AND HIS RESPONSIBILITY AS SUCH—1 Chron. 28
CH 28{In 1 Chron. 23:2, David had gathered together "all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites" so as to give them directions for the service of the temple and the order of the kingdom. In this 1 Chron. 28:1 he assembles "all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the princes of the divisions that ministered to the king, and the captains over thousands, and the captains over hundreds, and the comptrollers of all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the chamberlains, and the mighty men, and all the men of valor, unto Jerusalem." In fact, he addresses all the people, for he wants to make known to all what God has revealed concerning the temple itself, the religious center of the kingdom.
"I had in my heart," he says, "to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I have prepared to build" (1 Chron. 28:2). This is what Psa. 132 expresses in a very remarkable manner. David, in all his tribulations had not given himself rest until he had found a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord a place where this covenant, deposited in the ark, could eventually be established for God's people without being exposed to a fresh journey across the desert or to new vicissitudes in the hands of the Philistines. This rest of God was at the same time that of "the footstool of His feet," for the ark was the throne of God who was seated between the cherubim, the throne which He had established in the midst of His people.
Such were God's counsels of grace. In Chronicles we see them accomplished in David and Solomon as types of Christ, but they were accomplished only in type. For soon this ark, which through David's solicitude had found its rest on Mount Zion and in the midst of a glorious temple built by Solomon, disappeared and its place of rest was completely destroyed.
David had made immense preparations for this house, but he recalls what Jehovah had told him (1 Chron. 22:8): "Thou shalt not build a house unto My name, for thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood" (1 Chron. 28:3). Through his sufferings David could prepare the "rest that remaineth for the people of God," but he could not bring in that rest as long as the kingdom still bore the impress of the warrior character of its leader. So will it be with Christ. At the cross He laid the foundation for eternal rest, but He will not establish this final rest until after all His enemies will have been put under His feet.
In 1 Chron. 28:4-6 David insists, in the presence of all the representatives of the people, on that principal fact that Chronicles always emphasizes: the accomplishment of God's counsels according to the election of grace. The Lord had chosen him, David, to be king over Israel forever, He had chosen Judah as prince; in Judah He had chosen the house of Jesse. Among the sons of Jesse He had taken pleasure in David, to make him king. The Lord's free choice as well as God's good pleasure had been upon the least and most humble of them all, strong and mighty no doubt in God's eyes in his struggle with the lion and the bear in the wilderness, but having nothing in the eyes of men that they should desire him. Was he not a type of the Perfect Servant, acclaimed by Jehovah as the object of His good pleasure at the very moment He was publicly taking a place of most profound humiliation in the baptism of repentance? But later came that moment when God declared Him to be the true Solomon, the object of the same good pleasure as at John's baptism, when He appeared on the holy mountain, anticipating the glory of His eternal kingdom.
Among David's numerous sons God had again "chosen Solomon... to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel" (1 Chron. 28:5). Note this expression which we find again in 1 Chron. 29:23: The kingdom of Solomon is "the kingdom of Jehovah"; his throne, Jehovah's throne. Do not these words speak to us of God's counsels with regard to Christ's future kingdom? This is all the more striking here as God says of Solomon: "I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his father" (1 Chron. 28:6; cf. 1 Chron. 22:10; Heb. 1:5). Solomon is God's son, and he will build a house (Heb. 3:3-4); he is the Chosen One of Jehovah who "will establish his kingdom forever" (1 Chron. 28:7). Lastly, "Jehovah has chosen [him] to build a house for the sanctuary" (1 Chron. 28:10).
But in this passage we find a characteristic little word: "If." This is the first time this word is uttered in Chronicles in relation to the kingship or to the people: "If he be firm to do My commandments and Mine ordinances, as at this day." "If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cut thee off forever" (1 Chron. 28:7, 9).
Solomon, although considered here in his perfection as the king according to God's counsels, is nonetheless responsible and his kingdom cannot be made firm if he does not measure up to this responsibility. Chronicles, in accord with its purpose, does not present Solomon to us as having failed. Even less than in the account of David's history, it does not mention his fallibility or his faults. Yet nonetheless Solomon remains responsible. Such exactly is Christ's character as the King of righteousness and of peace. He will be responsible to Him who has entrusted the kingdom to Him and will carry out His office perfectly until He delivers up the dominion into the Father's hands (1 Cor. 15:24). Doubtless Solomon personally failed completely in this, but Chronicles does not mention this, since it deals with the counsels of God realized in Christ.
However we find here another reason for presenting the blessing as conditional. The successors of the first two kings are neither Davids nor Solomons. Kingship according to God's counsels does not go beyond them, for in them in type it reaches to the millennial reign of Christ. Nevertheless the kingship continues through Solomon's line until the appearing of the true King, the house of David forming an uninterrupted chain which ends in Christ. Now this line of descent only rarely offers us features of the true King. The house of David falls into ruin; the people of Solomon give themselves up to idolatry. All this cannot be passed over in silence in Second Chronicles when it tells of the royal house and of the chosen people. Yet, as we shall see in studying the Second Book, the general character of this inspired writing is maintained in the midst of ruin and God acts in grace, covering a multitude of sins at the least trace of repentance, whereas the books of Kings expose the faults of all the kings without mitigation, even those of David and Solomon.
The "if" therefore serves in part as an introduction to the history that follows Solomon's in the following book.
In 1 Chron. 28:8 David is speaking "in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of Jehovah, and in the audience of our God." He establishes that the people also are responsible, although in this the king takes the first place: "Keep and seek for all the commandments of Jehovah your God; that ye may possess the good land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children after you forever" (1 Chron. 28:8).
In the preceding chapters we have seen the religious and civil system established by Jehovah by means of the authority conferred by Him upon David. This system does not resemble the order of things established by Moses, although it does not in any way contradict it. Neither the priests, nor the Levites, nor the singers, nor the doorkeepers, nor the army are organized as in the past. Everything is new; everything depends upon the king who establishes them according to lot, that is to say, under the immediate direction of the Lord. In 1 Chron. 28:11-19 we find the same principle when it is a matter of the temple compared to the tabernacle. Only it is by inspiration (1 Chron. 28:12) that David had received all the details, not by a model placed before the eyes of a Moses upon the mountain, which the latter was to execute. David received these details (they were in him, in his mind) through the Spirit. Nothing depended upon his gift of organization or upon his natural intelligence. Everything came directly from God. "All this said David, in writing, by Jehovah's hand upon me" (1 Chron. 28:19). He also received by inspiration the directions concerning "the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of Jehovah" (1 Chron. 28:13). The vessels themselves were different from those of the tabernacle, without really differing in their typical significance. Their number and weight differed; new vessels were added. So too it was with the musical instruments. The very weight of each object of gold and of silver was determined by inspiration, from the candlesticks to the goblets and forks (1 Chron. 28:16-17). The ark of the covenant which enclosed the law remained the same, with its mercy seat and the cherubim overshadowing it, for neither the covenant nor the mercy seat could be altered in any way. By contrast, the cherubim that spread out their wings and touched the two walls of the sanctuary, were something entirely new (2 Chron. 3:10-14; 5:7-9).
In 1 Chron. 28:20-21, David exhorts Solomon anew to be strong, to do it, to fear nothing, for the Lord would not forsake him "until all the work for the service of the house of Jehovah is finished." This is again an unconditional promise, and Solomon finds help, not only from the workers (1 Chron. 28:22:15), but also from the courses of priests and Levites, from the princes, and from all the people.