Thoughts on 1 Chronicles, Day 14 of Lent 2013
Today's big chunk of scripture reading for Lent is 1 Chronicles 10 to 2 Chronicles 2. Whereas the historian of the Kings focused on the court intrigues, the Chronicler focuses on the little people, everyone gets named, and the priestly things, and not the scandals. We learn about King David and his son Solomon, but not the scandal of Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, or the court intrigues in David's house.
I'm the kind of guy who tells stories the way I want to hear them; as if Hemingway were writing it. Every detail contributes to the impact of the story. I think Hemingway and the Kings historian and I would have pleasant terse conversations. But I am friends with people who like to enlarge on every detail in their stories, sometimes getting so distracted by those details of details that their story tends to get lost. The Chronicler is that person. There must be hundreds of unique names in this history that never appear again in the Bible. On the other hand, those names are never forgotten either. Perhaps not read very often, or read with glazed eyes, but to the Chronicler, everyone is important, as well as their parents and grandparents.
In the Apostle John's Revelation, the Book of Life is mentioned several times. It contains all the names of those who will live with Jesus for eternity. The Apostle Paul talks about his fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life, in Philippians 4:3. David writes in Psalm 69 about the Book of Life. It's a Messianic Psalm to boot. 1 Chronicles is, in my opinion, a hint at what that heavenly Book of Life is like. It mentions everyone, and talks about the good things they did and glosses over the bad parts.
I'm the kind of guy who tells stories the way I want to hear them; as if Hemingway were writing it. Every detail contributes to the impact of the story. I think Hemingway and the Kings historian and I would have pleasant terse conversations. But I am friends with people who like to enlarge on every detail in their stories, sometimes getting so distracted by those details of details that their story tends to get lost. The Chronicler is that person. There must be hundreds of unique names in this history that never appear again in the Bible. On the other hand, those names are never forgotten either. Perhaps not read very often, or read with glazed eyes, but to the Chronicler, everyone is important, as well as their parents and grandparents.
In the Apostle John's Revelation, the Book of Life is mentioned several times. It contains all the names of those who will live with Jesus for eternity. The Apostle Paul talks about his fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life, in Philippians 4:3. David writes in Psalm 69 about the Book of Life. It's a Messianic Psalm to boot. 1 Chronicles is, in my opinion, a hint at what that heavenly Book of Life is like. It mentions everyone, and talks about the good things they did and glosses over the bad parts.
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