Sheba

It is one thing to hear about something. It is another thing to see it yourself.

2 Chronicles 9:3 When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had built, 4 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, the cupbearers in their robes and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.
5 She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 6 But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me; you have far exceeded the report I heard.

Sometimes we just have to experience things. See it, breathe it, feel it.

reasoning

Here's a verse I didn't quite get the reasoning on:

2 Chronicles 8:11 Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, "My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy."

-wasn't she living in the palace of David when he brought her up?
-wouldn't that make her feel bad knowing that she could not go to holy places? why did he marry her if that was going to be a problem? wouldn't you feel bad being told that you would defile a place?
-am I missing something?

Time

After Solomon prays the prayer in 2 Chr. 6 "the glory of the LORD filled the temple". There was some sort of physical presence of God on Earth. The priests could not enter the temple because of this. Then the people take about 8 days to sacrifice and celebrate. 8 days! That's a long time. But God must have been pleased with the dedication as He speaks to Solomon and part of it is this:

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land

Which, while I knew the verse before, I hadn't seen it as an echo to what Solomon prayed earlier until now.

Hear from heaven

I really enjoyed 2 Chronicles 6, especially Solomon's prayer of dedication. This part gets repeated a number of times, looking at different situations, but the same idea:

21 Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

If we turn to Him, He can hear from heaven and forgive. And oh, how we need that so much.

Lord, hear our prayers and forgive us.

Equality

In 1 Chronicles there are lots of lists of families. Lots of honourable families. I found this verse interesting at the end of 1 Chronicles 24

The families of the oldest brother were treated the same as those of the youngest.

This is referring to the casting of lots. That each family had equal opportunity to be pulled for any lot. And whatever lot you got, that was it. It was all equal. You got your shot, now sit in your lot. (though I think the lots were for jobs)

There is another comment about the census in chapter 27:

23 David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less, because the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. 24 Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. Wrath came on Israel on account of this numbering, and the number was not entered in the book of the annals of King David.

So Joab put all that work into the census and they all got punished for it and the work was all in vain, because it wasn't what God wanted them to be doing.

Census

I'm sure this verse gets lots of discussion. After David does a whole bunch of battles and settles down, this happens:

1 Chronicles 21:1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

Now a census doesn't seem like a bad thing, but evidently it is some sort of bad thing as when David tells Joab to do it, Joab is like- what are you doing buddy? Joab knew it was wrong. For what reason it was wrong I don't know. Maybe counting your troops makes you think you can accomplishing things in your own strength so they weren't allowed to count them.
But Joab does the census because David insisted and Israel gets punished, though David takes responsibility, At the end:

1 Chronicles 21:29 The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

Because he did something wrong, it caused a block in his relationship with God.

Chronicling

I'm about half way through 1 Chronicles. I thought I had written a post on it earlier but I guess not.
Some things that stuck out
-Tamar, Judah's daughter in law that he slept with when she pretended to be a prostitute is in Jesus' family tree
-Joab, Asahel and Amasa that were in the story of David back a few books, were his (David's) cousins. I don't think I had grasped that before.
-in 1 Chronicles 12 the fighting men come "fully determined to make David king over Israel" (v.38) and they do and they have a party and the result is "joy in Israel" (v. 40). Looks like unity brings joy.

We pray for unity in our Church and homes that we may have the joy You desire us to have in You.