Written by T. Desmond Alexander |
Sunday, November 5, 2023
In these and other ways, the author of Chronicles highlights an intimate bond between the temple and the Davidic king. Since the temple has been restored, there is hope that the Davidic dynasty will be restored. To this end, the author of Chronicles reminds his readers that the temple is the place of prayer, and he encourages them to repent and pray for God’s healing of their land (see 2 Chron. 7:14). 

The book of Chronicles is an important part of our divinely inspired Bible, but two factors often deter modern Christian readers: (1) the opening nine chapters are filled with genealogical information that makes far from compelling reading, and (2) everything that follows in some measure repeats information about the Davidic dynasty that has already been recorded in the books of Samuel and Kings. The contents of Chronicles are often identical to what is found in these earlier books. Why, we might ask, do we have in the Bible a second history of Israel that overlaps in varying degrees with what is already recorded in Samuel and Kings? Three important observations may help answer this question.
1. For the author of Chronicles, the Davidic monarchy is central to God’s plan of redemption for the entire world.
We need to appreciate the context in which Chronicles was composed. Samuel and Kings were written around 550 BC, in the wake of Jerusalem being sacked by the Babylonians. This devastating event resulted in the temple’s destruction and the end of the Davidic dynasty’s rule over the nation of Judah. According to Kings, these tragic developments were a consequence of God’s judgment on the people of Judah and especially the Davidic kings, who turned away from worshiping God. However, circumstances had changed dramatically by the time Chronicles was composed between 450–400 BC. By this stage, many Judeans had returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon to rebuild the temple and the city walls.
The historical context of when each book was composed influences its overall message. Kings explains why destruction and exile befalls Jerusalem due to the corruption of the Davidic monarchy. In marked contrast, the author of Chronicles encourages his readers to believe in the continuing importance of the Davidic monarchy and to pray for its restoration. For the author of Chronicles, the Davidic monarchy is central to God’s plan of redemption for the entire world.
2. Chronicles holds out hope that God will raise up a descendant of David to establish God’s kingdom in the world.
Despite the absence of a king in Jerusalem after 586 BC, Chronicles holds out hope that God will raise up a descendant of David to establish God’s kingdom in the world. This eventually comes to fulfilment in Jesus Christ. However, for the people of Jerusalem in the late fifth century BC, doubts must have existed regarding God’s commitment to the Davidic dynasty.
Read More
Related Posts:

Written by Aaron M. Renn |
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
The reality is that there are plenty of high quality single Christian women, and men, in America. The problems of frustrated singleness are real and shouldn’t be discounted. The technological and cultural problems of America when it comes to marriage are likewise real. But an absolute shortage of high caliber potential marriage partners is not one of those problems.

As I’ve noted many times, the degree of difficulty dial on finding a spouse and staying married has been turned up a lot in America. Falling marriage rates attest to the problems here, ranging from the rise of technology mediated dating, to an imbalance in college degree attainment between men and women, to a politically polarized dating environment.
At the same time, a bad macro environment does not necessarily determine our individual results. In some cases, these trends can even help a subset of people. For example, if more women than men are getting college degrees, then if you are a man with a degree, in theory that could work to your advantage.
However, I hear a lot of complaints from some singles about how this environment makes it all but impossible to get married. For example, one of the tropes of manosphere thinking is that the dating pool for men is poisoned. In their view, the American woman has been ruined as wife material — by feminism, sleeping around with too many men, etc.
One of the more recent incarnations of this view is the rise of the so-called “passport bros,” or men who decide that there are so few good women in the US, that they have to seek out a wife overseas. There are a ton of Youtube videos on this phenomenon, many with hundreds of thousands of view. I think that only a small number of men have actually done this, but the huge amount of debate over it is revealing of a certain attitude.
While few Christians likely spend time consuming this kind of material, I’ve noticed that a lot of single Christian guys also seem to believe it’s hard to find someone to marry, even in cities with tons of Christian singles like NYC.
My church in New York never had more than a few hundred members, and many of them (most?) were married. Yet there were several single women there that I thought seemed to be high quality dating and marriage prospects. Now, I didn’t date any of them. Maybe they had hidden flaws or were not compatible in some way that I don’t know about. Maybe they were prima donnas with ridiculous standards who ended up breaking it off with every guy they ever went out with. Some of them were out of my age range. But if I were single in that church, I would not have been complaining about a lack of quality women to ask out on dates. I have to believe that the same is true of most other churches in town, maybe even to a greater extent, since many of them are larger and with a higher percentage of singles.
Read More
Related Posts:

Jesus dealt Satan a deadly blow. The devil is mortally wounded, though even more deadly in his desperation. But he can do nothing (please hear this!) to disrupt the equation. He can’t press us with fear of punishment; Jesus took that on. He can’t shame us with a poor self-image; we are the image of Christ now. He can’t drive us mad with death-threats; Jesus destroyed the power of death. Satan has a front row seat every time the redemption equation is written on a human heart. And he can’t do a single thing about it.

Job is one of my favorite books of the Bible. That usually catches people by surprise. Why would a book about a holy man falling prey to Satanic torment be something you want to read? Despite the initial fear the book induces, it’s extremely comforting and relevant for our understanding of trauma and suffering. Job shows that the worst still leads to the best. And of the many ways in which the book is still relevant, there’s one that stands out to me because of how prevalent it is in our times. It’s what I call “the deadly spiritual equation.”
The Deadly Spiritual Equation
The deadly spiritual equation won’t sound so deadly, but if you follow through to the end of the article, you’ll see why it is. The equation has two sides, depicted below.

Doesn’t look so bad, does it? On one side, of course, Scripture teaches that moral living aligns with God’s commandments and character. And God loves to bless those who follow his commands. On the other side, immoral living never ultimately goes unpunished. God is just. So, on the surface, this deadly spiritual equation seems biblical. What’s the problem?
The problem is twofold: (1) the complexity of God’s providence goes well beyond us and includes our spiritual nemesis, and (2) what happens when suffering comes to the upright? The latter, of course, is what the book of Job is all about. God himself tells Satan and the heavenly hosts that Job is upright. According to the deadly spiritual equation, Job should only receive God’s providential blessing. And yet the whole book is about how Job doesn’t receive that. He receives torment at the hands of Satan; he receives what looks a lot like punishment to the rest of the world, even to his friends.
Job’s friends maintain the deadly spiritual equation with vigor. Job must have sinned. He must be wicked, because that’s how the spiritual equation works. God’s punishment (the horrendous suffering of Job) must be the result of immoral living. As readers of the book, we have an insider’s perspective. We know that Job is not being punished. We know that he’s righteous, by God’s own declaration. What are Job’s friends missing? And why is this spiritual equation “deadly”?
The Missing Elements
There are two things Job’s friends are, the same things missing from the spiritual equation: the presence of Satan and the underlying purpose of suffering in God’s world. Both of these elements are brought to the fore by Jesus Christ.
Isn’t it odd how Satan only appears at the beginning of the book of Job? He destroys Job’s life, drags his head down to the dust, and then he’s gone. This isn’t arbitrary (nothing in Scripture is). Why is Satan absent from the rest of the book? Why is he absent from all of the discussion among Job and his friends? Answer: the deadly spiritual equation. It has no place for Satan, for the personified presence of evil. Satan is not in the equation. And that’s a huge problem, since we know that Satan is the one responsible for all of Job’s torment! The cause of Job’s suffering, plain as day to readers, is not even on Job’s radar. Neither is it on his friends’. For all of them, the deadly spiritual equation is just that: deadly. It’s sucking the life out of them, out of their relationships. 
Read More