In 1 Chronicles, the author gave an account of the history of humankind from Adam to the great King David. His goal was to tell of God’s special choice of Israel and the Golden Age they enjoyed under the rule of David. The author walked the returned exiles through the annals of their history to give them a theological vision. He wanted them to know that their covenant-keeping God had brought them back to the Promised Land so that they could continue with Him in the shadow of their ancestors.
The opening words of 2 Chronicles, “Solomon son of David strengthened his hold on his kingdom. The LORD his God was with him and highly exalted him” (2 Chron 1:1), point the reader forward in the history of Israel. As the author underscored the place of King David and his military might in 1 Chronicles, in 2 Chronicles he directed his readers to consider Solomon and the construction of the temple. Among the features of Solomon’s early reign, the Chronicler called attention first to Solomon’s request for wisdom (2 Chron 1:1-13). The account differs from 1 Kings 3 in that it includes the Lord’s appearance to Solomon on the same night that Solomon offered great sacrifices at the tent of meeting. This account links Solomon’s request for wisdom with his leadership in temple construction.
The Chronicler then described Solomon’s great wealth (2 Chron 1:14-17). In the author’s hyperbolic language, post-exilic Israel was reminded of their great past: “The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills” (2 Chron 1:15). Though abundantly wealthy, Solomon sought support from Hiram, king of Tyre (2 Chron 2:1-16). Hiram had provided David materials for David’s palace (1 Chronicles 14) but Solomon was not just building a royal palace—he was constructing the special meeting place between God and man. Of interest to the Chronicler was Solomon’s word to King Hiram. Solomon proposed that since Israel’s God was greater than all gods, the temple bearing the name of the Lord had to be appropriate to His stature (2 Chron 2:5).
Having written of the plans for the temple and the supplies used for construction, the Chronicler detailed the phases of temple construction (2 Chron 2:17-5:1). Israel’s place of worship was moved from Gibeon to Jerusalem: “Solomon began to build the LORD’s temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the site David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chron 3:1; 1 Chron 21:27-22:1). Solomon’s work force, including help from King Hiram of Tyre, constructed the ornate locale of God’s special presence among His people.
Once the temple was built, Solomon ordered the ark to be transferred from the tent of meeting to the most holy place (2 Chron 5:2-14). So glorious was the scene that once the ark was set in the most holy place of the temple, the entire edifice, like the tabernacle of Moses’ day, was filled with a cloud of the Lord’s presence (Exod 40:34-38). The Levites sang the praise of the Lord, saying, “For He is good; His faithful love endures forever” (2 Chron 5:13).
The temple Solomon built had to, at least to some degree, reflect the opulence of the Lord. In the storyline of Scripture, Solomon’s zeal for the temple serves as a model for how the followers of Christ are to use their spiritual gifts to edify fellow believers in Christ. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that God have members of the church to work together in service for mutual edification that they might be built up into the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:11-13).
2 Chronicles 6-7; Psalms 46-48, 127; Proverbs 20
The Chronicler looked back over the history of God’s people and magnified the Lord’s faithfulness. He wanted to encourage his fellow Hebrews in their quest to remain distinct and holy, even though they were presently subject to the Persian empire. The Chronicler’s account provides a unique opportunity to synthesize one of the most dominant themes from Genesis to the Revelation: God’s jealous desire for His people to have fellowship with Him.
Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 6 mirrored 1 Kings 8. Solomon recounted God’s promise that a descendant of David would reside on the throne of Israel forever (2 Chron 6:14-17; 1 Chron 17:10-14; 2 Sam 7:13-16). Solomon was so dependent upon the Lord’s promise to David that it formed the closing petition of his prayer, “LORD God, do not reject Your anointed one; remember the loyalty of Your servant David” (2 Chron 6:42).
Solomon asked the Lord to hear prayers offered toward the temple (2 Chron 6:18-39; Psalm 48). After the king asked, “Will God indeed live on earth with man? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built” (2 Chron 6:18), he went on to request that the eyes of the Lord, “watch over this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name” (2 Chron 6:20). Thus, in Solomon’s inaugural supplication for the Lord’s attention to the temple, the king catalogued a variety of situations that might prompt Israel to pray. He asked the Lord to hear their prayers for forgiveness of sin, retribution and restoration in personal matters (2 Chron 6:21-23), deliverance when defeated in battle (2 Chron 6:24-25, 34-39), and relief during seasons of famine or pestilence (2 Chron 6:26-31). Solomon even asked the Lord to hear the prayers foreigners offered when they looked toward the temple (2 Chron 6:32-33).
In the Chronicler’s account of the temple dedication, the Lord replied to Solomon in a dream (1 Chronicles 7). Here the Chronicler went beyond what is recorded in 1 Kings 9. Both accounts of the temple dedication state that the Lord acknowledged Solomon’s temple as the place where the Lord would congregate with His people in a special way (2 Chron 7:12-18; 1 Kgs 9:3) and warned the king that failure to fulfill the covenant standards would bring consequences (2 Chron 7:19-22; 1 Kgs 9:6-9). But the Chronicler stated the consequences of disobedience more explicitly, including the declaration of the Lord: “I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them” (2 Chron 7:20). Nonetheless, the Chronicler’s account of the Lord’s response to Solomon included the word of divine grace and forgiveness for the penitent who would seek His face (2 Chron 7:13-15; Deut 11:13-15).
The Chronicler continued that because of the idolatry of Solomon and his descendants, the Lord raised up the Babylonians to destroy the temple and remove Israel from the Promised Land. From Genesis 3 onward, the storyline of Scripture can be understood as God’s pursuit of His people to have fellowship with Him. Solomon’s temple, in all its prescribed glory, was only a temporary place of communion in the history of redemption. God’s jealous desire for His people to have fellowship with Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, is foundational to understanding the book of Revelation. In Solomon’s temple, the most holy place, the inner sanctuary of the temple, was cube-shaped, measuring thirty feet in length, width, and height, housing the ark of the Lord’s covenant—the very object of His presence among Israel (2 Chron 3:8-9). John’s vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 was also cube-shaped, resembling the most holy place of Solomon’s temple. According to John, the New Jerusalem is where God’s people will enjoy fellowship with God and Jesus forever. Concerning the city, he wrote, “I did not see a sanctuary in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God’s glory illuminates it, and its’ lamp is the Lamb” (Rev 21:22-23).
2 Chronicles with Select Psalms and Proverbs Commentary Old Testament