1 Chronicles 28–29

1 Chronicles chapter 28. We're going to finish 1 Chronicles tonight. And these, the final 2 chapters of 1 Chronicles, kind of walk us through the transition between the kingship of David and his son Solomon, who came after him. As we mentioned last week, the person who recorded these events, and we believe very strongly that it was Ezra, probably, well... And if it was Ezra, then it was, many years after the fact. Hundreds of years in fact, after the fact, but Ezra doesn't mention so much that we read elsewhere in Kings. For example, he doesn't mention David's son Adonijah, who conspired to take the throne for himself. (1 Kings 1:5) Nor does he mention even here David's frail physical condition here toward the end of his kingship. We know that David had a condition whereby he was no longer able to keep warm. And he was confined much of his time to bed. And with many covers and things to try to somehow keep him a little warm. (1 Kings 1:1) Instead Ezra focuses here in these last 2 chapters on the transition itself of the kingship and all of the promises that go along with God's Word to David's descendants. And there's also some lovely, the lovely prayer that is contained in these chapters, which David offers up. And before we get started, you may recall back in chapter 22 that David privately exhorted his son Solomon regarding the taking of the throne and the building of the temple and things related to walking with the Lord. But that was a private meeting. Now that we come to chapter 28 of 1 Chronicles, David is going to speak these words in a more public fashion. And you'll notice that in verse 1, it tells us that, "David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, (And then it begins to list them here.) the officials of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, the commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the mighty men and all the seasoned warriors. (ESV)

All these people are coming together. And we're told in verse 2 that, “Then ...David rose to his feet...” Which by the way, as we've already mentioned, was probably no small issue related to his compromised physical condition. But yet he rallies himself and stands to his feet and he speaks to these assembled people and says, "Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building. 3 But God said to me, 'You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.' (We talked about last week why that disqualified David from building the temple.) 4 Yet the LORD God of Israel chose me from all my father's house to be king over Israel forever. For he chose Judah as leader, and in the house of Judah my father's house, and among my father's sons he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. " And you'll remember that David was the youngest of all the sons whom his father, Jesse, originally didn't even bother to invite in when Samuel came and said, bring all your sons in. I want to see them. I want to meet them. Jesse didn't even bring David. And he brought all the others in who paraded themselves before Samuel. And after each one went by, the Lord said, no, that's not the one. That's not the one. And finally, Samuel looked at Jesse and said, is this it? Is this... Well, David. David, he's out taking care of the sheep. Samuel said, call him; we won't sit down to eat until he comes... And you remember the rest. (1 Samuel 16:5-13) God... David is recalling now how God called him to that place. Verse 5, and he says, "And of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel." And by the way, this is a very important thing for David to say to all of these officials. Remember, these are the leaders, these are the officials of Israel. And it's important that David communicate to them after having said that, he himself had been chosen by the Lord, it is important for David to make the point that Solomon was also appointed and chosen by the Lord. That this wasn't necessarily... This wasn't David's choice. This wasn't some political popularity vote. This was God who spoke.

And you'll remember that when David spoke privately to Solomon, he recalled for him how the Lord spoke even before Solomon was born saying, you will have a son and you will name him Solomon. And the Lord told him many years before, that he would be the successor to the throne. (1 Chronicles 22:9-10) And that is very important. It was God's decision to install Solomon. And the divine aspect of that choosing was vitally important for David to communicate to these officials so, that they would know and understand that this was God's man, and to get behind him. Verse 6 says, "He said to me, 'It is Solomon your son, who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father,” Now we have a promise followed with a condition. Look at verse 7. “I will establish his kingdom forever (Here's the condition.) if he continues strong in keeping my commandments and my rules, as he is today. Verse 8, “Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the LORD (our) God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever." And so, he gives this message to the people to seek out the commandments of the Lord and so forth. But now he begins to speak to Solomon here in verse 9. He says, "And you, Solomon my son, (And again, this is a public version of what he did earlier on an individual basis. He says,) know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. 10 Be careful now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it." This is a really, a beautiful exhortation. And when you think about it being spoken from a father to a son, it's really something that all of us would probably endeavor to say to our children at one time or another.

And there are essentially 5 things that David is saying here to Solomon. And just for the sake of ease, I'm going to put these up on the screen for you so that you can, we can see them together. These 5 points that he is making.  Seek and know God  Learn what God expects  Worship God with a whole heart  Be willing to serve  Be faithful to God  Don’t give way to discouragement First of all is, Seek and know God. That's the first thing. Son, I want you to seek God and know Him. And by the way, what's the promise that Jesus gives us too regarding seeking, He said, seek and you will find. Right? Knock and the door will be open. It's a promise. Don't just learn, about God, know God. That's what he told him. I want you to know God. Don't just know about Him. Know God. That's something that we forget sometimes, is that, God can be known. His heart, His values, His character can be known. I can, we can know God, like I can know you. If we sit down and talk enough, and you tell me enough about your life, and I tell you enough about my life, you can know me. And I can know you. But it's even more intimate when it comes to our relationship with God, because there's that spiritual dynamic that is open to us. But to know God, to seek and to know Him. And then he told him next, Learn what God expects. I'm going through pre- marriage counseling with a couple right now, who's going to be married, well, here in February. And a lot of what we do in pre-marriage counseling is understand what God expects of us in marriage as it relates to the role of the husband, the role of the wife, what God's purpose and intent was for even creating the institution of marriage, and so forth. And it's a large part of entering into marriage is learning about the expectations that God has. It's His institution, not ours. We didn't come up with marriage. We didn't just all of a sudden decide, hey, I think we'll put people together and we'll call it marriage. No, it was God's thing. Learning what to expect, is huge.

The third thing he says here, is to Worship God with a whole heart. And that whole issue of a whole heart. Boy, that's huge. Worship God with a whole heart. That means basically, give everything of yourself to Him. Fourthly, he says, Be willing to serve. Fifth, Be faithful to God. And then I love this last one. Don't give way to discouragement because discouragement is the tool of the enemy, isn't it? We were actually talking about this in our staff meeting yesterday, about how discouragement can just waylay us and make us hopeless. Some wonderful things here. There's actually 6 things there, aren't there. I think I said 5. I'm beg your pardon. Anyway, it goes on verse 11. It says,

David was the recipient of all of this information right down to the measurements, and the weights of the gold. And the silver that would be put into these various instruments for the temple service. And he says, "All this… (was) made clear to me…"

--- “20 Then David said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous and do it." Do not be afraid... do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work (of) the service of the house of the LORD is finished. 21 And behold the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God; and with you in all the work will be every willing man who has skill for any kind of service; also the officers and all the people will be wholly at your command." In other words, completely to do your bidding. Chapter 29, "And David the king said to all the assembly, "Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the palace (will be for, excuse me) will not be for man but for the LORD God. 2 So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for settings, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones and marble. 3 Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God: 4 3,000 talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the house, 5 and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the LORD?" You can see how David is doing this with the officials. He outlines everything that the Lord has told him related to what he's giving to Solomon for the plans. And then he outlines all of the things that have been set aside from the kingdom to prepare for the building of the temple. And then he reveals everything from his personal and private treasuries, which he's now giving and donating freely to the work of the Lord for the building of the temple. And then right after giving all of that, he says, who's going to do this too? Who else is going to give willingly to the work of the Lord? It says in verse 6, "Then the leaders of father's houses made their free will offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king's work. 7 They gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold,…"

By the way, I looked it up and a daric is a gold coin. It doesn't weigh very much. It only weighs about a quarter of an ounce. But they gave 10,000 of them. That probably added up to a bit. “…10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze and 100,000 talents of iron. 8 And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite." And by the way, just so you know, altogether David along with the generosity of the leaders, committed 375 tons of gold toward the building of the temple. That's what that comes to 375 tons. That's a lot of gold. I mean, good grief! What's interesting about that, is that not only is this temple going to be magnificent with all of this gold built into it, but during the reign of Solomon, the Bible says that he's going to make gold common. And silver will be practically meaningless or worthless in David's, or excuse me, in Solomon's kingdom. Because gold was so plentiful. So, it only gets bigger from here. But anyway, what we're seeing here is just this beautiful response of generosity from the people. Have you ever wondered what keeps people from being generous? I mean, have you ever just thought about that? I think probably the natural question or excuse me, the natural answer that we would give to that question is probably greed. But I don't think greed... Well, I mean, it's a very real thing don't get me wrong. But I don't think that's as significant in keeping people from being generous as is fear. I think fear is more to blame for a lack of generosity than in fact is greed. And when I say fear, I mean fear that if we give what we have away, we're not going to have enough for ourselves. And I think that's pretty commonplace actually. I think when people think about giving even to the Lord, they'll say, Well, I can't afford, I can't afford to give to the Lord. Because if we give, what maybe we used to give in years past or something, we're not going to have enough, to pay our bills..., or something like that. I think that's really common. But I also believe that when we trust God to meet our needs, I mean, really trust the Lord to meet our needs, then we become much more free to be generous. And there's also another key to generosity, I believe. But rather than telling it to you here, we're going to look at it in the following verses. Because David is about to issue forth, one of the most beautiful prayers written in the Scripture. And in this prayer, he's going to talk about what I believe is his key to generosity. And it goes... And sure, there was... It isn't the key, it's a key, I should say. He had many keys that he used to unlock generosity in his life. Not the least of which is devotion to the Lord, love for God, desire to build up the, build the kingdom and so forth. But there's another important one that he's going to mention here. It says in verse 9, "Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the LORD. David the king also rejoiced greatly. 10 Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: "Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. 11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.” But look at this verse 14. "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?" Stop there for just a moment, please. Remember, 375 tons of gold. If I could even see that much gold in one place, I'd probably be blown away. But to see it given willingly by myself and others, how easy it might be to become prideful. Or to say, look what we've done. Look what we've done! And, to say, hey, let's give ourselves a hand here. Three hundred seventy-five tons of gold! How many times have you heard people, talking about how they just wanted to, we've raised $200,000, for dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Let's give ourselves a hand!..., or something like that. I don't think David would have done that. I want you to see what he says here. I want to read verse 14 again, and then let's go from there. "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? (And here's the key right here, or, at least a key) For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you." In other words, what David is saying is, what have we given to You that You didn't first give to us? Boy, that's a good reminder, isn't it? And I believe that this is a really important key to generosity. It's, it was given by God in the first place. Right? He's the one who gave it. What David is basically saying is, we can't get all puffed up in Your presence about all this gold that has been donated for the temple because You gave it in the first place. Where does gold come from? Did we create it? Absolutely not. He says, "...all things come from you." Look at verse 15. "For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding." And what he means by that is, try as we may, we can't stay here on this earth any longer than God determines. But notice what he says here. We're just strangers and sojourners. See, when we think about our possessions, when we think about our home, when we think about where we live, we like to think about it in terms of mine. My home, my car, my stuff and this is where I live. This is my address. This is my... This is what I've earned. And what David is saying here about all this is, we're strangers here on this earth. We're just passing through. We have no enduring possessions is what he's saying. Right? All that we have, we're given as stewards for a short period of time. A very short period of time. We've been given this to work with it, to bless others, to minister to the kingdom, to do whatever the Lord calls on us to do. We've been given these resources. But how difficult, how contrary that is to our flesh. And what our flesh wants to think about, as it relates to what we have, we want to possess these things. We want to make them our own. We want to hang on to them. Right? And David's attitude here is so beautiful and so freeing. These aren't your things. They were given to you by God. They belong to Him in the first place. And when you give, you are simply giving back to God. I love that picture in the Book of Revelation where the twenty-four elders who are seated around the throne of God and have crowns on their heads, take those crowns and cast them down before He who is the King of kings.

See, they have crowns, but who gave them those crowns? Right? God gave those crowns. So, when we are before the Lord, we take that which we have received from Him and we offer it back. When we're praying, you guys probably see us once in a while on a Sunday morning. One of our, one of our... The focal point of our prayer before worship is, Lord, we take what we've given, what You've given to us and we offer it back up to You.

And so, the musicians, those who play an instrument, those who are singing vocally, whatever it may be, the Lord gave it. We offer it back. It's like taking that crown off and saying, Lord, You gave this, now I give it back to You. It's a beautiful idea. And look at verse 16. He says,

We can't pat ourselves on the back. We can't lay claim to it. We can't say, let's give ourselves a round of applause. Look at verse 17.

29 Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer, 30 with accounts of all his rule and his might and the circumstances that came upon him and upon Israel and upon all the kingdoms of the countries. And with that, we finish 1 Chronicles as we prepare to get started with 2 Chronicles.