This is the Bible Book Club, the book of First Chronicles.

Welcome to the club.

Last time in chapters 9 and 10 of First Chronicles, the author began the list of the remnant

Israelites who returned and resettled after the exile.

The only three tribes with members were Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. We discussed the difficulties this little small

community faced, including rough conditions and a hard labor necessary to survive, political and

social challenges as other cultures had also settled during their absence from the promised land,

in economic uncertainty, they were freed captive so we can assume that they had little or no wealth to invest,

and how would they rebuild, reestablished farming, create a sustainable community with very little money.

However, God called them to return,

and the faithful were obedient. Over half of the returned exiles were Levites, which speaks to the tribe of Levi's devotion to the Lord, passed down generation after generation, even in captivity.

So at the end of our last episode, the author got to the story he really wanted to talk

about, the story of David.

To get to David, he quickly bypasses Saul's reign with a few words about Saul's unseemly death.

The author desires to get to David's story because it holds the key to the hope this small

community of return exiles desperately needs.

God would bring a savior out of the line of David, and a savior is what we all need.

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John has a vision.

In the vision, Christ said this to the church

in Philadelphia. Revelation 3, starting in verse 7, these are the words of him who was holy and true,

who holds the key of David. What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. I know your deeds.

See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little

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