That reading from 1 Chronicles a scene as King David, Israel’s king at around 1000 BC, hands over the reins to his son Solomon.
It may be some of you are wondering why we’re looking at this story. It’s a piece of Ancient History, that seems to have little relevance to modern life or Christian worship. But we worship Jesus, who didn’t arrive in a vacuum. God had carefully prepared for his arrival. And one of the things he did was to send his people a line of earthly kings. Some good. Some bad. All flawed. But they set the scene for Jesus the king.
That’s why we look together at the reigns of David and Solomon. They were the greatest kings Israel ever hard. Through them, God wants to teach us about the reign of King Jesus.
We’ve just baptised Scarlett, welcomed her to the start of her Christian life. This ancient story will tell us some important things about the Jesus she’s been signed up to follow. And it will tell us about what he’s looking for from her in response.
As I say, we have here a royal handover. David is handing over to Solomon. And as he does so, he stresses the privilege it is for each of them to be king.
Such a privilege to be David. Verse 4: Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel for ever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the tribe of Judah he chose my family, and from my father’s sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel. How privileged David was. The king God had personally chosen.
And such a privilege to be Solomon, too. Verse 5: Of all my sons – and the Lord has given me many – he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. How privileged David was. Also the king God had personally chosen. The one who would build God a temple. And best of all: The one who could call God father. The king God had chosen to be his son.
Such privileges.
And two things followed from this
An obedient people
First, they must be an obedient people.
The logic goes that if David and Solomon were privileged kings, then these were a privileged people. How fortunate to have such men as your king. Men God had chosen. Men God had adopted as his sons. You’d never wish for a royal reshuffle in this kingdom.
These people were fortunate indeed. But whether they’d continue to enjoy such privilege hung in the balance. God had told them all along that they’d only keep the good land he’d given them if they were obedient. When he promised them the land, back in Deuteronomy, he couldn’t have been clearer.
Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 25 and 26: After you have children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time – if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.
And now they not only live in the land; they have the best kings they could ever have hoped for. So David urges the people not to lose such amazing blessings. Don’t turn away from God and his commands, and throw the whole lot in the bin.
In verse 8, the “you” is plural. David is still talking to the whole nation that he’s gathered together. Verse 8: So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord and in the hearing of our God: be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.
They must be an obedient people.
An obedient king
Second, Solomon must be an obedient king.
Verse 9: And you, my son, Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, eh will reject you forever.
He must be an obedient king.
In what he does, he must obey God’s commands.
But more than that he must be obedient from the heart. It would be easy for him to carry out God’s instructions through gritted teeth. Ticking the boxes. But with his heart not in it. That’s not what God asks for. Notice the details in what David says to Solomon: “with wholehearted devotion”, “with a willing mind”, “the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought”. To the core of his being, Solomon is to be devoted to God. And that’s to come out in his day-to-day obedience to God’s commands.
Solomon must be an obedient king.
Sustaining through the dark years.
After Solomon came many kings, who did turn away from God. The people followed, and they lost their land just as God said would happen. They ended up deported to a foreign country.
Eventually, they got to return home. But they had no king, no army, and only fragile city walls. Their hold on the land was so tentative. Chronicles was written during those years. As they sought to rebuild the kingdom, here’s where God’s led them, and the sort of kingdom he wants.
As they read of this royal handover, it would have urged them to be an obedient people. They may only half have their land, but they must obey God, so that they don’t lose what they do have.
And it would have made them wait for a king who would be an obedient king. Maybe one day they would get a king like David and Solomon, only better.
Jesus, the awaited king
And then, after several hundred years wait, Jesus came. Jesus, descended from David. Like them, only better.
What a privilege it is to be Jesus. David and Solomon were chosen by God to be king. Jesus was even more so. Peter describes Jesus as a “living stone, chosen by God and precious to him”.
Solomon had the highest privilege of all – he was called God’s son. Jesus was even more so. He’s been the Son of God the Father for all eternity.
What a privilege to be King Jesus!
Which means that there is no greater privilege than to be one of his people. If Jesus is the king God has chosen to bless, God must smile on those who gladly bow the knee, who are pleased to be known as his subjects.
The people needed an obedient king. In Jesus we have one. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
We must obey
What a privilege it is to have Jesus as our king. Like the people of David’s day, we must not lose it.
For them, they’d lose out if they did not obey God’s law.
The New Testament takes this in two directions for us. The New Testament warns Christians, in the same way, not to lose the privileges that are ours.
First, we mustn’t lose out by failing to trust the gospel. The good news that we can have our sins forgiven, and have a free place in God’s family. The book of Hebrews says that we’ve heard even better news than the Old Testament people of God. So we must believe the good news. We must trust the Lord Jesus. We must not lose out.
And second, we mustn’t lose out through our disobedience. None of us is perfect. The Christian life is a life of being forgiven by God for the things we do wrong. We need this daily. But the letter of 1 Corinthians warns very clearly. If following Jesus makes no difference to the way we live our lives, then our claim to trust him is a lie.
There are three habitual lifestyles that 1 Corinthians warns would contradict a claim to follow Jesus. Those are idolatry – following other gods, sexual immorality, and greed.
Conclusion
As David handed over to his son Solomon, he highlighted the privilege God has blessed them with. Jesus even more so. How fortunate we are to be the subjects of a king like this. One who is truly obedient. Let us be an obedient people in response. Obedient to the good news, the gospel. Obedient to God’s gracious commands. Obedient, from our hearts.