Year 6, Day 299: 1 Chronicles 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Imitation

• Imitation: This is the second over-arching step of the discipleship process.  First we gain information, then we imitate our spiritual mentor.  Imitation leads to innovation of spirituality in our own life.

1 Chronicles 27 reads much like a maintenance chapter, just like many of the chapters before it.  David is preparing to hand of the leadership of the kingdom to his son, Solomon.  As he goes about this business, he gets the worship in order first.  Then he makes sure that he takes care of the military defenses.  Then he makes sure that the money is taken care of.  Note David’s priorities and the message that he is sending for his son to imitate.

When we look at the list of military leaders, did you notice just how many of these military leaders are on David’s list of thirty mighty men?  David is making sure that the military leaders who are in charge of the defense of Jerusalem and the nation are skilled.  He wants to know that he has capable leaders when it counts.

However, I think David is doing more than this.  David knows that when the army comes, it will be filled with young men who aren’t truly sure about what they are doing.  The army may be filled with inexperienced men who don’t have battle seasoning.  By making sure that a strong leader is in place, David knows that these young men will have a great leader upon whom they can look.  David knows that the qualities of this leader will have a good chance of being passed on into the younger men and imitated as they grow up and mature.

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Year 6, Day 298: 1 Chronicles 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

As I read through the chapter for today, I have to admit that my first thought was, “How would have liked being selected for the gatekeeper duty?”  Honestly, there is a certain blandness about this chapter.  The people selected today just stand at the gates and watch the people come in and out.

Then I have to stop and ask, “Am I really that vain?”  After all, how self-centered does a person have to be to say to God, “No, really, I’d rather do something else, something that isn’t as boring as watching over the people.”  The reality is that when we have this reaction to a chapter like this, it can show our priorities and our perspective.

Let me spin this chapter in a different light.  What were the gatekeepers tasked with doing?  Remember, there were twelve gates into the temple.  The gatekeepers were tasked with making sure that each of these gates were safe and secure.  The gatekeepers were tasked with making sure that people went where they were supposed to go and people were following the rules.  Remember, there were areas in the temple for Gentiles, women, men, priests, and high priests.  Each of those had to be regulated.  Each of these had to be administered.  Thousands of people would be coming through the gates wanting to make their yearly sacrifice.  This was no easy job.

That brings us to the idea of protection.  What these gatekeepers were tasked with doing was protection.  They were protecting the people and making the temple safe.  But they were also protecting the holiness of the space.  They were tasked with protecting the spirituality of the people as they came in contact with a holy God.  When put in this perspective, this is no small or insignificant task.  God seeks to place His protection into our life.  We should never think that His protection is a small or trivial thing.

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Year 6, Day 297: 1 Chronicles 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible. The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

When we open up this chapter, we hear about the division of the musicians.  At first, this chapter reads like a boring addendum to the previous chapter.  Even the musicians are divided up into the same rotating schedule of twenty-four parts.

However, there is a surprising word in the opening verse that got my attention.  These musicians used the harp and the lyre to prophesy.  They didn’t just play music.  They didn’t just entertain people.  They used music to prophesy.

What is prophesy in the Bible?  The prophet is a person who is concerned with the people of God hear God’s truth for them.  These musicians didn’t just play the instrument; they used their instrument and their voices to sing or chant God’s truth into the lives of the people.  They used the power of music to reach into people’s lives and give God’s truth to them.

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Year 6, Day 296: 1 Chronicles 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Rhythm

• Rhythm: We are designed to work from rest, not rest from work.  God has created us to be a people of rhythm in which we rest (abide), grow, work (bear fruit), and prune.  The better we understand this natural rhythm in life, the more satisfied we will feel in life and the more we will be able to be in tune with succeeding in what God desires our life to be about.

In the last chapter, we heard David organize the Levites.  In this chapter, David is organizing the priests.  The priests were Levites, they were just the Levites who were descended from Aaron, Moses’ brother.  David doesn’t leave out these guys as he makes preparations for the temple.

What is neat about this chapter is that we hear David organize the priests into 24 sections, each section serving for a fourteen-day period.  We know that 14 times 24 is 336.  What this means is that one set of priests would work two shifts in the same year.  The grand effect of this means that the duty of the priests would gradually rotate throughout the whole year over their lifetime.  No priest would always have the special holy days.  No priest would never have the special holy days.

Where we can focus on rhythm, though, is in this rotation.  The priests would come and serve for a two-week period.  They would go about their lives the rest of the weeks of the year.  The priests would always come to Jerusalem to serve after having a long time to rest and recuperate.  The priestly duty would never get old for them.

Our worship should never get old, either.  So often in this world we have the idea that we have to work every day, have giant moments of worship on a regular basis, and perpetually live on the spiritual mountaintop.  The reality is that just isn’t possible.  The priests – and people, for that record – had on big religious experience per year.  The rest of the year they went about their life, doing what was necessary, and abiding in the Lord.  They certainly didn’t ignore worship the rest of the year.  But they weren’t having the big mountaintop experience of Jerusalem, either.  They had a rhythm about their life and worship that allowed work to get done, rest to happen, and still appreciate the big moments of coming together with God.

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Year 6, Day 295: 1 Chronicles 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

On one hand, looking at the topic of calling when we read this chapter seems like a no-brainer.  This chapter is all about the Levites.  These are the ones who were in charge of the religious affairs of the country.  Naturally, their calling would revolve around the temple.

But if we allow ourselves to think a little more deeply than this, we can see this chapter in a greater light.  Remember that the Levites were charged with the care of the Tabernacle and the Ark.  They were the ones responsible for moving the Ark.  They were the ones responsible for caring for the tabernacle as well as setting it up and taking it down whenever the site for worship would move.

From this perspective, this chapter brings up a whole new level.  As David is making preparations for Solomon to construct the temple, David knows that the task of moving the Tabernacle and the Ark will be unnecessary. You can move walls of stone, and the Ark is going to remain within those walls!  These Levites are going to need new jobs.  David reorganizes the Levites so that they will have new jobs under the new temple system.

What do we learn from this?  Calling is based on context.  We aren’t necessarily called to the same thing for our entire life.  As our circumstances change, our calling can change with it.  As God’s plan for the world develops, His calling for His servants may  change with it.

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Year 6, Day 294: 1 Chronicles 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

David sets out to acquire the possessions needed to build the temple.  You might recall that a few chapters back that God prohibited David from building the temple.  So how is it that David’s action here can be a model of obedience?

David doesn’t actually plan on building the temple.  What David is doing is providing the means for the temple to be built.  Solomon will build the temple after David in no longer king.  The adult leaders around Solomon will make sure that the temple is built.

What we actually have here is David being supremely obedient.  God told David that he would not build the temple.  He’s obeying god and not building the temple.  God also told David that His Son would build the temple.  David is finding a way to make sure that the task can be properly undertaken by Solomon.  Not only is David being obedient, but David is finding a way to be obedient and demonstrate his love for God and his desire to praise Him.

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Year 6, Day 293: 1 Chronicles 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

David is incited to make a census.  What is behind this act?  Of course, Satan incites David.  But I’m not laying the blame for the census at Satan’s feet.  Satan comes to all of us to tempt us away from the Lord.  We all have the choice to resist Satan or listen to Him.  Satan will be held accountable for desiring to tempt David.  But David is at fault for wanting the census.

In fact, it is really David’s ambition that wants the census.  Why would a king take a census of all the men in his land?  Certainly David is ambitious to know how strong his nation is.  He is ambitious to know how he ranks in terms of power to the nations around him.  But the core reason that a king takes a census is because he wants to know if he can do one of two things: wage war or collect taxes.  Both of those reasons speak against David’s ambition.

So why are we looking at God as king in this analysis?  Look at how God responds to David’s ambition.  God allows David to choose his punishment.  That is something a king would do.  Furthermore, notice that God has the power and authority as king to enact punishment.  He can send a plague upon His people because He truly is king.

However, there is something more that I see, perhaps the deepest reason of them all.  When David is asked to choose, do you hear why he makes the decision that he makes?  He would rather be placed in the hands of the Lord when it comes to punishment than to be in the hands of men.  God is king of David’s life, because when push comes to shove it is God into whom David’s places his life and judgment. That’s why God is king.  He is righteous judge.  He is the one that all of us are best to rely upon.

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Year 6, Day 292: 1 Chronicles 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

We get a conclusion of David’s wartime season in this chapter.  We hear about the conclusion of the war with the Ammonites.  We also hear about the war with David’s archenemies, the Philistines.

In fact, within the story of the Philistines, we hear about the giants.  The word giant is mentioned no less than 5 times in such a short passage.  What is the Chronicler up to at this point?  The Chronicler knows that his people are the underdogs as they return to the land.  They are the powerless ones who are not established in the land anymore.  They are the small runts of the area of Israel.  It should make sense that the Chronicler wants to lift up the stories where the smaller Hebrew people are able to rise up and succeed against the larger and more domineering Philistines.

Why can the Hebrew people prosper?  David and his men prosper because they are not resting upon their own strength.  They prosper because they are getting their power from God.  They are prospering because God’s will has gone before them and is making their success possible.

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Year 6, Day 291: 1 Chronicles 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

What a tale of two leaders that we have in 1 Chronicles 19.  The first thing that we hear is that the king of the Ammonites dies.  David, knowing his own kingdom and his calling as king, sends an emissary of peace.  He wants to try and make sure that the new king realizes that David isn’t looking to take advantage of the change in leadership.  David doesn’t seek to extend his control over a land to which he isn’t called.  His ambition is not to claim everything for himself and keep the people around him down.  His ambition is to rule well where God has called him to rule.

On the other hand, we have this new young king of the Ammonites.  He sees David’s emissary of peace as an opportunity to assert himself.  He embarrasses the emissary and then comes to war against David.  He tries to buy mercenary help in the Syrians.  He makes rash and impulsive moves as his ambition causes him to overextend.  Before all the dust settles, he sues David for peace and ends up becoming a vassal of David’s.  The young brash king’s ambition leads him into a place that David hadn’t even intended to put him.

When we look at this, we can truly see the need for mentoring in our life.  When we are young, we tend to be impulsive.  When we are young, we think we are invincible.  When we are young, our ambition often gets the better of us unless we have mentors to help reign it in and make sure that our decisions are sound and rooted in godliness.

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Year 6, Day 290: 1 Chronicles 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

As we move into the next chapter about David’s reign, we can see that the Chronicler focuses on how David subdued the lands around him.  Of course, we know from the books of 1 & 2 Samuel that the process of subduing the land was not easy.  There were many battles and skirmishes that needed to be fought.  There were small uprisings and large scale battles.  But the Chronicler is right.  Eventually all of the neighboring nations were subdued when David is king.

Why would the Chronicler want his people to hear these words?  They are a small, disorganized body of individuals returning from exile.  There are plenty of enemies around them.  There are people who had gotten used to managing the land in their absence.  There are scores of people around the Hebrew people that would like nothing more than to see the people fail.  The Chronicler wants his people to be inspired by the story of a godly king who was able to take a small nation of individuals and forge a kingdom.

What we are really talking about is remembering that God is a god of provision.  The Chronicler wants his people to put their trust in God, knowing that God can provide safety and prosperity when they seek it.  God is a God who knows our needs.  Since He created this world, He can certainly provide for our needs.

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Year 6, Day 289: 1 Chronicles 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

I’ve mentioned before that I think one of the best attributes of David is his ability to repent.  He lives life according to the passion of his heart. He isn’t afraid to make mistakes, knowing that if God corrects him he can genuinely change and repent of his wrongdoing.  This doesn’t mean that David lives as he pleases and uses God’s forgiveness as a crutch.  It means that David is trying to live a life according to God’s ways and he can do it with passion because when he makes a mistake he knows that God will be with him to correct it.

We see this really clearly in this passage.  As David is setting up Jerusalem, he builds his palace.  But then it dawns on him that his house is better – from a worldly perspective – than the house of the Lord.  He decides that this isn’t right, and he creates a plan to build a house or God.  However, this is where we see David’s repentance.  The last time David had a plan, Uzzah died because David didn’t consult the Lord and the priests regarding how the ark should be moved.  David shows the change in his heart because this time he stops and takes time to consult Nathan, the priest of the Lord, about his plan.

Notice that God ultimately tells David “No.”  But look at David’s response.  David doesn’t pout.  David doesn’t get mad.  Because David’s repentance is genuine, he can accept the will of the Lord and not be offended.  David is concerned more with obedience to God that he is concerned about getting his own way.  That’s what obedience is all about.

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Year 6, Day 288: 1 Chronicles 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

As we turn to 1 Chronicles 16, we get an opportunity to see the close of the stories regarding the movement of the ark.  We continue to see that David is repentant and he has learned his lesson.  He appoints Levites as priests.  He sets up the temple and the sacrifice system as it should be.

Once the worship is set up, David then sings praises to the Lord.  He talks about the greatness of the Lord.  He reminds the people that the only reason they are a nation at all is because when they were small in number God looked down and made a covenant with them.  He is the source of their power.  They are a nation under His authority.  He is the true king.

As we turn back to the Chronicler, it is really easy to understand why he would include this passage in the story.  His own people have just returned from exile.  They are just now setting up their kingdom and it is time to remind the people why the worship practices of the land should be established and tended.  The Chronicler would want the people to hear David’s action and reasoning so that they would follow in David’s example.

This lesson is true for us as well.  God should be the king of our life.  The only reason that we are in relationship with Him is because while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son for us.  We should worship Him.  We should see Him as the king in our life.

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Year 6, Day 287: 1 Chronicles 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

One of the great things about David in the Old Testament is that he is a great example of the repentance/forgiveness cycle.  David makes mistakes.  Even better, when David makes mistakes, he makes really big mistakes!  When David fails to be obedient, the mistake is obvious and the consequences are readily at hand.  But David always repents.  He always acknowledges his mistakes and makes a course correction under a more godly way.

If we look at the opening of this passage, do you hear David’s course correction?  It seems like the Chronicler can’t tell us fast enough.  Practically the first half of this chapter is about how David brings up the ark using the Levites.  He calls the Levites and asks them to do their job according to the calling of God.  He then establishes the priests and the Levites to minister properly according to the ways of the Lord.  With his course correction in place, he finds the blessing of the Lord.

This is just who David is.  He lives out what he thinks is best.  He makes decisions based on what he feels in his spirit.  Because of this, when he messes up there are noticeable consequences.  But David is quick to admit when he makes mistakes.  He is quick to move past them, fix them, and get on with life.  David epitomizes the reality that when God says He forgives, God means it.  When we truly repent and change, God forgives and moves on and invites us to do the same.

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Year 6, Day 286: 1 Chronicles 13-14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

The story of Uzzah is one of my favorite teaching stories in the whole of the Old Testament.  If you want to read about the rest of 1 Chronicles 13-14, I would recommend clicking on the theological commentary in the link above.  Today, I am going to focus on Uzzah.

Why do I love the story of Uzzah?  I love it because I revel in spiritual paradox.  I love reading a story that is designed to make you feel one way and then realizing that the point of the story is opposite of how I feel!  Jesus teaches using paradox all the time in the New Testament, so I think that this is a dynamic that we are supposed to feel.

Where is the paradox?  Well, when we read about Uzzah, it sounds like Uzzah is just trying to help.  He is following along with the ark.  The oxen stumble.  Uzzah doesn’t want the ark to fall, to he reaches out and braces it to prevent it from falling.  Ecause he touches the ark, he dies.  David gets mad, and it is really easy to sympathize with David.  After all, Uzzah was just trying to care for the ark!

The problem is that to side with David also means that we are angry with God because we feel that He is unjust.  But we know that God is never unjust.  So why we emotionally sympathize with David, we know logically speaking that we are wrong.

Remember that God had already told the Hebrew people how to move the ark.  Levites were supposed to stick poles through the loops on the edges of the ark and carry it on the long poles so that nobody needed to touch it ever.  If people were carrying it, if one of them stumbled, the rest could easily lower their end and rest the ark on the ground!  However, when David moves the cart he is not obedient.  He has a cart pulled by oxen moving the ark.  Uzzah dies not because he has bad motivation but because David isn’t obedient.

What can we learn today?  We need to be obedient.  When God gives an order, we need to humbly submit and follow directions.  Obedience is such a simple concept, yet we find it difficult to put into practice.

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Year 6, Day 285: 1 Chronicles 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

1 Chronicles 12 gives us some verses about the transition from Saul to David.  I think that this is an incredibly interesting perspective.  Do you hear as you read through these verses just how many times people from the tribe of Benjamin are coming to David?

Remember, the tribe of Benjamin was Saul’s tribe.  These were his people coming over to David.  These were his kinsmen, supposedly loyal to Saul.  These were people who had much to gain from having one of their own tribe in a position of authority over the Hebrew people.  Yet they kept coming to David to lead them.

The question is why this would happen.  The big reason is because God has empowered David.  It is God’s plan.  He is in charge. His will is being done.

The lesser reason is because David is empowered.  As Saul goes more and more insane, his soldiers are losing faith.  The more fixated Saul becomes on destroying David, the more David’s sanity in leadership is elevated in the eyes of the people.  God has empowered David to leader.  The people are beginning to see it and follow.

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Year 6, Day 284: 1 Chronicles 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

In Chapter 11, we hear about David’s rise to power.  Compared to the Samuel account, we hardly hear anything other than he is brought before the people and they celebrate him as king.  Naturally, we also hear God’s blessing over David.

In that blessing, though, we see the competency of David.  He is God’s champion.  He is a competent leader.  David goes up to Jebus, which becomes Jerusalem.  The city was impenetrable, but in God David is competent enough to take it.  David becomes King of Jebus, and in doing so becomes not only king over the Hebrew people but also a high priest of God in the order of Melchizedek.

But the competency doesn’t just stop with David.  The rest of this chapter is devoted to David’s mighty men.  The rest of the chapter is devoted to warriors who were competent.  In God’s power, they rose up and did the impossible.  They took on numbers that were far greater than they should have been able to defeat.  They accomplished feats in circumstances that they should not have been able to master.

This chapter speaks to us about competency.  When we are doing the will of God, we can step out in faith, knowing that God will make us competent.  The world might still reject us, but we can be competent in what we do.

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Year 6, Day 283: 1 Chronicles 9-10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

In Chapters 9 and 10, we leave the genealogies behind us and pick up the story of the Hebrew people.  Remember that the Chronicler is writing for the people returning from exile under Persian leadership.  The Chronicler is writing a history of the Hebrew people so that they might be reminded of their greatness.  That’s why the Chronicler starts with the death of Saul.  He can quickly move into the rise of David and the height of the Hebrew people.

That being said, you might be wondering why he doesn’t just start with David.  Why mention Saul at all?  After all, he was the king brought out of rebellion.

The Chronicler starts with Saul so that he can start the history story with one message.  Saul died because of his breach in the faith.  This message would strike home.  The Hebrew people went into exile because of their breach in faith.  They have something in common with this story.  God can take people who have a breach in faith and bring goodness out of it.  David followed Saul.  The Chronicler wants the people to believe that God can do something good with them after their breach of faith, too.

What’s the Chronicler saying?  We must be obedient.  We need to follow his ways.  It is our breaches of faith that make us vulnerable.  Obedience to God keeps us strong in Him. 

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Year 6, Day 282: 1 Chronicles 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

1 Chronicles 7 gives us a really neat perspective.  Yes, it is the genealogy of Saul.  The Chronicler gives us Saul’s ancestors and then he gives us Saul’s progeny.  One might read this chapter and not think anything of it.  After all, Saul was the first king of Israel, right?

Let’s not forget who Saul was.  Saul was the man the people chose when they rebelled against God and told God that they wanted a human king instead of Him.  Saul was a mighty warrior, but a mighty warrior who eventually tried to kill of David time and time again.  Saul hunted David like a pack of dogs hunts a fox.  In the grand scheme of things, if David is the revered king of Israel, Saul should be the easily forgotten antithesis.

But Saul’s genealogy is still remembered here.  Saul has his place.  There is forgiveness.  God doesn’t strike Saul and his family from the record.  God guides the chronicler to place Saul in the history and to be remembered.  We all make mistakes.  God forgives.

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Year 6, Day 281: 1 Chronicles 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

1 Chronicles 7 is a very interesting chapter in that it contains so many family genealogies and is so short.  In fact, we go through a pretty significant portion of the tribes of the northern kingdom.  These are the people who went into exile many decades prior to the southern kingdom.  They were exiled under Assyria, before Babylon overthrew Assyria and then conquered the southern kingdom.  Given how long that were in exile before the southern kingdom joined them, it makes sense that many of them and their history would be lost.  That could easily explain why these genealogies are so short.

That being said, notice that they are still present.  They could have been lost for good.  They could have been intentionally excluded.  Their rebellion was so thorough that God would have been justified sending them away forever.

But that isn’t what a Father does.  A father forgives.  A father looks for signs of repentance and welcomes His children home.

That’s what God does with these exiles from the northern kingdom.  They may have been less in number, but they were welcomed back onto the fold.  They were welcomed into the return from exile and brought back.  Their names – however scant – are listed in the genealogy.  The size of their rebellion is great, but the size of God’s mercy is greater.

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Year 6, Day 280: 1 Chronicles 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

Today’s reading centers on the Levites.  Of course, these are the people who are the descendants of those who upheld God’s righteousness in the wilderness.  They are the ones out of whom the priests – the lineage of Aaron – come.  These are the religious backbone of the country.

When we look at the logistics of the list, we see that this list is secondary in length and content only to the legacy of David.  The Chronicler’s point is clear.  The kings are very important.  The priestly line is also significantly important.

Why are they important?  They are a part of God’s provision to the people.  They are given to the people to hold them accountable and to teach.  They are given to the people to uphold justice and mercy in their midst.  These are the ones who are supposed to be the moral and ethical compass of the people.

What I like about chapters like this one is that we see the reciprocal nature of the priestly line.  The priests were a part of God’s provision to the people to help them in their relationship with God.  In turn, God provides for the priests and their livelihood as well.  God makes life possible for those who are devoting their life to His will.

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Year 6, Day 279: 1 Chronicles 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

The trio of families listed here in this chapter can teach us quite a bit.  First of all, we are told about Rueben.  We are reminded that he was supposed to have the birthright, but he lost it.  He sinned.  Furthermore, notice that within the genealogy listed here, there is a descendant with the name Ba’al, which was a Canaanite god.  In fact, it was the father to the person who was in charge of the family when they were taken into captivity under Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria.  Not only was the line of Reuben tainted with sin, it was actively turning from God at points in its history.  Yet, it is still here, listed among the remnant that God loves.

In the listing of the half tribe of Manasseh, we hear that they broke with the will of the Father and chased after other gods.  There doesn’t get much more serious accusations than that.  Yet, they are still listed here among the tribes of Israel.  They aren’t written out.

You see, God holds us accountable for our sin.  He does care.  But His forgiveness is greater.  His compassion exceeds His wrath.  The people rebelled.  Some of their rebellion was quite great.  God sent them into captivity.  But He did not abandon them.  He still loved them and extended forgiveness to them.

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Year 6, Day 278: 1 Chronicles 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

This chapter brings us a series of normal names, with one gem amongst the rabble, as it were.  So many people get caught up in Jabez.  So many people look to Jabez and think that it is a wonderful story.  Here is a man who said, “God, focus upon me and place your blessing upon my shoulders and my land.”  God listened.  God gave him what his heart desired.  So many people want to be blessed by God, so they prayer this prayer believing that they, too, will be blessed as though this is some mantra that God cannot ignore.

However, this should really point us to the idea of character, to be honest.  What is my character?  Am I going to force God to focus upon me or am I going to force myself to focus upon God?  Do I want God to bless me, or do I want to see how it is that I can bless God?  This is what I mean when I say that this chapter is about character.

To further the point, let’s remember that the legalists of Jesus’ day – that is, the religious elite and the scribes – are known to hail from the town that Jabez settled in.  These legalists and religious elite were the antithesis of Christ.  They were the nemesis of Christ.  When our character is wrapped around ourselves and not around God, we create an environment where people focus on themselves instead of God.  Generation after generation goes by as the people of Jabez continue their desire to have God bless them.  Their character becomes more and more interested in themselves.  Soon their character is unable to even recognize the character of Christ whenever He should come on earth.

What I learn about this chapter is that it is often better to be one of the unremarkable people of character in this chapter than the self-focused Jabez and those who comes after him.  I want to be the kind of person who has room in his life to focus on God and be led by Him.

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Year 6, Day 277: 1 Chronicles 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11. The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

I truly struggled between whether to emphasize the prophetic nature of this text or the evangelistic nature.  I’ll tell you the facts first.  At the end, I’ll tell you why I ultimately chose to focus on the prophet.

You might be curious about how I can get to either of these topics in a genealogy.  It’s really quite simple.  The genealogies in 1 Chronicles are 9 chapters long.  One whole chapter of the 9 is devoted to the lineage of the Davidic Kings.  In the prior chapters we moved from Adam to David, fleshing out many of the family heads in between.  In the chapters to come we’ll see the twelve tribes fleshed out to great detail.  In the midst of all of this, we have a specific chapter on the chain of people who were the kings over Judah.

This might not surprise you.  After all, the David kings are pretty important.  But this chapter truly emphasizes the Messianic nature of the Chronicler.  One of the main reasons that this book is being written is to make sure that the people know their identity as they return from exile.  The Chronicler wants to connect the past with the future coming of the Messiah.

So why did I wrestle between prophet and evangelist?  Certainly this is an evangelistic focus about the Messiah and His identity.  But remember to whom the message is intended to be spoken.  This message is going to the Hebrew people.  This is a prophetic message from God to His people.  It is God’s own people that the Chronicler wants to prepare for the advent of the Messiah.  This lineage is in the book because the book is written for Hebrew people in particular.  The prophet focuses on the people of God.

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Year 6, Day 276: 1 Chronicles 1-2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

As I mention in my commentary from 3 years prior, we don’t know who the Chronicler is and we don’t really know when the book was written.  Many people suspect that the book was written by Ezra the priest as people are returning from exile.  If that is true than these chapters are truly about putting the identity of the Hebrew people right.  Even if the book wasn’t written by Ezra, the book is still generically about making sure that the identity of the Hebrew people is rooted in God, who brought these people out from Adam, then Abraham, and then David.

I find it utterly amazing that Ezra is able to trace lineage from Adam to his present day.  This is a span of no less than 1,500 years (to use a very conservative dating technique) or as much as 5,500 years (to use a more literal dating technique according to the Bible’s own witness).  Regardless of which is correct, this is an amazing feat.  That is roughly akin to us in the modern day being able to trace our lineage back to the near the time of Christ.  In truth, many of us cannot trace our lineage back more than two or three generations, much less several thousand years!

That is why it is so easy to see that these opening chapters are about identity.  The Chronicler wants the people to know where they came from.  He wants them to know where they are rooted.

However, what I especially love about the Chronicler’s words here is that they are focused on more than the Hebrew people.  The Chronicler hasn’t forgotten about the nations around the Hebrew people.  He chronicles their history as well.  He is concerned about their identity.  In this, I find a great multi-cultural trait.  I find in the Chronicler’s opening chapters a predecessor to the same kind of spirit that sends Paul into the world of the Gentiles to proclaim the grace of God.

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Year 6, Day 275: Malachi 3-4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Malachi 3 brings me to one of my favorite quotes in the whole of the Old Testament.  “Who can endure His coming?”  This quote is spoken with respect to the coming of the Lord’s Messenger.  Ultimately, then, this quote is spoken most substantively of Jesus.

I think this is an idea that the modern church likes to forget.  We paint a picture where Jesus loves everyone just as they are.  To be clear, God does love everyone.  John 3:16 tells us that God loved the whole world.  What we forget, though, it that while God loves us in our current condition, He does not desire that we stay in our current condition.  Jesus comes to call us into relationship with the Father so that we might be changed.  That is why the prophet says, “Who can endure the day of His coming?”  When the messenger of the Lord comes, he comes because he has a message from God not just about how much he loves us but also about how God desires to challenge us out of our sinfulness.

I love this concept and I think that it is unfortunate that it gets lost in the modern world.  This concept combines love, forgiveness, and challenge all into one big package.  I believe that this is the way that true religion works; I believe it is the point of the end of Malachi 3 and the whole of Malachi 4.  We are first loved by God.  When we turn to Him, He forgives us.  As He forgives us, He desires to change us and turn us away from those things for which He needed to forgive.

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Year 6, Day 274: Malachi 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Teacher

• Teacher: One who holds forth the truth and is excited by it. The teacher looks for ways to explain, enlighten, and apply truth.  A teacher's authority doesn't come from how smart they are but from the Word of God and the power of a transformed life.

In the opening section of Malachi 2, we hear harsh words of judgment from God.  He promises to take the Hebrew people and turn them into rubbish.  He promises to curse them.  In fact, He actually promises to curse their blessing!  That’s a pretty steep condemnation!

Why does God give this condemnation?  The problem starts with the spiritual leaders.  They aren’t teaching people in the ways of the Lord.  The priest’s job is to guard knowledge and the people should seek it from him.  That just wasn’t happening.  The people were falling away from the Lord and the priests weren’t doing their job in reminding the people to pursue righteous living.

We don’t really know the exact offense of the priests.  It could be that the priests were teaching the wrong thing.  They could have been teaching people to live unrighteously.  They could have been justifying wrong behavior.  On the other hand, they could have just not been teaching at all.  They might not have been doing the wrong job, they could have been doing no job at all!  Both are offenses against good teaching.

From this, what can we say about a good teacher?  A good teacher is one who upholds the ways of the Lord.  A good teacher reminds people what righteous living looks like.  A good teacher is one who is willing to do his job and is excited b the possibility of doing the job.

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