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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 921 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Cooking the Books - Wisdom Wednesday


Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 921 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical worldview, you must also have a proper understanding of God’s word.

Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the Scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors. In order to help us all have a better understanding of some of the more obscure passages in God’s word, we are investing Wisdom Wednesday reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. He has compiled these essays into a book titled I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I believe that all of us have heard or read about revisionist history. This is where history is rewritten based upon a certain slant or paradigm. It may not necessarily contain false information, but selectively uses only certain facts that will lead the reader to think about this segment of history from a skewed perspective. Today’s essay explores a similar situation about the Kings of Israel and Judah…
Cooking the Books


Corporations cook their books. Politicians get caught taking bribes. Scientists fudge data. Should the writer of Chronicles be judged the same way?

It's widely known that the books of 1 & 2 Chronicles are a reiteration of the history of Israel found in the books of 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. What isn't as well known is that the writer of Chronicles carefully and deliberately omits any negative material about David and Solomon from his historical record. Try to find the account of David’s adultery and murder of Uriah in 1 Chronicles—you won’t be able to.

Why would the Chronicler omit it?



History written this way isn't necessarily unreliable or deceptive. If I picked up a book entitled The Native American History of the Pioneer West, I know what I’m getting. I have no reason to believe the contents will be misleading; I have every reason to believe the work is selective and incomplete. I know the book was written with a specific slant, so I won’t take it as the last word on the American West.

1 & 2 Chronicles deserve the same consideration. Those books went into the Hebrew Bible (and later bibles) along with the books of Samuel and Kings. Anyone who read their Bible would learn about the unsavory acts of David and Solomon. No one would be fooled. Deception could not possibly be the point.

There was another agenda.

1 & 2 Chronicles were written during (or shortly) after the exile of the Jews in Babylon. Israel would once again have its own nation and leadership. The writer of Chronicles wanted the new generation returning to the land to remember and keep the covenant God made with David, and remember that his dynasty had been chosen to rule. Disloyalty to David’s dynasty had fractured the kingdom, producing a deviant religion and, ultimately, the destruction of Israel. The Chronicler wanted to revive loyalty to David’s line, so David and Solomon are cast as ideal monarchs. The Chronicler didn't want to deceive, but inspire. In 2 Chronicles 6:14-17, we listen in on Solomon’s prayer to God.

He prayed, "O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father.