Bible in one year 6/30/2022 2Chronicle
Introduction Chapter 1-3
By
Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce
Christian
Arts Ministries : Biblical precepts & Gospel music; Pastoral ministry &
Counseling
Introduction
to the second book of the chronicles
Author:
Ezra Date:450-425 B.C.
Title,
Authorship, Purpose Since 1 and 2 Chronicles
were originally one book, see the introduction to 1 Chronicles for a discussion
of these matters. The book’s Hebrew title means “ the words of the days”. The
annals of Israel from Adam to the Babylonian captivity and Cyrus’s decree
allowing the exiled Jews to return. In a sense it is a “ miniature Old
Testament,” tracing in capsule form the flow of O.T. history.
Contents Beginning where 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles records the history of the reign of King Solomon(971-931) and of all kings of
Judah from Rehoboam(931) through Zedekiah(586). Thus the book covers the same
period as 1 and 2 Kings, though 2 Chronicles focuses only on the kings of Judah
and excludes those of Israel. Disobedience to the Mosaic law was the reason for
the Babylonian captivity. The book concludes with a brief reference to the
decree of Cyrus in 539 that permitted the Jews to return to Judea and build
their Temple.
Significant
passages in clued Solomon’s prayer for wisdom(1:7-12), the dedication of
Solomon’s magnificent Temple(chapts. 5-7), the visit of the Queen of
Sheba(9:1-12), and the prediction of the length of captivity(36:20-21).
Favorite verses are found in 7:14 and 16:9.
2Chronicles
Chapter1 The reign of Solomon, Inauguration
Solomon’s
worship and prayer for wisdom--
Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for
the Lord his God was with him and made him exceeding great. Solomon went to
the high place at Gibeon, for God’s Tent of Meeting was there, which Moses the
Lord’s servant had made in the desert. He went up to the bronze altar before
the Lord in the Tent of Meeting and offered a thousand burnt offering on it.
(v.1-6). Solomon firmly grasped the reigns of power. The details of how he did
the reigns of power. The details of how he did this are in 1 Kings 1-2:46. The
tabernacle was at Gibeon (six miles NW
of Jerusalem;1Chron.16:39), though the Ark was at Jerusalem(v.4).
That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “ Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” Solomon answered God, “ You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (vv.7-10).
God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not ask for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches, and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.”(vv.11-12).
Solomon accumulated
Chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as
plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. Solomon’s horses were
imported from Egypt and from Kue-the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. They
imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse
for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all the kings of the
Hittites and of the Arameans. (vv.14-17).
2 Chronicles Chapter
2 Solomon’s Temple and preparations
Solomon gave orders to build a temple
for the Name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself. He conscripted seventy
thousand men as carriers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the hills and
thirty-six hundred as foremen over them.(vv.1-2). Solomon sent this message to
Hiram, king of Tyre:
Send me cedar logs as you did for my father David when you
sent him cedar to build a palace to live in. I am about to build a temple for
the Name of the Lord my God and to dedicate it to him for burning fragrant
incense before him, for setting out the consecrated bread regularly, and for
making burnt offerings every morning and evening and on Sabbaths and New Moons
and at the appointed feasts of the Lord our God. This is a lasting ordinance
for Israel. The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is
greater than all other gods. (vv.3-5)
But who is able to build a temple for him, since
the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to
build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?”
(v.6). Because the temple I build must be large and magnificent. I will give
your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground
wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty
thousand baths of olive oil.(vv.9-10).
With great humility
Solomon realized that the omnipresent God could not be confined to a Temple,
but rather that the Temple served as a place in which His people could worship
Him.
Hiram king of Tyre
replied by letter to Solomon: “ Because
the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king…Praise be to the Lord,
the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise
son, endowed with intelligence and discernment, who will build a temple for the
Lord and a palace for himself. I am
sending you Huram-Abi, a man of great skill...he will work with your craftsmen
and with those of my lord, David your father. (vv.11-14).
Solomon took a census
of all the aliens who were in Israel, after the census his father David had
taken, and they were found to be 153,600. He assigned 70,000 of them to be
carriers and 80,000 to be stonecutters in the hills, with 3,600 foremen over
them to keep the people working.(vv.17-18).
2 Chronicles Chapter
3 Construction of the Temple
The Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. (vv.1-2).
The foundation Solomon laid for building the temple of God was sixty bubits long and twenty cubits wide (using the cubit of the old standard). The portico at the front of the temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the building and twenty cubits high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. He paneled the main hall with pine and covered it with fine gold and decorated it with palm tree and chain designs. He adorned the temple with precious stones. And the gold he used was gold of Parvaim. He overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the temple with gold, and he carved cherubim on the walls.(vv.3-7).
He built the Most Holy Place, its
length corresponding to the width of the temple-twenty cubits long and twenty
cubits wide. He overlaid the inside with six hundred talents of fine gold. The
gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper parts with gold.
(vv.8-9). In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and
overlaid them with gold. The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits.
One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the temple wall,
while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of other
cherub.(vv.10-11). Similarly one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long
and touched the other temple wall and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched
the wing of the first cherub. The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits.
They stood on their feet, facing the main hall. (vv.12-13). He made the curtain
of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, with cherubim worked into it…(v.14)
Bibliography,
Ryrie, Charles
C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible
Institute, 1986
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