First Chronicles 28-29

God’s message to me: God has already prepared a way. When David became king he had already made all the contacts he would need with neighboring kingdoms while he was running from Saul. When Solomon became king he had all David’s contacts and everything David prepared for him to accomplish the building of the temple. When Solomon died he left behind great treasuries that would provide for Israel’s rescue from trouble in multiple occasions over the next several hundred years.

Promises: When God has something for you to do you may rest assured that He has already prepared the way. It was Solomon’s job to build the temple. Just as God told Moses the exact details of the construction of the Tabernacle of Meeting, He provided David with the exact details of the Temple of God (mistakenly called the temple of Solomon by historians). When Solomon began the project he had a detailed written plan for every aspect of the temple and it’s contents, he had more supplies than he needed to do the job, all the money needed to pay the workers, exact details down to the weight of the metals to be used in each item, workers ready to do the job, and everything else he needed. All he needed to do was start the job.

Commands: Prepare the way for what God tells you will happen. Charity is a wonderful thing but so is passing along an inheritance. God provides the ability to gain great things and for some it is a means to do charity and for others it is a path for future generations to gain security. Next time you’re tempted to believe that the guy on TV telling you it’s evil to leave an inheritance and all your wealth should go to charity, remember how many biblical characters left their estates to charity (none, though several left large estates as well as large amounts given to the temple and/or national treasuries) and how many left large estates to their heirs(almost all of them though some died without heirs or without an estate) MAN’S WAY MAY SEEM RIGHT BUT GOD’S WAY IS RIGHT.

Timeless principles: God expects us to do the jobs He assigns. David was not to build the temple but he was given the plans and the requirements. David took what he knew and prepared for the building project by making certain all the supplies were ready, the plans were laid out, the people were in place and the job was assigned to the man who God wanted in charge of it, Solomon, before he left the throne and then died.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Judge everything deemed a virtue by the measure of God’s word. There are many fine sounding ideas in this world that most would deem virtuous but God would find offensive. The stories of David show us several. Leaving an inheritance, securing your land and your nation, weapons in a place of worship, arming ministers, and so on. given the rest of this post this portion may seem out of place but, this is what I got from the text. What did you get?

more to learn for in-depth study: The end of First Chronicles tells us where we can learn more of David. The books of Samuel are found among the scriptures and the books of Gad and Nathan would be found among historic documents like the Talmud.

I have been asked who decides what goes into the bible. The answer is, God decides and showed early leaders of the Israelites and of the early church what should and shouldn’t be there. Many books that didn’t make it into scripture are still found in the Talmud. They have history important to the Jews. Some are books of prophecy that applied only to the time. Some are books of history and legend that provide insight into the times but are not useful for teaching doctrine. Others are simply not from reputable sources. The reason that the books of the Apocrypha didn’t make it into protestant bibles is simple. When the King James bible was translated, the Rabbi’s who passed along the scripture pointed out that parts of the document were not scripture but merely history and legend. This doesn’t make them worthless it just means they should not be a source for doctrine and deciding how God wants us to live our lives.

tomorrow: Second Chronicles 1-5