1 Chronicles: What I liked when I read it

I continue my commitment to Read Through The Bible (in one year. In alphabetical order. Sort of.)

After I read Amos last week, I started 1 Chronicles, which I finished this morning. I'll start 2 Chronicles tomorrow.

Well, what can be said about 1 and 2 Chronicles? A couple of random thoughts.

There are a lot of cool names in 1 Chronicles. A few years ago, I was writing My Novel (about Luke's quest to interview the people who knew Jesus) and needed to come up with some Jewish names for characters. I turned to Chronicles (or maybe it was Numbers). But in spite of the zillions of names, I had trouble selecting. Go figure.

It makes one wonder what lists our names are on today that will still be read over a thousand years from now.

It would be nice to be remembered as favorably as Obed-Edom (1 Chr 26:5,8); or the men of Issachar (1 Chr 112:32). But it's entirely possible I'll be remembered as Jehdeiah the Meronothite (1 Chr 27:30b -- KJV).

A close comparison of 1-2 Chronicles with 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings is an interesting exercise.  The accounts cover pretty much the same people and events. They differ in lots of small details, which is tantalizing to the Bible history experts. They also differ in the overall way they portray some of the main characters, e.g., David. It seems to me that the Samuel/Kings version is pretty earthy; the Chronicles version tends to be more reverential. The two accounts are an excellent example of how "history" is written based on the author's viewpoint and interpretation of past events. I may have more to say (and hopefully more intelligent observations) in a few months after I've reviewed all these books and thought about it some more.

The differences don't bother me. They just underscore that the story of God and His people is rich and complex, written down by human authors--who were under the influence or inspiration of the Lord. I'm sure a biography of Abraham Lincoln written in the 1870s would be quite different from Carl Sandberg's volumes of the mid-20th century, which would be quite different from Michael Burlingame's, published in 2008. The "facts" about Lincoln haven't changed; only the writers and the unfolding of history.

One other thing I like about 1 Chronicles (and it's a bit shameful): I can breeze through the lists of names pretty quickly and not feel that I'm missing much important theology. My aim of reading six chapters at a stretch isn't too taxing when I'm skimming big hunks of 1 Chronicles.