1 Chron.9-14
With the family of Saul (1 Chron. 9:35) a new section begins. The first terminating in a brief but prophetic glimpse of the future restoration of Israel as foreshadowed in the return of the captives from Babylon, and their settlement in the land (1 Chron. 9:1-34). Faint when compared with the future, but in itself a marvelous event. For their Gentile oppressors are by the overruling hand of God, made to aid and encourage them and to restrain their enemies, as Ezra and Nehemiah declare.
The going back to Saul after counting up the returned captives is confirmatory that the object of the Holy Spirit in the Chronicles is not history—save as subsidiary—but the bringing in of the Son Who is to reign over all; that the sin and failure of man, Satan's determined opposition, as seen in Saul, are but occasions for the display of sovereign grace and of Almighty power. That Christ the Son shall not only be the King of the Jews as Son of David, and the Inheritor of the promises as Son of Abraham, but shall as Son of man be King of kings and Lord of lords. Hence His genealogy down from Adam, that He the last Adam should win back the headship over the lower creation which the first Adam lost. Other names come in and shine among their fellows, and collateral purposes are accomplished, but the great purpose of God centers in His Son. The genealogy points to Him.
Saul slain, the Philistines triumphant, is the moment when David appears and drives back the Philistine, and the ruined kingdom rises in splendor never seen before. If the past shows how the kingdom was lost and won, much more the future when He Who is both Son and Lord of David shall come and restore all things.
Chapter 10. seems to come abruptly; we are brought at once into the closing scenes of Saul's life. No record of his life in Chronicles, only God's summary of it, but which comprehends in few words his life, death and judgment. “So Saul died for his transgressions which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it, and inquired not of the Lord; therefore He slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the Son of Jesse” (vers. 13, 14). Saul passes before us as a spectral vision, save for the reality of, God's judgment upon him. David is brought to view as abruptly as Saul, no record of his previous life; only his lineage, as that of Saul. And surely the reason is plain—not these men on their own account are so prominent personally, but the kingdom is in the mind of God, and the Holy Spirit hastens to present it.
The Lord turned the kingdom unto David. It was a marvelous turning. The hinderer is no sooner removed than all Israel seek David, and say, “Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh” (11:1, &c.), and the blessing comes. David takes his foreordained place, and a nation is born in a day. Brighter than this will be seen when Israel from a deeper fall shall rise to a higher position of glory. With what cleaving of heart will all Israel gather to the Son of David in the day of their deliverance. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power” (Ps. 110:3).
Let us look for a moment at 1 Sam. 28:6. “And when Saul inquired of the Lord” and compare it with 1 Chron. 10:14. “And inquired not of the Lord.” Samuel records the outward act, the Holy Spirit in Chronicles pronounces the judgment of God upon the inward condition of his soul. It was the pressure of despair which wrung out of his heart an unavailing cry to the Lord, but no real turning to Him Who never shuts out the most despairing cry from a soul truly contrite. All help was gone, and he in his fear inquires of the Lord Whom he had habitually disobeyed and neglected, as many others since, and like him have sunk deeper into the slough of despair. Bear the judgment of all such from the Lord Himself, “But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me but I will not answer, they shall seek Me early [diligently, R. V.] but they shall not find Me” (Prov. 1:25-28). The Lord would not listen to the cry of the persecutor and hater of His chosen man.
Saul remembers Samuel, his former friend. If Jehovah answered him not, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets, would Jehovah's servant help him out of his misery? And he invokes the aid of Satan to bring up Samuel! Wretched Saul—what darkness on his heart, as if Satan had power over the spirits of departed saints! What despair, to seek for one of those whom he had in outward zeal sought to destroy! What had brought him to this? Permitted of God the prophet appears, and the wretched king's doom is confirmed; it is near, imminent. But Saul's seeking help from one having a familiar spirit is a true index of the heart. He had no faith in God, but in the witch of Endor; therefore he inquired not of the Lord. He had in earlier days clothed himself with zeal as with a garment. Extreme danger strips him of his borrowed robe, and he appears in his own naked infidelity. God judges the heart. “Behold Thou desirest truth in the inwards” (Ps. 51:6.). The piercing eye of God saw no truth in Saul. Therefore the Holy Spirit in Chronicles says that “he inquired not of the Lord.”
All Israel seek David. This turning to David as with one mind is marvelous. A greater marvel is yet to come. Not David, but the Son of David will appear; and when they see Him, all Israel will seek Him with a greater oneness of mind, and will know Him, and in gladness of heart will shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.” The picture given by Matthew (21:9) is prophetic of the coming display of His glory, when He takes His own. It is in a smaller frame but in brighter colors, inasmuch as it is the King Himself personally present in the scene given in the Gospel; it is only His type in Chronicles.
God immediately surrounds David with mighty men of valor. And the tribes of Israel send their thousands, “men of war that could keep rank,” or as we should say, well disciplined. Who had disciplined these men, that just before had forsaken their cities and hidden themselves through fear of the Philistines? God's chosen man was there, who was anointed to be king over Israel, and the kingdom was turned to him. This is the reason of their sudden endowment of valor and might, and some of the wonderful deeds of the renowned men whom the Holy Spirit names. Some of their astonishing deeds are told, yet not astonishing when we remember Whose kingdom is really before us. For this is not the striving together of the potsherds of the earth; these great acts are only the natural consequences of the presence of His power Who is giving samples (so to say) of what the power and the glory will be when He personally takes the kingdom. Then greater deeds will be done.
The Lord of hosts is marshalling the strength and power of Israel. And the Holy Spirit gives a list of tried men of might. They are presented in the halo of their own prowess. The foremost of these worthies joined David while he was a fugitive and an outcast (12:1-22); their origin is given (22:2) and is an instance among many of God's taking up the despised of men and exalting them.
David is crowned, and there is great feasting in Hebron; for the neighboring tribes “brought bread on asses, on camels, on mules, and on oxen, and meat, meal, cakes of figs, and bunches of raisins, and wine, and oil, and oxen, and sheep abundantly, for there was joy in Israel” (1 Chron. 12:40). But David thinks not of his rapid exaltation, and of the mighty hosts around him (not long before he was hiding from Saul in the court of Achish); his ardent desire is to bring up the ark of God. But Jerusalem as the chosen city is the right place for the ark, and that city is still in the possession of the Jebusite. The city taken (2 Sam. 5:6-7), (which is not given in Chronicles) David said unto all the congregation of Israel, “If it seem good unto you and that it be of the Lord our God, let us send abroad unto our brethren everywhere that are left in all the land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they may gather themselves unto us; and let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul” (1 Chron. 13:2-3). David's thought was right, but there was levity in the act. He and all the people gathered from Shihor of Egypt to the entering in of Hamath, i.e., from the southern boundary to the northern. They unite to fetch the ark from Kirjath-Jearim. It was an occasion of great joy, but fleshly zeal meddled with the ark. And in these scenes, we behold David the responsible man, not David the type of the perfect One. The Holy Spirit shows us that however blessed and honored a man may be, yet he is only a man, and here his imperfection is seen. If his thought was right and acceptable unto God, it was God Who gave it. But their starting point was wrong. How could they expect to carry the ark to its place when, instead of the Levites carrying it upon their shoulders, according to the ordinance of God, they put it in a new cart? A “new” cart; but this could not condone their want of attention, and consequently their disobedience to God's commands.
If obedience be imperative in the common things of everyday life, how much more in the things which are special to the service of God?
David was responsible. His was the prerogative as king to regulate and order the right way of bringing home the ark, which must be according to God. The same forgetfulness of the ordinance of God, and what the ark symbolized, made Uzzah put forth his hand and touch the ark, and thus brought on himself instant judgment. His unauthorized interference completed the disobedience manifest from the first. Man might say the motive was good, but that could not be good which leads to the neglect of God's word. God must and will vindicate His own honor, and the authority of His own word. Uzzah's act was but the reflex of the want of care on David's part. There was much gladness with them all, but the joy of saints must not compromise the authority of God's word.
David was displeased. With whom? Alas, here is more than mere failure — it is disloyalty of heart. Fear succeeds his want of care. Carelessness in the things of God hinders communion, and so it was that David was afraid before God. For a time he loses the blessing; both the ark and its accompanying blessing are carried into the house of Obed-edom (1 Chron. 13:14; 2 Sam. 6:11).
If David is afraid of God, it does not turn aside God's purpose with regard to David. After the needed discipline in his soul and hearing how the ark brought blessing to Obed-edom, he regains faith and brings the ark to its place. Yet though he is seen here as a failing man, his typical position is not lost. For the truthfulness of the type takes precedence of the restoration of faith in the soul. This position was not contingent upon his faithfulness, but was the appointment of God's sovereign will, Who by David is unrolling the volume of the honors and dominion of the Only-Begotten when He shall be set upon the holy hill of Zion (Psa. 2). Then will be seen perfectly what can only be partially presented in these typical scenes. For apparently before the ark is brought to its place, the Gentile submits to him. If the natural hatred of the Gentile appears in the persistent attacks of the Philistine, the power of God compels the king of Tire to send “messengers, and timber of cedars with masons and carpenters to build him a house.” In David and Hiram are to be seen, as with a borrowed light, the glory of Christ's kingdom, the submission of all nations to Him. Into the millennial Jerusalem kings shall bring their glory and honor. So does the king of Tire own the greatness of David, and contribute to his glory. But the past is but as the first droppings; the rushing shower is yet to come.