.  If you are in a small group, or just you individually, you may want to pick those of interest, but some of the questions apply to people of any interest.

1 Chronicles 22 and 25 each have one set of questions.  The remaining chapters in this block are divided as indicated above, with two or three sets of questions each.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.