The Chronicler's Story

“Adam, Seth, Enosh.” – 1 Chronicles 1:1

“No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever.” – J.K. Rowling

Let’s face it: the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are tough reading. For us modern-day readers, not the most gripping of hooks. We have short attention spans. We aren’t related to these people. We’ve just finished reading through the Samuel’s and the Kings’ and aren’t anticipating much fresh material here. But in fact, it’s exactly by reading Chronicles (1 and 2 Chronicles were originally one book) synoptically with Samuel and Kings that we see what is so amazing about it. 

Chronicles is the retelling of a story. Why would anyone retell a story? Because stories tell us who we are, why we are here, and what our hope is for the future. And right then, the Israelites needed a new story. The monarchy and the temple of their people had been destroyed. They had been taken into exile. Now, they had returned and rebuilt their temple, but everything had been upset. They were reduced in strength and numbers, occupying only a fraction of the land they had before, subject to foreign overlords, living in the midst of a mixed and sometimes antagonistic population. They had lost their context, their purpose, and their hope.

And so, the Chronicler spins a tale. The story doesn’t start in chapter 10. It starts right here from the first word, Adam, with which he says: I am going to tell you a story of names, a story about who you are, and it starts from the very beginning, not with Abraham, but with Adam. God is telling through you his story for all mankind, for all creation. The Chronicler then traces names forward through history, and we can see what he emphasizes by noticing which people have all their children named; which people are mentioned last (usually indicating they are more important); which family lines are traced not just linearly but horizontally. He highlights Noah, then Abraham, then Jacob. Despite the fact that most of the later narrative will focus on Judah’s tribe, the Chronicler highlights all twelve tribes here in the genealogy, again emphasizing their collective identity as the people of God.

But he does spend more time on David’s line, and also on Aaron: and in these two threads we see the themes of this new story, the kingship and the temple. This story paints, in a more positive light than Samuel and Kings, a picture of David as messianic king, and Aaron and his descendants as priests, and the people in worship and song, all of it the expression of God’s covenant with David. We will see that he leaves out some of the negative stories, and adds new ones related to these themes, all of it to say: you are not lost. Things seem different. This is not how you pictured it. But God has made a covenant with you. It has been lived out in this king and this temple, and one day it will be lived out in the ultimate King and Temple and become a story that lives forever. As the ESV Study Bible puts it, “The Chronicler wrote to commend a positive prescription for the spiritual and social renewal of his community.” This is a story we all need to hear.