Reading: 1 Chronicles 22-24, Psalm 69
If you’ve been reading this for a while, you’ll know that I am an enormous fan of The Lord of the Rings. In that enormous epic story, the primary characters that the narration follows are not the high and mighty, but the lowly Hobbits, a simple people who delighted in long genealogies, greatly enjoying “books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.” Well, by this point you may feel like you are reading one of those Hobbit genealogies. Lists of descendants. Lists of singers. Lists of officers. Lists of supplies. Lists and lists and lists.
As we are reading these long lists, recall if you can the attitude and life situation of the author and his people. I have made reference to this all through the book of Chronicles, but it is so key to the book making any sense that it is worth repeating over and over. The faithful remnant of the exiles were looking at all of their history, back to the creation, as pointing forward to a moment of restoration. They were obsessed with remembering where they came from and what their proper role was in God’s magnificent plan to restore the world and make everything new. Making sure that the right people were in the right place, as outlined in the books of Moses, was everything to them.
Which ought to make what happens next a little bit shocking: David changes things. The roles and responsibilities of the family of Levi were carefully outlined in the books of Moses. But that was when the tabernacle was being carried around the wilderness in pieces and set up every time they stopped. Now they are preparing to build a new representative place where God will interact with humans. One that won’t move around. What are the Levites to do? David gives them new orders- rather than labor under burdens carrying the tabernacle, they are to spend their time maintaining the Temple and proclaiming worship of the God of Israel, all day long. Instead of pack mules, they were to be professional singers and musicians. Recall that David was the Chronicler’s prototype for the Messianic King. I think he is telling us something about their hope for the Messiah. Everything, even the roles and responsibilities of the people of Israel, will be reassigned and transformed by the Messiah King. While they were once bearers of heavy burdens, they will become a people dedicated to praise and worship.
Finally, I think it important to draw our attention to one other line, right at the start of our reading, that it is easy to glaze over. So David gave orders to gather the resident aliens in the land of Israel, and made them stonecutters to hew out stones to build the house of God. Hewing out the stones to build the house of God. In the book of Kings, the story is that Solomon drafted forced labor to quarry the stones. Here, David calls together the resident aliens and makes them part of the building of the house of God. There is no mention of their enslavement here. Now, the Chronicler would be well aware of the history of Israel, and would expect his readers to be as well. But I think he is again making a point here, this time by what he does not say. Surely he knew that in the days of David and Solomon such people were enslaved. He had read Kings. But he is implying a future hope that in the new creation the new David will bring all people together. In Chronicles, the building of the Temple is an international effort, not of slaves, but of resident aliens. People from outside who are invited inside. The Messiah King will bring all the nations to his Temple.