The Park Forum

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 25  Read: 1 Chronicles 21  Listen: (5:03)  Read: Psalms 95-96 Listen: (2:37)

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 21.1-3

1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

3 But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

Reflection: Wilderness Versus Garden Tempations

By John Tillman

Chronicles’ account of David’s reign focuses tightly on events related to building the temple, which omits most of David’s failures and mistakes, except one. The military census caused great suffering and death and led directly to David’s purchase of the temple site.

Chronicles emphasizes that Satan tempted David. Samuel’s account emphasizes that God allowed it. Just as the Holy Spirit “drove” Jesus into the wilderness and Satan tempted him, God tested David.

This temptation happened late in David’s reign. By this time, David had suffered political and familial losses. He had been betrayed and had betrayed others. He had been exposed in scandals. He had fled into wilderness exile after a coup. He survived the resulting civil war that left the country scarred and divided. He buried many friends, family members, and his own children.

Through much of this long, hard reign, David’s goal was pacifying enemies and acquiring wealth to provide Solomon peace, stability, and resources to build the temple. (1 Chronicles 22.14) From this perspective, numbering Israel’s fighting force made sense. We can imagine David thinking, “Have I done enough? Have I left behind enough treasure, enough security?”

Israel rebelled against Moses in the wilderness when they lacked food and water. Yet Moses warned that when they were at peace in the garden land, tempation would still come. (Deuteronomy 8.10-18) Twice, in the wilderness, David resisted the temptation to kill Saul, take the throne, and end his wilderness exile on his terms. David often resisted temptations in the wilderness but he frequently fell to temptations in the garden. In a garden grove of wives to pick from, he plucked Uriah’s. (2 Samuel 12.7-10) Surrounded by thirty legendarily mighty warriors, he demanded a military census. (1 Chronicles 11.10)

The wilderness and the garden have temptations. The wilderness tests us with want. The garden tests us with plenty. The wilderness tempts us to curse God in suffering. The garden tempts us to forget God in comfort. The wilderness threatens us with danger. The garden suffocates us with security.

The “garden” temptations of wealth and security are at least equal to and perhaps more dangerous than the “wilderness” temptations of want and suffering. Are you in the wilderness or the garden? Do you recognize and resist both wilderness and garden temptations?

Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, in the wilderness (Matthew 4.3; Luke 4.3) and the garden (Mark 14.34-38; Matthew 26.38-42). He triumphed where we fail. (Hebrews 2.18; 4.15) Victory over temptation rests in submission, obedience, and trust in Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; let those who love your salvation say forever, “Great is the Lord!” — Psalm 70.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Is The Lord Among Us?

“Is the Lord among us or not?” It’s not a bad question. Each of us has probably wondered something similar from time to time. 

Read more: Seduced by Corn Kings

Corn kings promise growth, profit, protection, security if only we will do homage, shift our identity, and conform to a few minor moral sacrifices.

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 24  Read: 1 Chronicles 19-20 Listen: (5:02) Read: Psalms 94 Listen: (2:08)

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 20.1-3

1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins. 2 David took the crown from the head of their king—its weight was found to be a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones—and it was placed on David’s head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city 3 and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

Reflection: Bad Feelings And Good Old Days

By John Tillman

Chronicles’ first readers were probably Ezra’s temple rebuilders and Nehemiah’s wall rebuilders. For this audience, the chronicler omitted many of David’s failures, presenting a more idealized founding story for Jerusalem and the temple. However, he dropped hints reminding readers that all was not well in “the good old days.”

In nearly every Star Wars story someone says, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” It’s the longest running gag in film history, but it’s more than a gag. This thematic connection between stories indicates dread and foreshadows danger. When audiences hear it, suspense rises as they recall what happened the last time they heard it.

For the chronicler’s audience “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war” would have rung alarms like “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” does for Star Wars fans. In an oral culture, where most people had scripture read to them, they would have heard it repeatedly. It would remind them of a well-known and dreadful story of danger and foreshadowing.

The phrase highlighted what David ought to have done in opposition to what he did. Instead of going to war, David went to his roof and spied on Bathsheba. (2 Samuel 11.1-2) What happened next began a cascading series of scandals, rapes, murders, deaths, and a civil war that exiled David from Jerusalem to the wilderness he wandered in during the days of Saul.

Chronicles’ readers didn’t just know this story—they lived it. They were returning from exile in the “wilderness” of Babylon following their own cascading series of scandals. That generation could focus on David’s positives because they had dealt with their past sins. They weren’t in denial or ignorant. But as reformers often do, they recalled and were encouraged by the best ideals and actions of the past.

Reflecting on positive ideals and actions of the past can encourage us in today’s struggles. However, as Billy Joel wrote, “the good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” We can’t build better tomorrows on the foundation of a falsified past. If we draw encouragement from the past by erasing or minimizing sin, we deceive ourselves and doom our future.

Are we dealing honestly with the past? Are we justifying ourselves or pursuing justice?

When remembering “golden ages,” use wisdom. Maintain a healthy dread of past mistakes, and resist uncritical nostalgia about past achievements.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed. — Psalm 51.8

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Ancient #MeToo Story

As with David, authority has been used as a tool to shift blame to the victim, silence any witnesses, or hide the crime in darkness.

Read more: Have Mercy—Guided Prayer

David sinned against God by bringing harm to those God cared for, who included Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab, and the entire nation.

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 21  Read: 1 Chronicles 16 Listen: (5:21) Read: Psalms 90 Listen: (2:03)
Nov 22  Read: 1 Chronicles 17 Listen: (4:14) Read: Psalms 91 Listen: (1:39)
Nov 23  Read: 1 Chronicles 18 Listen: (2:36)  Read: Psalms 92-93 Listen: (2:09)

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 16.4-9

4 He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to extol, thank, and praise the Lord, the God of Israel: 5 Asaph was the chief, and next to him in rank were Zechariah, then Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel. They were to play the lyres and harps, Asaph was to sound the cymbals, 6 and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.

7 That day David first appointed Asaph and his associates to give praise to the Lord in this manner:

Reflection: The Historian’s Purpose: Freedom

By John Tillman

Perhaps the most famous teller of histories known today is Ken Burns.

Burns’ documentary films, for decades, have shared stories that say something about America to Americans. His visual style became so iconic that in most video editing and presentation software there is a “Ken Burns Effect” setting that will slowly and dramatically zoom into an image or pan across it.

Burns labors long on each film. His most recent, The American Revolution, took ten years. Yet, despite being worked on for so long, his films often arrive at timely moments when their message seems purposeful.

Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles scrolls were all written by historians. But the chronicler has a distinct style, composed for a timely moment, with the purpose of telling a story about God’s people to God’s people. 

Samuel and Kings’ historians focused on the rulers, court dramas, and political fallout. The chronicler focuses on moments of faith, ecclesiastical occasions, and the people who lived them, often turning his camera away from the rulers to pan across the faces of ordinary Israelites.

This is the “Ken Burns Effect.” We often get long, slow pans and zooms across lists, records, and genealogies important to the audience and the story the chronicler is telling. To us, these records seem to interrupt the story. To the chronicler, they ARE the story.

Samuel skips the scene in 1 Chronicles 16 where David sets up the levitical structure, supporting artists, and those who will oversee worship. The chronicler gives us a medley, blending Psalms 96, 105, and 106 into a sample psalm and giving us closeups of the faces of those who would sing this liturgy.

Chronicles was written to returning exiles. His purpose? Freedom through de-assimilation. Their parents and grandparents were taken in chains to foreign empires. They grew up hearing about the land they lost, living in the land that stole it from them. Chronicles helped exiles recover their lost identity and de-assimilate from the culture of their oppressors.

The message to exiles is also for us—as timely now as then. We are exiles in a world that isn’t ours, pressed into its patterns, assimilated to its thinking. 

Read the chronicler’s blended psalm. Allow it to de-assimilate you from kingdoms, cultures, and forces in this world, pressing you into their mold. Regain your identity in Christ, his cross, his resurrection, and the freedom he offers to all humanity.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Hallelujah! Praise the Name of the Lord, give praise, you servants of the Lord,
You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; Sing praises to his Name, for it is lovely. — Psalm 136.1-3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: What We Do For God

Do we want to do something for God? Then we should do it for the least of these, the brothers and sisters of the lowly Jesus.

Read more: Missing the Son of David

What type of righteousness and justice are we looking for from the Son of David? Could we miss him because we are focusing on the wrong qualities?

Links for today’s readings:

Nov 20  Read: 1 Chronicles 15 Listen: (4:38)  Read: Psalms 89 Listen: (5:29)

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 15.11-15

11 Then David summoned Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab the Levites. 12 He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. 13 It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” 14 So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.

Reflection: Handling God’s Presence and Word

By John Tillman

The first time he moved the ark, David failed.

David missed (or ignored) important instructions in God’s word. He moved the ark just like the Philistines did, on a cart. David treated the ark like a load of goods or an idol instead of the throne representing the presence of a real and living God. Chronicles clarifies David studied the proper procedure for moving the ark before his second attempt. David read the syllabus.

A good syllabus contributes to student success. However, professors, teachers, and students know that students often fail to thoroughly read syllabi.

Since I was in graduate school, syllabi have gone beyond simple instructions. Many syllabi are bloated documents of legal jargon meant to shield professors against complaints and campus politics. Students skip or skim syllabi for the same reasons we skip or skim the “Terms and Conditions” we consent to for digital services that dominate our lives.

Some professors go to extremes to promote reading their syllabi or to humiliate students who don’t. In a viral stunt, a music professor put fifty dollars in a locker. In his syllabus he included the locker’s number, combination, and instructions that the cash was free to the first student who claimed it. At the end of the semester, the cash was still there.

Does this prove students don’t read syllabi? Or does it prove syllabi are unreadable and unhelpful?

The Bible is not an unreadable syllabus and God is not a sneaky professor or a corrupt corporation trying to trick or make fools of his people. The instructions for carrying the ark showed respect for God’s presence, power, and person represented by the ark. There was no excuse for David carrying it before the people in an unworthy way. 

We have God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts. How are we handling it?

Are we carrying God’s presence before people in an unworthy way? Are we missing (or ignoring) important instructions in God’s word? Are we treating God (or the Bible) like a mascot or idol? Does our obedience respect God’s presence, power, and person? 

Moses told Israel God’s commands were not too difficult or beyond reach. (Deuteronomy 30.11-15) Moses’ encouragement is as true for us today as it was for Israel. Be a good student of God’s word, using all the tools we are blessed with today. Don’t neglect our clear instructions to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. (Micah 6.8)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

My eyes are upon the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me… — Psalm 101.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Daughters of Saul and Sons of Moses

Michal, daughter of Saul and wife of David, critiqued the celebration…The daughter of Saul despised this lowly king.

Read more: When Temples Fall

God would rather destroy his temple than see it continue in unrighteousness, but the psalmist’s good news is that God also restores.