Reading: 1 Chronicles 15-17, Psalm 67

We come today to one of the other great themes of the Chronicler. We have spent a good deal of time talking about David as the prototype of a future king, now the Chronicler turns to David as the prototype for the proper heir to Moses, mediator of the covenant and builder of the tabernacle. Moses occupied a unique place in the history of Israel. He was not a priest, but functioned like one. He was not a king, but ruled like one. He was not a prophet, but he proclaimed like one. What exactly was Moses, then? After he dies, nobody like him comes along for the entire Hebrew Scriptures. At least, not entire like him. The Chronicler seems to see David is a new Moses. Let’s look at how.

First of all, let’s recall our history, and deal with the fact that this stuff is all out of chronological order in this book. Samuel and Kings largely kept to a chronology, though those authors were not above swapping things around when it suited them to make a point. The Chronicler has no interest in expounding a history. The stories he tells about David are consciously arranged to make a point. So let’s see.

David delivers Israel from it’s enemies, and takes over the nation from bad leadership under Saul. As Moses delivered Israel from Egypt and the oppression of Pharaoh. Then David brings the Ark of the Covenant back to it’s proper place, giving the people a place they can again worship correctly. As Moses brought the tabernacle design down the mountain and gave the people a place to worship God. David organizes the tribe of Levi into priests, singers, and teachers, and gives them the care of the Ark and the tabernacle. Just as Moses assigned roles to the clans of Levi. Then David goes out and defeats the tribes of the land. As Moses led the people against the Ammonites and the Amalekites in the desert. There are a string of victories against Israel’s enemies, as the second generation of Israelites after the Exodus had victory over their enemies. Finally, God makes a covenant with David and his house, as God made a covenant with Moses and the house of Israel.

This is the sort of thing that only people absolutely steeped in the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures could possibly have written or understood. The Chronicler is the nerdiest of all Bible nerds. It actually goes way deeper than this, which words and phrases in the original language that clearly call back not only to Samuel and Kings, but to the prophets and the Psalms and all sorts of stories of Israel’s deliverance through God’s promises. And what this nerdiest of all nerds has come to believe is that David is a picture of his own descendant, who will also be the heir of Moses. Moses delivered Israel from slavery, beginning a new era as a free people. The reign of David was also the beginning of a new era for Israel- they became a world power. The Chronicler looks at the covenant made at those times, and the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and all the other prophets, and he concludes, Hey, we need another guy like Moses and David. We need a covenant mediator. As herald of a new era. We need a king who fights our battles for us, like David. We need a leader who tells us the will of God, like Moses. We need someone who will bring us up to a place where we can worship God, like David. We need someone who can tell us how to worship correctly, like Moses.

Today’s reading ends with the remarkable prayer of David from 2 Samuel 7, right after God makes a promise to build David an everlasting house. It is a prayer of thanksgiving, wonder, and total dependence. David knows that everything given to him is undeserved and unearned. This is another element that the Chronicler wants to make sure his readers get: this new Moses-David character will make a declaration of dependence like they did. He will get the great message of the Scriptures that the human problem began with the human declaration of independence from God. The Messiah who the Chronicler looks for is one who surrenders the knowledge of good and bad back to the One to whom it belongs, and will follow the will of God perfectly. It will take more than a Moses or a David to do that.