Restored Hope

Samuel Young Bible Project Month 5# Restored Hope 2-6-2018 1-2 Chronicles recaps the Old Testament, highlighting God’s promise to dwell with his people in the land he would give them if they obeyed his voice. In Chronicles, the Davidic kingship and the Levitical priesthood take center stage. Through the rise and downfall of Israel in the land, God shows that he continues to keep his promises even when his people sin, and that his rule will ultimately be mediated through a divine king and a divine priesthood. Choose from one of the following prompts to write a 4-6 page paper. For the prompt you choose, complete each section. This paper must be turned in with 2.0 spacing, 12-point font size, written in Times New Roman. Include the prompt in your paper. 1. Restored Hope. Chronicles, written after the return of the southern kingdom from exile, attempts to present to the people of Israel the reality of God’s promises to them in a fresh way. A. Read 1-2 Chronicles, looking for stories which highlight God’s promises of a Davidic king, a new temple, or Israel’s inheritance as the people of God. Record your findings in a 2-3 paragraph summary. My plan was to write about the new temple from Chronicles, but ran into some problems, mainly the fact that outside of the last verse of Chronicles that talks about the new temple, I could not find a reference to it. When the word “new” is mentioned, it is inferring that there was or still is an older or of lesser quality version of the new thing. In reference to the temple, 1 Chronicles chapter 17 and on is the buildup to the first real temple for the Lord. David wanted to build a permanent dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant, but God told him that he could not. Instead, God promised David that his son would be established and would build a permanent dwelling place (temple) for the Lord. Solomon starts building the temple in 2 Chronicles chapter 3 and finishes up in chapter 7. Then throughout most of the rest of 2nd Chronicles, the same temple that Solomon built is in different places kept up, or ransacked, or let to fall in to disrepair, or repaired by the kings who did right in the eyes of the Lord. But each time the temple is mentioned it is always the original temple built by Solomon, not a new one that had been built, that is until Chapter 36. In chapter 36, verse 15 the temple is destroyed by the Chaldeans who also took the people of Judah captive to Babylon. Chronicles ends on a high note for King Cyrus puts out a decree that says the Lord told him to release the people of Judah and let them go back and build a new temple for the Lord. On one hand it would be nice to think that upon their return to Jerusalem that the people of Judah would have built a better temple then the one that Solomon built. However, because they were refuges, they would have been fairly low on resources and could not match or exceed the splendor of Solomon’s. Whether or not they could have made a temple as grand as the original temple would not mattered as much for it was not the grandiose of the temple that matter, instead what the temple portrayed and looked forward to. B. Skim 1 Chronicles 11-29, the reign of David. Compare this depiction of David’s life to that in Samuel (1 Samuel 16-2 Samuel 24; you may wish to consult a good commentary with an outline of the book). What are the major differences in the two accounts of David’s life? In 2 paragraphs, summarize the differences and attempt to explain why the Chronicler might have left out some material and added other material. Imagine writing a book about a subject, and then your friend with totally different interests and occupations writing about the same subject. There would understandably be different point of focus which leads to different reasons for writing. This scenario is exactly what is found in the differences between 1st Samuel 16 – 2 Samuel 24 and 1st Chronicles 11-24, both of which are accounts of David’s life. The book of Samuel is written in part to cover the transition of Israel from being under judges to demanding and receiving a king to rule over them as the other foreign nations had. And therefore, Samuel shows the flaws of those early kings, especially David who commits adultery, then kills to try and cover it up. From David’s sin of adultery comes the punishment from God that his family will be fractured, and that his son will try and take over and will sleep with David’s wives in public. Apart from his son trying to take over and David fleeing for a time, we also see more interfamily problems, for one of his sons rapes his half-sister. In Chronicles, these stories that portray David in a bad light because of his disobedient actions are not included. Not because they were not known, for the people of Judah would have known about them, instead, only his positive behaviors were shown so that the people who had returned from exile in Babylon would be reminded of how blessed they used to be when they pursued God. So, as the people of Judah worked to build a new temple and new lives for themselves, they could look back at the faithfulness of God and realize that as long as they stayed committed to the Lord, He would be with them and they would be successful. Not only is the priestly author trying to provide hope for the people, he is also pointing to David as a type of the future, promised messiah. C. Read the following Psalms: 9, 13, 42, 54, and 77. In 1 paragraph, explain the pattern of need, remembrance, and hope which exists in these psalms, particularly Psalm 77. Then tease out that same pattern in 1-2 Chronicles in 1-2 paragraphs. Use specific Scriptures to show how the Chronicler wanted Israel to remember the Lord’s past faithfulness in order to find hope in their present need. In each of these Psalms a certain pattern can be seen to an extent. They almost all open with despair that God was not there to help them in their need. By itself, God not being there is bad, but for them it was really hard for God had been with them before, therefore they knew how good it was with God and could compare their current horrible days to those past days. Once they started to look back on their past days when God had been with them, they started to remember that it was not God who left them, but them who left God. When they remembered that and started to seek after God again, everything did not always turn out right at first, but through the act of seeking God they started to get hope again that God was in control and could help them as He had in the past. At least five times during Chronicles Judah experienced revivals, where Judah was in need, and someone pointed back in their history to when they had been following God and everything had been better. They used the history as an example to say that just as God was faithful then, He will be faithful now if they turn back to him. Each time, Judah responded positively by seeking the Lord and removing the sacred alters and high places of the foreign gods. The prophet Azariah in 2nd Chronicles 15:1-7, reminds the people of Judah to look back to the times of the Judges when they sook the Lord, because not only were they found by the Lord, but also their enemies had no peace for “God troubled them with every distress.” Not every time that Judah had a revival was it sparked by a prophet. In 2nd Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat is afraid that they are about to be slaughtered by their enemies so he leads his people to seek the Lord and ask for help. He seems to be reminding the people in his prayer to God, how it was God who drove out the heathens from the land that He had promised them. And if he could dive out them then, He could drive them out now. D. Using what you discovered in sections A through C, answer the following questions in paragraph form: Have you ever been in need, or faced a trial you thought was beyond you? In that time, did you seek to bolster your hope in God by remembering his previous goodness toward you? If not, how could you have done that? What Scriptures could you have used to address your own heart? Please be specific. My family and I have both been so blessed for our whole lives. I cannot really point to a time when we have really been in need or faced that big of a trial. About a week ago I was really struggling with some thoughts about some stuff. At that point during which I was struggling, I had a great conversation with another student about my sin. Being able to talk with him drove home the point that I am not alone in my sin, but also the fact that just because I am not alone does not make it right. I realized that in the past that by working on scripture memory, God had used it to help get rid of those sinful thoughts and therefore decided to start memorizing some verses from Job, specifically chapter 31:1-4. E. Conclude with one paragraph detailing how you would use what you have learned in this study to comfort a suffering Christian by reminding them of God’s goodness to them in the past in order to lead them to hope in God for their future. Although Chronicles to some extent could be used to help others deal with suffering, I do not think in all cases it should be used. Each time that the men of Judah were in trouble and cried out to the Lord it was because they had abandoned God that evil had happened to them. And while it could be used to show them that when we go back to God good will happen, it should not be used in all cases. Because then the suffer could come to the conclusion that they are the cause for the trouble, which can be true but is not always true and therefore the they could bring unnecessary guilt on themselves. If I was to use it to comfort a suffering Christian, I would point to the times in Chronicles when someone realized that the reason they were not successful was because they were not following God. Once they started following God again everything seemed to work out. Right now, it might seem like good is not winning, but that is because we cannot see the end of the story, at which time good will triumph once and for all over evil.