[Brother V]

1 Chronicles 22-25

Today we get:

• David hordes building material
• Levites get named
• Aaronites get named

1 Chronicles 22

1 Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.

Remember, this is right after David was scared of the angel who was going around killing people for 3 days.

2 And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

So David started stockpiling building supplies to build the temple. Even though David was told he couldn't build the temple (I guess there was no rule that said he couldn't at least help, by gathering supplies)

3 And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;

What do you need to build a house? Iron; brass...

4 Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.

wood.

Wait; did David gather the supplies? I thought Solomon did.

1 Kings 5:6 Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

That's Solomon talking there. It didn't say anything about David stockpiling in the book of Kings.

5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

Why was this part of the story left out of 1 Kings? In that book, it seemed that when God said "no, don't build my house" that David was like "ok" then went on his merry way. Now, David acts like he's doing all the work, gathering the supplies, gathering the builders, setting aside money; whereas in Kings, it looks like Solomon did all the work.

God said David couldn't build the house because he was a fighter, and that his son would be able to do it.

8 But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.

9 Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.

Solomon would be a king in a time of peace; he would not be a "war president".

10 He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.

Or maybe for just about 500 years.

11 Now, my son, the LORD be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he hath said of thee.

12 Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.

Who is the David suck up who wrote 1 Chronicles 22? Now he's making it seem like the reason Solomon had wisdom was because David was the one who asked the LORD for Solomon to be wise; not Solomon asking in a dream.

14 Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.

100,000 talents of gold, roughly 1,500,000 pounds of gold.
1,000,000 talents of silver, roughly 75,000,000 pounds of silver. That's a lot of precious metal.

16 Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the LORD be with thee.

Wait, you just numbered it. Remember 100,000 talents of gold, 1 million talents of silver.

David then tells the elders of Israel to help Solomon fulfill his dreams of building God a house. It's sad when parents use their children to live out their lives. David turned Solomon into Todd Marinovich.

19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD.

Solomon succeeded despite David's efforts to take the glory.

1 Chronicles 23

1 So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

Chronicles seems to make it seem like it was a simple transition from David to Solomon. It leaves out the part with Adonijah.

3 Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

Well, now we know how many Levites there were; remember Joab didn't count them when he went out and numbered Israel; right at 1,000,000. So now there's another 38,000 to that number.

Of the 38,000; 24,000 worked on the temple; 6,000 were judges; 4,000 were porters, and 4,000 were temple musicians. (Porters were guys who stood at the door).

6 And David divided them into courses among the sons of Levi, namely, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Yes, we all know Levi's boys were Gershon, Kohath and Merari.

Next we get ANOTHER lineage of Levi.

(of Kohath) 13 The sons of Amram; Aaron and Moses: and Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons for ever, to burn incense before the LORD, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name for ever.

Don't forget, Moses wrote the laws that made Aaron's offspring (and Moses' other cousins) the ONLY people who could be priests.

14 Now concerning Moses the man of God, his sons were named of the tribe of Levi.

Wow, the chronicler sucks up to Moses almost as much as he does to David.

21 The sons of Merari; Mahli, and Mushi. The sons of Mahli; Eleazar, and Kish.

Who would name their child mushy? (Other than Merari)

28 Because their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God;

(That's all the Levites except for the direct line of Aaron.)

30 And to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise at even:

Isn't that what heaven is? Standing every morning to thank and praise the LORD; and then to do it again at evening. That is heaven!!!

1 Chronicles 24

1 Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

So we've been given the breakdown of the Levi children; now we get into the Aaron family tree.

2 But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office.

Nadab and Abihu were killed by the LORD for burning strange incense.

1 Chronicles 25

1 Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was:

Heman was a harpist, not a friend of man-e-faces.

6 All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king's order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.

This chapter, 1 Chronicles 25, is entirely about the band that played in the temple. Think of the end of 1 Chronicles as the credits to a movie. In chapter 25, it finally gets to the musicians.

So what have we learned today?

1. 1 Chronicles only mentions Absalom in the list of David's children; he doesn't even rate a blurb about having an uprising.
2. Adonijah proclaiming himself king is also absent from Chronicles.
3. David set aside about 75 MILLION pounds of silver for building the temple. He also set aside 1.5 MILLION pounds of gold. The gold (at today's price of around $900 per ounce) is worth about $216,000,000,000 (that's 216 TRILLION dollars). The silver (at today's price of around $16.75 an ounce) would be worth about $20,100,000,000 (that's 20 TRILLION dollars) So if the numbers are correct in the Bible (KJV1611) (which they are) then David set aside more than 236 trillion dollars for the building of the LORD's house.

YIC
V

[Pastor Billy-Reuben]

Originally Posted by Brother V

Nadab and Abihu were killed by the LORD for burning strange incense.

When those two priests died leaving no children behind, it caused the whole division of priestly order to become thrown out of whack. David fixed that by having the heads of the various branches of their family draw lots to see who ranked over whom.

1 Chronicles 24:5 Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for the governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God, were of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.

The rankings were:

1. Jehoiarib
2. Jedaiah
3. Harim
4. Seorim
5. Malchijah
6. Mijamin
7. Hakkoz
8. Abijah
9. Jeshua
10. Shecaniah
11. Eliashib
12. Jakim
13. Huppah
14. Jeshebeab
15. Bilgah
16. Immer
17. Hezir
18. Aphses
19. Pethahiah
20. Jehezekel
21. Jachin
22. Gamul
23. Delaiah
24. Maaziah

Remember, there are no accidents and there's no such thing random chance. God directly controls the outcome of seemingly random events. So if you need to make an important decision and you want to put it in God's hands, pray first, then write down your options onto pieces of paper and just pick one randomly out of a hat. The outcome you get is the outcome God wants you to get. Praise Jesus!

In Chapter 25, they drew lots to rank the musicians from best to 24th best. So instead of having fallible human ears ranking the musicians, God picked the ones He liked best. I wish they'd settle American Idol that way, with the contestants drawing lots instead of the audience calling in and voting. If God is picking the winner, then you know the best one will win. Shout Glory!

Pastor Billy-Reuben

[Brother V]

Originally Posted by Pastor Billy-Reuben

Remember, there are no accidents and there's no such thing random chance. God directly controls the outcome of seemingly random events. So if you need to make an important decision and you want to put it in God's hands, pray first, then write down your options onto pieces of paper and just pick one randomly out of a hat. The outcome you get is the outcome God wants you to get. Praise Jesus!

Pastor Billy-Reuben

Amen brother, although it would probably work best if one was using the Urim and Thummim of the breastplate.

Personally to discover God's will, I put a black marble and a white marble into a bag, pray to the LORD with a yes or no question, and then pull out a marble. If he wants me to do it, He makes me draw the white marble; if he really doesn't want me to, he has me pull out the black marble.

I find it's best that I use marbles that are the same size so that I don't pick the big one (white) whenever I want something.

PRAISE JESUS
YIC
V