Day 353: 1 Chronicles 22-24 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebobledapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (electronic music) Family, welcome to day 353 here on the Bible Department. I'm super, super excited to jump into first Chronicles chapters, 22, 23 and 24 today. I hope that you've done the reading. The entire day's reading is all about David making extensive keyword, extensive preparations for the building of the temple. And to be totally honest, Solomon is gonna get all the credit for building this temple. But after reading the three chapters assigned to us today, it becomes abundantly clear. David low-key micromanaged the situation. Like, I mean, my man prepared everything. Like, and literally says, yeah, like my son's young, he's an experienced, he doesn't know what he's doing. Let me just go ahead and, I'll just get everything for the temple. I know God said I couldn't build it, but you know, I'm just gonna like, I'm gonna get as close as I can to building it without building it, you know? Like, I'm just gonna, it's like that engaged couple. They're like, so where's the line?

You know, wait, pastor, what sex, what's not? Like what, what can we do? You know, David is definitely like, now how much can I do and still be obedient to the Lord when it comes to not building this thing called the temple? So, I don't know if that's the sense you walked away with, when you read today's reading, that's definitely the sense. I got, David is just like itching. He's like, I really wanna build it. I really wanna build it, but like, I won't build it, like that's, I won't build it. Anyway, anyway, I'll stop. I won't build it. Okay, okay, for real, I'm done. I won't do that anymore. All right, for real. If you haven't done the reading, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, and then come on back, 'cause everything we say on this episode will make so much more sense if you actually have the reading done. So, let's start out with context clues, just like every day, gonna give you as much context as I can, then we'll jump into some dirty nuggets and we'll end the episode with the timeless truth. So, what's the context? I kinda wanna put David's words in a context because the biggest curveball here is, but why can't David build this thing called the temple?

Like, what actually is happening? And he gives the answer to Solomon, but if we don't have context for what he's saying, I think it'd be hard to really accept what he's saying. Chapter 22 verse five says this. David said, my son Solomon is young and inexperienced in the house to be built for the Lord should be of great magnificence. So, you see the juxtaposition, young and inexperienced, 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, all right? So, he is going to do, I mean, we're talking the cedar, the iron, the, he, it's pretty impressive to be completely honest. Like, all Solomon has to do is kind of like just add water. Like, it is a just add water situation. So, verse six, then he called his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel, verse seven. 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. So, God's reasoning is, you're too violent, bro. Like, nope, nope, nope, nope, a man of war

cannot build a house of peace, okay? Now, I want you to get that in your head. A man of war can't build a house of peace 'cause it's gonna be our timeless truth for the day. It's a hard truth that the Holy Spirit had administered to me, but anyway, a man of war can't build a house of peace. So, next, but you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest. So, that word rest, huge word. That's a big word right there. Peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name shall, will be Shlomo, okay? If you're actually reading it in Hebrew, Shlomo, aka 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, okay? So, let's talk about that word rest. And how does that relate to peace? Well, this is temple language straight out of the book of Genesis, okay? Now, in Genesis chapter one, verse one, this is something that I cover big time in my book, "Cression Chaos." God goes from hovering. He's hovering over the waters.

The spirit of the Lord is over the waters. This is a God who is hovering over the deep. Okay, in Genesis one, verse two, okay? And then he's resting in the creation. So the reason that that word rest is used on day seven to describe the creation in Genesis is because the Bible is really trying to communicate to us that this creation, this garden that God has made is really a temple because temples and rest go hand in hand. Okay, these ideas of temples and rest are almost synonymous with each other. And I actually, I mean, I'll steal my old thunder. Our big timeless truth for the day is going to be that peace is not a result of war or conflict or confrontation, maybe even a word that we can throw in there. Peace really is the result of rest. And rest is when God is enthroned, okay? And so I think that for a long time, I personally have operated with a, well, the means justifies the ends. So I'm really passionate about what God's called me to do. Therefore, I'm justified by being angry and lashing out at someone because I'm angry in service to the thing that God's called me to do. But the reality is that the spirit in which I accomplished what God's called me to do is just as important as what God has called me to do. And there's a lot of people who particularly are in ministry

and they're so focused on completing the mission, fulfilling the vision, accomplishing the goal that they will act in any way in order for the mission to not be in any way, shape or form jeopardized. But the reality is that you cannot be a man of war but build a house of peace. And there's a lot of pastors, I don't think I'm the only one who you're trying to build a church. That's a house of peace. But you're doing it in ways that are steeped in anger, control, manipulation, religiosity, anxiety, depression, on and on and on and on and on. And so I've realized if I'm gonna be someone that's supposed to build God a house, then the spirit in which I do the building actually matters. And that there are some things that can disqualify me from being able to build the house that the Lord wants me to build. And I believe like I'm in a season of church planting, the garden is gonna be a house where God dwells. When I was planting a church, we're planting a house for the Lord, we're planting a garden for the Lord, we're planting a temple, okay? And so rest and temple are ideas that go together. And Genesis, like Genesis chapter one, like day seven of the creation is going to link these ideas together.

And so it shouldn't be a shock that God says, no, no, no, no, a man of rest is actually gotta be the one who's gonna build me a house. Now for just like the extra nerdiest of nuggets, okay? What happens in the flood, right? Is God goes from resting back to hovering? And in the passive wrath of God, not the act of wrath of God, creation reverts right back to his original state, which is the earth is famous in void. That's what happens in the flood. And so then what does God do? He finds a man by the name of Noah. What does Noah's name mean? That's right. In Hebrew, Noah means rest. Why? Why does God find a man named rest? He finds a man named rest because the thing that humanity had lost was the presence of God. So what does Noah do? He builds a temple for the Lord. That's right. The ark is not just a boat. It is a temple. It's a temple hiding in plain sight. So these ideas of temple and rest, these are inextricably like interconnected ideas. And if you don't have that context,

it's going to be really difficult to hear what David is saying to a son and really make sense of it. It's kind of like, yeah, but aren't you going to kill animals like in this temple? Like aren't we butchering animals? That sounds like, I don't know. It's like, no, not really, not really. Okay, so next kind of piece of layer of context I want to handle is actually something happened yesterday, which is the angel of the Lord is like acting in judgment, okay, towards the people. And David is going to offer a sacrifice, which is going to stop the pestilence or stop the judgment from happening. And in that moment, that microcosm of the Lord's vengeance being stopped by an intercessor who offers a sacrifice, that right there is a microcosm of what's happening in the temple. And that's why the location gets placed for, gets picked. That's why David discerning what just happened buys the threshing floor as the place for the temple, okay. Now, this moment is connected to two stories before it and one story ahead of it. The two stories before it are this. Number one, in that same regional mountains, the hand of God was going to smite Isaac, but Abraham sacrificed a ram in Isaac's place. So he stopped God's judgment and instead sacrificed

an animal, therefore we start to get a picture of what happens on mountains. What happens on mountains is that the judgment of God can be intercepted by sacrifice. So now David is in a situation where he's up on the threshing floor in an elevated platform in the same mountain range and the judgment of God is intercepted by sacrifice. Both of these stories are going to foreshadow a moment where Jesus is elevated on Calvary in the exact same mountain range that Abraham sacrificed Isaac and that David establishes the temple and the judgment of God is gonna be intercepted by what? A sacrifice. So we are seeing a picture and this is the picture of temple. Temples are places where the judgment of God is intercepted by sacrifice, by an atoning sacrifice. The second story that this moment with David is connected to is the story of the first priest, that's right, Aaron. Aaron is called by the Lord to be the first high priest but what does he do before his appointment? Well, he creates a golden calf. So the reason that Aaron is almost qualified to help people offer up their sacrifices in repentant of their sin is because we don't have a high priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses. So in the same way that Aaron is gonna be the high priest hot off the heels of failure, David is gonna buy

this property to be the temple off the heels of a failure, him counting them in, okay? Because it is grace that is at the foundation of this building project. And although David is not qualified to do the building because he's a man of war, not a man of peace, he is qualified to be a part of the process and play his role. All right, that's all the context that we need in order to properly understand what's going on in these three chapters. So let me give you a couple of nerdy nuggets and then I'll give you my timeless truth and we're out of here. What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by Arma. What is Arma? I'm so glad you asked. Arma is an online subscription based platform that we designed to help people, everyday people learn the Bible for themselves. We started Arma so that anybody, anywhere, could have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics and on some hot topics, like homosexuality, tithing, and women in ministry. But really, Arma is a community,

a community of people that I've gotten to know, a community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions, and nerding out on the Bible together. If you want a community to read the Bible with you this year, or if you wanna dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me in the entire Arma team, I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd. Number one, chapter 22. David is going to prepare his son Solomon. We've talked about that in an extensive way. OK, we've read from chapter 22, the difference between being a man of rest versus a man of war. You guys are good on that. Chapter 23, he's going to prepare the Levites. Remember, Ezra's writing this stuff in for Ezra man. The Levites are indispensable. So David is going to prepare the Levites and he's going to prepare the Levites with instruments, with all kinds of resources. I mean, it is pretty impressive. I want you to see something that David is going to count. Ha ha, count the Levites. OK, it says these were the descendants of Levi by the family. This is verse 24, the heads of the families as they were registered under their names and counted individually. That is the workers 20 years old or more who served in the temple of the Lord for David had said since the Lord, the God of Israel has granted rest to his people and has come to dwell

in Jerusalem forever. The Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the articles used in his service. According to the last instructions of David, the Levites were counted from those 20 years old or more. So counting the army, big problem, counting the Levites, not a problem. There's no point where God says that there's an issue that he counts Levites. The only issue is counting the army. And actually, God would rather him count Levites. Because by counting Levites, what David would really be saying is that our power comes from how many worshipers we have. Not our power comes from our horses and chariots. This is where we get to like, you got to see details in the scriptures. And when you begin to see details, that's when you can actually interpret with nuance. All right. Next, chapter 24, David is going to prepare the priests. Now, I could get into really, really long explanations about this, but let me just kind of give you a synopsis of what's going on. There are two houses, the house of Eleazar and the house of Ithamar, okay? And if you've been tracking with the story, there's so many like sideways story lines in the scriptures that it's, it may not like be possible to keep track of all of them. But there is an issue or a conflict, rather, between Ithamar's line and Eleazar's line.

And here's why. Way, way, way, way, way back, okay? In 1 Samuel, when Samuel's born, he's given to Eli, one of the first prophetic moments that he has is that Eli's line is going to get wiped out. And you remember, Eli's sons and him, they all die on the same day. And it's prophesied that his whole line is no longer going to be serving as high priest. Well, the next couple of priests are serving under Eli's line, which is Ithamar's line, but there's going to be a big switch actually right after David's life where Eleazar's line is going to take over. And this is going to be a fulfillment of what Samuel prophesied way, way, way, way, way, way, way back when to Eli himself, okay? So that's kind of what's going on. And it could be hard to see that. Hemilets' grandfather, okay, was Eli and had been cursed. And the curse was that his line Ithamar's would lose the high priesthood. A Hemilets son, I'll be author, David's high priest would be the one who fulfilled that curse by backing Adonaija, David's son. Instead of Solomon, David's rightful heir. Because of this Zaidok of Eleazar's line became Solomon's high priest. And Abi author was banished to Anatoth. Now, if Anatoth is a city that sounds familiar, okay? That family, the same family from Anatoth is going to give birth to a boy named Jeremiah.

That's right. Jeremiah the prophet who writes the book of Jeremiah. So that might be another reason why Eleazar's line is placed first here. And Abi author is not mentioned as high priest. He rejected Solomon who built the temple, which is a no no for Ezra. So in this story, he will be completely ignored. Now, here's an extra nerdy, nerdy nerdy nugget, okay? This is a list of the high priests, okay? Aaron's the first high priest in Elieza are then. then Ahimalit, then Abiothar, then Zaidok, which means that the temple was built in the time of the 12th, 12th High Priest since leaving Egypt. And that's super nerdy. And there's no real reason that anybody even needs to know that. But that's a dope freaking Bible fact, and I love it. All right. I think that's all the nerdy nuggets we've got, which leads us seamlessly into A Thomas Truth. And that's this. I used to believe that war created peace. Like I would actually make the argument, yeah, the reason that like the world's at peace right now is because everybody's gotten nuclear bombs. And it was America dropping a nuclear bomb in World War II that's created peace. War creates peace and that lie, that little lie actually made me a very confrontational person a very unhealthy way because I could always justify my anger or my confrontation or my, you know, proclivity towards creating conflict with I'm really just creating peace. And then I began to realize, I don't know about that. I don't think war creates peace. But what chronicles is definitely communicating is that the enthronement of Yahweh does bring

peace, that God is going to grant Solomon peace, like political peace from all of his enemies. Why? Because there's a prioritization put on God's house, that the centralization of God, of the worship of the Lord, and that the exaltation of God's house, that creates peace. It creates more peace than David ever could with the sword and with a bow or with a slingshot or with arrows or anything like that. So I am constantly reminding myself of that in this season, that conflict doesn't bring peace, confrontation doesn't bring peace, war doesn't bring peace. But if I actually enthroned Yahweh, if I actually become someone who knows how to worship the Lord, not just at church, but with my tone, with my patience, with the speed at which I talk to people, that man, that the enthronement of Yahweh through my life, that brings peace. And that's not just relevant for Solomon or for David or for any of these Levites or for the priests, that's true for you, that's true for me, it's timelessly true. Tomorrow we got day 354, we're going to be looking at first Chronicles chapters, 25 through 27. I'll be right here. I hope to see you same time, same place. I love you. I'm so proud of you, especially if you're on a streak. We're down to the end. I am so, so, so proud of you. You've done good, especially if you're on a 354 day streak. Let's go. All right. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobaldapartment.com, we'll see you right back here tomorrow.