Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right. We are in the book of First Chronicles and Second Chronicles today. On the back of your bulletin, you will see the outline that we will walk through today. And this is the last message in the series. It's been a lot of them, I think 38 of them, 39 of them now. And I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I have. If you haven't been with us for this whole series, you can go back online on YouTube and watch all of them. You can, if you like, to listen to podcasts as well. They're available in that platform. But this will be the last of them in first and Second Chronicles today. And this book gives a good overview on many of the things that we have covered, but also focus us. Focuses us in. In the right way as well.
[00:00:44] Let's pray together, and then we will dive right into what we have before us.
[00:00:51] Thank you, Father, for your incredible love for us that we experience in so many different ways as we even today in the songs that we're singing, reminding ourselves of our new life that we can have in you, to be able to come before you as a holy God, a righteous God, God who is pure, who is everlasting, and know that we are known by you. Not just we know who you are, but you know us intimately, personally.
[00:01:22] Thank you for that comfort that we can have this morning with wherever we might be, all those in this room and watching, listening, wherever we might be, we know that to be true. You know us, you see us, you care for us as we spend time in your word. I just pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to the things you want us to see, the things that I say would be from you.
[00:01:44] We thank you that we are able to come before you in this way. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:01:50] Well, reframing something has a lot of power. Has a lot of power. You can look at the same situation from a different angle, and it can bring significant difference to how you view whatever that situation is or how you feel about whatever that situation is.
[00:02:09] This principle of reframing is going to guide our time in this book. I want to give you an example, though, of what reframing looks like before we go into the details of this book and how it really comes to life in this way. Here is an example of reframing. So. And you know what? Since we're talking about framing, I brought some frames with me here today, because we can't talk about framing without some frames. So I have two frames here. I'm going to have this be the first frame. This will be the second frame. I'm going to leave them right here for now until they become a problem for me.
[00:02:46] Probably won't be too long, but there's some framing. So here's the original frame. There's an example here. Here's what you see on the screen. Here it is. I failed. Here's the information. I failed my college class and I got fired from my part time job in the what, in the same month. I am a complete loser and I'll never get my life together.
[00:03:08] Framing number one. All right, so then the same situation happened to this individual. But we're gonna reframe the story here. And we could phrase it like this. I hit a breaking point where I was trying to do too many things at once and I. What? Burnt out? Any of you have ever felt burnt out before?
[00:03:29] This forced me to clear my plate, to reevaluate what I actually want to study and do for work. And it gave me a clean slate to build from. So the same situation happened. This individual, whoever it is, they failed this college class. They got fired from their job. But they looked at it in two different ways. One of them, in the first framing their identity came to life. And you see this here, they saw that they were then a failure. That's how they identified themselves. I'm a failure because of what I did. And that was their, if you will, their identity. I'm a loser. I'm a failure.
[00:04:07] And this situation gave them, if you will, proof for that. And then what was the action that they took because of this new identity, because of this framing is I am going to amount to nothing. I should just sit back in despair.
[00:04:23] And we look at the same situation, reframed, and we see the meaning now is not just I am a complete failure, but now my identity is I need to be someone who's not directed by burnout, but I'm learning from my burnout and I'm adapting.
[00:04:39] Then outcome is I need to reassess my goals. I don't look at it and say I need to shrink down and become I'm a nobody, but I need to realize I need to redirect my life. Right? That's the power of. What are we calling this? Reframing? Can you say reframing?
[00:04:53] Reframing. So as we look at this book here, that is how we approach this book as reframing history.
[00:05:02] So what has happened so far? The audience that's being spoken to right now is a group of people that have left Babylon, left captivity, and they're sitting in despair. Can someone say despair?
[00:05:15] They're looking at their life through the first frame saying, look at all the things that have happened to us. We have completely like, we are failures here. God has left us. The ark of the covenant is gone. The temple does not look like what it used to look like. The walls, they don't look like what they used to look like. We have been forgotten by God.
[00:05:37] And so now what first and Second Chronicles does, is it what it reframes now? It doesn't say the things that in history are not true, but it says we need to look at this in a different way. Let's look at the snapshot. You have this. This is on the screen as well.
[00:05:55] That gives us kind of a good picture of what is coming in this book. The central theme of this book in Chronicles, first and Second Chronicles in our Bibles is the Davidic Covenant. Say that with me. The Davidic covenant. Right. There's a mouthful for us.
[00:06:09] And that will come up as we go through this book as the enduring basis of Israel's life and hope. The Davidic covenant is a promise that God made to David, stating that among other things, that his bloodline, David's bloodline, would not be destroyed and that in the end, a king would come from David to reign forever.
[00:06:31] On top of that, the characters throughout this book serve as examples, reminding us, the reader and the readers back then, that no matter their circumstances, obeying God. And this is kind of the second theme that we see through this. Obeying God brings blessing and disobedience brings what?
[00:06:49] Hardship. And that comes to life over and over as we look at this book. All right, these reframing, I'll use these later, but they're going to keep getting my way. So I'm going to put them down now and we'll talk about them later as we go through this. As you look in your Bibles, you see first and Second Chronicles. Originally this was just one book, Chronicles. We have them split into two books. And it is a coherent story as we go through it. So we can look at some books in the Bible and say, all right, I read the first book, but you would be remiss to skip out on the second book because it continues the reframing story of what we have found. Now, you know this. When we saw our example of reframing, there was the first narrative that happened. You saw that in the old frame where you are going to be able to read about this first, if you will, narrative is in first and Second Samuel and First And Second Kings. And that's what the people were considering and remembering. And first and Second Chronicles happens in your Bibles.
[00:07:50] First Samuel, Second Samuel, first and Second Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. What happens after that in your Bibles first and Second Chronicles, originally, the time frame that this was written is actually after all of the. After Ezra and Nehemiah, after they've come back from captivity. So chronologically, where it should be sitting, should be, if you will, sitting in your Bibles is the last book of the Old Testament. Because this then gives us a good picture of what we have talked about so far. Are you with me there?
[00:08:22] So that's why we're ending the series with this, because it gives us this proper and healthy reframing for how to approach the New Testament. Let's look at the basics on your outline. You can write this in the author, the date and the audience. You can quickly jot that down. Ezra is an assumed author. We don't know this for certain. He doesn't name himself in the book, but he is someone with lots of scribal training. He's a priest who's someone who seem to have access to temple records, all of which was as necessary in writing this book. The time frame, around 400 BC or so.
[00:08:57] Again, that's kind of the end period. We looked at Malachi last week here. Similar time frame, possibly a little bit later. And the way we can come to that conclusion is in chapter three of First Chronicles, there's a bunch of genealogies that are listed. And based on that information, we can say, okay, well, he must have been at some this late enough date to know this information. And then the audience is who? The Israelites. The Israelites, and that is. I'm going to use that kind of broadly. The people of Judah, the people of Benjamin in the southern nation, but also the other tribes. It's relevant for them as well. To give us a healthy picture of where we are in the world and the timeline. I put a couple pictures on the screen. We'll just go through them relatively quickly. I've shown you this before in weeks prior. You can see creation on one side, the. The little balloon representing celebration on the end, that is them returning from captivity. First and Second Chronicles quite literally covers this entire timeline. It starts off in your Bibles. The first word of 1st Chronicles, chapter 1, verse 1. What's the first word in your Bibles?
[00:10:03] Adam. Can we say that together? Adam. Notice Creation. Adam starts off at the very beginning. And at the end we're gonna see them coming back from Captivity. And. And it covers relatively quickly some of the things in those first few books. And then going on from there, go to the next slide there. I talked about this a little bit earlier. Chronicles covers a large portion of what happens in your Bibles. So when you're looking in first and second Chronicles, there's a lot of the major and minor prophets that have also happened in this timeline. Go to the next place. Where are we in the world?
[00:10:35] Judah. You can see there that little dot there above the northern side of Judah. That's Jerusalem. And. And that's where most of these people are that we are writing and reading about.
[00:10:46] All right, let's go to the outline. You can put this in on your outline here. You can go to the next section.
[00:10:51] What are we going to see here in this book? Well, I said a couple themes already.
[00:10:56] Again and again, we are going to find the author talking about Judah and Levi. Now, if you like to write things down, just note that because we're going to come back to it a few times. Judah and Levi are primary tribes that are talked about because those tribes represent the kingly line and the priestly line, the kingly line and the priestly line. And that's the reframing that the author of Chronicles wants us to have. Remember the priestly line. Remember the kingly line.
[00:11:25] And in First Chronicles, it focuses on David, and then Second Chronicles focuses on Solomon and some of the other kings. First Chronicles covers about 40 years. Second Chronicles covers about 200 years. So a chunk of time there. But overall, here's what the author wants us to realize.
[00:11:46] God is in control of all things. Amen.
[00:11:49] And as God's people, under God's control, you can find hope. In the midst of your frustration, in the midst of your despair, you're sitting here in and around Jerusalem, in Judea, you've left captivity. Your walls don't look like they used to. Your temple doesn't look like it used to. You're sending money to a foreign nation and you don't want to have to do that. You have no army anymore and you're thinking, God has abandoned us. And here's what the author wants them to realize. God is in complete control of all things. So don't lose hope. All right, let's look. Chapter one, let's start off.
[00:12:31] And this first section, you can write this in on your outline. Point one, there's four points. You'll see some other kind of sub points on the screen as we go through this first point on your outline. Is this the genealogy of Israel the genealogy of Israel in chapters one through nine. So riveting stuff here. Riveting. Have you all spent some time reading through genealogy?
[00:12:54] I mean, when you need something to do, this is the thing. So chapter one, verse one, it starts with Adam. We're going to go through all. No, we're not. We're not going to go through all of them. It starts off with Adam. Chapter one tells us Adam through Esau. You can put some of these things as I just kind of talk through them. And here you can read through a bunch of names there. Now, we are often in a place where we read through First Samuel and Second Samuel, and then we come to First Chronicles and. And we start off and say, whoa, that's a lot of names. I'm going to keep flipping my pages until I get to something that's not like that. And then we get to chapter 10, which you can leave the screens where it is now, but you get to chapter 10 and you realize, wait a minute, I've read a lot of this stuff already. I don't need to read first and second Chronicles. And you skip right over. Well, the reason we see a lot of the same things in first and second Chronicles is because it's reframed. Someone say reframed?
[00:13:48] Because we're focusing on what God wants us to pay attention to. So chapter one is Adam to Esau. Chapters two through eight is the tribes of Israel. And so you'll see that they're kind of flipping your Bibles, tap on your screens, whatever you're doing there. But following as we go through this, you can see this in chapter three, four, five, the tribes of Israel listed off there. As you get to chapter nine, you'll see something happens. It takes a leap in timeline and jumps to after captivity in chapter nine. And it lists off the genealogy of those who have returned from Babylon, which at first you look at it and you're like, wait a minute, we're talking about, like, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then we're talking about Jacob's kids, and then we're talking about like, all of their kids. And then we take a leap in chapter nine because of this reason.
[00:14:38] The author wants to remind everybody who's come back from captivity to God remembers you.
[00:14:44] God remembers you. You might think that you had this wonderful time back there and God knew you then, but now God has forgotten you. That is not the case. And that's why in chapter nine, we see a list again, leaning into the Levites and the tribe of Judah of their ancestors.
[00:15:01] So why is this important? For us. And then we'll go to point two. Here's why.
[00:15:06] To every name there is a story.
[00:15:09] To every name there is a father and a mother. And to many of those there's sons and daughters. To every name there is a tribe attached. To every name they are known by God. They have not been forgotten after 70 years of exile.
[00:15:23] Now what do you and I do with this some years later as we look at this? Well, it's fascinating to be able to look through and see some names and remember some stories attached to this. But in 2026, what can you and I do with this?
[00:15:35] You can gift this to that family you know, is having a child who doesn't know what to name their coming baby.
[00:15:44] They need baby names. And chapters one through nine are stocked full of great names. So gift this to somebody when they're thinking, I don't know, you know, you can buy those books, those baby name books. Chapters one through nine, First Chronicles. God made it first. All right, let's look at at point two together.
[00:16:03] The United Kingdom. The United Kingdom. David specifically focusing on his Life in chapters 10 through 29. Now we spend time with the greatest king that was to live in their nation. The author leaves what's interesting about this flip through in your Bible is the author leaves out a bunch of stories that are negative about David. They now it's not because the author is saying those things didn't exist. Things like for example, his adultery and his murder with Bathsheba and her husband and many other things that he did wrong or demonstrated David's weakness, like him running from Saul in the wilderness. You're not going to find that in First Chronicles. And the reason is this. The author is pointing us towards David as a significant and wonderful person that is going to bring about a king that is going to or that's going to bring about descendants that's going to lead to a king that's going to sit on a throne forever. So the author is saying look at how great David is and then leans into a bunch of the really, really good things about his life. It doesn't leave out all of the bad things, but many of the things it leans into and says look at this guy, Saul, the first king of Israel. I think it gives him like 10 or 14 verses or something like that. The rest of it David. So let's look at it kind of break it down pretty quickly here. David's Life in chapters 10 through 12. This is on the screen, David's rise to power. Here's what it says about Saul and the transition. It's on the screen. You can see this here. So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the commands of the Lord. He also consulted a median seeking guidance, which, again, not supposed to be happening. He did not seek the guidance of the Lord. The therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over. To who?
[00:17:54] To David, the son of Jesse. One of the things I said at the beginning is this. The author wants us to realize something.
[00:18:02] When you honor God and obey God, you'll often experience blessing. When you dishonor, disobey God, you often experience disappointment or consequences because of that. We see this right out of the gate. In chapter 10, he lists Saul. Saul did broke faith. He consulted a median. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. And so the Lord said, I'm removing you as King David. On the other hand, we can see this in chapters 13 through 16. Keep going. There on the slides you can see David obeyed God. He moved the ark of the Covenant into the city. This is when you have the story of David dancing and his wife gets really upset with him. That's where you can read about this. In chapters 13 through 16, he also seeks God. He prays, says God, what do you want me to do? God guides him. He obeys military victory after military victory. And then we come to chapter 17, and we need to pause because chapter 17 is probably the most significant chapter in the Book of Chronicles, because that's where the Davidic covenant is made with David.
[00:19:06] David here come before the Lord.
[00:19:11] He is praying. And God says that God is going to. Among other things, God is going to ensure that there will always be somebody from the bloodline of David that is remembered as the kingly tribe. And in the end, who's gonna come from the line of David?
[00:19:27] Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And so in Matthew, chapter one, the gospel that focuses on Jesus being king starts off with a genealogy. And who is in that genealogy that leads to Jesus?
[00:19:41] David is.
[00:19:43] Luke, chapter one. We find the angel Gabriel tells Mary that you're gonna have a son, and he's gonna come from the line of who?
[00:19:50] Of David. Again, Acts, chapter two, Peter. He's preaching. He tells the people that he's preaching to this guy that you killed, that you put on a cross. He came from the line of who?
[00:20:01] David. Over and over again, we see that chapter 17, verse 11 and 12. I think I put it on the screen for us as well. That tells us, here's what a portion of this promise is. When your days are fulfilled with your fathers, that is when you're going to die. I will raise up offspring after you, one of your own sons. And I will establish his kingdom.
[00:20:19] Then we see in verse 12, he shall build a house for me, speaking of Solomon. And then afterwards, we jump forward a little bit. I will establish his throne. For in chapters 18 through 20, we have chapters literally dedicated to look at all the battles that David won. David was a military man. He killed a lot of people, a lot of them.
[00:20:42] In all of the things we see David honoring and obeying God. But then chapters 21 and following meet us.
[00:20:52] And the tail end of the David's life, he does something that Chronicles points out. Chronicles, like I said, leaves off a lot of the other things that David did wrong.
[00:21:01] Points out this specifically. He says that this. You can read this in chapter 21. And following it says this. Satan moved the heart of David so that he took a census.
[00:21:12] And he was not to do this for various reasons that we don't have time to dive into. But in short, it demonstrated his dependence on his military men, not on God. And because David demonstrated his dependence on his military men, he said, this is whom I'm going to trust in. And I'm going to celebrate the number of military people that I have rather than the God who has guided me. The consequence was this. 70,000 people died.
[00:21:39] Remember that principle that we saw earlier? When you obey God, God continues to bless and work there. That's the reframing that the author is trying to point us to. But when you disobey, there's consequences in the end. At David's life, it comes to a close. Here, David mirrored the heart of God. But Jesus would come as the perfect manifestation of God.
[00:22:02] In a way, David was a shadow of what was to come. And that in many ways is what the author is trying to show us. Look at all of the things that God did through this person. But there's a greater king coming. Amen.
[00:22:13] Point three on your outline, we have the United Kingdom. With David leading, we jump right into the next book. But it's the continuation of the same story. David has been crowned king at the end of First Chronicles.
[00:22:27] Second Chronicles starts off with really where his dad left off. One of the key aspects of the end of First Chronicles is David preparing the which I didn't comment on a moment ago. But David says, God, you have the Ark of the Covenant. I'm dwelling in this beautiful house. You don't have something like that. I want to build you a house. And God Says, well, you are a man of war, right? You have a lot of blood on your hands. So I'm not going to let you build me a temple. Rather, your son can do that. And so what David does is he starts stockpiling a bunch of resources and says, all right, I'm going to get ready for. I'm going to get this ready for my son. So he gets it all ready. And then the end of First Chronicles, he dies. Second Chronicles starts off, and Solomon says, all right, my dad got a bunch of stuff ready. What are we going to be building?
[00:23:19] The temple. And so that's where he starts off. Point A there. You can list that there in chapters one through four of two Chronicles, Solomon says, it's time to start building.
[00:23:30] It's time to start building.
[00:23:32] And the key here in this, you look in your Bibles in two Chronicles, the key here is splendor. It's beauty. I want to make the most beautiful temple for God that I can.
[00:23:45] We have a phrase. Spare no expense. I'm sure that was David's as well. I'm Solomon's as well as he was building. Elegance, precision. You can read through this on your own. Chapters one through four, the amount of effort, because he was looking at this and saying, I can't let the presence of God dwell in a place that is not beautiful. In the words of Mary Poppins, it was practically perfect. In every way, this place was beautiful.
[00:24:16] And why was it so beautiful? Perhaps because God led him to say, this is supposed to be, in some ways, a shadowing, a foreshadowing of another temple, if you will, that will come. Jesus spoke of himself as a what?
[00:24:31] As a temple? Here's what he says in Matthew 12. Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. Later on, he says this. Destroy this temple, and in how many days?
[00:24:41] Three days. I will raise it up again. And then Revelation, chapter 21. John sees a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. And there was no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its. Can you guess? Temple.
[00:24:56] In Solomon's day, God's physical manifestation was seen there, was celebrated in this temple. And now, as followers of Jesus.
[00:25:06] Who does it say that is the temple of the Holy Spirit, of the temple of God, you and I, the church.
[00:25:14] This is a beautiful thing. And so we see here how much care Solomon put into this, which for us we could quickly parallel here. And then I ask myself this question. Maybe you can ask yourself this question. Do I treat my own body in A way that is honoring to God. If he calls me a temple, if you will, of the Holy Spirit.
[00:25:35] This tells us we should care about our dwelling and also the church that we have around us. God cares about this kind of purity. We go on to chapters five through seven. Go on a little bit further. We have something else that's really special with the temple.
[00:25:51] The temple is finally built, and everyone is rejoicing. And there's a time Solomon gathers all of the leaders together, the priests together. And then it says this, that a cloud came and filled the temple. So much so that the people could not stand there. And here's what they said. For he is good, his steadfast. We sing this song, don't we? His. His steadfast love endures forever. That's what the people said there. Flipping your bibles to chapter six of 2 Chronicles. I'm going to read this. We're going to read this together here. This is so good, so important for us to see here. Chapter 6 of 2 Chronicles, starting in verse 40, is where I want us to be. This is the conclusion of the dedication has happened or is happening here. And here's what it says now. Oh, my God, let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to the prayer of this place here, the temple that he's talking about. Listen what he says. And now arise, O Lord God, and go to your resting place. He's asking God, come here to the temple, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation. And let your saints rejoice in your goodness, O Lord God. Do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember your steadfast love for your servant. Who, David. We've talked about him already. And listen to this. Chapter seven. This is so good. As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, what happened? Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings. And the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord fell, filled the house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire that came down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed with their faces to the ground. Friends, this is the right response to the presence of the Lord and to the pavement. And they worshiped and they gave thanks to the Lord. And again they said this. For he is good and his steadfast love endures what, forever?
[00:27:59] This is the kind of rejoicing then that we're seeing. If you look further on, you see rejoicing that takes place because of this and more sacrificing that takes place celebrating the presence of God in the temple. This the reason this is here, here's my reframing is because the author wants to remind them we prayed and the presence of God showed up at the temple here. He did not forget the temple. He did not forget his people. And so he. He is not forgetting you as well. Even though you're years removed, God has not forgotten you. What I love about this is this.
[00:28:35] In Acts 2 we see first portion of Acts really we see this instead of Jesus leaving and saying, go and sit in the temple, disciples, and wait for my presence to show up there. He says, go into the city and where did the fire, if you will, the tongues of fire. Did the tongues of fire representing the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, did it go to the temple or did it go somewhere else? Where did it go?
[00:29:00] Right above the people's heads. This shows us something. The presence of God is now moving. Instead of go to the temple in order to worship God, now you can worship. Jesus talked about this, right? John 4 says, now the Spirit of God is going to dwell in mankind. Who is the temple of the Lord?
[00:29:18] You and I, we see this celebrated in actually when the fire comes down. Fire came down here at the temple, saying, this is where the presence of God is. And now for you and I, as post resurrection people, we get to experience the presence and the power of God in you and I.
[00:29:33] What a powerful reminder here.
[00:29:36] So then Solomon says, this God I want you to remember. And God says, listen, there's gonna be times your people walk. My people walk away. My. But chapter 7, verse 14 says this. But if they walk away, that's gonna happen. Chapter 7, verse 14 says a verse that you and I know. He says, but if my people who are called by my name, if they humble themselves and pray, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land. Here's what God is saying. I will not forget these people. And to the people post Babylon who are sitting in a time where they think God has forgotten them, they this verse is for them. Humble yourselves, seek the Lord and he will show you his presence. Solomon's accomplishments and renown is referenced in chapters eight through nine of two Chronicles. You can go on a little bit further there.
[00:30:29] And that lists how powerful he was. It says that the Queen of Sheba came and saw his splendor and praised God because of the power and the influence that Solomon had. We also see that Solomon's wealth was so significant that this is fascinating. It says this that silver and gold in the kingdom of Solomon were as common as a stone.
[00:30:52] Wouldn't you like that today? You go outside to your little planter box and there's just gold sitting there.
[00:30:59] You're like, oh, it's just some more gold.
[00:31:02] That's how common, how wealthy his nation was. Why? Because he was honoring God. Now, Second Chronicles does not reference all that Solomon did in the latter years where he started to dishonor God and marry other wives. What we do see in point four, you could draw this in on your outline. Is this the divide to the return?
[00:31:21] This is the last portion here in chapters 10 through 36, where we see the end of Solomon's life and what happens to the kingdom after he dies.
[00:31:31] It parts ways, it divides, it goes in two directions. And here we see a bunch of kings that followed Solomon, that led to the exile and then return of the people.
[00:31:44] So this section covers many years. If you remember, in First Kings, when we covered it, we looked at a lot of the kings of the northern tribe. What was the northern area called? Israel. Right. This portion in Chronicles covers the kings in the southern portion, Judah. And here we see king after king. And we get. If you read through chapters 10 through 35, you'll see a bunch of the kings. And here's the question that Chronicles wrestles with. Two questions.
[00:32:13] Maybe you like to write things down. Here's the two questions that you can really filter everything through with. With these kings, it's this.
[00:32:20] To the king, when you seek God, or to the people, I should say, when you see God, look what will happen.
[00:32:26] When you reject God, look what will happen. And the kings serve as if you will, case studies for those two questions. So if we were to ask the people post exile if you were to serve God or if you're going to reject God, and let's look at the kings and see what happened with them. I put a slide on the screen for you that gives you a picture of a bunch of the kings of Judah. And there's a lot of them. We're not talking about all of them, but it tells you the number. There is their length of years that they reigned as king in Judah. And then eight of those kings were good kings, or mostly good kings. The rest of them were what disobedient kings were bad kings that did not honor God. And then the very last chapter of the book, the end of your outline portion, is what's the last chapter of 2 Chronicles. What number is it?
[00:33:20] 36. It just tells me you're still flipping there, right? 36. Judah's Rebellion and restoration. And this chapter summarizes a lot of years in one chapter. Here's what it says, the very end. You can flip there. In your Bibles, it says that Babylon came, took Jerusalem and the people there into captivity. They were in captivity for how many years?
[00:33:41] How many years?
[00:33:42] 70 years. It says that there as well. So to tuck that number away in your mind, they were in captivity for 70 years. And then after that, it says this that God moved the heart of King Cyrus. Put that verse on the screen. In verse 23 of 2 Chronicles 36, it says this. Thus Cyrus, king of Persia, says this. The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me to build for him a house at Jerusalem, which is in where Judah. This is when he's gonna let people go. Whoever is among you of his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up. Here's what the king is saying to all the people in captivity. You can go. God has stirred my heart. You know that God can work in the hearts of pagan people.
[00:34:26] That is comforting for us. Now, I don't know what your opinion is of the recent results of all the voting and everything, but this truth needs to sit with us, that no matter someone's political position, no matter their stance, God can use a king who worships a bunch of other gods.
[00:34:49] He can use a king who has done atrocious things and say, you know what?
[00:34:55] I'm going to move your heart to do what I want you to do.
[00:35:00] Now, we don't see that this king went to Jerusalem and bowed before the Lord and surrendered his life to him.
[00:35:06] But every decision that a king makes is still, regardless of their position in their relationship with God, is still under the mighty hand of God. And so whoever is in the White House, whoever is governor, whoever is wherever those positions are, God is not out of control in any of those places. And that also is what the reframing offers to the people of Israel. You are frustrated because the person in charge of you right now is this guy in Persia, this guy who is you have to send money to, and you just don't like it. And here's what God says, I'm in control of him too, and I have let him be in that position.
[00:35:43] And then at the very end, we see that Zerubbabel leads the people back to Jerusalem. The reframing is done. And the picture that everybody has.
[00:35:55] Here's my frames here is not. This is not. God has forgotten us, and he doesn't care about us because we were just stuck in captivity. And our temple looks bad and our walls look bad. The reframing that the author of Chronicles just did is. You saw from Adam to your day right now that God has not. What, forgotten you? God has not. And he has worked through all of the situations that you thought were terrible. Really, God was shaping and working in the background. Because one day, someone is going to come from the line of David. Now, the person who led the people from Babylon back to Judah, his name starts with a Z. Anyone want to guess?
[00:36:35] Zerubbabel.
[00:36:37] Who is the great, great, great, great, great, great lot of greats grandfather of Zerubbabel? Anyone want to take a guess?
[00:36:44] David.
[00:36:46] You know who else is in the line of Zerubbabel? Jesus.
[00:36:50] God showed them this. He says, look, I made a promise with David that I would not forget his leadership. And in the end, Jesus is going to come from it. And now for everybody who just came back from Babylon, who's thinking God's forgotten us, they're like, wait a minute, Chronicles.
[00:37:06] Wait a minute. Zerubbabel, the leader who brought us back here, is literally a descendant of David, is literally a reminder for all of us that God has not abandoned us. Now, in the end, what do we see for the Savior portion? And then we're gonna go a little bit further here. There's good news for all of us, including them listening here.
[00:37:24] Jesus is the perfect king. You could write that in on your outline. Under the Savior, Jesus is the perfect king. Now, we saw David listed off as kind of like a really good king. We saw Solomon listed as a really good king, but they both still had faults. We saw a bunch of other kings after the nations divided. And many of those kings were not good. But who is the only good and perfect king?
[00:37:47] Jesus Christ. And in chapter 17, we're reminded that the God will bring about a king who will have a throne that will be established not for a little bit of time, but forever.
[00:38:00] Luke, chapter one. On the screen here, he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. This is the angel speaking to his mother, to Mary. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And his kingdom, there will be no end.
[00:38:19] Again and again, we find kings who have obeyed and disobeyed and obeyed and disobeyed. And Jesus comes onto the scene and says, I got this, I got this. And because of that, he is the ultimate savior.
[00:38:31] That's point two on your outline. You can write that in under, under for under savior.
[00:38:37] Because of this, many of the people of Israel were looking to the king saying, which of you are going to save us? Which of you are going to be a king? That is going to bring freedom for us. And Jesus comes as the ultimate savior and says, all of you didn't do it, but I'm going to show up on the scene because none of you are good enough to bring about your ultimate freedom. But I am. I love this verse in Hebrews chapter 7, verses 23 and following. It's on the screen here that reminds us that Jesus is not just. And that should say ultimate savior, not priest. By the way, that's my bad numbers, chapter seven of Hebrews. Look at this on the screen. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death they from continuing in office. But he, Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. That is, Jesus will not die again.
[00:39:32] Consequently he, the eternal perfect priest. Jesus is able to save to the what uttermost? No matter who you are or how far away you are from God, he is able to save to the what's the word? To the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. Because he is both the priest and he's the sacrifice, since he always lives to make intercession for all people or for no matter how far you are from God, Jesus is strong enough to reach you and save you. Isn't that good news? So no matter how far you might. Because we frame our life like that, right? Like the guy in the, like the first story, right? The reframing is God. Look at how much I have messed up. Look at all the things that I have done wrong. Look at how much of a failure that I am. Do you know, I would never tell anybody about that one thing that I did way back then because they're going to look at me and they're gonna pigeonhole me into this whatever term that it is. I made that choice way back then. I'm probably not good enough for you either.
[00:40:34] I'm not good enough for these nice cleaned up people at church. I'm not good enough for whatever the thing is, because look at how much I have messed up my life.
[00:40:42] And then Jesus shows up on the scene and he says it's time to reframe and say, you know what? Yes, all of those things have happened and I am able to save to the what?
[00:40:56] To the uttermost.
[00:40:58] So that when I see you, and when others see you, they see a child of God. They say, a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come.
[00:41:09] And so if you've never trusted in Jesus, that's the reality. You can't save yourself, no matter how good you might think you are. God says this, come to Jesus.
[00:41:21] Here's what else we see as well in the God portion under the application. If you like to write things down. I put one verse on the screen for us that just jumped out at me. First Chronicles 28, 9, and 10.
[00:41:33] Here's what it says, and this is application. And I just want you to see maybe some application that you can get from this verse here.
[00:41:41] And you, my son. Solomon, this is.
[00:41:45] And you, Solomon, my son. This is David speaking. Know this is right before he dies. Know the God of your Father and serve him with your whole heart and with a willing mind for the Lord. And what does this teach us about God? This is something that we can learn about God. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be what found by you. This is something we know. We learn about God. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off. This is true, friends.
[00:42:14] If you forsake God, if you look at all the things about God and say, you know what? I'm gonna reject Jesus. God's gonna say, okay, I'm gonna let you go. All of us are already on the way to hell without Jesus.
[00:42:25] When you are born, you are already born a rebel of God.
[00:42:29] Jesus says, I can save you from that. But if you choose to reject Jesus, hell is the destination that everybody is going without Jesus. This is sad news, but it is true.
[00:42:40] So verse 10. Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. So be strong and do it. Here's what we can learn here is this. If God has called you to do it, do it, no matter how hard it might be. Listen to what God has for you. Be strong and do it. Depend on the strength that he has given you.
[00:43:01] What does this teach us about humanity?
[00:43:03] Let's move forward a little bit on the screen there.
[00:43:06] It is easy for us to forget what God has done and how he has worked, isn't it? It is so easy to forget what God did in your life or in my life five years ago. That was only five years ago. We, like, scold these folks for forgetting something that God did 50 years ago.
[00:43:25] We forget what God has done five years ago. And for many of us, maybe even five months ago or five weeks ago.
[00:43:30] It is easy for us to get what God has done. Forget what God has done and how God has worked. When we stop learning from our history, we set ourselves up to fail in the future. This is true in many areas of life. So look back. What has God taught you? What has God done? Learn from that. There's value in history.
[00:43:50] And the last. I put this in the first person here, me, it's this. The perspective or the lens or the frame through which I look at the world will significantly impact my belief, my feelings and my actions. We saw this true of the people of Israel. We know this to be true of our life as well. So here's the personal question. Do I regularly ask God to help me see my life and the world around me and the people around me the way that he does?
[00:44:21] Because if I look at my life through my own lens, it's not always going to lead to right action. If I look at the world around me through my own lens, look at those people out there that are just messed up and whatever the things are that's going to inform my actions.
[00:44:34] But if I look at the people around me, the situations around me through the lens that God wants me to have, that's going to inform my actions in the right way.
[00:44:43] We look at all of this together. In conclusion, I'll just say this. This is so, so important for us to just remember God wants to work in every one of our lives in a unique way.
[00:44:56] So listen to him and there's gonna be times it's frustrating and it's hard. We see that over and over again. So spend time. I encourage you this week, Spend time, get on your knees and ask God, reframe the way I'm looking at something, Reframe what I'm disappointed about. Reframe what is hard for me. Help me to see that. Maybe it's still gonna be hard, but give me strength to press on. Let's close in prayer.
[00:45:21] Father in heaven, thank you. That you are a God who sees all things, that no matter the situation we are walking through, you know the other side of it.
[00:45:30] And we see here the audience in this book that is struggling, that is dealing with hardship, real hardship. It doesn't mean the hardship suddenly went away with this reframing, but it gives them encouragement to press on.
[00:45:43] Lord, I pray that you would be with those here today, right now, who are struggling, who are hurting, who are striving to press on in the midst of discouragement. Lord, that you would give them strength. That you would help us as a church family to encourage one another. Well, that we would not disregard the hard situations we might be in, but that we would also look to you for strength and for hope.
[00:46:05] That we would encourage one another and allow you to encourage us.
[00:46:09] For those here today who have never trusted in you, Lord, I pray that you will work in their heart in a unique and special way.
[00:46:17] Thank you that you gave us the opportunity, the ability to abide with you, to connect with you.
[00:46:22] I pray that you would help us to do that today.
[00:46:25] In Jesus name, amen.
