Daily Bible Study Tips: 2 Chronicles

Comments on 1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 11:1-17, King Rehoboam and the priests and Levites.
2 Chronicles 11:18 – 12:16, King Rehoboam’s career.
2 Chronicles 13:1-22, King Abijah supports the priesthood.
2 Chronicles 22:10 – 23:15, Priests and Levites ensure the succession.
2 Chronicles 30:18-26, Everyone was so excited!
2 Chronicles 31:1-21, King Hezekiah re-establishes the priests and Levites.
2 Chronicles 35:1-18, King Josiah celebrates the Passover.

Copyright information, disclaimers, and sponsors
Return to homepage

2 Chronicles 11:1-17,  King Rehoboam and the priests and Levites. (7/2/2010)  

After the death of King Solomon, his son Rehoboam inherited the throne.  He was a bit of a hothead, and he managed to antagonize the ten northern tribes into withdrawing from the kingdom.  The new northern king, Jeroboam, set up false shrines and appointed non-Levitical priests and assistants to serve in them. I Kings 12 goes into detail about what the two kings were doing, saying, and thinking, but strangely enough (although I never noticed it before), I Kings doesn't say what the reaction of the priesthood was to Jeroboam's apostasy.  Naturally, the writers of Chronicles are the ones who supply this information.  Remember that the Levites had 48 cities scattered throughout the lands of the other tribes?  The ones who lived in the north abandoned their cities and relocated to Judah and Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 11:18 – 12:16,  King Rehoboam’s career. (7/5/2010)  

To get a complete picture of King Rehoboam, you need to read both I Kings 12 and 14 and 2 Chronicles 10-12.  Kings is a little more forthcoming about his religious failings, but Chronicles gives a little more information overall.  Yesterday I said he was a hothead who lost most of the kingdom.  He was also an apostate who allowed, among other things, hill shrines to false gods and male cult prostitution (I Kings 14:23-24).  Well, what can you expect?  His mother was an Ammonite, not a Jewess.  As John Wesley said, "None can imagine how fatal and how lasting are the consequences of being unequally yoked with an unbeliever."

2 Chronicles 13:1-22, King Abijah supports the priesthood. (7/6/2010)

What do you think? I'd rather be baptized, married, and buried by any ordained minister or rabbi in a standard denomination than by any preacher with a mail-order certificate. I just don't have the confidence that the mail-in process, for which the applicant pays a small fee, is going to get me really baptized, married, or buried. The writers of Chronicles felt the same way about it.

I Kings 15 and II Chronicles 13 treat King Abijah differently. I Kings gives him eight verses, two of which are actually about David. The six remaining verses are just enough to say that he came to power, continued to commit the same acts of apostasy as his father Rehoboam, and died. The writers of Chronicles devote an entire chapter (plus half a verse in the next chapter) to Abijah, mostly because he gave a speech that they like a lot. It's ironic that this apostate king uses the argument, apparently successfully, that Judah (the southern kingdom) should win the war against Israel (the northern kingdom) because the priests and Levites minister correctly to the LORD, whereas any old non-Levite with the license fee can offer sacrifices to the non-gods of the North.

2 Chronicles 22:10 – 23:15,  Priests and Levites ensure the succession. (7/7/2010)  

You probably know that Prince Charles is the first in line to the British throne.  Did you know that Maximilian Lascelles - whoever he is! - is #54?  All Max would have to do to inherit is arrange for the deaths (or conversion to Catholicism) of 53 of his relatives who are in line ahead of him.  (see http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/british-royals/35-succession/48-scott )
 
The civil war between Israel and Judah ended when the northern king married his daughter to the southern king's son.  Unfortunately, Princess Athaliah was a Baalist, not a Jewish woman.  Even worse, the northern kingdom's tradition was succession by assassination.  When her own son Ahaziah, by then the king of Judah, died in battle, she immediately decided to take the throne herself by killing everyone in the line of succession in front of her.  These included all of her male children and grandchildren. 
 
However, she missed one.  Ahaziah's sister, Jehoshabeath, was married to the high priest.  She grabbed one of Ahaziah's baby sons, Joash, and hid him in the Temple.  The priests and Levites kept him hidden until he was old enough to be titular head of a coup, and then they killed Athaliah and put Joash on the throne.  Queen Athaliah was the only monarch of Judah who was not descended from King David.
 
By the way, I think it's pretty funny that Athaliah yells, "Treason!"  The rebels were only following her example.


2 Chronicles 30:18-26, Everyone was so excited! (11/17/2009)  

If you ever have the opportunity to participate in a Passover celebration, I urge you to do it. Our Jewish readers can correct me if necessary, but I think I'm safe in saying that Passover is the most important Jewish holiday. It’s a religious holiday that celebrates God’s mercy to the children of Israel in saving them from death, like Easter, and also their freedom as a nation from a foreign power, like the Fourth of July. No wonder everyone was so excited! By the way, God had already told Moses that Jews could celebrate the Passover even if they were unclean (Numbers 9:10), so apparently they had just gotten confused on this issue.


2 Chronicles 31:1-21,  King Hezekiah re-establishes the priests and Levites. (7/8/2010)  

Anyone who thinks that the Jews - even in the southern kingdom of Judah - were monotheistic before the Exile has only to look at the periodic cleanups carried out by the occasional kings who tried to push back the tide of apostasy.  One such king was Hezekiah.   Characteristically, II Kings 18 devotes two verses to Hezekiah's religious reforms and then turns to politics.  In contrast, Chronicles devotes most of Chs. 29 - 31 to Hezekiah's religious reforms and his repairs of the Temple and reestablishment of its priestly and Levitical personnel.


2 Chronicles 35:1-18,  King Josiah celebrates the Passover. (7/9/2010)  

Yesterday we saw that King Hezekiah carried out a number of religious reforms; however, his son Manasseh and grandson Amon put all the false shrines and idols back, reinstituted all the evil practices that predated Hezekiah, and in fact made things even worse.  So when Amon's son Josiah came to the throne, he had an uphill battle.  You can read about the physical aspects of his reform in II Kings 22-23 - about all the idols he destroyed and his restoration of the Temple.  The Passover he celebrated gets three verses.  In Chronicles, the King's reforms get about a chapter, and the Passover gets nineteen verses.
 
I've enjoyed our study of Chronicles, and I hope you have, too.  It's always good to read history from more than one perspective, and certainly the writers of Samuel/Kings and Chronicles had different perspectives.  We've seen that to get a complete picture of the history of the Jews under the kings, we need to read both the political history and the religious history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.


Copyright 2010, 2013 by Regina L. Hunter.  All rights reserved.

Opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the author, Regina Hunter, and may or may not be shared by the sponsors or the Bible-study participants.  Thanks to the Holy Spirit for any useful ideas presented here, and thanks to all the readers for their support and enthusiasm.  All errors are, of course, the sole responsibility of the author.

Our Sponsors:

St. John's United Methodist Church, "Transforming Lives Through Christ."
2626 Arizona NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110

St. John's Music Ministries now has a YouTube channel, bringing you free concerts and choral music. Check it out!

Traditional worship services are held Sundays at 8:15 and 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary.  Casual worship services are held Sundays at 9:30 a.m. in the Family Life Center.  Jazz Vespers are held monthly on the second Saturday at 5:00 p.m. in the sanctuary. St. John's feels especially called to the worship of God and to the service of our neighbors through our music program.


This website is supported in part by the generosity of Mrs. J. Jordan.