Utumishi Blog

At our monthly ‘First Priority’ prayer meetings we’re going through the second half of 2 Chronicles, chapter by chapter (Spirit-led!). God’s already been teaching us some important things:

• 2 Chron. 15:1-15 – Revival is a move of the Spirit of God through the Word of God bringing wholehearted seeking of God
• 2 Chron. 15:16-16:14 – Pragmatism puts the brakes on revival

But Chronicles is not very familiar territory for any of us. If you look on the great Gospel Coalition site you’ll find precisely zero sermons on 2 Chronicles!  So let’s belatedly try to get our bearings…

First, a lightening overview:

• 1 Chron. 1-9 – Genealogies
• 1 Chron. 10-29 – David – esp. his preparations for the Temple
• 2 Chron. 1-9 – Solomon – esp. his establishment of the Temple
• 2 Chron. 10-35 – the kings of Judah, esp. the good ones & their revivals
• 2 Chron. 36 – exile and return

So what’s it on about?  At least three interconnecting themes:

1. Adam – That’s how 1 Chronicles starts. Adam was the blessed one meant to be a blessing to the whole world.  He was the great king and priest – king of the world and high priest of the garden-Temple.  His privilege was to rule and to worship.  Of course he was also the one who broke faith with God bringing the curse and expulsion from Eden.  We’re all born in Adam, descendents of Adam.  The question is whether we are also descendents of Abraham, in God’s people (Psalm 87; Ezra 2:59)? And more than that: How are we to be freed of the curse and regain the blessing and glories of Adam and Eden?  We need a new Adam.  Zabez (of Prayer of Jabez fame/infamy) looks like a candidate (1 Chron. 4:9-10) with the mention of the pain of childbirth, blessing, enlargement, removal of evil and pain (cf. Gen. 1:28; 3:8, 16) but David and his kingly line are our real hope – the ones who dominate the Chronicles. Sometimes they’re good… but then they lose it (e.g. Uzziah in 2 Chron. 26 – like Adam he’s a gardener, marvellously helped, spreading dominion, and then he becomes proud, is cursed and excluded from God’s presence). Sometimes the kings are very good indeed… but still they’re not The One.
2. Judah – Unlike the book(s) of Kings, the camera is focussed tightly on the Southern kingdom, David’s tribe, and it’s all a bit more of a positive story than the downward spiral of Kings.  Like Adam they have broken faith with the Lord and been exiled (1 Chron. 9:1) but now the land has enjoyed Sabbath rest and they have returned to re-enter that rest (2 Chron. 36:21-23 cf. Heb. 3-4). This is a book for people going home.  Just like us they are experiencing a now-and-not-yet tension. The exile has ended but it doesn’t look a lot like Eden.  As they resettle in the land amid devastation and anti-climax (Ezra 3:12-13) the author of Chronicles is encouraging them with stories of the power and grace of a God of revivals – foretastes of a perfectly restored Eden, joyful worship under the better Adam, a land without curse.  
3. Temple – The author of Kings was interested in the Temple but you could say that the author of Chronicles is obsessed! Chapter after chapter on the ark, the musicians, the gatekeepers, the priests, the construction, the repeated restorations.  The famous prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is found in the context of the inauguration of this Temple. It’s an answer to Solomon’s prayer of 2 Chronicles 6 that if the people sin, even rebel to the extent of exile, if they then turn and pray toward this house – this place of God’s name, and his Word and his glory and his sacrifice – then He would hear from heaven and forgive and restore.  Throughout 2 Chronicles you see this 7:14 pattern – even Manasseh, the worst king of all, fulfils it and is a pattern for the exiles (2 Chron. 33:10-13). But it is not the humbling and seeking and turning which buy God’s forgiveness.  The humbling and seeking and turning are simply a turning to face the Temple, a stretching out of empty hands (2 Chron. 6:29) toward the place of atonement to receive God’s grace –healing of sin and healing of the land which had vomited out its people, access to Eden restored through the blood of the lamb.