Day 123. 1 Chronicles 27-29

No one but descendents of Aaron could function as priests in Israel, and no one but Levites—descendents of Jacob's son Levi—could perform the functions surrounding worship in the temple. But priests and Levites were not confined to those ritual functions. There were always more Levites available than there were necessary cultic tasks to perform, especially after the temple was established in Jerusalem and the tabernacle no longer needed to be folded up and moved from place to place. So Levites "of great ability" were regularly tapped for "outside duties," such as being "officers and judges" in the secular courts (26:29).
We note that in our reading for today one of the David's chief military officers, commanding a division of twenty-four thousand is a certain "Benaiah, son of the priest Jehoiada" (27:5). Israel under the kings is a society in which there is no clear division between the secular and the sacred. We noted before that military officers took part in the reorganization of the temple musicians (25:1). Our idea of separation of church and state would seem very strange in the world of the chronicler.
Even though we may not take time to read these lists of officials very closely, we should note that Israel during the last years of David is developing a fairly complex secular as well as religious bureaucracy. Worship, however, is always the overriding concern of the writer of Chronicles, and to it he devotes most of his attention, and particularly to the task of reorganizing the clergy and preparing to build the temple.
In chapter 28 David gathers "all the officials of Israel" and delivers a speech to them in preparation for that task. In it he tells them that he himself had desired to be the one to build a temple to be "the footstool of our God" (28:2), but the LORD had not chosen him for that purpose. This is because he is "a warrior" and has shed blood (28:3). Yet he rejoices in being a Chosen One nevertheless. God chose to take him from humble beginnings and make him king in preference to many others, including his older brothers (28:4). And now God is choosing Solomon from among David's many sons to build his house and his courts (28:6). All these choices are not based upon merit, but upon God's arbitrary grace. Therefore, each choice God makes is contingent upon obedience of the Chosen One. In order to be worthy of that choice he must keep the commandments and ordinances of the Law (28:7). So if Solomon will serve the LORD with a "single mind"
and "seek" him with a willing heart" (28:9), he will prosper and fulfill the purpose God has for his life. But if he is disobedient, be abandoned.
Then, having admonished him not to forsake the covenant, David gives Solomon the plan for the temple complex and all of its particulars (28:11). "All this, in writing at the LORD's direction, he made clear to me—the plan of all the works," David tells him (28:19). Just as Moses had received the directions about how to the build the tabernacle—Exodus 25-31—so now David receives from the LORD directly the plans for the temple, which he then passes on to Solomon. The task is enormous and made still more difficult because it is performed for God and not for human beings. Nevertheless Solomon is to be diligent "and act," and not "be afraid or dismayed" (28:20). The LORD will not forsake him and the people are organized and willing to support him in it.
Then David presents his successor with the materials he has gathered for the building and calls upon the people to make a further offering, "consecrating themselves . . . to the LORD" (29:5). The response is overwhelming, and we are told that the people rejoice because the gifts are given willingly with "a single mind," not coerced from them, and "King David also [rejoices] greatly" (29:9) in seeing the project so well begun. Giving freely brings joy to the whole community, which is unified and of one mind.
Then David delivers a great offertory prayer. In it he acknowledges that all things come from God, and it is from his own that this offering is made to him (29:14). Nothing belongs to us that is not a gift, even life itself. All human beings live in the shadow of their own mortality; they "are aliens and transients" before the eternal God (29:15). And the offering that most pleases God is an acknowledgement of our humanness and his "Godness." To know that God is God and we are not is that "uprightness" he looks for in us (29:17). This is what righteousness is—a steadfast trust in the LORD combined with an honest self-appraisal, a humility that does not value the self more than it values its relationship to the LORD, that puts nothing in his place. This is the "single-mindedness" that is constantly being praised by the chronicler (28:19), the single-mindedness that David prays his son Solomon will show in doing the great task before him,
the building of the temple.
Then "on the next day" there is a vast sacrifice, followed by a feast in which "all Israel . . . ate and drank before the LORD . . . with great joy" (29:22). As we said earlier, one of the great themes of the Books of Chronicles is the unity of the people of Israel. At the end of Book One Solomon is again anointed king, and we are told that "all the leaders and the mighty warriors, and also all the sons of King David, [pledge] their allegiance to King Solomon" (29:24. This is quite a different picture than the one painted by the writer of Kings of the accession of King Solomon. But Chronicles is first and foremost a "good news book." Its emphasis is not upon failure and sin, but upon divine mercy and our human ability to respond to the grace of God with "single-minded" obedience and trust, as David does. And from that response comes "shalom"—the fullness of peace and joy.