Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Author, Author
Let's start out with a simple question—who wrote this book?
This simple question doesn't have a simple answer because scholars just don't know. Like many books of the Bible, this one was written anonymously. It probably started out with one original author, but then the story was added to and changed over the years to become Chronicles in its current form.
Remember, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles were originally written as one book, so they have the same unknown author (and probably got the same editing treatment over the years). For a long time, scholars thought that Ezra and Nehemiah might have been written by the same person who wrote Chronicles, maybe Ezra the scribe himself. Ezra picks up right where 2 Chronicles leaves off, so that makes sense. To keep things simple, Shmoop just calls this anonymous author the Chronicler. That's most because he's, well, chronicling stuff, but also because we think it makes a pretty great superhero name, too.
Why'd He Do It?
Pretty much all the events in Chronicles get covered in greater detail elsewhere in the Bible. Why retell stories about the kings of Judah when there's already a whole book about them that's actually called Kings? Do we really need to rehash?
The Bible has never been shy about telling the same story twice. Deuteronomy is a recap of what happened in the four books that came before it. In fact "deuteronomy" is Greek for "second law." And the gospels tell the same story about Jesus four different times. Getting two versions of Solomon's story seems charmingly minimalist in comparison.
The Chronicler knows that we already read about these people and stories in 1 and 2 Kings and the books written by the prophets. Now he wants to put his own unique spin on them. The author is probably living in post-exile Jerusalem. The Jews are starting to return to the city from Babylon and they have a plan in place to rebuild the Temple that was destroyed by said Babylonians. It's the perfect time to retell stories about how the original Temple was built and the mistakes that led to its destruction and the peoples' exile (source: HarperCollins Bible Commentary. New York: HarperCollins. 2000. p. 312).
The author isn't trying to give us a history lesson. He knows we can get that somewhere else. His lessons are moral ones. We should look at the kings of Judah, see how they behaved, and adjust our attitudes toward God accordingly. If the people returning from exile can figure out how to renew their relationship with God, then they have a chance at establishing a lasting society. And if he has to gloss over some of the more sordid details of the past, it's only to avoid getting everyone discouraged.
It's Yahweh or the Highway
So how exactly does our author view God?
Well, he's clearly the thread that runs through all human life. He created the world and everyone in it, so we basically owe him our whole existence. He's had a covenant with Israel since way back in the day and he's promised to keep that agreement forever.
Some restrictions do apply though. Israel and God have a pretty reciprocal relationship. God will love and bless the Jewish people if, and only if, they stay loyal to him. That means trusting in him, seeking his guidance, praising him, and obeying his commandments. Just look what happens to anyone who crosses God:
- Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah; the Lord struck him down, and he died. (13:20)
- The Lord will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions, and you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out, day after day, because of the disease. (21:14-15)
- When the chief priest Azariah, and all the priests, looked at him, he was leprous in his forehead. They hurried him out, and he himself hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. King Uzziah was leprous to the day of his death, and being leprous lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. (26:20-21)
- The wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy. Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their youths with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or young woman, the aged or the feeble; he gave them all into his hand. (36:16-17)
This is a pretty simplistic view: if you do good things, you'll be rewarded. If you do bad things, God's wrath will rain down on you. The fact that Solomon had a long and wealthy reign was proof that he was devoted to God. His son Rehoboam starts worshipping other gods, and the rest of the kings of Judah are a mixed bag. The ones who follow God and honor his laws get rewarded with riches, power, and strength on the battlefield. The guys that don't? They get struck with leprosy or having their guts fall out or dying in battle.
In reality, life rarely works like this. That's probably why years later, a skeptic would write the book of Job to ponder the exact opposite point—sometimes bad things do happen to good people.
Divine Right
Why did the people tolerate all the bad rulers chronicled in this book? How did some of these kings even make it to the throne? Easy—they were there because God put them there. God promised that the descendants of David would rule in eternity, and all these monarchs—good or evil—were in the Davidic line. When Jeroboam and the 10 northern tribes challenged Rehoboam's rule, they split off into a separate Kingdom of Israel that was ultimately destroyed by the Assyrians because of their idol-worshipping ways. God stays with Judah and its Davidic kings for a couple more centuries until he'd absolutely had it with them. After the exiles return from Babylon, there are no more kings.
Temple Run
In this half of Chronicles, we finally get to see the Temple in all its glory. We're talking walls made of gold, luxe fabrics, and angels and jewels everywhere. But aside from being beautiful to look at, the Temple was also the center of Jewish life. Worshipping in the Temple was how the Southern Kingdom of Judah kept its relationship with God. The daily rituals and sacrifices were the method of worship, thanksgiving, and atonement. This is why the Chronicler goes into so much about the design and staffing of the Temple. It was important to have all the details right, based on the specific instructions God gave to Moses back in the day.
And what's the most crucial detail about the Temple? Where it's located—in Jerusalem. Back in 1 Chronicles, God told David the exact spot to build it on and that's where Solomon sets it. Because God declared that the Temple could only be in that place in Jerusalem, you couldn't worship him properly in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And you couldn't worship him properly in Babylon. The only place where it was appropriate to offer sacrifices and perform these rituals was on the very spot that God designated.