1 Chronicles

Day 15-16 With the Literary ESV

ESV Literary Study Bible

With Today's reading we're mostly back on schedule with Chronicles, Ezra, Esther and Nehemiah; and Psalms 88-105 make up a rather sizable chunk of reading but once you hit a strident pace with Chronicles you'll find that reading them together in one sitting is rewarding.

Chronicles

Do it again! Do it again! That's what children shout when they're having fun. And Chronicles doubles up on the fun of Samuel and Kings, hey it even doubles up on the fun of Numbers. We get line after line to the sum of nine chapters of generational family tree goodness in the first book of Chronicles. Enjoy with two caveats.

  1. Don't get bogged down in the litany of names if you're just here to read.
  2. Don't jump off the deep end and pull out rare deviations like Jabez and make an entire theology out of them. Call Heretics Anonymous and move on.

Reading Chronicles as a whole you may see some deviation after the genealogical section but First Chronicles is primarily written as a almost entirely about David's kingship and that for good reason he is the prefigurement of the Messiah and the penultimate Old Testament King. Second Chronicles records the horrendous crash of the nations of Israel and Judah as they obstinately refuse to listen to the prophets God sends them. After hundreds of years of warnings God finally took action an suddenly the people who call themselves God's people were taken by surprise when God finally took action. Read the books with a comprehension of both ancient history and modern society and you'll feel like you're reading the newspaper. All the more reason to pay attention to what you're reading because Just like way back then when God finally does act, I suspect many will be taken off guard.

Kings and Prophets

Kings and Prophets

This simple chart will help clear up a ton of Old Testament confusion.
From the top to bottom it is a time line starting with the kingship of Saul, David and Solomon. Then the kingdom splits. Judah's kingdom is represented on the left while Israel's 10 tribes are represented on the right.
Next to each king is the length of his reign. The darkened squares indicate kings who for good or evil greatly influenced the course of the nation.
Next to many of the kings you will see the names of the prophets - this is to indicate when and to which kingdom the prophet primarily served.
Finally on the right you see a continuum of the four historical books of the kings indicating in a very rough manner where the kings in question are discussed.

The genesis of this chart came from Paul Benware's Old Testament Survey class at Moody Bible Institute way back in 1992. Thanks Dr. Benware for clearing up the OT!

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