July 20: 2 Chronicles 1 – 3; Psalm 16; Proverbs 19:20-21; Romans 6



Overview

            2 Chronicles: Solomon went to Gibeon where the tent of meeting resided. The bronze altar for burnt offerings were there though the Ark was in a tent in Jerusalem where David had brought it. Solomon offered 1,000 burnt offering on the altar.
            Solomon had a dream that night in which God appeared to him. He asked God for wisdom to rule Israel because they were so numerous and he needed it to rule over God’s people. God also said he would have all he didn’t ask for, riches, honor, and a long life.
            Solomon accumulated thousands of chariots and horsemen, silver, and gold. He set about to build the temple and his own palace. He had 153,600 people working on them (resident aliens). He asked Hiram king of Tyre for wood for the temple explaining that all the ordinances for offerings would be at the new temple. In return, Solomon would pay with wheat, barley, wine, and oil.
            Hiram thought that was a good deal and praised God for a wise king over Israel. He sent Huram-abi to work with Solomon’s craftsmen.
            Solomon started building in the second month of his fourth year. He built on Mount Moriah on the threshing floor of Ornan where the Lord appeared to David. The dimensions of the temple are listed and a description of some of the major parts and areas that were overlaid with gold. The construction and placement of the two cherubim is described.
            Psalm: David takes refuge in the Lord. He realizes that without the Lord, there is no good in him. He delights in those who consecrate themselves to the Lord. Those who don’t look to other gods and only increase their sorrows. He has chosen the Lord and he has bountifully blessed. He praises the Lord who counsels and instructs him. He trusts in the Lord who is always with him and he won’t be shaken.
            David rejoices in all this and knows his body is safe because God will not abandon his soul to the grave. The Lord will not let his holy one see decay. Rather, he will have eternal joy and pleasures at God’s right hand.
            Proverbs: Pay attention to good advice and instructions so that you’ll have wisdom for the future. We can make all sorts of plans but God’s plan is the one that will prevail.
            Romans: We are not to continue to sin so that it makes it look like there is even more grace. Rather, we are to consider that we have died to sin in the same way we died with Jesus in baptism. Jesus was raised to new life and we should also live a new life. To be united with Jesus in his death and resurrection means that we are no longer salves to sin because that old self has died.
            We don’t need to let sin control us by yielding to our passion. That starts by not making ourselves available to unrighteousness but presenting ourselves to God for doing righteous things. We were once slaves to sin but our hearts are now obedient to the teaching we’ve received.
            Before, we willingly indulged in sin but now we are to offer our bodies as slaves to righteousness and that leads to holiness and eternal life. The end result of sin is death but we have the free gift of eternal life that comes from Jesus Christ our Lord.

What Stood Out

            2 Chronicles: “But David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem” (2 Chron 1:4).
            Psalm: “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you’” (Ps 16:2).
            Proverbs: “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand” (Prov 19:21).
            Romans: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Rom 6:22).

Insight

            2 Chronicles: I’m not sure if we think about his or are even aware of this, but for many years, the Ark of the Lord was not in the tabernacle provided for it that Moses had constructed. That Ark was taken from its place to go into battle against the Philistines when Samuel was most likely still a young man (1 Sam 4:3). It had resided in Shiloh. The Philistines captured it and it was moved between their cities before it was returned to Israel. It was then sent to Kiriath-jearim (1 Sam 7:1-2). Saul had it brought briefly in Gibeah (1 Sam 14:16-18). It isn’t mentioned again until David went to Baale-judah in his first attempt to bring it to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:2). It made it as far as Obed-edom’s house which was near the threshing floor of Nacon. Three months later, David moved it to Jerusalem where he pitched a tent for it (2 Sam 6:17). David didn’t bring the altar or tabernacle to Jerusalem but left them in Gibeon (1 Chron 16:39).
            The tabernacle was at Shiloh and then moved to Gibeon at some undisclosed time. The altar for making burnt offerings was kept with the tabernacle, so this is why Solomon went to Gibeon to make his sacrifices.
            We get the idea that David was extremely observant of the Lord’s commands. Yet we see him with the Ark in Jerusalem and the altar and tabernacle in Gibeon. How could they observe the Day of Atonement where the blood offered had to be sprinkled on the mercy seat of the Ark when the sacrifice was supposed to take place in Gibeon and the Ark was in Jerusalem?
            It wasn’t until Solomon built the temple and made a new altar for it there, that the sacrifices that required blood to be sprinkled on the Ark were performed. David was a foreshadowing of the changes God made in the structure of the Jewish religion when the temple was built. The structure of worship and the means of forgiveness of sins has been changed forever because of Jesus’ sacrifice. We should not think that we have to follow these Old Testament commandments any more. We have a New Covenant through the blood of Jesus that supersedes the old just as the temple superseded the tabernacle.
            Psalm: David expresses his complete trust in the Lord. Even before he does that, he acknowledges that the only good in him is because of the Lord (Ps 16:2). People who are not trusting in Jesus for their salvation really don’t have assurance that the future will bring them anything good. In fact, they can be assured that they will have sorrows if they don’t turn to the Lord for salvation. They may have a seemingly good life here on earth before eternity. But David assures us that we will have eternity with the pleasures of being with God. The alternative is sorrows when they are abandoned to the grave and their souls have no joy.
            Proverbs: We may have many goals and plans on how to accomplish them. But they are no good if they don’t line up with God’s plan for us. When we listen to him and get on his agenda, the we will have wisdom that will carry us into the future that is best for us. We’ll be with him forever.
            Romans: The Pharisees got bent out of shape when Jesus told they them they could be set free by the truth because anyone who sins is a slave t sin (John 8:32-34). They didn’t realize that sin is enslaving and keeps us from doing the things God want us to do. Before our salvation, we can only do the things we want and those are all motivated by a sinful heart.
            Few people realize though, that being free from sin’s enslavement can only be accomplished by becoming slaves to God. It may seem like a paradox to be free when we become slaves of God, but there is no other way. After all, we can’t serve two masters. We will serve either sin or the Lord. People want to be free but they don’t want to be slave of God. They don’t realize that under God’s lordship, we have the freedom to be the people God intends. This kind of slavery isn’t burdensome but joyful. It is the way of eternal life.
            What’s even better is that eternal life is a free gift.

Application

             Worshiping Jesus isn’t done by following the Old Testament traditions or any other traditions. It is done by becoming a slave to the Lord. It is done by considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to Jesus. Worshiping Jesus is becoming his slave.

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