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14. BIBLICAL EPIC: 2 Chronicles Notes

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14. BIBLICAL EPIC: 2 Chronicles Notes 14. BIBLICAL EPIC: 2 Chronicles Notes rown 2 Chron 1: Solomon made offerings. God said, "What shall I give you?" Solomon said, "Wisdom to rule this people." So Solomon ruled over Israel. • 1:1-6. Solomon Worships at Gibeon. Solomon’s journey to the Mosaic tabernacle and altar at Gibeon, like David’s mission to retrieve the Ark, is presented as a public enterprise that involves all Israel. Like David, Solomon maintains continuity with the Mosaic covenant as the foundation of his own reign. Solomon begins his reign as David instructed him (1 Chron 22:19), by worshiping God and seeking guidance. “High places” were commonly associated with hills or mountains in the OT world. Prior to the construction of the temple, high places were generic worship sites that were not necessarily connected with pagan worship. The negative connotation of high places begins after the completion of the temple, after which high places were associated with idolatry and syncretism. Solomon’s extensive sacrifice at Gibeon tangibly showed his reverence for God at the outset of his reign. • 1:7-13. Solomon’s Request for Wisdom. Solomon’s faithful seeking leads to a nighttime appearance of God (in a dream, according to 1 Kings 3:5), in which God invites Solomon to ask in prayer for whatever he desires. Solomon makes two requests: (1) that God would continue to bring the fullness of the Davidic covenant (and the Abrahamic covenant) to pass (looking forward to the completion of the temple, 2 Chron 6:17) and (2) that God would grant him wisdom and knowledge. Solomon, only about twenty years old at this time, asked for wisdom, demonstrating that he already had remarkable wisdom. His request for wisdom and knowledge is focused not on selfish ambition but on the need to govern God’s people wisely. God grants Solomon’s request and also promises him riches, possessions, and honor that he did not request. To this day, the name of Solomon is synonymous with wisdom and wealth. God’s answer to Solomon illustrates His propensity to do above and beyond what His people ask or think (Eph 3:20). • 1:14-17. Solomon’s Horses and Wealth. This is the first of two listings of Solomon’s wealth (9:13-28), demonstrating the fulfillment of God’s promise of wealth. A total of 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen was an extremely large resource. Pharaoh, in pursuing the Israelites at the Exodus, had 600 chariots (Exod 14:7) and Sisera had 900 (Judges 4:3). The size of Solomon’s army is noteworthy since he was not known as a man of war. Although these items are mentioned here as representative of Solomon’s material success, they were also a violation of God’s law, which stated that God’s king should not acquire horses from Egypt or accumulate large amounts of silver (Deut 17:16-17). 2 Chron 2: Solomon sent to King Hiram: "Send me cedars and a craftsman for the temple." Hiram replied, "The LORD has given David a wise son." • 2:1-10. Solomon’s Letter to Hiram. The central narrative of chapters 2 to 7 focuses on the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, which began in Solomon’s fourth year (ca. 966 BC) and was completed in the eleventh year of his reign (ca. 959 BC). In this chapter, God provides Solomon with the wealth, material, and workers to build the temple. Solomon used the forced labor of Canaanites living in the land for the construction work (see vv. 17-18). Despite all the materials that David had accumulated, Solomon needed more, particularly cedar wood. He also needed expert advice on how to work with these materials. So he wrote a letter to his father’s old trading partner, King Hiram of Tyre. The letter’s contents are considerably expanded from 1 Kings 5:3-6, and includes the purpose of the temple for regular and seasonal worship according to the Law of Moses, an expression of the supremacy and transcendence of Israel’s God (vv. 5-6), and requests a “skilled” craftsman (v. 7), along with different kinds of timber (v. 8). Solomon did not want Hiram to send a large labor force that might pose a military threat. The Hebrew for “skilled” also means “wise.” Its use here consciously echoes Solomon’s request for wisdom (1:10) and the wisdom and knowledge Solomon needs for building the temple. The word is also used in Prov 3:19-20 to describe God’s creation of the cosmos. In other words, these skilled workers appointed to construct God’s earthly dwelling place were equipped with the same qualities that God Himself used to construct the world. Such skilled craftsmanship also recalls the work of Oholiab on the wilderness tabernacle under the direction of Bezalel (Exod 31:1-11). • 2:11-16. Hiram’s Reply. Hiram’s letter of reply includes a Gentile’s acknowledgment of the LORD as Creator, and of God’s gift of wisdom to Solomon (v. 12), which is especially focused on the task of temple building. Hiram’s praise of the LORD should not be taken to mean that he was a true follower of God. People of that time generally believed that each nation had its own god who was effective for his people, but who would have no jurisdiction over other geographic areas. Hiram proposed to send Solomon a man named Huram-abi (v. 13), the son of an Israelite mother and a Tyrian father. He is likened to Oholiab (the mothers of both men are descended from Dan; see Exod 31:6), while Solomon the temple builder is implicitly compared to Bezalel, who directed the building of the tabernacle. • 2:17-18. Solomon’s Workforce. The 153,000 “resident aliens” (v. 17) were Canaanites whom the Israelites had failed to destroy in the conquest. Now they were used as forced laborers for the construction of the temple. 2 Chron 3: Solomon started work on the temple. He built the portico, the main hall, the Most Holy Place, two cherubim, the veil and two pillars. • 3:1-17. Solomon Builds the Temple. The Chronicler’s actual account of the construction of the temple is much briefer than his source (1 Kings 6). One profound detail that is added is that the temple’s location (Mount Zion) is also identified with Mount Moriah, where Abraham was commanded to offer Isaac (Gen 22:2). Solomon is helping to fulfill God’s ancient purpose to provide a sacrifice for His people, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. The temple measured about 90 feet by 30 feet (v. 3; or possibly on an alternative definition of the cubit it could be 105 feet by 35 feet), so it was not particularly large compared to many modern church buildings, and it did not function as a place of congregational worship. Only priests would have been admitted to the temple itself, and only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place, and only on the Day of Atonement. Most Israelites never saw the inside of the temple, let alone the Most Holy Place, so these descriptions of the temple provided a window into this unseen world for the Israelites then and for us today. In this chapter, the Chronicler leads his readers in their imagination through the vestibule (v. 4) into the ornate nave or Holy Place (vv. 5-7), then on to the Most Holy Place (vv. 8-13). The Most Holy Place was the secret, cube-shaped room (30 feet by 30 feet) in which the Ark of the Covenant would be finally deposited (5:7). The New Jerusalem is likewise a cube (Rev 21:16), perhaps in analogy to the Most Holy Place since there is no temple in the city (Rev 21:22). The Most Holy Place was separated from the rest of the sanctuary by a veil (v. 14), which represented the separation between a holy God and a fallen human race. The tearing of the veil (in Herod’s temple) at the death of Christ indicated that the “shadow” of the Mosaic institutions had now given way to the final sacrifice of Christ, with all its benefits. The numerous references to gold (vv. 4-10) and cherubim (vv. 7, 10- 14) highlight the splendor of the temple as the heavenly King’s earthly palace. The cherubim were angelic beings that combined human and animal features (cf. Ezek. 10:14; 41:18-19) and served as throne-guards to the Ark. The cherubim guards, combined with the precious stones and botanical artwork (palm trees, pomegranates, etc) also evoke memories of Eden, where God and sinless man dwelt together. Furthermore, the two free-standing pillars (covered with polished bronze, with names meaning “He will establish” [Jachin] and “strength is in Him” [Boaz]) stationed in the front of Solomon’s temple included a 7-8 foot ornate top that created a stylized tree image. 2 Chron 4: Solomon made an altar, the Sea, ten lavers, ten lampstands, ten tables and the courts for the temple. Huram- abi made the furnishings. • 4:1-22. The Temple’s Furnishings. The temple’s furnishings communicated the same message as that signified by the structure of the building: the presence of the holy God in the midst of His people, and His gracious provision of atonement and forgiveness. For the Chronicler’s own generation, the fact that these vessels had been returned from their Babylonian captivity (Ezra 1:3-11; 6:5) was a sign as well that they were still God’s covenant people and the heirs of His promises to David and Solomon.
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