1 Chronicles 28 David’s address to the people and to Solomon about building the temple. Especially his charge to Solomon: 28:9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. 10 Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be courageous and act.” Life Lesson: The Lord knows your heart, your thoughts, and your motives. That’s a little scary. We can fool people but we can’t fool God! If you seek Him He will let you find Him. He is always present, waiting for you to decide to seek Him. That doesn’t sound like Calvinism, does it? In Calvinism, a sinner doesn’t have the ability to choose to seek God. God has to send His Spirit to basically force him to seek God. That totally contradicts “if you seek Him, He will let you find Him.” David gave Solomon all the plans for building the temple. 28:19 “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern.”
1 Chronicles 29 David gave much gold, silver, iron, and timbers to Solomon for building the temple, as well as the Israelites in the 12 tribes. 29:9 Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart, and King David also rejoiced greatly.” David gave an humble prayer of thanks and praise to God. They offered 1000 bullls, 1000 rams and 1000 lambs. 22 So they ate and drank that day before the Lord with great gladness.” They anointed Solomon as king. A fitting desciption of the reign and death of David: 29:26 Now David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. 27 The period which he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned in Hebron seven years and in Jerusalem thirty-three years.28 Then he died in a ripe old age, full of days, riches and honor; and his son Solomon reigned in his place. 29 Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer, in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the chronicles of Gad the seer, 30 with all his reign, his power, and the circumstances which came on him, on Israel, and on all the kingdoms of the lands.”
2 Chronicles 1:1 Now Solomon the son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and exalted him greatly.” The ark was still in the tent David made for it in Jerusalem and Solomon still went to the tabernacle in Gibeon to offer animal sacrifices. God offered to give Solomon whatever he asked for, and he asked for wisdom, not wealth. God gave him both widom and wealth. 1:14 Solomon amassed chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. 15 The king made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamores in the lowland.”
2 Chronicles 2 Solomon makes preparations to build the temple with the help of Huram king of Tyre who sent Solomon skilled craftsmen. The work force is massive: 2:2 So Solomon assigned 70,000 men to carry loads and 80,000 men to quarry stone in the mountains and 3,600 to supervise them.”
2 Chronicles 3 Solomon starts building the temple. 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began to build on the second day in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.” The dimensions and materials are given for the temple.”
Only 1 and 2 Chronicles tells about how much David contributed to the building of the temple. He seems to take great delight in Solomon building the temple even though he wanted to build it himself. David made a lot of mistake, but he had a good heart and wanted to please God. His prayers of thanks and praise are humbling. It’s too bad that his legacy is so marred by his sin with Bathsheeba and the troubles in his household with his 3 sons.
