Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

David summoned all the officials of Israel to assemble at Jerusalem: the officers over the tribes, the commanders of the divisions in the service of the king, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the warriors and all the brave fighting men.
King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’
“Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the tribe of Judah he chose my family, and from my father’s sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel. Of all my sons—and the Lord has given me many—he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws, as is being done at this time.’
“So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God: Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.
“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”
Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. He gave him instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work of serving in the temple of the Lord, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service. He designated the weight of gold for all the gold articles to be used in various kinds of service, and the weight of silver for all the silver articles to be used in various kinds of service: the weight of gold for the gold lampstands and their lamps, with the weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for each silver lampstand and its lamps, according to the use of each lampstand; the weight of gold for each table for consecrated bread; the weight of silver for the silver tables; the weight of pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls and pitchers; the weight of gold for each gold dish; the weight of silver for each silver dish; and the weight of the refined gold for the altar of incense. He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and overshadow the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
“All this,” David said, “I have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan.”
David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. The divisions of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work on the temple of God, and every willing person skilled in any craft will help you in all the work. The officials and all the people will obey your every command.”

• 1 Chronicles 28:1-21

Then King David said to the whole assembly: “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God. With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities. Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for the overlaying of the walls of the buildings, for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now, who is willing to consecrate themselves to the Lord today?”
Then the leaders of families, the officers of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the king’s work gave willingly. They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron. Anyone who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.
David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,
“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all.
Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. Lord, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, statutes and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.”
Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.” So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers; they bowed down, prostrating themselves before the Lord and the king.
The next day they made sacrifices to the Lord and presented burnt offerings to him: a thousand bulls, a thousand rams and a thousand male lambs, together with their drink offerings, and other sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. They ate and drank with great joy in the presence of the Lord that day.
Then they acknowledged Solomon son of David as king a second time, anointing him before the Lord to be ruler and Zadok to be priest. So Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king in place of his father David. He prospered and all Israel obeyed him. All the officers and warriors, as well as all of King David’s sons, pledged their submission to King Solomon.
The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him royal splendor such as no king over Israel ever had before.
David son of Jesse was king over all Israel. He ruled over Israel forty years—seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. He died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth and honor. His son Solomon succeeded him as king.
As for the events of King David’s reign, from beginning to end, they are written in the records of Samuel the seer, the records of Nathan the prophet and the records of Gad the seer, together with the details of his reign and power, and the circumstances that surrounded him and Israel and the kingdoms of all the other lands.

• 1 Chronicles 29:1-30

 Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

1 Chronicles 28:8 ‘keep and seek’: “[ED—’Observe and follow’ is literally ‘keep and seek.’] David says, first of all, ‘Keep the commandments,’ that is to say, such of them as we know, such as are clear from our reading of Scripture, such as have been pressed on our conscience—keep these. Keep them always. Ask for more grace to keep them better. And when we feel that we have not kept them, go with holy repentance to the foot of the cross to get rid of past sin and look up for sanctifying grace that through the Holy Spirit’s power we may keep them better for the future. For ‘in keeping them there is an abundant reward’ (Ps 19:11). The path of obedience is a path of safety and of happiness. But David says more than that. He commands that we also seek our Lord’s commands. There are precepts, the nature of which we have never understood, the obligation of which we have never felt—seek these out. We must try to know all God’s will concerning us, keep what we know but wherein we are at fault through lack of knowledge, not to content ourselves with ignorance any longer but to search out the matter. Read the King’s proclamations. Study the code of the King’s laws. Ask him to teach us and to make us wise in the way of his commandments, that in nothing we may be chargeable with indifference or be guilty of neglecting the ordinances of the Most High.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Chronicles 28:18 ‘the chariot’: “Using the imagery of Psalm 18:10, the cherubim are depicted as the vehicle in which God moves.”

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

1 Chronicles 28:18 ‘instructions straight from God’: “The temple was not to be built according to the designs of David or Solomon or anyone else. It was to be built according to a pattern God himself had formed, for it was to be an eminent type of Christ, and also of his church, which is a temple for God’s own indwelling. No one knew what God meant to teach by that temple; and, consequently, if the building had been left to human judgment, it would not have been a true type. God gave the directions to David by impressing them on his mind, on his heart, by his own hand. He did not so much draw a plan, hand it to David, and say to him, ‘Build the temple according to that design,’ but he made him think carefully and prayerfully over the whole matter, perhaps in the visions of the night. And often, as he turned he subject over in his thoughts by day, God’s Spirit came and revealed to David what he needed to know as to how this house was to be built. David did not receive them by consultation with others. David did not send to Hiram, king of Tyre, to ask his judgment. Nor did he call in a Bezaleel, or some other skillful person, to give him advice. Like the apostle Paul, David did not consult with flesh and blood (Gal 1:1 6). Depend on it, if we learn anything correctly, we will have to learn it from God. Although consultation with others may often be serviceable on some points, and some who are deeply taught in the things of God may at times be helpful to us, we must not defer to what they say so as to miss the instructions the Lord himself gives us. No one’s voice is to be sovereign to us except the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, speaking out of this book, which contains all things we need for life and godliness. We are not to obtain our creed by consultation with other people, but go to God himself and to pray he will write it on our hearts with his own hand.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Chronicles 28:19 ‘in writing’: “David wrote down the plans under the Holy Spirit’s divine inspiration (non-canonical, written revelation). This divine privilege was much like that of Moses for the tabernacle (Ex. 25:9, 40; 27:8; Heb. 8:5).”

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

1 Chronicles 28 ‘Reflections’: “Actually, basic beliefs about the Person and the nature of God have changed so much that there are among us now men and women who find it easy to brag about the benefits they receive from God—without ever a thought or a desire to know the true meaning of worship!
“I have immediate reactions to such an extreme misunderstanding of the true nature of a holy and sovereign God.
“My first is that I believe the very last thing God desires is to have shallow-minded and worldly Christians bragging about Him.
“My second is that it does not seem to be very well recognized that God’s highest desire is that every one of His believing children should so love and so adore Him that we are continuously in His presence, in Spirit and in truth.
“That is to worship, indeed.”

• A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?

1 Chronicles 29:4 ‘three thousand talents’: “Assuming a talent weighed about 75 pounds, this amounts to almost 112 tons of gold, plus the 7,000 talents of silver which would be 260 tons. The total worth of such precious metals has been estimated in the billions of dollars. gold of Ophir. This was held to be the purest and finest in the world (cf. Job 22:24; 28:16; Is. 13:12).”

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

1 Chronicles 29:6-9 ‘willingly’: “Here is the key to all freewill giving, i.e., giving what one desires to give. Tithes were required for taxation, to fund the theocracy, similar to taxation today. The law required that to be paid. This, however, is the voluntary giving from the heart to the Lord. The NT speaks of this (cf. Luke 6:38; 2 Cor. 9: 1-8) and never demands that a tithe be given to God, but that taxes be paid to one’s government (cf. Rom. 13:6, 7). Paying taxes and giving God whatever one is willing to give, based on devotion to Him and His glory, is biblical giving.”

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

1 Chronicles 29:7 ‘five thousand talents’: “Assuming a talent weighed about 75 pounds, this amounts to 187 tons of gold. darics. A Persian coin, familiar to Jews from the captivity, possibly named after Darius I (cf. Ezra 8:27). The readers of this material in Ezra’s day would know it as a contemporary measurement. ten thousand talents. This amounts to 375 tons of silver. eighteen thousand talents. This amounts to almost 675 tons of bronze. one hundred thousand talents. This amounts to 3,750 tons of iron. The sum of all this is staggering, and has been estimated in the billions of dollars.”

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

1 Chronicles 29:11 ‘to be in awe of God’: “This mighty God, like a great burning universe, will burst upon us someday, breaking down our defenses and destroying everything we’ve put up around ourselves, and we’ll have to deal with Him. And yet the average man isn’t worried about it at all. He sleeps well at night and thinks of his job and does it by day. He eats, sleeps, lives, breeds, gets old and dies, never having given a good, high thought about the great God who transcends all.
“This is the God about whom it is said, ‘Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all’ (1 Chronicles 29:11). And yet we care so very, very little about Him. How tragic it is that men will follow their lusts and pride, living for money, business, appetite, and ambition!
“No additional proof needs to be given for the spiritual death that lies in the hearts of men. ‘She that liveth in pleasure is dead,’ says the Scripture, ‘while she liveth’ (1 Timothy 5:6). And he that liveth in ambition, lust, appetite and pride, who lives for money and fame, is dead also. Though he may be young, trim and athletic, intelligent and well-to-do, he is still dead—and rotting in his death. He is like a blind man who cannot see the sun rise, because the great God rises above the horizon of his understanding and he doesn’t know the sun has come up. And like a worm in a cave or a toad under a rock, he lives out his life and forgets that he’s got to deal with God someday—the great God Almighty!”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God II

1 Chronicles 29:15 ‘How long, oh Lord?’: “He who ‘lives forever’ has placed himself at the head of a band of pilgrims who mutter, ‘Lord, how long will this go on?’ (Psalm 89:46).
“ ‘How long must l endure this sickness?’
“ ‘How long must I endure this spouse?’
“ ‘How long must I endure this paycheck?’
“Do you really want God to answer? He could, you know. He could answer in terms of the here and now with time increments we know. ‘Two more years on the illness.’ ‘The rest of you in the marriage.’ ‘Ten more years for the bills.’
“But he seldom does that. He usually opts to measure the here and now against the there and then. And when you compare this life to that life, this life ain’t long.“

• Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm

1 Chronicles 29:17 ‘test the heart’: “Opportunities for giving to God are tests of the character of a believer’s devotion to the Lord. The king acknowledges that the attitude of one’s heart is significantly more important than the amount of offering in one’s hand.”

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

1 Chronicles 29:20 ‘bowed … prostrate’: “The ultimate physical expression of an inward submission to God in all things.”

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

1 Chronicles 29:22 ‘the second time’: “This most likely refers to a public ceremony subsequent to the private one of 1 Kings 1:35-39 in response to Adonijah’s conspiracy. David’s high priest, Zadok, had been loyal to both father and son (1 Kin. 1:32-40; 2:27-29), so he continued on as high priest during Solomon’s reign.”

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

1 Chronicles 29:29 ‘Samuel’: “This most likely refers to the canonical Book of 1 and 2 Samuel. Seer… prophet … seer. All three are different, but synonymous, Hebrew terms referring to the prophetic office from the perspectives of: (1) to understand; (2) to proclaim; and (3) to understand, respectively. Nathan … Gad. These are non-canonical but reliable historical records that the chronicler utilized. God’s Spirit protected the record from error in the original writing (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21).”

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

 

My Thoughts

David gathered the officials of all Israel to announce that he would not build the temple, but Solomon, his son.  He said Solomon must keep the laws of God and if any of the officials wanted to stay in the land and give it to their descendants, they should obey the laws of God.  David again charges Solomon to build the temple and continue to worship God.  Solomon must be strong.

David then gave Solomon the plans for the temple and the assignments of the Levites, and all the rules associated with proper worship.  He even detailed the weight of the metal in each thing used in the temple.  All the divisions of the Levites, in the previous chapters, was handed over to Solomon.  As Rev. MacArthur points out above, this was God-breathed to David, but it did not make it into the Scriptures as the details of the tabernacle had done in the latter chapters of Exodus.

David told the officials that the temple was a palace for God.  He donated his wealth to the temple and the other officials gave great quantities to the temple also.  All of these stores were given to Jehiel, the Gershonite, since the Gershonites were assigned that duty in the previous chapters.

David then prays his prayer.  The prayer is a psalm of praise to the Lord.  Who are we that we should be Your people?  Everything is the Lord’s.

Solomon is anointed a second time to be king, this time in celebration compared to the hurried anointment when Adonijah was rebelling.  They made massive sacrifices in the celebration.

Then, David passed away after reigning for forty years.  Saul, David, and Solomon each reigned forty years.  Thus, the united Israel kingdom lasted barely over one hundred years.

Solomon was charged to keep God’s Commandments, but he failed.  The other officials were charged in doing the same.  It is not recorded whether they failed, but in a few years, practically everyone was worshipping false gods.  A short attention span is not an invention of the last one hundred years.  It has been around for some time.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

1 Chronicles 28: 1. What parenting model and ministry motivation do you see in this chapter? What can you do to become a ‘David’ to some ‘Solomon’ whom God has chosen to receive blessing through you?
“2. How might you apply God’s powerful promise (v.20) to your life’s work? Without the assets and assistants Solomon had, what help can you count on to make the promises real? How about your small group?
“3. God blesses whom he will, apart from human merit or happenstance of birth (vv.4-7). His blessing is unfailing and all-sufficient (vv.20-21). Can that same blessing be forfeited (vv.8-10)? If not, why? If so, how?
1 Chronicles 29:1-9 Gifts for Building the Temple: 1. How does David’s fund-raising strategy rate against all the financial appeals you receive?
“2. If outside auditors were to look over your checkbook, what would they conclude about your top loyalties? How would you like to change that?
1 Chronicles 29:10-20 David’s Prayer: 1. What aspects of this prayer are useful to Christians today? What parts seem outdated? (What about bowing low? Falling prostrate? Praising God aloud?) Paraphrase this prayer in the language and concerns of your small group.
“2. How closely does David’s prayer follow the script you might use in a retirement speech? How would you say it differently when your ‘days on earth are like a shadow’? Like David, are you ‘without hope’? Where do you place your hope?
1 Chronicles 29:21-30 Solomon Acknowledged as King and David’s Death: 1. How could Israel’s economy afford these nation-wide bashes, involving thousands of animals and oil sacrifices, plus bounteous food and drink for everyone? What objections might such extravagant offerings provoke today where you live?
“2. Ln comparison, how did you celebrate the inauguration or coronation of your most recent president or king? How about for a new boss or priest or spouse? If you did not get into the ‘swing of things’ for any of these events, how come?
“3. What future unity between the royal and priestly offices is anticipated here (v.22b; see Zec 4:14; 6:13; Ps 110; Heb 7)?
“4. Option: Throw a party yourself, to celebrate the unity your group has achieved in pursuit of truth, treasure and trivia in Chronicles! Dedicate one of each (truth, treasure and trivia) to the Lord.
“5. How can you and your group make its life together (in church, home or work) more royally splendid than ever before—a ‘golden era for geneatectives’, if God wills!”

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

I think geneatectives is a typo, but I have not figured out what the author meant.

1 Chronicles 28 has one set of questions.  1 Chronicles is divided into three sets of questions as noted above.

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.