The Basics of: 1 & 2 Chronicles
Because even Christians need to be told things twice in order to retain it.
Welcome back to another episode of Do I Really Have To Read This?
I’m your host, the Rev. Dr., and I’m thrilled you’re still here.
If you’re wondering where I’ve been, I would tell you that I have had a sickness. If you’re not wondering, now you know anyways.
Today, on this fine Tuesday, we are going to be keepin’ it simple and keepin’ it brief on the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles.
Why are we keepin’ it simple and keepin’ it brief? Because, my friend, you’ve already (basically) read Chronicles!
In the Hebrew Bible, “Chronicles” is Dibre Hayyamim, roughly meaning “the events of the years.”
Let me break it down a bit further for you: that Hebrew term literally means that Chronicles is chronicling everything major that happened in the not-so-distant-to-them past. FURTHERMORE, Chronicles is basically a summary of everything you read from 1 Samuel to 2 Kings.
Sometimes there are little snippets that you didn’t read before, sometimes there is repetition. The story should be familiar to you at this point, so consider it the Cliff Notes if you didn’t want to read 1 Samuel to 2 Kings.
But more importantly, and this may make some people mad (but I’m the Rev. Dr. and I don't care), 1 and 2 Chronicles is entirely supplemental.
Yeah. I said it.
It’s supplemental. If you read it alone, you will feel a bit confused. It’s meant to be read along with Samuel and Kings. It’s a supplement to those books. Can you read it as a stand alone? Sure, but I don’t recommend it. Its primary goal, when being chosen by the council of old guys back in the day, was to have another collection of books of narrative and historical matter that could back up previous dates and events of the previous books.
A.k.a. They wanted you know that they had references and receipts AND were ready to battle you on Facebook about it.
Let me give you a little BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE.
When both Kingdoms (remember how Israel broke up, formed separate countries, sucked at governing them and then got subsequently conquered? Yeah. Those kingdoms) were conquered, their temple in Jerusalem (and all of Jerusalem for that matter) was destroyed. A majority of the Israelites were kicked out, especially those who had any kind of political power, as a way of saying “screw you David!”
“Rev. Dr., what does that mean?” It means that both Kingdoms were running as a monarchy. It means that each king was the great-great-great grandson of another king. Babylon wanted to end the monarchy, and in turn, end their hope for ever being a united front. Babylon sucked. They hated Babylon, and honestly I get it.
Until, PLOT TWIST, Babylon was conquered. There was a Persian guy, Cyrus the Great (I’m sure you’ve heard of him and if you haven’t, get a subscription to the History Channel), who conquered Babylon in 539 BC give or take, and went about changing the rules of how Babylon would be run, i.e. making it more Persian.
Cyrus let a lot of the exiled Israelite folk go back home, “wow, how nice of him!”, so they could rebuild their cities and their faith. All around, he was a decent dude if you don’t count the murders and wars. Cyrus allowed many Israelites to be apart of the Persian government, though they didn’t have full freedom in many ways. A little is better than none, so…..there you go.
Because of all of that, it’s important to understand the timeline when reading 1 and 2 Chronicles:
The monarchy of David happens for all of 1 Chronicles (remember, it’s a summary of everything you read in 1 Sam to 2 Kings already) through 2 Chronicles 9.
There’s a brief history of when the kingdoms divided and how they fell that happens in 2 Chronicles 10-36.
Captured by Babylon and it SUCKS, all happens in 2 Chronicles 36.
Cyrus saves the day, also happens in 2 Chronicles 36.
It’s also important to remember the timeline as we move further into the Old Testament. Without any background knowledge, you are going to view every book as whiney and annoying.
There was a reason they were whining.
There was a reason they were annoyed.
50% of the time, it was because of a foreign king, a foreign people, or both.
The other 50% of the time, the whining and annoyance came from people bein’ dumb.
Welcome to humanity!
Remember how I said Chronicles is supplemental and infuriated half of the Christian world? Let me give you an example of why it’s supplemental:
In 2 Sam 24:17, good King David apologizes to God for doing something dumb, per usual (spoiler: David wanted a census and that was bad):
“Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, ‘surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
Kinda vague, right? You wouldn’t really know exactly what he was apologizing for here.
Thanks to 1 Chronicles 21:17, the same moment is summarized where good King David gives a better and much fuller apology, which makes more sense when given the context of the situation:
“And David said to God, ‘was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”
The same situation, the same prayer, but more powerful. Chronicles is supplemental, but important to read because of this simple reason.
That’s it. That’s 1 and 2 Chronicles. Not so bad, right?
Go read with confidence. Thanks for being here.
