Why read chronicles in the bible

Chronicles is a great book to exhort believers to pray faithfully and live by his Word. This book proclaims with certainty that Israel stood or stumbled depending on their faithfulness to seek the Lord, who alone is God 2 Chron. Do you want your people to see the necessity of prayer? Chronicles repeatedly emphasizes the value of prayer. Preaching Chronicles should beckon us to humility as we see kings like Rehoboam, Jehoram, Amaziah, and Mannaseh 2 Chron 10, 21, 25, 33, 36 pridefully and even disastrously trusting in themselves.

This is why faithful kings like Joash stand out. He worshiped God in accord with his Word 2 Chron —not like Uzziah who approached God in his own way 2 Chron As shepherds ourselves, we ought to expose these texts to our people so that the church might look to Christ who as their Good Shepherd. In the end, Chronicles ultimately emphasizes a person and a place. Preach this book to reveal to your people that Jesus is the promised one, and that one day, when he returns, he will usher in that perfect place.

May God use this book to cause you and your people to seek the Lord with all your heart. You can find him on Twitter at GarrettConner.

Our work is possible by the generosity of our readers. Give Today. Read Now » Ask a Question ». Resources Donate. Article You think Chronicles is bad after reading the straight text of Samuel and Kings, try it while reading a commentary series! The text multiplies four or five times over even on layman level commentaries.

Must read about another k i n ggggg…. I agree Chronicles 1 and 2 probably are much more interesting after skipping around the Bible or reading it after a hiatus but if one is reading in order then Chronicles repetiveness can bring a reader to their knees! Thanks for the post and God Bless :. Searching to see if others struggled with these books is what lead me to this site.

Thank you for what you do on this site! I am gonna read again because l have read lotta books in the Bible and other biblical literature as well and could possibly get a better understanding too. Good stuff. I love the Bible but I must admit I find the Mosiac portion except Genesis almost painfully boring at times especially Leviticus. It sounds bad, but I gotta be honest. Any suggestions?

In a way, Moses spoils us. Then we get the first 20 chapters of Exodus, another long chunk of mostly-narrative Scripture. Then pick up where you left off in the OT. James will give you an idea of how important the Law and good works in general was to Christians in the early church.

Galatians will show you just how upset Paul gets when people try to make following the Law a condition of salvation. Of course, this may throw off your read-through-the-whole-Bible-in-order goal, so follow at your own risk! That makes good sense sir. Thanks for replying and giving those thoughts!

Hi Christopher! I imagine the Israelites and their many tents in the desert. I imagine the tabernacle. I imagine the priests in their priestly garments, and I imagine Aaron in his High Priest garments. And then I imagine everyone going about doing everything Moses tells them to do. I imagine the priests burning or waving the offerings for God.

I imagine the people preparing their offerings. I imagine the priests diagnosing leprosy or other maladies. I imagine the people building the tabernacle.

That sentiment, however common, would miss the fact that in the Hebrew Bible, Kings and Chronicles do not stand side by side. All in all, when we see the chiastic structure of 1 Chronicles 1—9, it gives the reader assistance in seeing the forest, not just the trees. By keeping our eyes on the total shape of these nine chapters see the outline above , it helps us understand the message and how each tribe fits into the story.

It also teaches us that we must read the nine chapters as a whole unit, not just nine individual chapters. Often reading plans train us to read these chapters over multiple days; the McCheyne plan calls for 4.

This hinders our ability to appreciate the whole section and trains us to find mystical puffs of meaning in people like Jabez. This can be seen through an inductive reading of the two volumes, but royal and priestly themes are confirmed and strengthened when we realize how 1 Chronicles begins.

Yet to do that, we need to see the whole forest. We are so accustomed to reading a verse or a chapter and mining it for devotional truth. But here, in this genealogy, we need to keep in mind the whole unit. When we do, it leads us to the twin themes of kingship and priesthood, two themes that ultimately bring us to Christ, and to a, if not the, main point of 1 Chronicles.

So go try to read those nine chapters again, but read them with a better view of the whole section. Hopefully, keeping the chiasm in mind will help you get into 1 Chronicles without getting stuck.