Friday, September 28, 2012

Friday Morning Bible Study


“Getting Ready to Close, but I’m trying to find a place to land”

On Friday, September 28, 2012, Bishop James Walker concluded his bible study by focusing on the Temple and David’s relationship to it.  In addition to the Bible Study hand out from Thursday, these notes will give a full recounting of the class.

Chronicler is telling the importance of the land for the Temple. This is the first time it is mentioned about having a full-time priesthood.  The Levites were those who established the designated full ministry rolls in service.  The Chronicler has a consciousness of who God is and offers that we must be in some kind of intimate worship with God.  The Chronicler comes to us with an understanding of who God is – that God is a Holy God.  You need to have some clean hands  - we need to be a consecrated person in order to work with the Lord. 

You need those who can be ready to serve.  When Hezekiah came to Solomon’s Temple where there was over 200+ billion dollars, he finds a temple where the doors won’t even open.   In having full time and fully dedicated people, need to be sanctified, dedicated, and engaged, someone ought to be ready for full time service.

David established the Zadicite priesthood.  Establishes the Levites. David is more than a King.  Psychically and physically present. The ark is a very spiritual thing. The promises of King David were lived out in his generations.    It is an intentional teaching lesson for Israel to see a more complete picture of David.  If we only focus on the Psalms and other books, we do not have a full understanding of David.  Chronicles offers this. 

David must be much more than a King – David is both a Priest and a King.  He is a Temple planter.  David is a man of worship – a liturgical dancer, a prophet of the oracles of God, the Bishop of the Levites, organizes all the preachers of the day.  It is important that Israel understands David in the full contextual role. If you really know David, he was as much invested in the temple as he was into the Kingship.   If you really care about David, look to his communion with God.  Even though the throne is gone, the temple is still around – which means the spiritual is more important.

There is a distinct correlation to the New Testament – If it’s only about Kingship, then what does it look like today?  Jesus is the son of David. He is setting up a hope in God based on the link to the past. Here there is intentional Ideology – even though we have no Kingship, as long as we have a temple, we are God.  The presence of the temple validates David and the importance of the temple in spirituality.  It becomes a Legacy of Hope – how Jesus could become a son of David.

Scholars consider the Priest of David – or David as a priest.  We only see the David of worship in the Psalms.  Scholars raise the question of where does the image of David goes beyond the praiser. What is the identity of this King of Glory?  The Chronicler answered this in Samuel and Kings.  Nobody is sure of his identity, but he does a good job in allowing David to be a great king, the ideal warrior and the priest of praise.  The Chronicles shows worship that is exciting and life giving.  Worship with all your might.  Worshiping God with your whole heart – let the whole nation shout before the Lord.  The full-time priesthood includes but is not limited to, blessing food, clothing the naked and healing the sick.

Prayer of Jabez is a temptation to preach, but what the Chronicler finds compelling is not Jabez.  It’s not the man who requested it, but the God who answered it. Jabez was a common man who prayed, but the Lord answers his prayers.  When you talk to God, God will show up and God will show out.

Similarly in 2 Chronicles 33:10-20, Menassah prays to God.  God didn’t take him to the graveyard but the backyard.  He figured out God in the middle of a jail cell praying in a dungeon when he belonged. He wombed himself.  The Lord also heard an evil King who was somebody.

The full and complete Bible Study is available for purchase via CMETv.

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