2 CHRONICLES


Chronicles constantly refers to the activity of God in rewarding good and punishing evil. It shows the power of the love and the Word of God. How God draws near His people in it; how He constantly oversees it and enforces it. It is simply and plainly, but reverently written-solemn and spiritual in tone, always conscious of God in the background. We shall note as we read through these books, how the chronicler points out simply and directly, the spiritual lessons of events. Its spirit is both admonition and encouragement.

It was apparently written for a new beginning in Israel, after the return from the Babylonian captivity. It covers the entire period from Adam to the proclamation of Cyrus and the return from Babylon. It appears to be one book with Ezra, for it ends with exactly the same three verses that the book of Ezra starts with. Its latest genealogy, that of David straight through Zerubbabel, goes to about 425 BC - the latest events in the Old Testament scriptures. Therefore, Chronicles covers a period of about 3500 years, about half of the 7000 of the whole purposed.

It has always been ascribed by tradition to Ezra, and it has all appearances of that fact - the time, the circumstances, the terms used for Ezra and the position that he held in Israel at this time. He is the logical author. The modern view, of course, rejects this, as it rejects all else. It tries to make it much later, endeavoring to discredit the scriptures and bring them down to man's low, weak level.

The Chronicles are unlike any other book in the Bible, for they do not undertake to cover any new period not already covered. Rather, it is a summary of the whole. It brings out more clearly than before the Messianic promise made to David. It largely covers the same period as Samuel and Kings, but from more specifically divinely and religiously centered viewpoints. It is a history with a special purpose.

It leaves out very much that is not directly connected with the central movement of the divine purpose, and it greatly expands the religious sequence - the temple services and the Levitical arrangement and the religious reforms of the good kings. It hardly mentions at all the northern 10-tribe kingdom, except where it is absolutely necessary to give the picture that it is dealing with. In all, it emphasizes the fact that anything that strays away from God loses all meaning and importance, and becomes near animal and worthless.

Bro Growcott - The words of the days