Don’t Skip Chronicles!

3 Reasons to Read Chronicles During the Coronavirus

What books of the Bible do you find helpful for these fearful, frightful, and frustrating days? Maybe, like me, you tend to turn to one of these passages:

• Job and Habakkuk come to mind for trials.
• Maybe Proverbs and James for practical wisdom during uncertain times.
• Certainly, Romans 8, John 11, and Revelation 21-22 give us future hope and confidence.
• Then there’s our series in Hebrews 11 with so much encouragement for a lifestyle of faith.

With so many encouraging passages to consider, why then is our reading plan going through 1-2 Chronicles, chapter by chapter, day after day? Here we are in the wild world of April 2020 but reading a bunch of genealogies and battles and Temple gatekeepers and singing priests! What’s that about?

All year long, we’ve seen God sovereignly direct our Old Testament reading plan, pairing it so well with our sermon series, circumstances, and Community Group studies. I am confident He is continuing to do so right now as we read Chronicles during the coronavirus.

Yes, Chronicles is one of the least-read books of the Old Testament. But it contains some much-needed truth for us! As you read this week, I encourage you to take a big picture view:

#1: You are a part of a bigger story.

Think about those countless (and unpronounceable) names in this book: genealogies, lists of Levitical singers, otherwise unknown Temple gate-guarders and court historians and a whole host of others. Names, names, names! But not just names – names that fit into a story.

What story? Well, not just the Chronicler’s story of how God dwells with His people, even in a time after the Exile. Beyond that, we see God working a grand story that sweeps beyond Chronicles to the coming of Christ, the One foretold from the line of David who will reign forever (I Chronicles 17)!

This virus – and the swirling mess of news stories around it – makes us feel like human beings are just death counts, just statistics, just nameless numbers that can be manipulated by people for their own ends. But each of those deaths is a person known by God and part of His grand, glorious story. Chronicles shows us a God who works through each person – from king to priest to singer to random guy Jabez – to accomplish something greater than each of us. He’s still doing that today. Each of us is known and loved by God, and as believers, we can be part of preparing for the second coming of that Messiah!

#2: God can be trusted.

The book of Chronicles in some ways reads like the news reports of 2020. There are wars and angry kings squabbling. There are victories and defeats. There is even a pestilence (1 Chronicles 21)! But through it all, there’s one facet that has not made the news in 2020 but certainly made the Chronicler’s “news”!

The Lord Almighty, the God of Jacob, was ruling and moving and doing incredible things! He gives impossible victories to forces surrounded by multiple armies (1 Chron. 19). He defeats Sennacherib’s entire army with just one angel (2 Chron. 32). That’s just who He is! He is the God of power, and His people can always trust Him.

I love King Jehoshaphat’s desperate prayer in 2 Chronicles 20 – it’s a good one for us in these days:

“We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

2 Chron. 20:12

Yes, our God can be trusted for this virus and for our economy. When you can’t trust the government, the news media, or even your bank account, you CAN trust the LORD. He does not disappoint.

#3: God is with us and for us.

Why does Chronicles spend so much time on the Temple – the preparations, the building process, and all those priests? Well, remember this book is written for the Israelites after the Exile as they return to their land and strive to return to their national identity as Jehovah’s people, including rebuilding the Temple. What’s the big deal about the Temple? It’s the place where God dwells with His people. And its destruction is a huge blow to these people (2 Chron. 36:19).

Was God rejecting them? Was He not their God anymore? But just a few verses down, hope returns – Cyrus, a pagan king, declares that “The LORD…has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem” (vs. 23).

God had not abandoned His people. Here was a signal that He was still with them and was still FOR them. How much more should we know that God is with us as believers today – we who are called God’s “Temple” and have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us! You can know today, no matter what social media tells you or cable news yells at you or your own heart whispers to you – God is with you. And He is for you.

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Is Chronicles Really Relevant for the Coronavirus?

If you want to know what the Old Testament was all about, there’s no better book than Chronicles. It’s an overview of the whole story, from Adam to Exile, Abraham to David to Solomon to Cyrus. And if you want to know what Chronicles is all about, look to how God is described, because He stands above this whole book in holiness and grandeur. And if you need hope in these uncertain days, look no further than the God that Jehoshaphat, surrounded by enemy armies, prayed to:

“O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In Your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand You.”

2 Chron. 20:6

That is our God still today. He still has power. He still rules. The God in Chronicles is the God in the coronavirus. Trust Him.