Campfire Scripture: Uncommon scriptures, simple truth… For pondering over a warm campfire.

Author, Date and Context:

Ezra the priest is attributed to the writing of 1st and 2nd Chronicles at sometime around 450-430 B.C.

Chronicles were written to inspire the Jews returning from exiled and remind them of their divine future and blessings. Unlike Kings, 2 Chronicles ends on a positive note, the return of Jews from exile under the Persians. As such it tends to omit some of the more embarrassing segments of the Jews history. It doesn’t do this maliciously, only because it didn’t fit the theme and message of the book, which was one of hope.

1 Chronicles here in chapter 28 forms the beginning of the end of David’s reign. David is exhorting Solomon to be a wise and God-fearing ruler.

What I Reckon:

A pretty short and simple point to be made with this passage here.

God wasn’t condemning David for shedding blood. After all, David shed much blood directly via God’s instruction and/or had God’s blessing. David was a righteous man and had faithfully served the Lord his whole life in war and love.

David was a man after God’s own heart.

It was not because God was judging David for being a warlord, he was making a theological statement that He was pure and Holy, but David was a man of war. David’s warmongering was a symbol of the curse of sin on this world. The temple of the Lord, by contrast, was to be a Holy sanctuary.

God was simply contrasting between the sinful world and His perfect, Holy self.

References

All Campfire Scripture passages are taken from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise stated.

John MacArthur, 2006, The MacArthur Study Bible,  New American Standard Bible (1995 edition).