Photograph: The Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay cylinder dating back to the 6th century BC, discovered in the ruins of Babylon in Mesopotamia. It is written in the name of Cyrus, King of Persia, the king who issued the decree to allow the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple. Photo credit: Prioryman | CC3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Below are messages, small group leader notes, and exegetical notes on the Book of Chronicles.
Notes and Essays on 1 and 2 Chronicles
The Heir of David: A Thematic and Canonical Analysis of the Writings
Essay exploring how the Writings — the third group of the Hebrew Bible according to the Jewish tradition — are arranged. There is a garden-to-exile-to-restoration theme that can be discerned in the orderings of the books in the Writings. The Writings develop the readers’ hope in the Heir of David as the one who will bring about the restoration from exile, and return to the garden land.
The Troubling Acts of God: Did God or Satan Make David Sin?
An examination of 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, where we find a curious mention of Satan acting upon King David, which opens us up into a much larger question. The paper compares Tolkien’s view of Melkor vs. R.C. Sproul’s view of Satan. This paper advocates that both Satan and David had free will. It critiques the “divine meticulous sovereignty” view typical of Calvinists.